With Triple H at the helm, WWE continues to outdo itself with each passing Premium Live Event. After the record-breaking Survivor Series and WrestleMania, WWE Backlash hit new milestones. Backlash 2023 took place in Coliseo de Puerto Rico Jose Miguel Agrelot, San Juan, Puerto Rico. WWE announced during its press release that Backlash 2023 was the most-viewed “Backlash” in the history of WWE.
WWE Backlash featured two main events on the same night. The first half of the main event saw the star of the show, Bad Bunny, defeat Damien Priest in a San Juan Stree Fight.
In the second half of the main event, Cody Rhodes shocked the fans after stealing a win over a bloodied Brock Lesnar. All in all, Backlash was nothing short of spectacular. And the numbers don’t lie either.
WWE Backlash 2023 was a record-breaking event
According to a report from WWE’s corporate site, WWE Backlash was a record-breaking event for various reasons. WWE noticed an upsurge in the viewership of Backlash by 28%, making it surpass the viewership of Backlash in 2022.
The SmackDown before Backlash was also swamped with 16,896 attendees. Backlash was a sell-out with 17,944 fans in attendance, making SmackDown and Backlash amass over 34,800 fans in attendance.
#WWEBacklash was a record breaking night for WWE per a press release:
– Viewership of Backlash saw a 28% increase versus last year, new record
– Highest gate in the history of Backlash
– The most social Backlash of all-time
– Led by over 40 million views of the Bad Bunny v… pic.twitter.com/lTf6F5F7eT— Wrestle Ops (@WrestleOps) May 8, 2023
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 acrosrecords the entire evening of sports.
The report also states that Backlash 2023 hit the highest gate in the history of Backlash. In addition, the show is said to have been the most social Backlash of all time. The San Juan Street Fight featuring Bad Bunny and Damien Priest garnered over 40 million views. Furthermore, WWE Backlash broke merchandise and sponsorship records.
The WWE Backlash and LWO Puerto Rico shirts were the top-selling merchandise from the event. WWE’s partnership with Netflix FUBAR, Mike’s Harder Lemonade, and Xfinity made sponsorship revenue that surpassed other Backlash events from the past with a 98% year-on-year increase.
Bad bunny goes down #wwe #WWEBacklash #Backlash pic.twitter.com/By1kWLPXZq
— Ignatios Vardaxis (@IgnatiosVardax3) May 7, 2023
It’s safe to bet that WWE could extend its deal with Puerto Rico given the unparalleled success in the country for the first time ever.
Bad Bunny made his entrance to one of his highly-acclaimed songs from 2017
The world’s most-streamed artist, Bad Bunny, made his first-ever singles debut in his home country. Without a doubt, the match was a barn burner from start to finish. The mood for the match was set right from the get-go when Bunny made his entrance to the Chambea song from 2017.
Bad Bunny saliendo con Chambea como su tema de entrada. Colosal. #WWEBacklash pic.twitter.com/Pr6cD7eSo3
— LuigiWrestling (@LuigiWrestling) May 7, 2023
The music video featured WWE Hall of Famer, Ric Flair. People who know what “Chambea” means would agree that Bad Bunny exemplified the meaning of the word through his performance. Anyway, In Puerto Rico, Chambea means to “Lock and Load”. The video has over 337 million views on YouTube.
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