The event will feature John Cena's first and only Wrestlepalooza appearance as an in-ring performer due to his retirement from professional wrestling at the end of 2025. In addition, Brock Lesnar will compete in his first match since 2023.
After the announcement, Paul "Triple H" Levesque, CM Punk, and Seth Rollins conducted interviews over various ESPN shows including First Take and SportsCenter with Levesque announcing that Pat McAfee would return at the event.[4] Tickets for the event went on sale on August 22, 2025. According to WrestleTix on X, over 8,000 tickets were sold within the first 24 hours.[5]
Wrestlepalooza was originally scheduled to go head-to-head with rival company All Elite Wrestling (AEW), airing against AEW's All Outpay-per-view (PPV) event, which would have been WWE's first main roster PPV and livestreaming event to counter program an AEW PPV, as previously, only select NXT livestreaming events had aired directly against AEW's PPVs.[6] However, on September 3, 2025, AEW announced that All Out's start time would be pushed up to 3 p.m. Eastern Time, avoiding a direct conflict with Wrestlepalooza.[7]
Broadcast outlets
In addition to airing on traditional PPV worldwide, it will be available to livestream on ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, and the WWE Network in any remaining countries that have not yet transferred to Netflix due to pre-existing contracts.[8] This will be the first main roster WWE PPV and livestreaming event to air on ESPN in the United States, as Peacock's contract for these events ended following the conclusion of Clash in Paris the prior month. ESPN had originally been slated to begin broadcasting WWE's events in the United States in April 2026 beginning with WrestleMania 42, but as Peacock's contract allowed them to broadcast a select number of events per year, additional events, such as Evolution and the second night of SummerSlam, made Peacock pass that quota and end their contract ahead of schedule; Peacock will still air NXT's livestreaming events until March 2026, as well as other content, such as Saturday Night's Main Event, for the next several years.[9][10]
Storylines
The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,[11][12] while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.[13]
At the all-women's event Evolution, Raw's Stephanie Vaquer won the Evolution Battle Royal to earn a women's world championship match at Clash in Paris, while later that night, Naomi cashed-in her Money in the Bank contract during Raw's Women's World ChampionIyo Sky's title defense to win the championship.[14] The next night on Raw, it was confirmed that Vaquer's match would be for the Women's World Championship.[15] Subsequently at SummerSlam the following month, Naomi retained the title in a triple threat match also involving Sky, although Sky was not pinned.[16] Since Sky was not pinned, she was scheduled to face Naomi for the title on the August 11 episode, however, Naomi was not medically cleared to compete and the title match was cancelled.[17] On the following episode of Raw, it was revealed that the reason the match was cancelled was because Naomi would have to relinquish the title due to maternity leave, as she announced she was pregnant with her first child.[18] The following week, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce announced that a match for the vacant Women's World Championship would not take place at Clash in Paris, and instead, Vaquer would challenge a to be announced opponent at a later date to determine the new champion, which Pearce would address the following week,[19] where Pearce announced that Vaquer would face Sky for the vacant title at Wrestlepalooza.[20]
In the last match of their 20+ year feud, John Cena will face Brock Lesnar in the main event of Wrestlepalooza.
After losing the Undisputed WWE Championship in the main event of Night 2 of SummerSlam to Cody Rhodes, John Cena was confronted and attacked by returning longtime rival Brock Lesnar, making his first appearance since the 2023 SummerSlam.[16] Two weeks later during Wrestlepalooza's announcement, it was also announced that Cena would be competing in the main event.[21] On the September 5 episode of SmackDown,Sami Zayn would hold an open challenge for his newly won United States Championship[22]. Cena would later accept his challenge. Later on in the match, Lesnar interfered in the championship match, causing it to end in a no-contest, and attacked Zayn and Cena with an F-5. Following the attack, Lesnar stated that he would see Cena at Wrestlepalooza, and a match between both men was subsequently confirmed for the event.[23]
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