{"id":241862,"date":"2026-04-22T14:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/241862\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:18:12","slug":"date-tickets-and-what-to-expect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/241862\/","title":{"rendered":"Date, tickets, and what to expect\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve hosted Royal Rumbles, WrestleManias, and more sweaty humans in spandex than most cities could ever dream of. Now, the WWE is coming back, and this time it\u2019s bringing its post-WrestleMania chaos tour straight to Benchmark International Arena.<\/p>\n

WWE Backlash takes place on Saturday, May 9, right here in downtown Tampa, and if you\u2019re wondering what that means, buckle up, because things are already unraveling in spectacular fashion. Get your tickets here<\/a> and read on for all the incoming chaos.<\/p>\n

For the uninitiated: Backlash is the first major live event after WrestleMania, which is basically the Super Bowl of professional wrestling, except louder, more dramatic, and somehow involving even more betrayals (and ads, so many ads). WrestleMania 42 just wrapped up this past weekend at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, and the fallout has already been extraordinary. Think of it this way: if WrestleMania is the season finale of your favorite show, Backlash is the premiere of the next season, where everyone is absolutely furious about what just happened and nobody has made rational decisions yet. That\u2019s good television. That\u2019s also just kind of how professional wrestling works.<\/p>\n

What to possibly expect<\/p>\n

Roman Reigns dethroned CM Punk in an epic, 5-star classic World Heavyweight Championship match in Vegas. Now, fresh off that victory, Reigns has drawn his first challenger: Jacob Fatu, who showed up on Monday Night Raw and made it very clear he doesn\u2019t just want what Reigns has, he needs it. The promo he cut was equal parts menacing and oddly relatable, mentioning Rolexes and better schools for his kids. That\u2019s either the most human a man has ever been, or a deeply clever bit of manipulation. Either way, Fatu is coming into this fresh off his own WrestleMania 42 win over Drew McIntyre in an unsanctioned match, which was essentially a legally-sanctioned brawl with no rules and a lot of very real-looking violence. Yes, wrestling is weird. It\u2019s also better than the thing that you like. A Reigns vs. Fatu match at Backlash isn\u2019t just possible, it\u2019s looking more like a foregone conclusion at this point.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Photo via World Wrestling Entertainment<\/p>\n

On the women\u2019s side, Liv Morgan defeated Stephanie Vaquer to win the Women\u2019s World Championship at WrestleMania 42, making her a three-time champion and officially the most exhausting person in the entire women\u2019s division (that\u2019s a compliment). Outside interference and underhanded tactics suggest WrestleMania was more of a stop in their rivalry than an ending point, which means Vaquer is almost certainly not done. A rematch in Tampa? The demand is there. Vaquer had gone undefeated since arriving on the main roster and she\u2019s not the type to quietly accept a loss that came courtesy of interference. Don\u2019t be shocked if she shows up in Tampa looking for revenge, because she absolutely should.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the match that WrestleMania teased and never delivered: Iyo Sky and Asuka have been building toward a one-on-one contest for months, with the feud rooted in Asuka\u2019s treatment of their former stablemate Kairi Sane. Reports suggest that Backlash is the more likely landing spot for the match rather than WrestleMania, which, honestly, might work out better. The bad news is they didn\u2019t book it for Mania. The good news is we might be getting it here instead.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Photos via World Wrestling Entertainment<\/p>\n

Round it all out with the fact that Cody Rhodes is still your WWE Champion, Oba Femi just ended Brock Lesnar\u2019s career in the most dramatic way possible, and Rhea Ripley is once again a champion after defeating Jade Cargill, and you\u2019ve got a landscape that\u2019s chaotic enough to produce at least two or three more matches worth watching in Tampa.<\/p>\n

Take it with a grain of salt<\/p>\n

None of this is official yet. No Backlash card has been announced. But honestly, that\u2019s part of what makes this moment fun. You\u2019ve got three weeks between the biggest show of the year and a city that is absolutely primed to receive the fallout. Tickets are still available<\/a>, and if you\u2019ve never been to a WWE event, this is one of the best possible entry points. Come for the storylines, stay because you can\u2019t believe what you just watched.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019ve hosted Royal Rumbles, WrestleManias, and more sweaty humans in spandex than most cities could ever dream of.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-241862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}