WWE Touts ‘Record Breaking’ Backlash 2023 Gate & Viewership

WWE

WWE has touted the Backlash 2023 premium live event as a record-breaking show, following buzz about the international show.

The May 6 event notably emanated from the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

WWE has now announced that it was the highest grossing and most viewed Backlash event in WWE history, with over 34,800 fans in attendance between SmackDown and Backlash.

Backlash itself was attended by 17,944 fans.

WWE shared the following to its corporate site:

WWE® DELIVERS RECORD-BREAKING BACKLASH IN PUERTO RICO

STAMFORD, Conn., May 8, 2023 – WWE® (NYSE: WWE) today announced that WWE Backlash®, which emanated from the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, became WWE’s highest-grossing and most-viewed Backlash in company history.

Viewership of Backlash saw a 28 percent increase versus the record set in 2022. The event, which featured Bad Bunny, the most-streamed music artist in the world, marked the largest gate ever for any WWE event held in Puerto Rico and the largest gate in the history of Backlash.

More than 34,800 fans descended on San Juan, Puerto Rico, for back-to-back sellout nights of SmackDown (16,896 attendees) and Backlash (17,944 attendees).

It also marked the most social Backlash of all-time, led by over 40 million views of the San Juan Street Fight featuring Bad Bunny vs. Damien Priest. The hashtag #WWEBacklash, accompanied by a custom Bad Bunny emoji, trended No. 1 across the entire evening of sports.

In addition, Backlash broke merchandise and sponsorship records. As the first-ever WWE event under the expanded partnership with Fanatics overseeing the on-site event retail experience, top-selling items included the WWE Backlash and LWO Puerto Rico t-shirts.

Sponsorship revenue surpassed any Backlash event in history, breaking last year’s record with a 98 percent year-on-year increase through partnerships with Netflix’s FUBAR, Mike’s Harder Lemonade and Xfinity.

Full results from Backlash were as follows:

Raw Women’s Championship – Bianca Belair (c) def. IYO SKY

Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins def. Omos

United States Championship – Austin Theory (c) def. Bobby Lashley, Bronson Reed

SmackDown Women’s Championship – Rhea Ripley (c) def. Zelina Vega

San Juan Street Fight – Bad Bunny def. Damian Priest

Solo Sikoa & The Usos def. Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens & Matt Riddle

Cody Rhodes def. Brock Lesnar

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