WrestleMania 42 is no longer taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana, with The Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation saying that the city will host WrestleMania another year.
“The Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and New Orleans & Company are working closely with our friends at TKO to expand our long-standing partnership, which will include UFC 318 on July 19, 2025, Money In The Bank in 2026, and WrestleMania – which will move from the currently scheduled 2026 timeframe to a future year.” a statement sent to Wrestlenomics.com said.
It is unknown why the show is no longer being held in New Orleans, which already hosted WrestleMania 30 and 34 in the past at the Caesars Superdome. Money In The Bank next year will substitute WrestleMania in the city instead, presumably at the Smoothie King Center.
WWE has not issued a statement yet.
The WrestleMania 42 location announcement was done by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson during a Smackdown which was held in New Orleans in February of this year.
AEW announced that the men’s Owen Hart Cup tournament final between “Hangman” Adam Page and Will Ospreay will be closing the Double or Nothing 2025 pay-per-view as the main event.
This is the first time that both will be taking on each other in a singles match and the winner of this match will receive an AEW World title shot at the upcoming All In: Texas event.
The winner of the women’s Owen Hart Cup tournament match between Mercedes Mone and Jamie Hayter will also receive an AEW Women’s title match at All In.
Last year’s show was headlined by the Anarchy in the Arena match while the year before CM Punk vs Adam Page closed the 2022 event.
This week’s episode of NXT drew 697,000 viewers, up 33,000 viewers from the prior week and the most-watched since the March 25 episode. But the 18-49 demo went down to 0.13, a change of 0.02 from the prior week and the lowest since March 2023. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
Zoey Stark issued a statement on social media following the horrific injury she suffered on Raw this past Monday, thanking the fans for their support.
“Wow the love and support means more to me than you’ll ever know,” Stark wrote. “What hurts more than my knee is knowing I wont be able to perform for all of you for a while.”
Stark said that she loves what she does and she’s blessed to be able to do it.
“As the saying goes, the comeback is greater than the setback,” she concluded.
Stark was wrestling in a triple threat match against Rhea Ripley and Kairi Sane when a spot with Sane was mistimed, resulting in Stark nearly breaking the lower part of her leg in half. She had to be helped out of the ring and carried to the back as the match continued without her.
She did not specify exactly what her knee injury was but she’s expected to be out of action for up to nine months.
Japanese star Mina Shirakawa is now officially part of All Elite Wrestling after AEW President Tony Khan announced her signing last night.
“She’s challenging for the AEW Women’s World Title at #AEWDoN THIS SUNDAY, and after her impressive win on #AEWDynamite + her altercation with World Champion Timeless Toni Storm tonight, now it’s official: @MinaShirakawa is ALL ELITE,” Khan wrote on X.
Shirakawa has moved to the United States from Japan after departing Stardom at the end of March.
The 37-year-old was expected to sign with AEW considering her past history with the promotion and the close working relationship with Stardom.
The Anarchy in the Arena match was officially announced for Double or Nothing this weekend along with an AEW Continental title match.
This year’s Anarch in the Arena match will feature 12 AEW stars in a six vs six match as Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, The Young Bucks, and Marina Shafir team up to take on Swerve Strickland, Kenny Omega, Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Willow Nightingale.
This is the first time that the gimmick match will also feature women.
Plus, AEW Continental champion Kazuchika Okada will be defending his title against “Speedball” Mike Bailey as the eighth match announced for the card.
The road to Double or Nothing continues tonight live on Dynamite on TBS and Max.
While a couple of segments have been already announced, only two matches are currently advertised at the moment.
AEW World champion Jon Moxley will team up with The Young Bucks to take on the team of Swerve Strickland, Samoa Joe, and Powerhouse Hobbs in a trios match while Mina Shirakawa will wrestle Julia Hart with AEW Women’s champion Toni Storm on commentary.
Plus, Owen Hart Cup tournament finalists Will Ospreay and Adam Page meet face-to-face and so will the women finalists, TBS champion Mercedes Mone and Jamie Hayter. Plus, MJF finally signs his contract to be officially part of The Hurt Syndicate.
With Collision airing tomorrow instead of Thursday, AEW announced that this week’s episode of ROH TV will air on Friday at 7PM ET instead.
This week’s episode will simulcast on both HonorClub and the promotion’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/@ringofhonor. A paid subscription is required to watch it on HonorClub.
ROH TV will return to its regular Thursday time slot next week.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Willow Nightingale has confirmed that she has signed a new deal with All Elite Wrestling as she is happy where she is.
“I think there is so much left ahead for me to do at AEW, things that I want to accomplish. But also, I’m just really excited to be a part of something when it’s fresh and new and, like, you know, I think we’re past the years of finding our footing,” she said.
It was reported last week that Nightingale has re-upped her deal with the company, keeping her there for the foreseeable future.
