It’s WWE and ESPN working together for a premium live event making this unity happen for the first time ever! We are also in the midst of John Cena’s final year in WWE, and tonight he faces his ultimate challenge in Brock Lesnar. In other matches, Cody Rhodes defends the WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre. The Usos reunite to take on The Vision’s Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed, while Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch take on CM Punk and AJ Lee! We crown a new champion as Iyo Sky and Stephanie Vaquer battle to win the vacant Women’s World Championship. It’s time for Wrestlepalooza on ESPN! Hit F5 or refresh as often as you like for the latest updates!
We get a brand new “Then. Now. Forever. Together.” bumper to signify a new beginning, or new season if you will. We then get a video package to show the biggest deal they are making with this new partnership between WWE and ESPN, complete with pyro. Time to go to the ring in Indianapolis, where Paul “HHH” Levesque is in the middle of the ring. HHH says, “If tonight is your first night, then let me welcome you to WWE. Let me welcome you to ESPN. Let me welcome you to Wrestlepalooza!!” Michael Cole and Wade Barrett are on commentary for this event. PAT McAFEE HAS ARRIVED! McAfee daps up Tyrese Halliburton on his way, HHH sings Pat’s theme song as he walks through the halls, and McAfee makes his way to ringside to join commentary giving Michael Cole a huge hug. McAfee also shows love and respect to the Spanish announcers and the ringside crew as he himself gets love from his Indy hometown crowd. “McAfee! McAfee! McAfee!”
Brock Lesnar heads out first and he gets no love as Michael Cole is fearful of his presence. John Cena heads out with about fifty children all dressed like him on the stage. Lesnar gives him the ring, and unfortunately for the commentators that means he is closer to them, making them uneasy after Lesnar gave Corey Graves two F-5’s last night on SmackDown. Ring announcer Alicia Taylor is in the ring to do the big match introductions, giving Cena his grand introduction first, Lesnar paces on the apron, and he steps in as PAUL HEYMAN COMES TO THE RING to do his own introduction for Lesnar himself! Referee Dan Engler is assigned for this match.
* Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena
Lesnar goes on the attack at the bell with shoulder thrusts to the midsection in the corner, and Cena is keeling over already. Cena tries to fight back but Lesnar immediately drops him, and hits a short-arm clothesline. Lesnar gives him a hammer throw into the turnbuckles a couple of times, delivers a running powerslam, and hits his first German suplex of the match. Cena gets to his feet, Lesnar puts him in a bearhug, Cena breaks his grip for a brief moment, breaks free, Lesnar counters the AA, and hits a clothesline. Lesnar delivers the second German suplex, and he even counts it as suplex number two. Lesnar kicks him in the gut, picks him back up, Cena slips off, shoves him into the corner, hits a shoulder tackle, a second shoulder tackle, a third shoulder tackle, and a fourth shoulder tackle to knock him off his feet!
Cena hits the ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT, and second ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT, and a THIRD ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT, and covers for 2.5! Cena does the “You Can’t See Me” but Lesnar cuts him off to deliver the F-5, another F-5, stands over Cena, and picks him back up for a third F-5! Lesnar takes a moment to recover, picks him back up for a FOURTH F-5, stalks his prey, picks him up again, and hits a FIFTH F-5!! Lesnar is not done, and he delivers a sixth F-5, and covers for 1-2-3!!! WINNER: BROCK LESNAR!!
Referee Dan Engler is cautious to raise his arm in victory, and he goes to check on Cena. Lesnar waves him off, exits the ring, walks around the ring, the commentators back off away from the table, Lesnar looks on, gets back in the ring, picks up Engler, and GIVES THE REFEREE THE F-5!! Lesnar picks Cena up for ANOTHER F-5!!! Children are crying in the crowd, but Lesnar doesn’t care, and he finally walks away. After the replays, we see Cena finally getting to his feet to walk off into the Indy sunset as they chant “Thank you Cena! Thank you Cena!” Cena salutes the crowd on the stage before walking through the curtain.
The commentators drink a beer to toast to Pat McAfee returning to the booth tonight. We cut to backstage earlier tonight on the Countdown pre-show where we almost saw a fight, and Raw General Manager Adam Pearce made the announcement to have a special guest referee for the tag match tonight: LA Knight. “Yeah!” LA Knight is the first to head to the ring in a cut-off ref shirt. The Usos head out through the crowd and celebrate with the fans and they Yeet all the way to the ring. The Vision’s Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker come out after alongside “The Oracle” Paul Heyman, and they even have some words for LA Knight.
