WWE Backlash 2023 Kickoff

The 2021 WrestleMania Backlash was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 16th Backlash and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it took place on May 16, 2021, from the WWE ThunderDome, a bio-secure bubble that at the time was hosted at the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida. The concept of the event was based around the backlash from WrestleMania 37, which was the first time that Backlash carried its original post-WrestleMania theme since 2009 and as a result was titled "WrestleMania Backlash". This was WWE's first PPV and livestreaming event to present the ThunderDome from the Yuengling Center, following a four-month residency at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was also the first Backlash to livestream on Peacock in the United States, following the shutdown of the American version of the WWE Network the prior month on April 4. The 2022 event would also bear the "WrestleMania Backlash" name but it was truncated back to "Backlash" in 2023 while maintaining the post-WrestleMania theme. Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Cesaro by technical submission to retain SmackDown's Universal Championship. In another prominent match, Bobby Lashley defeated Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman in a triple threat match to retain Raw's WWE Championship. Also on the undercard, Bianca Belair defeated Bayley to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship and Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio defeated Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, thus becoming the first-ever father and son team to hold a tag team championship in WWE. The event received mostly positive reviews from critics and fans. It included a promotional tie-in for the 2021 zombie film Army of the Dead, which starred former WWE wrestler Batista. In addition to Batista doing a voiceover for the event's opening vignette, the Lumberjack match between Damian Priest and The Miz had the lumberjacks acting as zombies. This tie-in was heavily panned and covered in the media, with the New York Post calling it "one of WWE's saddest moments ever". Despite the negative criticism towards the tie-in, the rest of the event was well received.