WWE Backlash 2025 Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction, Highlights

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of WWE Backlash 2025.

We are not only witnessing John Cena's final year with WWE, but we also got to see him face one of his oldest rivals one last time when he defended the Undisputed WWE Championship against Randy Orton.

The only non-title contest on the card featured Pat McAfee stepping into the ring for a singles match for the first time in two years to take on Gunther.

We also saw Lyra Valkyria defend the Women's Intercontinental Championship against Becky Lynch, Dominik Mysterio put the men's IC title on the line against Penta, and Jacob Fatu faced three challengers for his United States Championship.

Let's take a look at everything that happened at this year's Backlash premium live event at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre vs. LA Knight vs. Damian Priest

Backlash opened with the United States Championship match featuring Fatu, Damian Priest, Drew McIntyre and LA Knight.

After a brief standoff, Knight went after Fatu, while McIntyre and Priest paired up and took their fight out of the ring.

Knight and Priest temporarily worked together against Fatu, but it lasted all of 30 seconds before McIntyre started taking out everyone. Each competitor had a chance to dominate the other three for a brief period, so it never felt like anyone was the clear favorite.

The crowd gave them a "This is awesome" chant right before Fatu started taking everyone out with some high-risk offense. He was the star of this match, especially in the fans' eyes.

This match had a lot of energy, and all four men had a chance to look like a million bucks. The crowd was having a ball, and it seemed like everyone working together so much in recent months has allowed them to build some great chemistry.

Priest and McIntyre fought into the crowd and ended up going through a couple of tables near some production equipment. When it looked like Knight would put Fatu through the announce table, Solo Sikoa showed up and pulled him off the table.

Jeff Cobb shocked Knight by attacking him from the crowd. Fatu looked confused when he realized what happened, but he took advantage of the situation and finished off The Megastar to get the win.

This was a fantastic opening bout. We got tons of fun action and a big debut. Judging by Fatu's reaction, though, this could cause more problems than it solves.

Result: Fatu retains the U.S. title

Grade: A-

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Notable Moments and Observations

—Everyone took their time with entrances. The match didn't get started until almost 15 minutes into the show, but some of that time was taken up by the national anthem.
—Knight had a nice rampage at the beginning of the match.
—Priest hit a nice hurricanrana from the top rope to Fatu.
—The few moments with everyone hitting their finisher in sequence was great.

Lyra Valkyria vs. Becky Lynch

The women's IC title bout was up next. Becky Lynch was out first to battle her former friend, Lyra Valkyria. Both women were all business as they made their way to the ring.

The Man scored the first real takedown and taunted her opponent, but she let Valkyria get to her feet so they could square up again. The champ took her down into a submission that tied up all four of her limbs.

These Superstars were not holding back. Lynch ended up with some bloody wounds on her elbows but never slowed down. They were making sure this bout felt completely different from their previous encounter for the NXT title, especially since Lynch was a major heel this time around.

Big Time Bex spent a long time in control before Valkyria began to make a comeback. The crowd broke into dueling chants, but the people cheering for the champion were just a bit louder.

The way this match was structured and paced allowed them to showcase their wrestling ability while also telling a story in the ring. It was hard to think of anything they could have added or done to make this better.

Lynch grew frustrated after her finishers failed to win the contest, so she grabbed a chair. While the ref got rid of it, she then removed a turnbuckle cover. This led to the ref being distracted when Valkyria should have had the match won.

Valkyria ended up winning after countering a pin, but Lynch attacked her and put her in the Disarmher as soon as the match was over.

This feud clearly isn't over. The ending may have been a little overbooked, but as a whole, this was a tremendous match.

Result: Valkyria defeated Lynch

Grade: A-

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Notable Moments and Observations

—It was hard not to laugh at Valkyria walking with her bird wings extended the whole time she made her entrance.
—Lyra's hanging submission needs a name. It's a good move and she should win matches with it sometimes to make it seem dangerous.
—Few things look as good as a perfectly executed Northern Lights suplex.
—Lynch mocked Valkyria's fiance, Irish wrestler LJ Cleary, in the front row.
—Valkyria was holding her nose after the match. Michael Cole said it might be broken.

Dominik Mysterio vs. Penta

We went from the women's IC title to the men's as Penta made his way to the ring to challenge Dominik Mysterio for the belt. The rest of The Judgment Day came out with Dom but didn't go all the way to the ring with him.

Mysterio was able to get the upper hand for a moment, but Penta's veteran experience allowed him to quickly turn the tables. Unfortunately for him, all the experience in the world won't help when your opponent uses dirty tactics.

Dirty Dom looked like a tougher competitor in this bout than he ever has before. Working with Penta has forced him to dig deep and bring out his best, and it has led to him doing some of his best in-ring work.

These guys have developed a lot of chemistry after working together a few times over the past month, and they used it to give us their best encounter to date.

In fact, this might be the best singles match Mysterio has had in his WWE career. He looked more confident in his ability than ever before, and he was able to keep up with one of the best luchadores in the game today.

