WWE announced on Wednesday that the Backlash PLE will take place on Saturday, May 6, from the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and will be hosted by Bad Bunny.
On this night, the UFC will hold its UFC 288 PPV event in Newark, NJ, while Canelo Alvarez, one of boxing’s biggest draws, is expected to fight John Ryder on DAZN in Guadalajara, Mexico.
WWE has moved their premium live events from Sunday nights to Saturday nights in recent years, an idea credited to WWE CEO Nick Khan, who comes from the sports world as an agent.
Dave Meltzer stated on Wrestling Observer Radio that the feeling with this show, as well as WWE holding other PLEs against tough competition such as boxing and UFC events, is that there is not enough crossover with fans to impact WWE’s shows. Also, it’s not a big deal if fans don’t watch the shows live because Peacock has already guaranteed them money.
“WWE will be gigantic there (Puerto Rico). Every time they go there they draw well. Pay-per-view is going to sell out instantly and a hot crowd and its Cinco de Mayo and it’s in Puerto Rico. This also sounds like a Nick Khan thing because Cinco de Mayo, a big event, and the feeling even though boxing is most likely going to run with Canelo that night, UFC is going to run, and their mentality is the crossover is not as big as it used to be so we can run. Plus, we’re not pay-per-view. It’s free on Peacock so even if people want to watch the UFC that night they can watch us later. Everything’s changed because of the fact that it’s Peacock. They would’ve never done these European shows earlier in the day because of the idea if it’s a pay-per-view it’s got to be in that timeslot or it’s not going to sell because people are used to that time slot and buys go way down if we move out of that time slot,” Meltzer stated.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
