WWE Backlash 2023 Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights

Welcome to Bleacher Report's coverage and recap of WWE Backlash in Puerto Rico.

Here is the full lineup for the night:

• Bad Bunny vs. Damian Priest
• Austin Theory vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Bronson Reed (United States Championship)
• Bianca Belair vs. Iyo Sky (Raw Women's Championship)
• Seth Rollins vs. Omos
• Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar
• Rhea Ripley vs. Zelina Vega (SmackDown Women's Championship)
• Matt Riddle, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn vs. The Usos and Solo Sikoa 

With a handful of Puerto Rican talents on the card, the San Juan crowd has been electric since WWE arrived on the island. Let's take a look at what happened during the show.

Bianca Belair vs. Iyo Sky

Bianca Belair and Iyo Sky both got great reactions from the San Juan crowd. Things started out competitive, but this quickly turned into The EST of WWE showing her power by repeatedly bodyslamming her opponent.

The Genius of the Sky was all alone this time, but she still managed to make a comeback. She began to focus on the left arm of the champion as chants of "Let's go Iyo" echoed from the crowd.

The longer the match went, the more the WWE Universe began to turn against The EST. Every time she got in some offense, the entire arena would begin to boo. You could see a look of excitement on Sky's face. When Belair realized what was going on, she began playing into it a bit.

When Sky locked her in a crossface submission, the fans erupted as the champ struggled to escape. The crowd turned the challenger into the babyface in less than 10 minutes, and it ended up making the match so much more entertaining as it continued.

Bayley and Dakota Kai came down and tried to help provide a distraction and offer support, but Belair was able to hit the KOD to score the win.

Between the quality of the performances and the reactions from the crowd, this contest was an outstanding way to kick off the show.

Winner: Bianca Belair

Grade: A

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Notable Moments and Observations

• The show opened with a video that heavily featured Bad Bunny. 
• Iyo Sky's music is great and was definitely the right choice to use that over the Damage CTRL theme. 
• Belair wasn't necessarily acting like a heel, but she stopped acting as much of a babyface when she saw how things were going. 
• Anyone can be billed as having the best moonsault, but Sky has earned that title. It always looks so great. 

Omos vs. Seth Rollins

The crowd gave Rollins the expected reaction during his entrance, but before he could get his jacket off, Omos attacked him with a running kick.

As The Nigerian Giant continued to beat him down, the fans kept singing The Visionary's theme.

Every time Rollins tried to get a little momentum going, he would run into Omos like he was hitting a brick wall. The big man was taking advantage of the wild audience and punishing The Visionary with everything he could come up with.

The former world champion did a lot to sell Omos, but once it was his turn to shine, Rollins pulled out some fast-paced sequences that popped the crowd every time.

Omos easily blocked the Stomp with pure strength and hit a chokeslam that almost won him the match.

This went 10:31 and might be the best performance we have seen from Omos to date. Rollins hit his Stomp from the top rope to get the win and get the crowd to sing his music one more time.

Winner: Seth Rollins

Grade: B-

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Two bouts in and this was already one of the best crowds of the year and may go down as one of the best of the decade. Everyone was so amped for everything that happened. Everyone in the arena made this match better by being so vocally active. 
• Rollins should be commended for how much he did to make Omos look good here. The big man looked better than anyone else has so far. 
• Putting down a giant with a sleeper hold looks oddly familiar. Does anybody want a peanut?

Austin Theory vs. Bronson Reed vs. Bobby Lashley

As the United States Championship match got underway, all three men started off hot. After a few minutes, Theory and Reed formed a tenuous alliance because that is what heels do in Triple Threat matches.

Three-way bouts tend to play out in specific ways. The heels always dominate most of the action until one of them decides to turn on the other and try to win for themselves.

However, Reed was getting a lot of positive reactions from the crowd. When Theory stopped him from hitting his top-rope splash, there were audible jeers.

Lashley still had the support of the crowd, but it felt like Reed may have been the preferred competitor by those in attendance.

As expected, A-Town stole the win, but you could see a lot of potential for an eventual Reed victory. This was a solid outing from three great athletes.

Winner: Austin Theory

Grade: B

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Notable Moments and Observations

• The ref was in the way when Theory tried to hit a rolling dropkick from the apron, so it came off looking a little awkward. 
• Lashley's delayed vertical suplex is always impressive. 
• Reed going for a moonsault brings up memories of Bam Bam Bigelow. 

Rhea Ripley vs. Zelina Vega

SmackDown women's champion Ripley changed up her usual dark look for whiter gear with purple accents for her title match against Vega.

The Eradicator taunted her challenger and cornered her, but Vega's quickness allowed her to avoid any punishment. She grabbed a flip-flop from the crowd and threw it at Ripley before hitting her with a dropkick through the ropes.

Once the powerhouse was able to ground the challenger, she took her apart before pinning her with the Riptide for the win.

This match could have used a few more minutes, but everything we got was great. Once again, the crowd fed into everything they were doing and gave Vega a great welcome.

Winner: Rhea Ripley

Grade: B+

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Vega had a special entrance outfit with a huge Puerto Rico flag as her cape. She and Ripley both looked awesome. 
• Michael Cole said Vega was dedicating this match to her late father, so there was even more reason for her to be emotional. 
• Ripley's counter if a hurricanrana into a powerbomb looked awesome. 

