WWE Backlash France and the preceding SmackDown proved to be huge successes for the promotion and also marked the return of a former Superstar.

The promotion's latest PLE saw several top stars including Undisputed WWE Cody Rhodes, World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest, Kevin Owens, Randy Orton, and Jade Cargill. The crowd in the LDLC Arena was electric throughout the show in addition to being worryingly loud during the May 3, edition of WWE SmackDown.

During the opening match of Backlash France, Tanga Loa aided the Bloodline in their Street Fight but he wasn't the only former Superstar to get involved. Earlier in the show, security tried to keep the Bloodline and the team of Randy Orton & Kevin Owens apart, albeit to no avail. It has since come out that former WWE NXT Superstar Sylvester Lefort was part of that team of security.

This wasn't Lefort's only time getting physical during WWE's time in France. The 40-year-old wrestler was also part of the security during the previous night's edition of SmackDown and was slammed onto the commentary table by Randy Orton.


Lefort was on the NXT roster from 2013 to 2015. During this period of time, he was involved in storylines with Enzo Amore, Dax Harwood (then Scott Dawson), and Miro (then Alexander Rusev). After his WWE NXT tenure ended, Lefort joined TNA Wrestling and worked as Basile Baraka.

Getting to appear for WWE one more time (albeit not as a Superstar) likely felt good for Lefort, despite the beating he took at the hands of Orton. Not only did he appear at Backlash, by Lefort (under his real name Tom LaRuffa) competed at an event for BZW in Lyon, where he was on the losing end of an eight-man tag-team match.