Backlash (2009)

The 2009 Backlash was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the 11th annual Backlash and took place on April 26, 2009, at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The concept of the event was based around the backlash from WrestleMania 25. The card comprised seven matches, as well as one dark match that occurred before the live broadcast. The main matches saw SmackDown's Edge defeat Raw's John Cena in a Last Man Standing match to win the World Heavyweight Championship, transferring the title to SmackDown, and Randy Orton won Raw's WWE Championship in a six-man tag team match pitting defending champion Triple H, Batista, and Shane McMahon against The Legacy (Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase); Orton pinned Triple H to win the title. The card also included Jeff Hardy defeating Matt Hardy in an "I Quit" match and Christian winning the ECW Championship by defeating Jack Swagger. The event received 182,000 pay-per-view buys, down on the previous event's figure of 200,000 buys. This was the final Backlash held until 2016, as in 2010, Extreme Rules was moved up into the April/May slot, which also made it the final Backlash to broadcast exclusively via traditional PPV outlets due to the launch of the WWE Network streaming service in February 2014. Although the event was reinstated in 2016, it was held in September that year, thus the 2009 event was the final Backlash to carry the post-WrestleMania theme until the 2021 event. This was also the final Backlash to feature ECW and the ECW Championship, as the brand was dissolved in February 2010, deactivating the championship along with it, and it was subsequently the final Backlash held before the...