The 2021 WrestleMania Backlash was the 16th Backlash professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on May 16, 2021, from the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida. It was WWE's first pay-per-view to present the ThunderDome from the Yuengling Center during the COVID-19 pandemic, following a four-month residency at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was also the first Backlash to livestream on Peacock. From 1999 to 2009, the concept of the Backlash pay-per-view was based around the backlash from WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania. The 2021 event returned Backlash to this original position as the post-WrestleMania pay-per-view, and it was in turn renamed to "WrestleMania Backlash" as it was based around the backlash from WrestleMania 37.
Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Cesaro by technical submission to retain SmackDown's Universal Championship. In another prominent match, Bobby Lashley defeated Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman in a triple threat match to retain Raw's WWE Championship. Also on the undercard, Bianca Belair defeated Bayley to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship and Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio defeated Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, thus becoming the first-ever father and son team to hold a tag team championship in WWE.
The event received positive reviews from critics and fans. The event included a promotional tie-in for the zombie film Army of the Dead, which stars former WWE wrestler Batista. In addition to Batista doing a voiceover for the event's opening vignette, the Lumberjack match between Damian Priest and The Miz had the lumberjacks acting as zombies. This tie-in was heavily panned and covered in the media, with the New York Post calling it "one of WWE's saddest moments ever." Despite the negative criticism towards the tie-in, the rest of the event was well-received.
Production
Background
Backlash is a recurring event that was established by WWE in 1999. It was held annually from 1999 to 2009, but was then discontinued until it was reinstated in 2016 and has been held every year since, except in 2019. The original concept of the event was based around the backlash from WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania, but the events between 2016 and 2020 did not carry this theme. The 2021 Backlash was initially scheduled for June 20, however, during Night 2 of WrestleMania 37, it was revealed that Backlash would take place on May 16 and would be titled "WrestleMania Backlash", thus returning the event to its original concept and featuring the backlash from WrestleMania 37. It was the 16th Backlash and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event aired on pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and was available to livestream on the WWE Network in international markets, and was the first Backlash to livestream on Peacock after the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in mid-March 2020, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set. Initially, Raw and SmackDown's television shows and pay-pew-views were done at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. A limited number of Performance Center trainees and friends and family members of the wrestlers were later utilized to serve as the live audience. In late August, these programs were moved to a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome. The select live audience was no longer utilized as the bubble allowed fans to attend the events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena. Additionally, the ThunderDome utilized various special effects to further enhance wrestlers' entrances, and arena audio was mixed with that of the chants from the virtual fans. After being hosted at Orlando's Amway Center, the ThunderDome was relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida in December.
Due to the start of the 2021 Tampa Bay Rays season, as Tropicana Field is the home venue of the Tampa Bay Rays, on March 24, 2021, WWE announced that they would relocate the ThunderDome to the Yuengling Center, located on the campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa, which began with the April 12 episode of Raw. Subsequently, WrestleMania Backlash was the first WWE pay-per-view produced from the ThunderDome at the Yuengling Center.