* The Usos vs. The Vision
[Special Guest Referee: LA Knight]
Jey Uso starts the match against Bronson Reed, Knight calls for the bell, they lock up, Reed beats him down in a corner, Jey side-steps him after an Irish whip, hits a jumping enzuigiri, Jimmy tags in, double kicks to the gut, double uppercuts, and double team attacks in the corner. Jimmy chops him, but Reed hits a big back elbow, and he tags out as he chokes Jimmy with his boot. Breakker hits shoulder thrusts in a corner, Knight tells him to back off, Breakker throws Jimmy out the ring, and tags out. Reed takes out a steel chair, Knight catches him, Jimmy kicks him in the gut, Knight walks away, and Jimmy hits Reed with the chair behind Knight’s back!! Breakker walks up to stop him, and Jey dives off the top with a flying crossbody to the group.
Jimmy hits the 10-punch in the corner, no-yeets, chops him, Reed reverses an Irish whip, and Breakker lowers the top rope to make him fall, then he gets the tag. Breakker runs around the ring to hit a leaping shoulder tackle, throws him back into the ring, mounted punches, and tags out. The Bronsons hit a stacked splash, Reed gets a 2-count, and hits Jimmy on the back with a steel chair, this time right in front of Knight. The crowd now wants tables, Bronson pulls one out to the crowd’s delight, then shoves it back under to piss them off, then Reed wedges a chair in the corner. Breakker tags in, gives him a back drop, delivers a vertical suplex, covers for 1 and does push-ups like hits Uncle Scott. Reed tags in, hits a jumping senton, opens a chair in the middle of the ring, places Jimmy’s head on it, but Jimmy dropkicks him in the knee to make Reed falls onto the chair. Breakker tags in and wipes out Jey off the apron and throws him into the steel steps, then gets back in the ring to give Jimmy a high back body drop. Breakker and Reed hit the Steiner Device, Breakker makes the cover, and gets 2.9! Reed tags in, Jimmy rolls away from the senton, side-steps him in a corner, Reed’s head goes into the chair, Jey gets on the apron, and he gets the hot tag!
Breakker is in as well, Jey clotheslines him, several punches, big right connects, hits the running hip attack against Heyman’s wishes, gets tossed onto the apron, kicks him in the back of the head, goes up top, hits a diving crossbody, and covers for a 2-count from LA Knight. Jimmy pulls out a table from under the ring and brings it into the ring as Heyman complains to Knight. Reed and Breakker cut them off, Reed leans the table in a corner, Breakker takes the straps down, Jey superkicks him, superkicks Reed, double superkick to Breakker, double superkick to Reed, and they hit the 1-D to Breakker! Jimmy makes the cover but Reed rolls over him to break the count. Reed throws Jimmy out the ring, sets up Jey on the turnbuckle, Jey fights him off, Breakker hits the Breakkensteiner, Reed goes up top, Jey avoids the diving moonsault, Jimmy hits Reed with a swanton bomb, Breakker hits the SPEAR to Jimmy, then Jey hits the SPEAR and the USO SPLASH to Breakker, and gets the 1-2-KICKOUT!!
Reed argues with LA Knight on the outside, Jey hits a suicide dive, Knight moves out the way and Jey connects with Reed. Knight asks Jey is that was meant for him, Heyman gives Breakker a chair, Jey superkicks Breakker, almost hits Knight with the chair but pulls back, hits Breakker with the chair, throws the chair at Reed, and Breakker hits Jey with the SPEAR! Knight checks on Jey who is bleeding, Jey shoves him out the way as Breakker hits BOTH of The Usos with a SPEAR THROUGH THE TABLE!! Breakker drags Jey to the middle of the ring, Reed hits the TSUNAMI, and covers for 3!! WINNERS: THE VISION!!
We see War and Treaty who sang before the show, Burke Magnus the ESPN President, Club 520 Podcast, and Tyrese Haliburton in the crowd. Also, WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton is also in the crowd, and she’ll have a triple threat title defense this Friday on SmackDown. Marcela Rodriguez and Jerry Soto are officially introduced at ringside.
It’s time to crown a new Women’s World Champion! Alicia Taylor does the proper title match introductions, referee Eddie Orengo holds up the vacant title, and calls for the bell.
* Women’s World Championship: Stephanie Vaquer vs. Iyo Sky
We start with a respectful handshake, they lock up collar-and-elbow, Stephanie with a mat slam, takes an arm, Iyo counters, and a clean break. Stephanie puts her in a surfboard stretch, Iyo reverses, Stephanie kicks her off, and a stalemate. Stephanie puts her in a side headlock, takes her down, Iyo counters with a head scissors, Stephanie counters, Iyo pops out with a headstand into the headlock, Stephanie does a wheelbarrow into a pin for 1, Iyo counters for 2, Stephanie counters for 2, and another stalemate with smiles.