Bad Bunny vs. Damian Priest

In WWE's first-ever San Juan Street Fight, Priest took on the man he once called a close friend, international singing star Bad Bunny.

Both men received appropriate responses, but WWE made sure to play Bunny's music for a little longer than usual because the crowd was so into it.

The Archer Of Infamy shoved Bad Bunny to the corner to prove he was stronger, but the musician quickly showed he wasn't here to joke around by almost pinning Priest.

Whenever the powerhouse was in control, the crowd gave him the appropriate heat. Whenever Benito made a comeback, everyone would cheer. It went back and forth like that a few times, but it took them some time before they began to take advantage of the stipulation.

Once they began using the environment and weapons, they also took the match into the crowd. They did a lot and had a long time to work, so they overserved the fans in more than one way.

Dominik Mysterio and Finn Bálor came out to interfere before Rey Mysterio ran down to make the save. He was taken down, but former WWE star Carlito then made a surprise appearance. He and Rey cleared the ring of the rest of The Judgment Day, who were then cut off in the aisle by Savio Vega and the LWO.

Bálor and Dom took a severe beating as they were run off, which allowed Bad Bunny to apply a figure-four lock to the injured knee of Priest. He failed to win with the submission, so he grabbed a chair and started teeing off.

In the end, it was a Canadian Destroyer that secured the win for the hometown hero.

This match was exactly what it needed to be and then some. If you didn't have at least a bit of fun watching this, it would be shocking.

Winner: Bad Bunny

Grade: A

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Priest matched Ripley and wore all-white gear with some other accents and a big Puerto Rico flag on his leg. 
• In case you were wondering, Bad Bunny got a very loud reaction from the crowd, but if you weren't expecting that, you haven't been paying attention. 
• Priest was bleeding from the mouth a bit after the singer used some weaponry on him, but he got his revenge when he kicked a trash can into his face. 
• The chair shot Priest took to his knee looked stiff. 
• Seeing Savio Vega and Carlito was a really fun moment. 

The Usos and Sikoa vs. Riddle, Zayn and Owens

The Usos and Sikoa were out first to take on Riddle, Owens and Zayn in a six-man match. Paul Heyman was not with The Bloodline for this one.

Jey and Zayn started for their teams, and as soon as the former scored a takedown, he went to the corner to celebrate like he won something. Zayn made him pay with a clothesline.

Any match with six or more competitors usually follows a certain pattern: Everyone gets time in the ring, and the heels usually control more of the match until someone makes a hot tag.

Jey and Sikoa began to have some communication issues and talked a little trash to each other before Zayn knocked the latter off the apron with a Helluva Kick.

He nailed Jey with another kick, but Sikoa saved his brother from the pin. He almost hit Jey with the Samoan Spike, and it caused another argument.

Despite all the tension, Sikoa ended up getting the pin for his team over Riddle.

This match may have been a bit overbooked, but it was done well and made some nice storyline advancements.

Winners: The Bloodline

Grade: B

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Notable Moments and Observations

• As with Rollins, the crowd sang Zayn's music for his entire entrance. 
• The subtle things Sikoa does, like being hesitant to slap hands with his brothers, are so good. He has low-key been one of the best parts of The Bloodline recently. 
• The Usos may overuse the superkick, but they always make it look good. 

Brock Lesnar vs. Cody Rhodes

The main event of the night was the big showdown between Rhodes and Lesnar.

After losing to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, The American Nightmare was looking to rebound and regroup by overcoming one of his biggest challenges.

Rhodes attacked The Beast Incarnate by hitting a suicide dive before he even made it to the ring. He continued to attack Lesnar with the ring steps and a steel chair.

The bell rang once they got into the ring, but Rhodes stayed on him and hit two Disaster Kicks in a row. He went for a third, but Lesnar caught him and hit a German suplex.

Once he was in control, The Beast started taking him to Suplex City. Lesnar was busted open after a while, and Rhodes wiped some of his blood on his chest. He hit a Cody Cutter followed by two Cross Rhodes, but Lesnar kicked out.

A few moments later, it was Rhodes who had to kick out of the F5. Lesnar had him locked in the Kimura, but Rhodes rolled him over into a pin to steal the win.

Not only was this the right outcome, but the match was also well-paced and had a lot of fun spots. The way Rhodes won could be debated, but the fact that he won at all is that matters.

Winner: Cody Rhodes

Grade: B+

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Notable Moments and Observations

• The way the camera was positioned for the suicide dive was perfect. It looked like Rhodes came out of nowhere. 
• You could see Lesnar countering the third Disaster Kick from a mile away. 
•  Lesnar was bleeding quite a bit. He looked really mad as the show was going off the air.   
  

Final Thoughts

As a whole, Backlash was a fantastic PPV. Not only was this one of the hottest crowd we have seen in a long time, but WWE also actually booked the show with mostly satisfying outcomes.

While the crowd was behind Sky, Ripley winning was still the right call. Her reign has only just started and taking the title off her this soon would be a mistake.

All of the Puerto Rican Superstars and legends who showed up were given the star treatment, which made everything feel that much more special.

Even Omos and Rollins was enjoyable because of the hot crowd, and that was probably the match that had the lowest expectations going into the show.

WWE made the right call going to Puerto Rico. And based on its success, it would not be a surprise to see San Juan become a regular stop on its international touring schedule.

Grade: A-