It took place on April 26, 2009, at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island and featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.

[4][5] Backlash comprised professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines that played out on Raw, SmackDown, and ECW — WWE's primary television programs.

The following night on Raw, WWE chairman Vince McMahon announced that a six-man tag team match would take place at Backlash between Triple H, Shane McMahon, and himself against The Legacy (Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase) which was later turned into a WWE Championship match by new general manager of Raw, Vickie Guerrero.

Batista made clear his desire to face Orton on Raw and take revenge for the punt that kept him from the ring for four months.

Guerrero then placed Triple H, Batista and Shane McMahon in a three-on-two handicap match against The Legacy for later in the night.

Whichever one of them would score the pinfall on either Rhodes or DiBiase will have earned themselves a match against Orton on the next Raw, but if The Legacy prevailed, then none of the three would be able to get their hands on him.

Then a few days later on SmackDown, Batista and Shane McMahon defeated DiBiase and Rhodes in a tag team match.

At No Way Out on February 15, 2009, Edge attacked Kofi Kingston, who was due to compete in an Elimination Chamber match for Cena's World Heavyweight Championship.

At WrestleMania 25, Cena defeated the defending champion Edge and The Big Show in a triple threat match to win the World Heavyweight Championship back.

On the April 6 episode of Raw, Vickie Guerrero announced that Cena would defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Edge in a Last Man Standing match at Backlash.

[9] Interim General manager Tiffany announced on the April 7 episode of ECW on Sci Fi that Jack Swagger would defend his ECW Championship against the winner of the "elimination chase", which commenced on that night and involved Christian, Tommy Dreamer, Finlay, and Mark Henry; the participants in the chase would have a four-way that night.

The remaining three wrestlers competed in a triple threat match on the April 14 episode of ECW on Sci Fi with the person being pinned or forced to submit being eliminated from contention; Dreamer was pinned in this contest, leading to a singles match between Finlay and Christian on the April 16 episode of WWE Superstars, which saw Christian get the victory, thus allowing him to face Swagger for the title at Backlash.

Before the event aired live on pay-per-view, Kofi Kingston defeated Dolph Ziggler in a dark match.

[13] A six-man tag team match for the WWE Championship pitting champion Triple H, Batista, and Shane McMahon against The Legacy (Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase) was next with the stipulation that if Triple H or any member of his team got counted out, disqualified, pinned or submitted, Orton would become the new WWE champion.

The match started with Triple H and Orton brawling to the backstage area while Batista and McMahon continued to wrestle The Legacy.

Once the two fought their way back to the ring, the match revolved around The Legacy isolating every member of their opponents, preventing any way for them to make a tag.

[13] In the main event, John Cena defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Edge in a Last Man Standing match.

[14] In addition, Dave Meltzer, writer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, called the show solid, and gave the main event a score of four-and-a-half stars out of five.

[17] Following the results of the main event, Big Show appeared in a match against Batista the following night on Raw to determine who would challenge Randy Orton next for the WWE Championship.