Backlash managed to do 185,000 worldwide buys and 118,000 North American. Those are drops of 14% and 21% respectively from last year’s event, which is still a smaller decline than those experienced by the Royal Rumble and No Way Out this year.
Meanwhile, WWE has begun to aggressively target Justin.tv and similar sites that illegally stream their PPVs live and for free online. A number of Backlash streams were shut down at the start of the broadcast. UFC and TNA have been affected by these streams as well but have not as yet targeted the websites involved.
Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, 15th June 2009 (subscribe here)
