Backlash, the WWE’s latest pay-per-view, is now just hours away. But before the program itself, a kickoff show is scheduled to take place.
The Backlash kickoff show will begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Although Backlash itself is exclusive to the WWE Network, the kickoff show will be made available for streaming in the embedded YouTube player via the WWE.
This Backlash kickoff show will feature a match between Tye Dillinger and Aiden English, who have been feuding on SmackDown Live in recent weeks.
WWE kickoff shows are typically one hour long, with a match taking place about a half-hour in. The rest of the kickoff show will involve a panel of WWE commentators previewing the night’s events and offering their predictions.
At 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Backlash itself will begin. At that point, the YouTube stream will end, and you’ll need to switch over to the WWE Network. You can also order the pay-per-view via your cable provider.
Backlash is being headlined by a match between Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal. The World Championship is on the line here, and Orton is widely expected to emerge victorious, although Mahal was also never expected to become the number one contender for the title, so anything is possible.
Also at Backlash will be a match between AJ Styles and Kevin Owens for the United States Championship. This comes a few weeks after Owens lost his title briefly to Chris Jericho, only to win it back two nights later and taking Chris Jericho out of action in the process.
Plus, Backlash will feature the debut match of Shinsuke Nakamura, who is facing off against Dolph Ziggler. This is not a title match, however, and in fact, only three titles are actually up for grabs tonight: the World Championship, the United States Championship, and the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.