WWE Backlash from the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan will be remembered for years, perhaps decades, for the unbelievable crowd reactions up and down the show.
If you watched February’s Elimination Chamber main event in Montreal, where Roman Reigns defended the WWE undisputed universal championship against hometown hero Sami Zayn, and you remember the unbelievable crowd reactions for that match, well, just imagine an entire show with those same reactions. (Ironically, the only match on Backlash that didn’t get that kind of reaction just happened to involve Zayn.) The closest comparison one can draw, which is why this show could be remembered for decades, is WWF’s Canadian Stampede PPV in Calgary on July 6, 1997, over a quarter century ago.
The biggest stars on the show by far were Zelina Vega and Bad Bunny. Vega, real name Thea Trinidad, was born in Queens, N.Y., although she is of Puerto Rican descent. While she’s had some success in WWE, including winning the tag titles with Carmella and the Queen of the Ring tournament a few years ago, she’s often been put in a managerial role and was never pushed to the level of the top women’s stars. Literally, she got the SmackDown women’s title match in Puerto Rico because she went to Adam Pearce on SmackDown and said that she was the only Puerto Rican woman in WWE and thus she should get the shot. The story they told was that there was almost zero chance she would beat Rhea Ripley for the title, but because it was WWE where “anything can happen,” there was a chance. And the match itself told the same story, as Rhea dominated her, Zelina got a very quick comeback, and then Rhea just hit her with her Riptide finish and pinned her.
