Saturday night marks the dawn of a new era for World Wrestling Entertainment, when Wrestlepalooza 2025 streams live on the ESPN Unlimited platform, kicking off the WWE’s new, five-year deal with ESPN valued at $1.6 billion.
Finalized in August, the new contract has the Disney-owned ESPN paying WWE approximately $325 million per year for the rights to stream all of the pro wrestling promotion’s premium live events, or PLEs. Those events include the biggest brand names in the industry — Wrestlemania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank, and any other major events WWE comes up with.
Wrestlepalooza is the first of those. While some upcoming events will simulcast on ESPN’s traditional cable networks, Wrestlepalooza will be available only online via ESPN’s revamped “Unlimited” app, which launched on August 21.
With the deal set to start in earnest in 2026, the Saturday night extravaganza adds a new PLE to the WWE calendar and not only inaugurates the promotion, but will also serve as the first major live sports, or in this case “sports entertainment,” event on the ESPN Unlimited service.
Here are the details of the landmark Wrestlepalooza live streaming card.
John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar — the Main Event. Or Not
Two defining stars of the WWE’s Ruthless Aggression Era, which began (more or less) in 2002, will meet for only the seventh time in a one-on-one match — the first coming at Smackdown on September 19, 2002.
The rivals have not squared off in the squared circle since 2014. But after Lesnar made a surprise reappearance in the WWE at SummerSlam last month — staging a sneak attack on Cena after the soon-to-be retired 17-time championship belt-holder lost the title to Cody Rhodes — a grudge match seemed inevitable.
The match was originally announced as the main event on the Wrestlepalooza card, but on Thursday, ESPN host Pat Mcaffee announced that the Lesnar-Cena clash would kick off the evening’s festivities, making for quite an opener for the first-ever ESPN Unlimited WWE PLE.
Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre – Undisputed WWE Championship
The actual main event, which according to Wrestling News will close the show, pits the man who defeated Cena at SummerSlam against Drew “The Scottish Warrior” McIntyre who has carved out a space for himself as one of the WWE’s most prominent heels, defining his character by his relentless verbal attacks on the WWE front office.
The Usos vs. Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker
Jey and Jimmy Uso, considered one of the greatest tag teams in WWE history, face two of the most destructive members of The Vision, the WWE’s top ensemble of heels led by Seth Rollins.
IYO SKY vs. Stephanie Vaquer
Former women’s world champion Iyo Sky fills in for Naomi, whose pregnancy has ruled her out of WWE action for the foreseeable future. Stephanie Vaquer earned her title shot by winning the Battle Royale at WWE Evolution on July 13, and was supposed to take on Naomi for the belt at Clash in Paris August 31. That match didn’t happen, but Vaquer gets her promised shot at Wrestlepalooza against Sky.
CM Punk and AJ Lee vs. Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch
The most anticipated match of the night probably should be the main event, with two husband-and-wife tag teams going at it in a new twist on the bitter two-decade rivalry between veteran stars CM Punk and Seth Rollins.
Not only does the match continue Lee’s comeback after she ended a 10-year “retirement” at WWE Smackdown September 5, but the match appears primed to set up a new feud that could end with dual individual matches at next year’s WrestleMania, with Punk facing Rollins in the main event and Lee fighting Lynch in the co-feature.
When Does Wrestlepalooza Start?
The card begins streaming at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, 4 p.m. Pacific on the ESPN Unlimited app, Saturday, September 20.
The app begins streaming pre-card features starting with Road to Wrestlepalooza at 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific, followed by the two-hour Wrestlepalooza pre-show staring at 5 p.m./2 p.m.
