BacklashPreview: Live Sunday April 27 8E/5P - Shawn Michaels vs Batista

After two confrontations this past week, one on SmackDown and then again on Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel, it’s official: Shawn Michaels and Batista will go one-on-one at Backlash.

The two Superstars have argued back-and-forth on whether or not HBK made the right decision by ending Ric Flair’s career at WrestleMania XXIV. The Animal blames Michaels for ending his mentor’s livelihood, going so far as to tell HBK he should have laid down for Flair on The Grandest Stage of Them All. The Interpromotional Challenge was inked by Raw GM William Regal and SmackDown GM Vickie Guerrero moments after the Highlight Reel confrontation on Raw.

Never one to back (or lay) down, Michaels has fired back that he gave Flair “exactly what he had asked for at WrestleMania,” adding that, he did “what anyone would have done.”

What will happen when these two top-caliber athletes, and former champions, collide at Backlash? Will the heavy emotion weighing on both Superstars explode in the ring when they meet in this rare encounter? Will Batista unleash his anger over Flair’s retirement on the man responsible? Or will HBK give The Animal exactly what he gave Flair at WrestleMania – the fight of his life?