Tag: wwe wrestlepalooza

Drew McIntyre responds following WWE SmackDown angle

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Drew McIntyre has a message for Cody Rhodes.

After being attacked by a returning Rhodes on Friday’s SmackDown, McIntyre posted a video on Sunday of himself driving his car as fans sang his name. McIntyre then responded by playing Rhodes’ entrance theme and turned up the volume as he drove past the crowd.

“The Rock wants Cody’s soul. I want his ass,” McIntyre wrote.

Then, noticing the phrashing, he wrote “Wait.”

The end of Friday’s show saw McIntyre defeat Randy Orton, continuing his assault after the match was over. This brought out Rhodes, making his return after being injured at the hands of McIntyre. Rhodes proceeded to send McIntyre packing following a Cody cutter. As McIntyre retreated to the entranceway, Rhodes issued the challenge for Wrestlepalooza, which takes place this coming weekend.

Following SummerSlam, McIntyre made it clear that he was coming for Rhodes and the WWE Championship. An angle took place one month ago where McIntyre dropkicked Rhodes’ head through the announcer’s table. The injury angle took place so Rhodes could film his part for the upcoming ‘Street Fighter’ movie.

WWE star returns on SmackDown, issues challenge for Wrestlepalooza

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Cody Rhodes is back, and he has already thrown down a challenge.

In the main event of Friday’s SmackDown, Drew McIntyre scored a win over Randy Orton after connecting with the claymore. After the match, McIntyre continued to attack Orton until Cody Rhodes came down for the save, making his return after being gone for over a month. As McIntyre retreated to the entranceway, Rhodes announced he was back and threw down the challenge for Wrestlepalooza on September 20.

Back in early August, Rhodes and McIntyre were fighting outside of the ring when McIntyre took out Rhodes and proceeded to send him head first through the announcer’s table with a running dropkick. The injury angle took place so Rhodes could film the upcoming ‘Street Fighter’ movie.

The updated card for Wrestlepalooza:

WWE Wrestlepalooza (September 20)

  • John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
  • WWE Champion Cody Rhodes defends against Drew McIntyre (challenge issued)
  • Women’s World Championship: IYO SKY vs. Stephanie Vaquer
  • CM Punk & AJ Lee vs. Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch
  • Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker vs. The Usos

WWE Wrestlepalooza main event officially set

Posted on by Joseph Currier

There likely wasn’t ever much question as to what would main event WWE Wrestlepalooza, but it’s now officially confirmed that John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar will be going on last.

Wrestlepalooza takes place in Indianapolis on Saturday, September 20 and will be the first WWE PLE to air on ESPN’s new streaming service. To hype up the start of the PLE deal, WWE commentator Joe Tessitore appeared on SportsCenter, previewing the Wrestlepalooza card. He stated that Cena vs. Lesnar will be the main event.

“Understand this, Brock Lesnar is a different beast. He is literally ‘The Beast Incarnate.’ In all my years of being in combat sports, I don’t care if it’s early on covering Mike Tyson or later stages here with WWE and all of the championship fights I’ve covered — I have never experienced anybody quite like just the physical presence of Brock Lesnar,” Tessitore said. “The air changes when he enters the arena, and that is going to be your main event at Wrestlepalooza.”

Lesnar is returning to the ring for the first time since 2023. After his name was mentioned in Janel Grant’s lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE, Lesnar spent nearly two years away from the company until returning this August at SummerSlam.

This will be one of the last matches of Cena’s career with his December 13 retirement fast approaching.

Another in-ring return is taking place at Wrestlepalooza with AJ Lee competing for the first time in a decade. She’s teaming with her husband CM Punk in a mixed tag match against married couple Becky Lynch & Seth Rollins.

“She was this amazing character going back over a decade ago that everybody loved. Then she went away from the business, she retired, she had success in other arenas in life,” Tessitore said. “Her husband, CM Punk, made a huge return a couple years ago. And then all of a sudden, if you could have heard this pop [last Friday]. I’m sitting there broadcasting this thing up in Milwaukee. People love her.”

The Wrestlepalooza PLE has a start time of 7 p.m. Eastern on September 20. Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis is hosting the show.

Stephanie Vaquer addresses injury status & next WWE appearance

Posted on by Josh Nason

Ahead of her match with IYO SKY for the vacant WWE Women’s World title at next Saturday’s Wrestlepalooza, Stephanie Vaquer addressed rumors of whether she is injured.

Talking to Adrian Hernandez in Las Vegas ahead of Friday’s WWE special announcement (seen below), Vaquer left no doubt as to whether she will appear on Raw Monday, NXT Tuesday, or Wrestlepalooza itself.

“No, I saw social media. Sometimes, many things are not real. There’s no injuries. I’m ready for Raw next Monday, so no. No injury,” she said.

