When WWE fans left early to "beat the traffic" during a pay-per-view main event involving Roman Reigns and 46-year-old legend
With WWE Backlash scheduled for Saturday, the traditional post-WrestleMania premium live event for this year seems to be not as exciting an affair as it should be. One of the reasons may be attributed to the absence of Roman Reigns. However, he was certainly not "the guy" the show needed in 2018.
Backlash 2018 emanated from Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, just one week following the Greatest Royal Rumble, the first-ever premium live event in Saudi Arabia. Following two underwhelming main events, Roman Reigns did not have a lot to live up to at Backlash. However, his match against Samoa Joe somehow ended up being even more underwhelming.
Before the main event, AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura was a somewhat decent match for the WWE Championship, albeit with a finish that was universally panned. Some underwhelming matches on the undercard included Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy for the United States Championship, Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass, Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss for the RAW Women's Championship, and more.
The main event of the evening saw Roman Reigns wrestle Samoa Joe in an 18-minute match that bored the crowd to the extent that chants of "CM Punk," "Rusev Day," and "beat the traffic" broke out in the arena. The match ended with Reigns delivering a Spear to Joe and pinning the current AEW World Trios Champion clean, much to the chagrin of the WWE Universe.
Fans seemed sick and tired of the man that they now acknowledge as their Tribal Chief. Several spectators were even seen exiting the arena during the contest. Just to remind yourself of how great wrestling fans have it in 2025, the match is embedded below.
"CM Punk" and "Rusev Day" chants to be heard at WWE Backlash 2025 too?
Funnily enough, chants of "CM Punk" and "Rusev Day" were heard on this week's episode of Monday Night RAW as well. Punk returned after missing WWE RAW last week to come to the aid of Sami Zayn and Jey Uso during the latter's World Heavyweight Championship match against Seth Rollins in the main event of the show.
Punk greeted Rollins and Bron Breakker with a good ol' steel chair, and the show went off the air with the crowd in Omaha chanting his name in unison. A match involving The Second City Saint has not been announced for Backlash yet. However, some kind of tag team situation involving Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins, Bron Breakker, and perhaps even Logan Paul and Jey Uso does sound like a possibility.
As for Rusev, he returned to WWE on the post-WrestleMania 41 edition of Monday Night RAW. He is also not scheduled for Backlash 2025 and is unlikely to be added to the show. The Bulgarian Brute is currently involved in a feud with Alpha Academy.
Roman Reigns is presently not scheduled for the event either. He is out of action for an undisclosed amount of time following Bron Breakker and Seth Rollins' assault on the same show Rusev made his long-awaited return. The OTC is expected to be back to get his share of revenge sometime in the near future.
On May 14, Samoa Joe is set to challenge Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship on Dynamite: Beach Break. We hope that "beat the traffic" chants won't be heard at any wrestling shows for the foreseeable future.