Stephanie delivers a back suplex, Iyo trips her up, armdrag, Stephanie avoids the flips, Iyo hits the basement dropkick, scoop slam, double knees to the gut, and covers for 1. Iyo puts her in the ankle lock, Stephanie escapes, Iyo with an Irish whip to the corner, and Stephanie traps her in the armbar over the ropes. Iyo with a sunset flip, but Stephanie counters, hits a legdrop, and covers for 2. Stephanie delivers a snap suplex, puts her in a rear chinlock, Iyo gets to her feet to battle out, Stephanie delivers another snap suplex, applies the straitjacket chinlock with knees to the back, Iyo reverses the hold, Stephanie counters with a headscissors, Iyo counters into the double underhook backbreaker, and both women are down.
Iyo hits the Shotei, the flapjack, Irish whip reversed, hits the springboard missile dropkick, kips up into the flip up, and Iyo wants to go a little crazy! Stephanie rolls out the ring, Iyo hits the suicide dive, the ref starts his count, Iyo gets her back in the ring at the count of 6, Stephanie is on the apron, Iyo goes for a running sunset flip bomb, but Stephanie blocks it and hits knees onto her chest, then hits the springboard crossbody to the floor! Back in the ring, Stephanie hits the springboard crossbody, snap suplex, Iyo rolls away from the corner as she charges, Iyo delivers the release German suplex, and Stephanie delivers her own release German suplex.
They trade punches while kneeling, then standing, Stephanie with repeated shots, Iyo fights back, Stephanie delivers a back suplex, Iyo counters the Devil’s Kiss, hits the double stomp, then puts her in the crossface. Stephanie rolls out, Iyo hits a knee to the jaw, steps over him, pops up top, Stephanie cuts her off, hits a sick dragon screw in the corner, Iyo counters the SVB, Stephanie headbutts her, Iyo does a hurricanrana pin for 2, then kicks her in the head. Iyo connects with the Bullet Train Attack, steps over her, pops up top, goes for Over the Moonsault, but Stephanie gets her feet up to block! Stephanie superkicks her, does a hard dragon screw in the ropes, does the Devil’s Kiss, hits the SVB, and covers for 2.9! Stephanie can’t believe it! Stephanie goes up top, Iyo rolls to the ropes, hits the Shotei uppercut, climbs up to her, Stephanie headbutts her, they trade slaps on the ropes, and Iyo delivers the TOP ROPE SPANISH FLY!! Iyo makes the cover, Stephanie kicks out at 2.5, Iyo hits the Bullet Train Attack in the corner, takes her kneepads down, hits a harder Bullet Train Attack, and hits a running knee to the face! Iyo drags her into position, goes up top, and Stephanie rolls away from Over the Moonsault. Iyo’s exposed knees hurt her on the landing, so Stephanie takes advantage, goes up top, hits the CORKSCREW MOONSAULT, hooks the legs, and gets the 3-count to become the new champion!!! WINNER and NEW WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPION: STEPHANIE VAQUER!!
Both women kneel out of respect for each other, and Vaquer celebrates as the new Women’s World Champion!! She exits the ring and emotionally hugs her father who is here at ringside all the way from Chile. Congratulations to Stephanie Vaquer!
We get a video package to highlight the feud between CM Punk and Seth Rollins, and now with Becky Lynch involved that called for AJ LEE to make her return after ten long years. All four of them verbally attacking each other leads to tonight’s mixed tag match. Jessika Carr is the referee for this match.
* Mixed Tag Match: Seth Rollins {World Heavyweight Champion} & Becky Lynch {Women’s Intercontinental Champion} vs. CM Punk & AJ Lee
The crowd chants AJ Lee’s name before we get started, and she wants to start the match, but Seth Rollins is in the ring, meaning CM Punk will start as the crowd chants his name now. Becky tags herself in, she gets in Punk’s face challenging him, the crowd chants for the GTS, but AJ gets the tag instead, and Becky gives Punk a cheap shot. Becky runs around the ring, AJ chases her, Becky gets back in, tags out to Rollins, and they starts kissing at ringside. Punk hits Rollins with a suicide dive, they battle around the ring and in the crowd, they get back in the ring, Rollins with shoulder thrusts, and Becky gets in a cheap shot behind the ref’s back. Punk returns the favor with shoulder thrusts, and AJ gets her own revenge getting in cheap shots behind the ref’s back.