Nightingale said that one of the most amazing things that AEW has is their great international partners, which allows her to be on TV regularly in different promotions from Mexico City to Tokyo.
“And I know that we’ve got partners over there who are going to take care of me. I’m going to have a fun, hard-hitting match, where I get to learn more about my craft, take away another style, in a professional setting,” she continued.
The 31-year-old originally signed with AEW in October 2022 and is locked in a feud with the Death Riders’ Marina Shafir at the moment.
Saturday’s Collision, which had the last 30 minutes cut by TNT and Max for reasons still unknown, drew 398,000 viewers, up 16,000 viewers from the prior week. The show had a 0.08 rating in 18-49, down 0.01 from the last show. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
Jason Baker, the man behind Bray Wyatt’s Fiend mask and costume design, wrote on social media that he helped Wyatt’s son Knash honor his father during his birthday.
“I had the honor of doing something that is so close to my heart that I’m still fighting back tears while writing this,” Baker wrote.
He explained that he got a call from JoJo who said that Knash wanted to dress up like his dad for his birthday party.
Baker said that he and his wife, Mandy, “dropped everything to make this happen,” recreating the mask from the original mold and costume from the original gear created by Kim Dylla from Kylla Custom Wear.
“Now the only thing left to do is….LET HIM IN,” he concluded.
Baker added photos from the party which was also attended by Bo Dallas.
I had the honor of doing something that is so close to my heart that I’m still fighting back tears while writing this. I got a call from Jojo wanting to fulfill Knash’s birthday wish, which was to dress up like his dad @Windham6 for his birthday party. Needless to say,… pic.twitter.com/3kxFBE6qE4
Deadline.com is reporting in an exclusive story that Andrew Koji, Jason Momoa, Noah Centineo, and former WWE champion Roman Reigns are in discussions to star in the live-action Street Fighter movie, based on the Capcom video games,
The intellectual property rights for Street Fighter are now owned by the studio Legendary, who are co-developing and co-producing the project alongside Capcom, the developer and publisher of the video games.
Street Fighter is a series of very popular video games featuring one-on-one battles between a cast of martial artists. Street Fighter has sold over 55 million units worldwide since its launch in 1987, making it one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time.
Reigns has said that he would like to wind down his pro wrestling in-ring career and start taking more Hollywood roles.
AEW President Tony Khan called Toronto one of the greatest wrestling cities in the world during an interview with the Toronto Sun to promote the All Out 2025 pay-per-view which was announced for the Scotiabank Arena.
Khan said that the city is a “Mount Rushmore” city for professional wrestling and classified it as one his top four wrestling cities in the world.
“I think there’s great wrestling fans all over Ontario. We’ve done great shows in London, Ottawa, Hamilton, and in particular, in Toronto,” Khan said. “We’ve had great experience at the Coca-Cola Coliseum but certainly Scotiabank Arena is a mecca for us and a mecca for pro wrestling and I’m so excited about bringing AEW All Out back to Scotiabank Arena this year for All Out 2025 on September 20.”
AEW held Forbidden Door 2023 in the same arena before, with nearly 15,000 fans packing the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Two new matches were added to this Sunday’s NXT Battleground premium live event.
Former NXT Women’s North American champion Kelani Jordan earned another shot at the title after she beat Zaria last night on NXT on CW. Jordan will now meet champion Sol Ruca for the gold.
Also, a six-man tag team match featuring Shawn Spears, Niko Vance, and Brooks Jensen vs Hank, Tank, and Josh Briggs will also take place.
The show has six matches in total, which is one more than what NXT premium live event shows usually have.
Battleground takes place on Sunday, May 25 live from the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida. It airs on Peacock in the United States and Netflix everywhere else.
The May 12 episode of Raw on Netflix had 2,700,000 views on Netflix, enough to place it #8 on the top 10 global chart for the week. This was the second least-watched episode of Raw since it moved to Netflix, down 100,000 viewers from the prior week.
Netflix recorded 5,100,000 hours of this Raw based on a running time of 1 hour and 49 minutes.
It was in the top 10 chart in only five countries: Bolivia, Canada, India, United Kingdom, and United States, the fewest Raw has done since January.
Roxanne Perez has officially joined the Raw roster effective last night.
Perez was involved in a MITB qualifying match against Becky Lynch and Natalya, which she won thanks to some interference from WWE Women’s Intercontinental champion Lyra Valkyria, who prevented Lynch from winning the match.
One of the youngest, if not the youngest on the main roster at 23, Perez joins the red brand after three years on NXT where she won the NXT Women’s title twice and the NXT Women’s Tag Team title once with Cora Jade.
Perez, along with Julia, started on the main roster on the night after WrestleMania but kept appearing on NXT in the meantime. Her last match on NXT was on the April 29 episode, teaming with Giulia in a losing effort against Iyo Sky and Jordynne Grace.
WWE has canceled the tapings of NXT from the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida, which was scheduled for Tuesday, May 27.
