Background in
Richmond, Virginia.
Backlash is a
pay-per-view (PPV)
event that was established by
WWE in 1999. It was held annually from 1999 to 2009, however, in 2010, Backlash was discontinued and replaced by
Extreme Rules—in April 2011, the promotion ceased going by its full name of World Wrestling Entertainment, with "WWE" becoming an
orphaned initialism. In August 2011, WWE ended the first
brand extension, but in mid-2016, the brand split was revived and the roster was again divided between the
Raw and
SmackDown brands where the wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform. WWE also brought back brand-exclusive PPVs, and due to the need for more PPV events, on July 25, 2016, Backlash was reinstated to be held exclusively for the SmackDown brand. As a result, it was WWE's first brand-exclusive PPV of the second brand split and was the 12th Backlash. Tickets went on sale July 30 through
Ticketmaster. The original concept of the pay-per-view was based around the backlash from WWE's flagship event,
WrestleMania. The 2016 Backlash, however, was scheduled to be held on September 11, 2016, at the
Richmond Coliseum in
Richmond,
Virginia, thus ending its previous tradition of being the post-WrestleMania PPV. The event was instead held after
SummerSlam that year. It was the first and so far only Backlash to be held in September.
Storylines The event comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the SmackDown brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television show,
SmackDown Live. At
SummerSlam,
Dean Ambrose retained the
WWE World Championship against
Dolph Ziggler, while
AJ Styles defeated
John Cena. Nikki was set to face Carmella following the unveiling of the title, whom she had pinned at SummerSlam. Instead, however, Carmella turned villainous by attacking Nikki during a pre-match interview and again during
Talking Smack, SmackDown's
aftershow. Also at the 2016 Draft,
WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (
Kofi Kingston,
Big E, and
Xavier Woods) were drafted to Raw, which also left the SmackDown brand without tag team championships. On the August 23 episode of
SmackDown, the
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship was unveiled, and a
tournament to crown the inaugural champions was then set up, with the tournament's final scheduled for Backlash. Originally scheduled to be a six-team tournament between
American Alpha (
Chad Gable and
Jason Jordan),
The Ascension (
Konnor and
Viktor), Breezango (
Tyler Breeze and
Fandango),
The Hype Bros (
Zack Ryder and
Mojo Rawley),
The Usos (
Jey Uso and
Jimmy Uso), and
The Vaudevillains (
Aiden English and
Simon Gotch),
Heath Slater, who was still trying to
earn a SmackDown contract after being left out of the WWE Draft, was granted entry into the tournament on the condition that he must find a partner and win the tournament to earn a contract.
Rhyno, who had defeated Slater to win a contract weeks before, agreed to be his partner. In the quarter-finals, The Usos and American Alpha advanced with wins over The Ascension and Breezango, respectively. On the September 6 episode, American Alpha and the team of Slater and Rhyno advanced with wins over The Usos and The Hype Bros, respectively. However, The Usos would attack American Alpha after their match, causing Gable to suffer a leg injury. Due to this, American Alpha were ruled out of the tournament final, and a match between The Usos and The Hype Bros was then set for Backlash, with the winners replacing American Alpha in the final against Slater and Rhyno. On the August 23 episode of
SmackDown,
Bray Wyatt confronted
Randy Orton. On the following week's episode of
SmackDown,
Dolph Ziggler confronted The Miz, agreeing with Bryan to goad The Miz into a match for the Intercontinental Championship. After also insulting The Miz for being "a soft, safe coward", Bryan scheduled The Miz to defend his Intercontinental Championship against Ziggler at Backlash. ==Event==