Backlash (2025)

The 2025 Backlash, also promoted as Backlash: St. Louis, was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 20th Backlash event and took place on May 10, 2025, at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The concept of the event was based around the backlash from WrestleMania 41. Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, John Cena defeated Randy Orton to retain SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship. In other prominent matches, Gunther defeated Pat McAfee by technical submission in what was a featured match for Raw, Lyra Valkyria successfully defended Raw's WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship against Becky Lynch, Dominik Mysterio retained Raw's WWE Intercontinental Championship against Penta, and in the opening bout, Jacob Fatu defeated LA Knight, Damian Priest, and Drew McIntyre in a fatal four-way match to retain SmackDown's WWE United States Championship. The event featured the WWE debut of Jeff Cobb, whose ring name was subsequently changed to JC Mateo. This was also Cena's first appearance at a Backlash event since 2009, as well as his last Backlash appearance as an in-ring performer due to his retirement from professional wrestling at the end of 2025.