The show will now be taped from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
The NXT taping was on the tail-end of a four-day WWE takeover of the city of Tampa, with Saturday Night’s Main Event on Saturday, NXT Battleground on Sunday, and Raw on Monday all taking place from the same arena.
But low ticket sales, less than 2,000 sold in an arena of 10,000, forced to move this Tuesday NXT episode back to home base.
Saturday Night’s Main Event and Raw are both over 9,000 tickets sold so they’re almost sold out while Battleground is over 6,000.
Refunds for those who had tickets for the NXT episode of Tuesday will be given at point of purchase.
WWE Women’s Intercontinental champion Lyra Valkyria sat down with Chris Van Vliet on Insight for a 55-minute interview where she discusses being inspired by Becky Lynch, becoming the first-ever Women’s Intercontinental Champion, the success of Irish wrestlers and more!
On her inspiration:
“That was Becky. She was the first. When I saw NXT, the very first thing I saw was her Irish dancing debut. That was it. I was already a fan, but that was what set the ball rolling of she must have started somewhere, she didn’t just spawn over there. If she’s from Ireland, is there somewhere to do this here? That was what made me go down the Wikipedia rabbit hole of where is there to train in Ireland.”
On getting to work with Becky Lynch in WWE:
“It’s just crazy. She’s the one that broke all the glass ceilings, the one that did it all. But she didn’t just do it and succeed; she went and did things that no one ever thought possible. So I have a crazy level of respect for that. Because once someone does something, there’s all these studies about the human capability, how much they can go. [The 4-minute mile] They thought it was impossible to do it faster than the current record. But then once one person broke that. And then one person broke it, and then when that one person broke it, it was broken by the next person and the next person and the next person. It’s almost like you just need that one person to show you that it’s possible. Then suddenly, it just opens up the floodgates and suddenly there’s no limit. So to have a woman from my tiny country of Ireland to have gone that far, I really feel like if she can, then why not me?”
On being one of the few wrestlers from Ireland to make it in WWE:
“It’s crazy. But also, you look at how small Ireland is, and how many of us are on Raw right now and doing so well. It’s crazy, I feel like we’re really good at producing the best.”
On why the Irish wrestlers are so successful in WWE:
“I don’t know what it is. I feel like it’s just our approach to this, and how we see what happens between the ropes. We have this certain grit about us, we train on the mats. When I started, we didn’t have a ring, we were learning to bump on mats, that kind of thing. I don’t know, there’s just a very kind of, how bad do you want it? Don’t let anyone besides you do more push-ups than you. If you are going to get on the show, you have to earn your spot. You have to bring something to the table that no one else is. You have to be the best. We are very competitive, but also supportive. I feel like there’s two types of competitor. You can be nasty with your competition, or you can [be supportive]. I want you to do great so I can do better. When it’s supportive, you want to help each other, and it’s like we all get better together by pushing each other and by trying to outdo each other, but it’s in a nice way. And I love that about wrestling.”
On winning the Women’s Intercontinental Championship:
“[It’s brought me] A lot of confidence. It’s a big responsibility, and there’s a lot of pressure that comes with it. But I think I’m kind of in control once I get in the ring, that’s where I’m like, no matter what outside noise there is, I’m completely in control of what I do here. So that’s kind of where my power is. No one can take that away.”
On when she first heard about winning the title:
“I never was a part of that conversation. I just find out on Mondays what I’m doing. I found out the day of. I was never a part of the decision or the conversation. I just showed up to work.”
How did it feel when you were told that?
“Amazing. I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t believe it. But things don’t hit me when I think they’re going to. I always say that it never hits me in the moment. It hit me when I was driving home and taking my bags out of the car on the Tuesday. The title is just sitting in my bag, the zip opens, and I’m like, Oh yeah, that’s the Intercontinental Championship. I won that. I brought that home. That’s when it hits me. It’s never when it should.”
Triller TV announced today that AEW Double or Nothing 2025 will not be offered in the USA, Canada, and Puerto Rico on their streaming service.
Double or Nothing will, however, stream everywhere else on Triller for a price of $19.99.
Triller has streamed all AEW pay-per-views in the United States since April 2024. The company didn’t announce if it is stopping all U.S. streams for good or if this is just a one-off.
Double or Nothing will stream on Amazon Prime, PPV.COM, and YouTube in the United States.
AEW moved nearly 1,000 tickets over the past week for All In: Texas, with the show now over 15,000 tickets distributed according to @WrestleTix.
With around 50 days to go, there are just over 3,500 seats open at the moment, although that’s less than half of what Globe Life Field can hold. The stadium can fit over 40,000 seats, with most of it as things stand going to be tarped off.
Tickets are available from Ticketmaster.com starting from $38.60 with fees included but no tax.
The show is set for an early start time, currently at 1PM local time, which means at 2PM ET kick off.