A contract signing between SKY and Vaquer was set to take place this past Monday, but GM Adam Pearce told SKY “something was up” with her opponent and that she was unable to come to Raw. Before SKY could get an answer about the title match, Nikki Bella interrupted and asked about updates to Vaquer. Pearce canceled the signing, but said that he saw “no reason” the title match wouldn’t happen.

Dave Meltzer said on the subsquent Wrestling Observer Radio that he heard Vaquer was dealing with a minor injury while Bryan Alvarez believed she wasn’t hurt. Vaquer is set to be in action this Tuesday on WWE NXT TV so they were unclear as to what happened Monday with her appearance.

Vaquer will be part of WWE’s special announcement on Friday in Las Vegas.

TKO exec: WWE Wrestlepalooza could be another WrestleMania or SummerSlam for us

Posted on by Josh Nason

TKO chief operating officer Mark Shapiro is putting a lot of stock into this month’s WWE WrestlePalooza.

Shapiro spoke at the annual Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference Wednesday where he talked about the September 20 premium live event that will kick off their multi-year deal with ESPN. Audio from the talk can be found below.

He said they hope Wrestlepalooza is “an annual recurring franchise” for the company and one that is both is on par with two of their most notable annual PLEs and becomes part of their big four events of the WWE year.

“Hopefully, Wrestlepalooza is a winner and we can bring that back annually. That could be a marketing bonanza for us if we do that right,” he said, adding that Paul “Triple H” Levesque is spending day and night creatively making “what we think it can be: another WrestleMania or another SummerSlam.”

He said the Royal Rumble is just below that level and they feel Wrestlepalooza could be in that quadrant.

The Saturday show from Indianapolis, Indiana, will be the first PLE on the new ESPN streaming service and will run partially head-to-head with the AEW All Out pay-per-view.

Click here to listen

Two new matches added to WWE Wrestlepalooza

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Two more Wrestlepalooza matches are now official.

The opening to Monday’s Raw saw the reunited Usos come out and confront Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. After the two teams exchanged words, the Usos demanded a match for Monday’s show. Bron & Bronson balked, instead saying they’d have the match on September 20.

LA Knight then came out and attacked both members of the Vision. However there was miscommunication between Knight and Jey Uso that led to Jey being taken out. That resulted in a show-long storyline where Jimmy tried to persuade Jey to have LA Knight’s back for his match against Bronson Reed in the main event. Jimmy and Jey did help LA Knight after his loss but this time it was Jey that took out LA Knight with a spear, clearly indicating there was still tension between the two.

Another match confirmed for Wrestlepalooza is CM Punk and AJ Lee teaming up to take on Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch. After cutting her first promo on Raw in over 10 years, Lee was confronted by Lynch who wanted her Intercontinental title back. After Rollins came out to also demand the return of the title, Lee proposed the mixed tag team match. The two wanted nothing of it at first but eventually agreed after CM Punk came out and attempted to lay out Rollins with a GTS.

The updated card for Wrestlepalooza:

WWE Wrestlepalooza (September 20)

  • John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
  • Women’s World Championship: IYO SKY vs. Stephanie Vaquer
  • CM Punk & AJ Lee vs. Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch
  • Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker vs. The Usos

Brock Lesnar returns on WWE SmackDown, Wrestlepalooza match official

Posted on by Bryan Rose

The match everyone expected for Wrestlepalooza is now official.

John Cena was wrestling Sami Zayn in the opening match of this week’s SmackDown when he hit an avalanche AA off the middle rope. Both men were down when Brock Lensar’s music played. After he dragged the referee out of the ring he went in for the attack, laying out Zayn with an F5. He then went for his real target, laying out Cena with two F5s before making his exit.

After the commercial break, Lesnar was seen entering the gorilla position and told John Cena that he’d see him at Wrestlepalooza. The match was then immediately made official for September 20.

Lesnar made his shock return to WWE after a two year absence at SummerSlam, laying out Cena after he had just lost the WWE title to Cody Rhodes. In the time since, Lesnar’s name hadn’t been brought up much as Cena soon pivoted towards a match against Logan Paul at Clash in Paris. On last week’s SmackDown, GM Nick Aldis informed Cena he had heard from Lesnar. Before Aldis could reveal more details, Paul emerged and sucker punched Cena to close out the show.

WWE Wrestlepalooza (September 20)

  • John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
  • Women’s World Championship: IYO SKY vs. Stephanie Vaquer

Update on AJ Lee’s potential return at WWE Wrestlepalooza

Posted on by Ian Carey

WWE is planning for AJ Lee to wrestle her first match in over ten years at Wrestlepalooza.

Our own Bryan Alvarez is reporting that AJ Lee and CM Punk vs. Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins is the plan for the September 20 show, which will mark the first WWE premium live event to air on ESPN.

