WWE’s Wrestlepalooza Doesn’t Deliver to Start New ESPN+ Era

WWE’s Wrestlepalooza took place Sept. 20th at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, making it the wrestling promotion’s first premium live event to air exclusively on ESPN+.

In a $1 billion deal, ESPN bought the rights to stream any premium live events (PLE), ending NBC’s Peacock’s five-year run.

The decision was controversial amongst many wrestling fans who weren’t willing to pay $29.99 a month with ads to watch the live fights. WWE’s President and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan said he believes fans will pay for the product in the move to ESPN in an interview with The Varsity podcast.

“They certainly all followed from the WWE Network, and that expanded that subscriber-ship extensively with Peacock,” Khan said. “Same will be the case with ESPN and we’re excited for that.”

As for the PLE itself, the match card was stacked with key wrestlers like John Cena, WWE Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes, the returning AJ Lee and her husband CM Punk and the controversial Brock Lesnar, all competing on the first event of this new ESPN+ era. 

Cena and Lesnar opened the show in what many are calling a “squash match” — a one-sided contest where someone gets easily defeated. 

The match was reminiscent of their 2014 SummerSlam match, where Cena was the first victim and founder of “Suplex City” — a figurative place where Lesnar takes his opponents as he viciously and excessively German suplexes them. 

In both matches, Cena was annihilated while children cried and screamed in horror as they watched their hero be mercilessly attacked.

While Cena has lost previously to Lesnar, fans hoped the outcome would be different, considering Cena is on his retirement tour and only has five dates left before he hangs up his jorts. That wouldn’t be the case as the “beast” Lesnar came with one goal in mind — putting Cena into early retirement. 

The decision to have Lesnar go over and live up to his “beast” moniker was at the cost of Cena’s retirement run, which has been nothing short of disappointing storywise. 

Following this match, twin brothers Jimmy and Jey Uso — teaming up for the first time in more than two years — took on members of the Vision, Bron Breaker and Bronson Reed. 

LA Knight was the special guest referee. The inclusion of Knight was made at the last minute and came after weeks of teasing tension between him and Jey Uso. Nonetheless, Knight remained impartial, made some close calls and didn’t play favorites.

The match finished awkwardly and suddenly following an injury to Jey Uso — where he got busted open after accidentally cutting himself during a steel-chair spot — and has now reportedly been put in concussion protocol, leading Breaker to quickly and recklessly spear him to end the bout.

Match of the night belonged to the women as Iyo Sky took on Stephanie Vaquer for the WWE’s Women’s World Championship. 

The match was filled with flawless wrestling combinations, reversals and chants of “this is awesome” from fans, making it hard to put money on either competitor as each woman put everything into the fight.

In the end, Vaquer picked up the victory after delivering a corkscrew moonsault to Sky, making her the new Women’s World Champion.

In one of the most anticipated matches of the night, AJ Lee was finally making her in-ring return after more than a decade since leaving the company. Lee teamed up with her husband, CM Punk, to take on the husband-and-wife duo of World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins and his wife, Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch.

There was absolutely no ring rust for Lee as she never missed a step, and fans broke out into chants of “you still got it.” 

The match itself was pure entertainment and featured comedic moments like Punk and Rollins brawling, only for their wives to stop them before they started brawling themselves, and Lynch and Rollins being carried away and making out outside the ring before Punk delivered a dive, interrupting them. 

Lee and Punk were able to pick up the win in a feud that I’m sure is far from over, as Lee and Punk will likely gun for each other’s titles.

The main event featured Rhodes taking on the “Scottish warrior” Drew McIntyre. The build-up to this match in the weeks leading up was dull as Rhodes wasn’t on TV due to his filming engagements for the upcoming “Street Fighter” movie, and McIntyre was lacking the same passion and rage usually exuded through his promos. 

The match itself was good, but it lacked a certain oomph. After Triple H teased big surprises before the show, many wondered if Randy Orton would finally turn his back on Rhodes and interrupt the match, attacking the champion.

Orton didn’t appear at all, and seemingly the only surprise was the announcement of Stephanie McMahon being the first member to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2026.

Rhodes ended up winning the match in a feud that is surely far from over.Overall, the live fights fell flat despite looking promising with the inclusion of some of the company’s biggest stars, with even ESPN itself giving the event a C rating on its site.