Carlito tried to distract the ref so Finn Balor and JD McDonagh could interfere, but the official saw and ejected them from the ringside area. El Grande Americano showed up and hit Penta with a headbutt while the ref was dealing with The Judgment Day.

The interference allowed Dom to hit a Frog Splash for the pin and the win.

Result: Mysterio defeated Penta

Grade: B+

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Notable Moments and Observations

—The crowd has taken to Penta quite a bit. He seems to love interacting with fans on the way to the ring. He never rushes and takes his time to acknowledge kids in the crowd.
—Mysterio's gear was an homage to Psicosis.
—Dom hit a nice hurricanrana early in the match.

Gunther vs. Pat McAfee

The penultimate match of the night saw McAfee step out from behind the announce desk to defend the honor of himself and Michael Cole against Gunther.

The Ring General seemed all too happy to toy with McAfee at first. They locked up, and he shoved the former NFL punter to the corner. On their next lockup, he whipped McAfee to the mat in a headlock.

Every time the announcer tried to mount a little offense, Gunther would swat him away and put him down. When McAfee tried to hit some chops, The Ring General let him hit a few before he leveled him with one big hit.

Even a running kick from the former Indianapolis Colts player angered Gunther more than hurt him. This was never going to be a competitive fight, but they did a good job spacing out their spots so the match lasted longer than a few minutes.

McAfee managed to string a few moves together, but he was shocked when Gunther kicked out at one and immediately stood up.

Cole pleaded with Gunther to end the match several times as he watched his colleague get decimated. McAfee refused to tap out, so The Ring General pulled Cole into the ring and dared him to take a shot.

This match was far more competitive than it needed to be, but they did a good job making it an entertaining story even if it didn't always make sense. They kept trying to make it seem like McAfee had a chance, but we all knew it was fruitless.

After milking the ending for all it was worth, McAfee finally passed out in a sleeper to give Gunther the win.

As a wrestling match, this was passable; as an entertaining story, this was a lot of fun. WWE managed to make Gunther look dominant without making McAfee look like a chump.

Result: Gunther defeated McAfee

Grade: C+

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Notable Moments and Observations

—McAfee went for more of a street-clothes look than wrestling gear.
—You could tell Gunther was trying not to laugh at points in the match.
—McAfee tripped when he tried to jump over the top rope, but he recovered well.
—Cole trying to help McAfee win only for Gunther to kick out was a funny moment.
—Surprisingly, The Ring General showed McAfee a little respect before leaving the ring.

John Cena vs. Randy Orton

The main event of this year's Backlash is likely the last time we will see Orton and Cena face each other one-on-one, so this felt like a big deal before it even started.

They took a beat before locking up for the first time. Neither man gave an inch, so they broke the hold, circled each other, and locked up again.

Orton poked Cena in the eye and sent him out of the ring, which angered the 17-time champion. After Orton got the better of Cena a few times, the champ tried to leave the match. The Viper chased him down and brought him back.

Once they got into the contest a bit more, this turned into the kind of bout these two have always had. They know each other better than anyone, so everything they did looked good, but nothing they did was surprising.

Orton and Cena are both very different than they were 10 years ago, so they paced themselves and built up to big moments instead of trying to pack in as much as they could. They had a lot of time to work with, so they had to fill it wisely.

While this was a solid main event, it's hard to say if it's one of their best performances together because they have had so many. It felt predictable in spots and a little slower in some places than it should have been, but it still had plenty of fun moments that called back to their long history together.

Both men survived finishers from the other a couple of times, and the ref was taken out twice near the end of the match. We even saw The Viper steal Cena's finisher to put him through two different tables.

Cena took out the second official who showed up, preventing anyone from being able to count when Orton hit another RKO. The Viper looked befuddled as producers filled the ring but nobody made a count for him. He RKO'ed SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis and several other people out of anger.

R-Truth ended up stopping Orton from hitting a punt, allowing Cena to hit a low blow from behind. He nailed The Legend Killer with the title, and the ref crawled back in to make the count and declare him the winner. This was a lot of fun even if it was very overbooked toward the end.

Result: Cena defeated Orton

Grade: B+

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Notable Moments and Observations

—Orton had more color on his trunks than usual.
—Cena should come out to the theme he used before his usual song. It would add to the heel side of his character because that was the tune he used when he was a heel all those years ago.
—The spot when both men hit their finisher at the same time was a bit of a callback to a tables match they had many years ago.
—The crowd popped big when Orton started clearing off the table.

The Final Word

Backlash has always been considered a B-level event for WWE, but the thing that makes a show good is the action in the ring, not its pedigree.

This year's PLE featured some strong performances in the three midcard title bouts, but the women's IC and men's U.S. Championship matches were the biggest highlights on the show.

Mysterio had one of his best performances to date against Penta, and Gunther and McAfee turned in a solid bout that made the former NFL player look more competitive than expected.

However, all eyes were on the main event. Cena and Orton worked their butts off to give us an entertaining show, but some of the shenanigans felt unnecessary after a little while.

As a whole, Backlash was an above-average show with few things you could reasonably complain about. None of the results were surprising, but it was a decent way to spend a few hours on a Saturday night.

Grade: B