Background
WrestleMania is WWE's flagship professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event, having first been held in 1985. It was the company's first PPV produced and was also WWE's first major event available via livestreaming when the company launched the WWE Network in February 2014. It is the longest-running event in WWE history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April, featuring wrestlers from WWE's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. [1] Along with Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank, it is one of the company's five biggest annual events, referred to as the "Big Five". [2] [3] [4] WrestleMania was ranked the sixth-most valuable sports brand in the world by Forbes , [5] and has been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. [6]
In February 2025, reports emerged that WrestleMania 42 would take place at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, the same venue that hosted WrestleMania XXX in 2014 and WrestleMania 34 in 2018. [7] On the February 21 episode of Friday Night SmackDown , TKO board of directors member and WWE wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson announced WrestleMania 42 would emanate from the Caesars Superdome on April 11 and 12, 2026. [8] However, on May 22, 2025, WrestleMania 42 was confirmed to no longer take place in New Orleans. While the specifics of the change were not revealed, this came as part of a larger agreement, with New Orleans instead hosting a future WrestleMania as well as the 2026 Money in the Bank. [9] Reports also emerged alleging that, with the financial success of WrestleMania 41 being held in Las Vegas, WrestleMania 42 may return to the city, while other reports suggested a possible international location. [10] [11]
During the 2025 Money in the Bank on June 7, WWE confirmed WrestleMania 42 would be held at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada on April 18 and 19, 2026, marking the third WrestleMania in the Las Vegas area, including WrestleMania IX in 1993. [12] Allegiant Stadium will also become the first venue since the Atlantic City Convention Hall [a] in Atlantic City, New Jersey to host consecutive WrestleManias, having hosted WrestleMania IV in 1988 and WrestleMania V in 1989. [13] [14] Two-day combo tickets went on sale on September 24, 2025 as announced in a commercial featuring WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque, Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, and Paul Heyman; [15] single day tickets were announced to be on sale from November 28, 2025 in a commercial featuring Rhea Ripley, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Iyo Sky, Liv Morgan, Jade Cargill, and Tiffany Stratton. [16] One of the official theme songs for the event will be the 2025 remix of "Back in the Saddle" by Aerosmith & Yungblud. [17]
Broadcast outlets
In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide, WrestleMania 42 will be available to livestream on the ESPN streaming service in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, the WWE Network in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Abema in Japan. [18] This marks the first WrestleMania to livestream on the ESPN streaming service, as ESPN acquired the streaming rights to WWE's events in the United States beginning with Wrestlepalooza in September 2025, following the expiration of WWE's contract with Peacock. ESPN had originally been slated to begin broadcasting main roster PPV and livestreaming events in the United States with WrestleMania 42. [19] However, as Peacock's agreement with WWE referred to the airing of a specified number of events, rather than on a fixed end date, the expansion of WWE's calendar — including WrestleMania going two nights since 2021 and SummerSlam going two nights in 2025 — caused Peacock to reach the number of WWE events allotted in their agreement ahead of schedule. [20] [21]
