{"id":158435,"date":"2023-05-08T10:09:01","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=158435"},"modified":"2023-05-08T10:09:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:09:01","slug":"wwe-backlash-2023-breaks-company-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/05\/08\/wwe-backlash-2023-breaks-company-records\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE Backlash 2023 breaks company records"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1834865381\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>The WWE Backlash 2023 PLE in Puerto Rico on Saturday night broke numerous records for WWE.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate.wwe.com\/news\/company-news\/2023\/05-08-2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">company announced<\/a> that this year&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/05\/06\/leclairs-wwe-backlash-2023-report-alt-perspective-detailed-coverage-of-rhodes-vs-lesnar-bunny-vs-priest-ko-sami-riddle-vs-the-bloodline-more\/\">Backlash<\/a> event was the highest-grossing and most-viewed Backlash event in history. The event drew the largest gate for any Backlash show in history and was the highest gate in Puerto Rico that WWE has ever done. In addition, viewership for WWE Backlash 2023 increased 28% over the 2022 edition of the event.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>STAMFORD, Conn., May 8, 2023\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 WWE<sup>\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0(NYSE: WWE) today announced that WWE<em>\u00a0<\/em><em>Backlash<\/em><sup>\u00ae<\/sup><em>,\u00a0<\/em>which emanated from the Coliseo de Puerto Rico Jos\u00e9 Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico,\u00a0became WWE\u2019s highest-grossing and most-viewed\u00a0<em>Backlash<\/em>\u00a0in company history.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Viewership of\u00a0<em>Backlash\u00a0<\/em>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\u00a0<em>Backlash<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than 34,800 fans descended on San Juan, Puerto Rico, for back-to-back sellout nights of\u00a0<em>SmackDown\u00a0<\/em>(16,896 attendees) and\u00a0<em>Backlash<\/em>\u00a0(17,944 attendees). It also marked the most social\u00a0<em>Backlash<\/em>\u00a0of all-time, led by over 40 million views of the San Juan Street Fight featuring Bad Bunny vs. Damian Priest. The hashtag #WWEBacklash, accompanied by a custom Bad Bunny emoji, trended No. 1 across the entire evening of sports.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition,\u00a0<em>Backlash<\/em>\u00a0broke 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\u00a0WWE Backlash<em>\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0LWO Puerto Rico\u00a0t-shirts. Sponsorship revenue\u00a0surpassed any\u00a0<em>Backlash<\/em>\u00a0event in history, breaking last year\u2019s record with a 98 percent year-on-year increase through partnerships with Netflix\u2019s FUBAR, Mike\u2019s Harder Lemonade and Xfinity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>WWE Backlash 2023 was headlined by a double main event featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Cody Rhodes and Bad Bunny vs. Damian Priest in a San Juan Street Fight. Rhodes defeated Lesnar and Bad Bunny beat Damian Priest after numerous run-ins including Carlito and Savio Vega.<\/p>\n<p>Other matches <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/05\/06\/wwe-backlash-results-5-6-2023-kellers-full-results-match-analysis-star-ratings-for-cody-vs-lesnar-bad-bunny-vs-priest-usos-solo-vs-sami-ko-riddle\/\">on the show<\/a> included Bianca Belair defeating Iyo Sky to retain her Raw Women&#8217;s Championship, Rhea Ripley defeating Zelina Vega to retain the Smackdown Women&#8217;s Championship, Austin Theory retaining his United States Championship over Bobby Lashley and Bronson Reed, Seth Rollins pinning Omos, and much more.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>CATCH-UP:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/05\/07\/nxt-booker-shawn-michaels-discusses-relationship-with-carmelo-hayes-thoughts-on-hayes-vs-breakker-rematch-at-battleground\/\">NXT booker Shawn Michaels discusses relationship with Carmelo Hayes, thoughts on Hayes vs. Breakker rematch at Battleground<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2752003850\"><div id=\"pwtor-1912766549\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The WWE Backlash 2023 PLE in Puerto Rico on Saturday night broke numerous records for WWE. The company announced that this year&#8217;s Backlash event was the highest-grossing and most-viewed Backlash event in history. The event <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/05\/08\/wwe-backlash-2023-breaks-company-records\/\" title=\"WWE Backlash 2023 breaks company records\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":76837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[3523,71,3302,6894],"class_list":["post-158435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_wwe","tag-backlash","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-backlash","tag-wwe-backlash-2023"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2019\/03\/WWEheadquarters-TitanTower_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158436,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158435\/revisions\/158436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}