The Backlash pay-per-view WWE had scheduled for San Diego on June 16, 2019, has been canceled. The reason for the cancellation is due to the promotion’s next Saudi Arabia event being moved to June 7, 2019, and not wanting to have pay-per-view events nine days apart according to a source in WWE.

It was also mentioned to us that some people didn’t think the optics of having a pay-per-view called Backlash immediately following what is likely to be another controversial event in Saudi Arabia would be good.

The Backlash pay-per-view was never officially announced by WWE but it was listed on the promotion’s touring schedule, on court paperwork WWE filed, and San Diego’s Pechanga Arena had listed it on their event calendar with updated graphics. WWE also created a webpage for it at wwe.com/wwe-backlash-san-diego which now leads to an “access denied” message rather than a page not found message.

The Pechanga Arena events calendar on March 27, 2019.

The Saudi Arabia event on June 7 has not been officially announced by WWE yet, but Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reports that The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar are both scheduled for it.

Originally WWE was scheduled to have Smackdown brand house show events the weekend of June 7-8 in Denver and Salt Lake City, but with the Saudi Arabia date change those events were pushed back a week to June 15 and 16 respectively.

Also scheduled around the Backlash pay-per-view are a house show in Anaheim on June 15, Raw in Los Angeles on June 17, a house show in Palm Springs on June 17, and Smackdown in Ontario on June 18. None of those events have been officially announced yet despite being less than two months away, but they are all still scheduled at this time. It is possible there will be a Raw brand house show in San Diego on June 16, as WWE still holds that date on the arena.

There is also talk about possibly switching the dates of the Southern California events with the next week’s Pacific Northwest events (that also have not been officially announced), but there are several scheduling conflicts in both areas.

Backlash would have been the first WWE pay-per-view to take place in San Diego since One Night Stand on June 1, 2008, and only the fourth WWE pay-per-view to take place in the city. The last wrestling pay-per-view to take place in San Diego was Impact’s Bound For Glory on October 20, 2013.

An announcement in regards to the June 17, 18, 24, and 25 Raw and Smackdowns should be coming soon, as WWE will need time to promote the events. As always with WWE events, until they are officially announced the dates are subject to change.