On April 25, 1999 WWF’s inaugural Backlash pay-per-view took place in front of 10,939 fans at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island. After weeks of classic confrontations, the main event was a rematch from WrestleMania XV between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock for the WWF Championship, but this time with a special guest referee, Shane McMahon. The event had originally been promoted as "Backlash: In Your House", but the branding was dropped as the WWF discontinued the In Y

On September 13, 2001 WWF Smackdown! aired live on UPN from the the Compaq Center in Houston, Texas, marking the first public gathering after the terrorist attacks on September 11th. A regularly-scheduled taping for that week's episode was to occur on September 11, but was cancelled due to the attacks. WWF staff, including Vince McMahon, elected to go on with the episode as a live broadcast instead, which would feature exhibition matches with no effect on storylines. McMahon emphasized that the