The biggest pro-wrestling show in the form of WWE Backlash 2023 was presented this weekend from the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. For the first time ever, the PPV under this Backlash chronology headed outside the USA territory and it appeared to be a huge success from the WWE’s perspective. Heading into this week’s Raw, WWE also touted specific success instances they pulled off during the PLE.
WWE Backlash 2023 broke multiple company records when it comes to viewership, attendance, and merchandise sales. The PLE that went down from the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was the highest-grossing and most-viewed Backlash in WWE’s history, as revealed via a press release by the company.
WWE Backlash 2023: Ex Total Divas Star Professes Love For Puerto Rico In Stunning Photo
The viewership for WWE Backlash 2023 was up by 28% in comparison to the previous record set in 2022 at Wrestlemania Backlash. It also experienced 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 were in attendance for two back-to-back nights of Friday Night Smackdown (16,896 attendees) and then Backlash (17,944 attendees) in San Juan.
WWE Backlash 2023: Brock Lesnar Receives Standing Ovation After Main Event
WWE Backlash 2023 promoted double main events
You could have heard Michael Cole touting WWE Backlash 2023 were having dual main events – Brock Lesnar vs. Cody Rhodes and The San Juan Street Fight between Bad Bunny and Damian Priest. The latter match garnered over 40 million views and it also made the PLE, the most social media-engaged Backlash of all time. The hashtag #WWEBacklash had a custom Bad Bunny emoji which trended number-one across the entire evening from the sports genre.
WWE Backlash 2023 also broke merchandise records as given in the following statement,
“As the first-ever WWE event under the expanded partnership with Fanatics overseeing the on-site event retail experience, top-selling items included the WWE Backlash and LWO Puerto Rico t-shirts.
Sponsorship revenue surpassed any Backlash event in history, breaking last year’s record with a 98 percent year-on-year increase through partnerships with Netflix’s FUBAR, Mike’s Harder Lemonade and Xfinity.”
The success of WWE Backlash 2023 in Puerto Rico came at a point when WWE is desperate to have a global reach. A particular focus on Latin America will increase and with this, an event in Mexico could also be seen in the near future. Besides, more future events outside the United States should be in the pipeline.