On Tuesday, Alvarez wrote to his subscribers on X:

“So Punk & AJ vs. Seth & Becky is planned for WrestlePalooza”

The former three-time Divas Champion last wrestled on the Raw after WrestleMania 31 on March 30, 2015, in San Jose, California. She teamed with Paige and Naomi in a win over Natalya and The Bella Twins in a six-person tag. The night before at WrestleMania 31, she and Paige defeated Nikki and Brie Bella in a tag team match.

AJ Lee’s last time working in wrestling was with WOW (Women of Wrestling), where she served as an executive producer and color commentator from 2021 to 2023.

WWE reveals how new Women’s World Champion will be crowned

Posted on by Joseph Currier

A new Women’s World Champion is set to be crowned at WWE Wrestlepalooza.

To determine the new champ, Stephanie Vaquer and IYO SKY will face off at the Saturday, September 20 PLE in Indianapolis. Both competitors were owed Women’s World Championship shots against Naomi, who vacated the belt two weeks ago when she revealed her pregnancy.

The announcement of the Vaquer vs. SKY match was made by Raw General Manager Adam Pearce via a video that aired on today’s episode from France:

Vaquer won a battle royal at WWE Evolution earlier this summer to earn a Women’s World Championship shot at Clash in Paris, but those plans were called off with Naomi vacating the belt. SKY had been scheduled to challenge Naomi for the title prior to Clash in Paris — but that match also could not happen due to Naomi being unable to compete.

If Vaquer wins, this will be her first title reign on the WWE main roster. She’s been a champion in NXT before, as well as holding titles internationally for promotions like CMLL and NJPW.

SKY was Women’s World Champion prior to Naomi cashing in at Evolution.

Wrestlepalooza is the first WWE PLE of the ESPN era. The show will stream live on ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service at 7 p.m. Eastern time.

WWE Wrestlepalooza (Saturday, September 20) —

  • John Cena vs. TBA (expected to be Brock Lesnar)
  • Stephanie Vaquer vs. IYO SKY for the vacant Women’s World Championship

WWE announces Wrestlepalooza PLE, will kick off ESPN era

Posted on by Joseph Currier

The first WWE PLE of the ESPN era is now official with Indianapolis set to host Wrestlepalooza this September.

It was confirmed today that the first-ever WWE Wrestlepalooza will emanate live from Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Saturday, September 20. The show will be the first WWE PLE to stream live on ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service, which officially launches this week.

Originally, the WWE-ESPN deal was not supposed to begin until 2026. But WWE is finishing up its PLE commitments with Peacock at the end of this month, paving the way for this new event to be added and the ESPN era to begin earlier than anticipated.

“On September 20, WWE and ESPN are coming together for a can’t-miss event to kick off our new partnership,” Paul “Triple H” Levesque said in a press release. “The biggest Superstars in WWE. The biggest brand in sports media. Are you ready?”

No matches are confirmed for Wrestlepalooza as of now, but it’s expected that the card will be headlined by John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar. WWE has not officially announced Lesnar for the show yet, but Cena, Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, CM Punk, and Drew McIntyre are all advertised.

Tickets for Wrestlepalooza are going on sale to the general public this Friday (August 22) at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

The WWE-ESPN PLE deal is reportedly worth $1.6 billion ($325 million per year for five years). In addition to airing on the new ESPN streaming service, some select events in the future will also be simulcast on television.

ESPN has confirmed that the streaming service will also carry WWE’s two remaining PLEs for 2025: October’s Crown Jewel and November’s Survivor Series. The service is priced at $29.99 per month or $299.99 per year, though at least some viewers who already pay for ESPN through a cable package will receive the service at no extra cost.

Netflix is still the broadcast home for WWE PLEs outside of the United States, with Wrestlepalooza set to stream on Netflix for international viewers.

September 20 will be a busy night for wrestling fans with Wrestlepalooza going head-to-head with AEW All Out 2025.

Report: Possible name, broadcast location for WWE’s September PLE

Posted on by Bryan Rose

WWE could be debuting on ESPN as soon as next month.

PWInsider reported Sunday that there have been discussions that the previously reported WWE PLE for September 20 could end up airing on ESPN, going head-to-head with AEW’s All Out pay-per-view. PWInsider describes the move as “a preview of the type of programming WWE will bring to that new partnership.” Additionally, they were told that plans to unveil the still unannounced PLE, including where it will broadcast, will be announced sometime this week.

ESPN did not comment when contacted by PWInsider. Their new deal with WWE to pair PLEs in the United States is set to start in 2026.

WrestleVotes on social media hinted at a potential name for the show, Wrestlepalooza. That was a name for a series of ECW shows held between 1995 and 2000.

Reports have indicated that the headline match for WWE’s PLE will be Brock Lesnar taking on John Cena. Their feud was reignited back at SummerSlam when Lesnar, who had been gone from WWE television for two years, made his return and laid out Cena with an F5. Lesnar hasn’t appeared since, with Cena next taking on Logan Paul at WWE Clash in Paris on August 31.