Wrestlepalooza 2025
courtesy X

After a bit of delay in confirmation, the WWE Championship Match has become official for Wrestlepalooza 2025, set for this weekend. During the broadcast of last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw, it was noted that Cody Rhodes will defend the WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre this Saturday night at WWE’s first-ever premium live event to be streaming, live on the ESPN app.

The announcement came as aftermath of what transpired on this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown, where he took out Drew McIntyre as the latter was intending to injure Randy Orton with a Claymore Kick through the commentary desk. It was after this save that Rhodes also officially threw down the challenge for their upcoming WWE Championship match at Wrestlepalooza 2025.

After the confirmation came on Raw, WWE’s social media handles have also been promoting the match as one of the co-main-events of the upcoming PLE alongside the original headline bout, John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar. Additionally, it has also been announced that Rhodes would appear on this week’s SmackDown, occurring just a night before Wrestlepalooza 2025.

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Before showing up on SmackDown, Rhodes had been missing from television for the past few weeks, due to his role in the new Street Fighter movie, as well as for the birth of his second child. In a storyline angle, he was written off by McIntyre upon digesting a Claymore kick through the front of the commentary desk on the August 8 edition of SmackDown. Later, Triple H informed that Rhodes would be back on TV by Wrestlepalooza 2025 PLE.

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Also, in a backstage segment on Raw, Stephanie Vaquer and IYO SKY made their vacant Women’s World Title match official for Wrestlepalooza 2025 by putting their signature on a contract. Asuka also confronted Stephanie, who later went on to defeat Kairi Sane on the show in a singles contest.

WWE Wrestlepalooza 2025 PLE Match Card

Heavily promoted as the first WWE premium live event on ESPN, Wrestlepalooza 2025 will be airing on the newly launched ESPN direct-to-consumer streaming service at 7 PM Eastern Time from the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Saturday, September 20. The currently announced match card for the returning ECW show goes as follows,

– John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
– WWE Championship Match: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Drew McIntyre
– Vacant Women’s World Championship Match: IYO SKY vs. Stephanie Vaquer
– Mixed Tag Team Match: WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins & WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch vs. CM Punk & AJ Lee
– The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) vs. The Vision (Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed)

Arindam Pal

A WWE writer passionate about the sports.