Move Concerts and Noah Assad Presents successfully co-promoted the most lucrative and highest-rated Backlash in WWE's history on May 6th, at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The popular brand of WWE garnered 28% more viewership than the previous year's event, headlined by Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, who is the world's most-streamed recording artist and has previously produced record-breaking concerts on the island. The event also broke the largest gate records in the history of both Backlash and any other WWE event held in Puerto Rico.
Furthermore, the event was a social media sensation, particularly the San Juan Street Fight, where Bad Bunny faced his former tag partner Damien Priest, which drew over 40 million views. The hashtag #WWEBacklash, accompanied by a custom Bad Bunny emoji, was the top trend on the platform for the entire evening of sports.
“We have been very proud of our on-going relationship with WWE throughout the region and specially in Puerto Rico” stated Fabiano de Queiroz, VP of Talent & Tours at Move Concerts, “The rich wrestling history and the incredibly strong music scene made for the perfect combination on a historic night with the best crowd in the world!”, added Alejandro Pabón Managing Director of Move Concerts Puerto Rico.
Backlash also shattered records in merchandise and sponsorship sales, with the WWE Backlash and LWO Puerto Rico T-shirts being the top-selling items under the event's first-ever partnership with Fanatics. The event saw a 98% YoY increase in sponsorship revenue, with partnerships from Netflix's FUBAR, Mike's Harder Lemonade, and Xfinity.
The two-day event hosted nearly 35,000 fans who filled the Agrelot arena for two sell-out nights of WWE's SmackDown (16,896 attendees) and Backlash (17,944 attendees), marking the return of WWE Premium Live Event to Puerto Rico after a 15-year hiatus.