Punk hits the inverted atomic drop, hits a big chop, goes up top, diving axe handle, goes up top again, another double axe handle, goes up a third time, Rollins kicks him on the way down, Punk counters the Pedigree, Rollins counters the GTS, Becky kicks him in the back, Rollins clotheslines him and stomps on his back. Punk falls out the ring, the ref is with Rollins, Becky shoves Punk into the steel steps, and AJ gets stopped on her way to check on him. Rollins beats Punk down on top of the announce table, gets him back in the ring, and this time hits his own diving double axe handle from the top. Rollins stomps on Punk’s hand, chops him, kisses his wife on the apron, chokes him on the ropes, and Becky slaps Punk when Jessika Carr wasn’t looking. Punk fights back, reaches for the tag, Rollins pulls him back, keeps him down in a corner, and again Becky gets in a cheap shot.
Punk blocks a suplex, Rollins blocks a suplex, both men keep trying, and Punk delivers the vertical suplex. Rollins cuts him off before he can reach his corner, puts him in a front facelock, MAKES THE TAG, but Becky had Carr distracted! Rollins and Lynch attack Punk behind her back, Rollins presses Lynch over his head, and Punk rolls away as Rollins slams Becky down to an empty pool! Punk eliminates Rollins from the equation, makes the leap, but Becky pulls Lee off the apron! Rollins delivers the falcon arrow, gets a near-fall, exits the ring to skip around AJ mocking her, then skips around Punk inside the ring to continue mocking them, and Punk catches Rollins sleeping to hit him with the GTS!! Becky desperately tries to wake Rollins up to no avail, so she gets in the ring to pull Punk away, but he makes the hot tag!!!
AJ hits the Thesz Press, mounted punches, slams her down, stomps her in the corner, avalanche splash, 10-punch, Becky goes for the powerbomb, but AJ counters with a hurricanrana and hits a spin kick. AJ trips her up while sliding under the ropes, goes up top, hits a flying crossbody, covers for 2, and the crowd chants “You still got it!” Becky slaps her, AJ slaps her back, paintbrushes with lefts and rights, Rollins pulls Lee off of his wife, so AJ slaps Rollins! AJ counters the Manhandle Slam, bounces off of Rollins to deliver the tornado DDT to Lynch, then Punk flips her over with Sliced Bread to land a moonsault onto Lynch, and gets a 2-count! Punk and AJ hit simultaneous high knees, running bulldogs, and shining wizards! AJ skips around the ring, Becky blocks the Black Widow, AJ counters the Dis-Arm-Her with a rollup for 2, puts her in a cross armbreaker, Becky rolls her over for a 2-count, then AJ puts her in the BLACK WIDOW! Punk catches Rollins to slap on the SHARPSHOOTER!! Rolins escapes, superkicks Punk, pulls AJ off of his wife, so AJ puts Rollins in the BLACK WIDOW, Becky pulls AJ off of her man, and hits the Becks-ploder. Rollins and Becky both hit simultaneous PEDIGREES, both man the covers, and both Punk and AJ kick out!
Rollins and Becky call for the GTS to both, they pick them up, Punk slips off and Cactus clotheslines Rollins out the ring. AJ slips off, hits Lynch’s own exploder suplex, calls for a big move, and Rollins trips her up face-first. Rollins gets in the ring, and Punk hits Rollins with THE STOMP followed by mounted punches!! Becky slaps Punk over and over, Punk blocks a slap, blocks a kick, Becky begs him to put her leg down, so he trips her, Rollins distracts him, Becky trips him up and puts Punk in the Sharpshooter! Punk counters into the Sharpshooter to Lynch, Rollins pulls him off, plants him with the PEDIGREE and THE STOMP, makes the cover, and AJ hits THE STOMP to Rollins to break the cover!! Becky plants AJ with the MANHANDLE SLAM, covers, and gets 2.99!!!
Becky slaps her, AJ fights back, Rollins pulls her away, Becky swings, Punk pulls her away, now Punk and Rollins fight each other, and now AJ and Becky pull their husbands away as AJ says “I got this!” AJ and Becky start brawling, Punk and Rollins are brawling, duel hockey fights, and CM Punk and AJ Lee stand their ground. Punk throws Rollins over the announce table, AJ takes apart the Spanish announce table, so Punk clears off the English announce table while saying “She’s the boss.” AJ puts Becky on the table for the Manhandle Slam, Punk puts Rollins on the other table for the Pedigree, both of them block and fight back looking for the Manhandle Slam, but Punk blocks it, picks him up for the GTS, so Becky shoves AJ into Punk and they all fall down through the English announce table!! Becky gets Lee back into the ring, AJ counters the Manhandle Slam into the BLACK WIDOW submission, and BECKY TAPS OUT!!! WINNERS: CM PUNK & AJ LEE!!!
