What time does WWE Backlash 2017 start?
WWE Backlash will take place on Sunday night, but what time are fans going to be able to view the show?
On Sunday night, the WWE Backlash pay-per-view will take place at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, IL. It’s SmackDown Live’s first exclusive show since Elimination Chamber, which preceded WrestleMania 33.
Backlash will be part of a loaded week for WWE. It began with Friday’s United Kingdom Championship Special, continued with Saturday’s NXT TakeOver: Chicago, and then will see the SmackDown Live stars show up on PPV. Normal episodes of Raw and SmackDown will follow on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
The main event of Backlash will see Randy Orton defend the WWE Championship against Jinder Mahal. This came about when Mahal surprisingly won a No. 1 Contenders Match for the title, giving him his first-ever PPV main event.
If the Maharajah wins, it will be the first title he’s held in WWE — not evening owning one during the low-card 3MB stable in 2013 and 2014. If that’s the case, it will be one of the biggest upsets in recent history.
Kevin Ownes will defend the WWE United States Championship against AJ Styles. This has a chance of being a PPV-caliber matchup, pitting two of the best workers from SmackDown in the ring for 15-20 minutes.
Styles has been around the title picture for most of his WWE run, but never the U.S. Championship. So the opportunity is there to upgrade his résumé in Chicago. Can the Phenomenal One pull this off?
WWE Backlash will go live on the WWE Network and PPV at 8:00 p.m. ET on May 21. However, there will be a one-hour pre-show, which will take place on multiple streaming platforms at 7:00 p.m. ET. That will lead to three-plus hours of content, which will see the best of SmackDown Live take to the ring to put on a show.