Wrestlepalooza 2025, an additional premium live event on the WWE calendar, will take place this Saturday night, marking the beginning of WWE’s partnership with ESPN. As announced earlier, the main event of the show was supposed to feature John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar, with WWE heavily promoting this match to be the last-ever bout between the two bitter rivals.
WWE commentator Joe Tessitore revealed the info on ESPN SportsCenter last week, but plans have since been changed. On last night’s edition of The Pat McAfee Show, it was announced that this match would now instead open Wrestlepalooza 2025 in what appears to be the final encounter between The Beast Incarnate and the 17-time World Champion.
Wrestlepalooza 2025: Reason Scheduled Title Match For Participant Is Special At WWE PLE
Breaking: John Cena and Brock Lesnar's match at Wrestlepalooza will kick off the night, @PatMcAfeeShow announced.
Stream Wrestlepalooza Saturday at 7 PM ET on the ESPN App 🍿 pic.twitter.com/LH8olaECEj
— ESPN (@espn) September 18, 2025
A return is also happening at Wrestlepalooza 2025, with Wade Barrett returning to the commentary booth. According to the reports of PWInsider, it seems like the former Intercontinental Champion is set to return to WWE programming this weekend, as he is listed internally for the WWE broadcast team in Indianapolis.
This marks another return for Wrestlepalooza 2025, as Triple H previously stated that Pat McAfee will also be joining WWE programming at this PLE. Michael Cole, Wade Barrett, and Pat McAfee are the trio expected to call down the action on the ESPN show.
At WWE Clash In Paris, Wade Barrett stirred controversy after questioning during the pre-show on whether Nikki Bella would fit in with today’s generation of female stars, as the women’s roster had evolved since the Divas era. Nikki Bella responded to his remarks on her podcast, and Barrett was then pulled from the commentary booth.
Many assumed that WWE had taken him off TV as punishment for his comments about the Hall of Famer. However, it was later clarified that his time off had been planned for months, and his return at Wrestlepalooza 2025 also proves the same. Barrett has also buried the hatchet with Nikki since the incident.
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)