Backlash (2005)
The 2005 Backlash was the seventh Backlash professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw brand division. The event took place on May 1, 2005, at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire. To date, it is the only WWE pay-per-view event to ever be held in the state of New Hampshire. The concept of the pay-per-view was based around the backlash from WrestleMania 21.
| Backlash | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Promotional poster featuring Triple H | |||
| Promotion | World Wrestling Entertainment | ||
| Brand(s) | Raw | ||
| Date | May 1, 2005 | ||
| City | Manchester, New Hampshire | ||
| Venue | Verizon Wireless Arena | ||
| Attendance | 14,000 | ||
| Buy rate | 320,000 | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| Backlash chronology | |||
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In the main event, Batista defeated Triple H in a singles match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. From the five scheduled bouts on the undercard, two received more promotion than the others. The first was a tag team match, in which Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan defeated Muhammad Hassan and Daivari. The other was a Last Man Standing match, a match where a wrestler who is unable to respond to a ten count by the referee would lose. Edge defeated Chris Benoit after Benoit failed to get to his feet before the referee's count to ten.
Backlash helped WWE increase its pay-per-view revenue by $4.7 million, through ticket sales and pay-per-view buys.