{"id":261217,"date":"2026-05-06T22:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T22:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/261217\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T22:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T22:00:09","slug":"wwe-backlash-is-coming-to-tampa-with-a-wrestlemania-rematch-for-the-united-states-championship-as-a-marquee-match-on-the-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/261217\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE Backlash is coming to Tampa with a WrestleMania rematch for the United States Championship as a marquee match on the card"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TAMPA, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\">WWSB<\/a>) &#8211; It\u2019s an exciting week for fans of professional wrestling here on the Suncoast, and in the greater Tampa area, as WWE brings it\u2019s premium live event Backlash to Benchmark International Arena on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">It\u2019s WWE\u2019s first premium live event since WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. One of the marquee matchups on the card is a WrestleMania rematch between current United States Champion Trick Williams, and the man he beat for the title in Las Vegas last month, Sami Zayn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Trick Williams is relatively new to the main roster in WWE, debuting in January of this year on SmackDown. The U.S. champ isn\u2019t afraid to mix it up with opponents on the main event level, including veterans like Sami Zayn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Some, like Zayn himself, may call the current champ brash &#8211; but Trick Williams would just label it as confidence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cAin\u2019t nobody like Trick Williams,\u201d The United States Champion said in an interview with ABC7 this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m 6\u20325,\u201d 250 pounds, eight abs and three chains. Sami Zayn is the gingerbread man,\u201d he added with a smile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Known by a variety of nicknames, including \u201cTricky Two Times\u201d and \u201dMr. Whoop That,\u201d Williams is heading to Tampa for his first title defense since capturing the gold last month, against the man he took it from.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m not fighting up to prove that I can be champion,\u201d Williams said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cTrick Williams is the champion. Sami Zayn is challenging me. He wants what I have. I don\u2019t want what he has,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ever since debuting on the main roster back in January, the two have seemingly been at odds. The veteran Zayn feels the relative newcomer owes him respect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI think there\u2019s a misunderstanding of respect,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cHe feels like I disrespected him by calling him the gingerbread man. But that\u2019s part of the game man. You know, we competing for that number one spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The moniker of \u201cGingerbread Man\u201d makes reference to the challenger\u2019s red hair, and is a potential knock at Zayn\u2019s physique in comparison to Williams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"> \u201cAnd I feel like he\u2019s disrespected me because since day one he slept on Trick Williams,\u201d the champion added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Now it\u2019s personal, and Tampa\u2019s Benchmark International Arena will be the backdrop for a match that has the ability to steal the show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cHe can miss me with all the disrespect, because he never respected Trick Williams,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhich is why he\u2019s having a hard time with how everything is going down right now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Williams referenced the longstanding tradition within professional wrestling of respecting the veterans that paved the way for the younger talent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cHe feels like I should respect him because he\u2019s been here, or because he\u2019s been in that spot for awhile,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cBut like I said, in football, there\u2019s no respect to a veteran just because you\u2019re there. It\u2019s not about what you did five years ago. It\u2019s not about what you did ten years ago. It\u2019s about what you can do today,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">And it\u2019s about what they can do on Saturday when Trick Williams defends his United States Championship against the challenger, Sami Zayn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m excited man,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe house is almost full. Make sure you get your tickets at Ticketmaster. You give us your dollars, we make you hollar. We\u2019re going to turn Tampa all the way up baby, let\u2019s talk about it!\u201d he added with a smile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">It\u2019s a contrast of styles and a contrast of journeys. On Saturday, we\u2019ll see who emerges victorious with the title on the line.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; It\u2019s an exciting week for fans of professional wrestling here on the Suncoast, and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[112871,135,137,136,78050,37308,112872,112870],"class_list":["post-261217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-sami-zayn","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-trick-williams","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-united-states-championship","tag-wwebacklash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261217","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=261217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}