WWE undisputed champion John Cena will face Randy Orton at Backlash 2025, which is scheduled for Saturday, May 10 (Sunday, May 11 in India). On the Raw after WrestleMania, when Cena was celebrating his 17th championship, the Viper surprised him with an RKO, out of nowhere. It indicated that the WWE will go in that direction creatively, and on SmackDown, it was confirmed that the two future Hall of Famers will square off at Backlash in St Louis, which is interestingly, Randy’s hometown.
On Saturday, both WWE superstars cut a fine promo, where Cena once again vowed to ruin wrestling and retire with the championship. He reminded the 14-time champion that when he does so, WWE can create a new belt and noted that Randy will have to start his count from one again, as the championship will forever be remembered for Cena. He further mentioned that it will erase three generations of the Orton family, which didn’t sit well with Randy.
He challenged Cena for a fight on SmackDown itself, but the self-claimed ‘Greatest of All Time’ chose Backlash, as he wanted to wrestle Randy at the latter’s home ground. The 17-time champion advised Randy to rest well and show up at his best. Soon after that, he threw the belt to Randy and attacked him cowardly.
After a few kicks, Cena went on to hit Randy with the belt, but the latter ducked and hit an RKO, the second in the week. After that, he posed with the WWE Championship before the segment came to an end. Sooner rather than later, WWE confirmed the match to be the main event of Backlash 2025.
It is expected that WWE will label it as ‘one final time’. Both these superstars have had a phenomenal history in professional wrestling and shared the ring for the first time 25 years ago. Randy reminded Cena of the same during the segment.