Backlash (2006)

The 2006 Backlash was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the eighth annual Backlash and took place on April 30, 2006, at the Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky, held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw brand division. The concept of the event was based around the backlash from WrestleMania 22. This was the last Backlash to be brand-exclusive during the first brand split period (2002–2011), as following WrestleMania 23 in April 2007, brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued. It would also be the last Raw-exclusive Backlash as after brand-exclusive PPVs returned during the second brand split period that began in 2016, Backlash became SmackDown-exclusive until brand-exclusive PPVs were again discontinued after WrestleMania 34 in April 2018. Seven professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the event's card, which saw three main matches. The first of these main events was a triple threat match for the WWE Championship, which saw John Cena defeat challengers Triple H and Edge to retain his title. The second main event was Shawn Michaels and "God" versus Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon in a No Holds Barred match, which was won by the McMahons. The third main event was a Winner Takes All "Title vs. Briefcase match" that pitted Mr. Money in the Bank Rob Van Dam against Intercontinental Champion Shelton Benjamin, with Van Dam defending his Money in the Bank briefcase, containing a contract for a guaranteed world championship match at any time, and Benjamin defending his championship. Van Dam defeated Benjamin, thus retaining his Money in the Bank briefcase and winning the Intercontinental Championship. The event received 273,000 pay-per-view buys, which was more than the previous year's event received. This contributed to WWE's pay-per-view revenue increasing by US$4.3 million from the previous year. When the event was released...