WWE Backlash 2025: Biggest Winners & Losers

John Cena has wrestled his final Backlash.

WWE brought the post-WrestleMania event to St. Louis on Saturday, and the show likely marked the final match between longtime rivals John Cena and Randy Orton. Cena came out on top, pinning Orton following a lengthy main event, continuing his reign as the Undisputed WWE Champion. But enough about what happened at Backlash, we have a whole results page for that. We have also already broken down what we loved and what we hated. Now it's time to talk about the winners and the losers from Saturday's big show.

Again, the results page will be where the real, literal winners and losers can be found, but this piece will focus on who looked good, who looked bad, who stole victory from a defeat, and vice versa.

Let's start with the most obvious one.

John Cena has read all of your tweets saying that he's "washed." Saturday's main event was a return to form for "Big Match John," whose recent efforts had been lackluster in the eyes of many. The nearly 30-minute match was a complete 180-degree switch-up from his woefully slow display against Cody Rhodes just weeks ago at WrestleMania 41. The John Cena who wrestled a woefully heatless match against Austin Theory at WrestleMania 39 was nowhere to be found, with Cena, and for that matter, Orton, turning back the clock momentarily and wrestling as crisply as they did in their heyday. While nostalgia can be a fairly toxic thing, it was nice to see the two rivals have one final epic.

The match was a tad overbooked for some tastes, but it doesn't change the fact that Cena managed to make a case for his divisive final run, putting to bed questions of whether the 17-time world champion still had enough gas left in his tank for one more run on top.

Drew McIntyre and Damian Priest are, for lack of a better way to put it, too good to be third-and-fourth-wheeling LA Knight's feud with Jacob Fatu and The Bloodline at large. In an awkwardly overstuffed match, McIntyre and Priest fought each other, while Fatu and Knight built to the actual point of the match: the debut of Jeff Cobb, helping Fatu go over Knight once again.

Love Jeff Cobb getting in the Bloodline. I don't even hate the style clash that is LA Knight, the least believable man in wrestling, and Fatu, the realest thing in wrestling right now. I don't even mind Priest and McIntyre seemingly feuding on their own. It was a Fatal-4-Way match that played more like two intersecting brawls, without enough connective tissue to really make the inclusion of Priest and McIntyre make sense.

I have no qualms with a good exciting Fatal-4-Way, it just feels like two former World Heavyweight Champions have absolutely nothing to do right now, and it is sticking out like a sore thumb.

While the men's division seems to be coasting on the stars of yesterday, like John Cena, the women's division has been firmly focused on the future. Following Tiffany Stratton's win over Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania, WWE Women's Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria got defeated Becky Lynch on Saturday, once again showing that the future of the women's division is now.

Maybe it's because I still remember the four horsewomen's dominance, but there is something refreshing about stars like Valkyria, Stratton, and other WWE NXT staples becoming so successful on the main roster. Where former WWE NXT Champions like Ilja Dragunov or Carmelo Hayes have failed to make a splash on the main roster, the booking of the women's division feels like a direct rebuke, where potential is rewarded and momentum given freely.

Especially after all of the rumors about Becky Lynch being something of a politician, it's nice to see the last generation put over the new generation so handily. The fact that the huge battle of generations took place for the Women's IC Title feels as much like a win for the title as it is for Valkyria.

WWE has essentially become Pat McAfee's fantasy camp. He gets to do commentary. He gets to wrestle in War Games. He gets to go 14 minutes against a former World Heavyweight Champion. While other celebrities like Logan Paul and Bad Bunny have shown an aptitude for wrestling, McAfee remains a somewhat bumbling presence in the ring and a loutish oaf outside of it. But that doesn't matter, because WWE is his show now.

He seemingly comes and goes as he pleases. When he shows up, a big deal is made that he's back. He's like if Jim Ross and Hulk Hogan had a baby, and that baby was somehow dumber than a baby.

I don't think I would've minded an elongated squash match. It's not how much time McAfee spent in the ring, it's that he was ever presented as a threat at all. The win did very little to help Gunther, especially considering any real heat he hoped to gain from beating up the media personality was quashed by the post-match show of respect. The whole thing felt like one of those martial arts demonstrations that Steven Seagal does, where he brushes off his opponent with almost alarming disregard. Pat McAfee is WWE's Steven Seagal, and anyone who has a problem with that best find a new show.