Lyra Valkyria defeated Becky Lynch to retain her WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship at Backlash.
Valkyria was making the fifth defense of her title against Lynch after the pair had won the Women's Tag titles at WrestleMania 41, dropping them back to Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez just the next night, and prompting Lynch to turn on Valkyria. Lynch reasoned that she felt betrayed by the fact that Valkyria was going to be teaming with her rival, Bayley, revealing that she was the one that had attacked her so she could take her place at WrestleMania.
The bout itself displayed the lengths that Lynch would go to secure her vengeance and a first reign with the Intercontinental title, with her dominating Valkyria with spiteful offense and eventually three separate Manhandle Slams. However, Valkyria fought out of everything her challenger had to offer, which further drew Lynch into twisting the rules as she introduced a steel chair.
The referee caught her with the illegal object, pulling it from her but giving the opening for Lynch to remove the top turnbuckle pad. She ultimately failed in attempts to drive her into the exposed steel, once again caught in the act by the referee who called on her to stop, then turned her back to put the pad back on the turnbuckle. Meanwhile, Valkyria landed her Nightwing finisher to Lynch, meaning the referee was late to make the count and Lynch managed to kick out.
Lynch appeared to poke at the eyes of Valkyria, sliding her into a roll-up pin, only for Valkyria to counter into her own cover and get the three-count.Enraged by the loss, Lynch immediately ambushed Valkyria as the final bell rung, hammering away and locking in the Disarm-her until officials managed to escort her away. Valkyria eventually climbed to her feet, clutching the bridge of her nose to raise the title in defiance.
