Payback, the first WWE pay-per-view since WrestleMania, is just hours away. But already fans are looking beyond Payback, so what is the next pay-per-view on the schedule?
After Payback, the WWE’s next pay-per-view is Backlash, a SmackDown Live exclusive pay-per-view that airs on Sunday, May 21st, 2017. Although Payback is sort of a mix of the two brands, Backlash will be completely SmackDown Live related with no Raw stars there at all.
At this time, we already have three matches confirmed for Payback.
The first is a match between Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal. Mahal recently won a six-pack challenge on SmackDown Live, earning himself the right to challenge Randy Orton for the title at Backlash. It’s true that Orton still has to defend his championship against Bray Wyatt at Payback, but this is a non-title match, and so no matter what happens tonight, the Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton match is still on for Backlash.
Another match that has been confirmed is one between The Usos and Breezango. This will be for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, with The Usos currently holding the title and with Breezango becoming the number one contenders this past week.
Finally, there will be a match at Backlash between AJ Styles and whoever the United States Champion is. That will be determined at Payback, when Kevin Owens defends his title against Chris Jericho. Another stipulation to that match is that if Jericho wins, he comes to SmackDown Live. However, Kevin Owens is currently expected to win, especially considering Chris Jericho is going on tour with his band next month.
These are the matches that have officially been announced for Backlash, but based on recent episodes of SmackDown Live, we can extrapolate a bit to get a sense of the rest of the card.
For instance, there will probably be a match at Backlash between Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin. Zayn and Corbin were the two superstars that AJ Styles defeated to become the number one contender for the United States Championship. In a later episode, when AJ Styles defeated Baron Corbin fair and square but Corbin continued to attack Styles after the match ended, Sami Zayn came in for the save. Baron Corbin subsequently attacked Sami Zayn on Talking Smack.
It’s not totally clear what the Women’s Championship match will be. We could see a rematch between Charlotte and Naomi, though; after all, Charlotte will argue that the only reason she lost this past week was because Carmella, Natalya, and Tamina interfered in the match.
Finally, there will almost certainly be a match at Backlash between Dolph Ziggler and Shinsuke Nakamura.
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What’s the Next WWE Pay-per-view After ‘Payback’?