WHAT A RETURN FOR AJ LEE!! Becky cries about the loss outside the ring. The next PLE for WWE is Crown Jewel on October 11th in Perth, Australia with a special start time at 8 AM ET/5 AM PT.
The Undertaker heads out to the ring on his motorcycle next. Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan are in the front row. Undertaker asks her if the seat next to her is open, they sit down, and asks her about being at the boxing fight in Vegas last week. This week in Indianapolis she is also here, and he jokes if she’s following him, to which she answers that she’s followed him his whole career. Taker asks her “Are you ready? I said, are you ready?” Taker says it is his honor to announce that Stephanie McMahon is officially the first inductee into the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame! Steph is stunned and at a loss for words as tears well up in her eyes, and she gives hugs Taker while fighting back tears. Nick Khan gives Steph a hug as well and she jokes that he is in so much trouble for this surprise.
We go to a video package for Drew McIntyre attacking Cody Rhodes leading up to this title match main event. McIntyre is the first man walking out intensely ready for this match. Rhodes heads out next with the championship around his waist and the crowd singing his song. Alicia Taylor does the proper title match introductions, referee Ryan Tran holds up the Undisputed WWE Championship, hands it off, and calls for the bell for the main event to get underway.
* Undisputed WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre vs. Cody Rhodes {C}
McIntyre laughs at him, Rhodes slaps him, ducks a swing into the waistlock, and a clean break in the corner. McIntyre strikes and chops, Rhodes with a baseball slide into an uppercut, then McIntyre does a headlock takeover keeping him down. They trade punches, Cody with left jabs, hits the Bionic Elbow, and hits the CODY CUTTER! Cody comes up wobbly, and Wade Barrett notices it. McIntyre does an armdrag, Rhodes hits the Disaster Kick to knock him off the apron, hits the suicide dive, gets back in the ring, but McIntyre blocks another suicide dive to sling him over the Spanish announce table.
McIntyre throws him back into the ring, Rhodes collapses in the ring, McIntyre delivers an overhead belly-to-belly suplex a couple of times, and he smirk confidently. McIntyre hits chops to the chest, Rhodes side-steps him in a corner making McIntyre crash into the ringpost shoulder-first. McIntyre trips him up on the apron, McIntyre grabs his legs, and hits the Alabama Slamma onto the steel steps face-first. McIntyre beats him down in the ring, goes up top, Cody pops up, and delivers a superplex!
They trade punches back and forth, they have a hockey fight in the middle of the ring, Cody delivers the snap powerslam, and hits the Disaster Kick. Rhodes connects with the Cody Cutter, Rhodes fights him off on the turnbuckle, but McIntyre gets the upper hand, hits the AVALANCHE WHITE NOISE, and covers for a near-fall! McIntyre kips up, backs into a corner, calls for the finish, counts down, but Rhodes counters the Claymore with a modified powerbomp for 2. McIntyre hits the Glasgow Kiss, Cody trips him, applies the Figure-4 Leglock, and McIntyre escapes the hold. McIntyre rips off the protective pad for the top turnbuckle, referee Tran wants to put it back off, so McIntyre throws it away. Cody stops short of hitting the exposed turnbuckle, referee Tran avoid contact, McIntyre rolls him up, and the ref was late running back in allowing Cody to kick out. Rhodes side-steps him in the corner, McIntyre connects with the exposed steel, Cody hits the CROSS RHODES, and gets the 1-2-KICKOUT!!
Rhodes goes for the Cody Cutter, but McIntyre counters with a slam, hits the flipping suicide dive, throws the champ back into the ring, hits the CLAYMORE, and gets the 1-2-NO!!! McIntyre can’t believe he didn’t win there, and now he gets angry. McIntyre steps out the ring, Rhodes is on his hands and knees in front of the Spanish announce table, ref Tran stops him, but McIntyre charges and Claymore’s the table as Cody moved out the way. McIntyre holds his leg in pain, drags himself back into the ring, Rhodes goes for the springboard, but McIntyre hits the Glasgow Kiss. Rhodes hits the SUPER CODY CUTTER, GETS FIRED UP, HITS CROSS RHODES, AND GETS THE 3-COUNT!!!! WINNER and STILL UNDISPUTED WWE CHAMPION: CODY RHODES!!!
Cody Rhodes celebrates with the Undisputed WWE Championship! We close out the first night of the ESPN era, and that’s all for WWE Wrestlepalooza!
