Not long ago, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson took over the ring on the Feb. 21 episode of WWE SmackDown to announce not only that he wanted to take Cody Rhodes' soul, but also that WrestleMania 42 would emanate from New Orleans, Louisiana, in April 2026. It’s been a popular host city for WWE, having held two editions of the Grandest Stage of Them All since 2014. However, as always in professional wrestling, plans are subject to change, and that’s exactly what’s happening here.
According to Wrestlenomics, the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation released a statement confirming that New Orleans will no longer host WrestleMania 42. Instead, the city will host Money in the Bank in 2026, which typically takes place in June or July. WWE also confirmed the news to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful. A new location for WrestleMania 42 has not yet been confirmed.
It’s an unusual left turn for WWE, which rarely changes the venues of publicly announced premium live events, let alone a WrestleMania. That said, they did something similar last year when the location for WrestleMania 41 seemed locked in for Minneapolis, despite no official announcement until Las Vegas was confirmed as the host city.
London and Indianapolis emerge as leading candidates to host WrestleMania 42
With New Orleans out of the conversation, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis moves into the spotlight as an obvious contender to host WrestleMania 42. WWE has already announced the city as a future site for the Show of Shows, as well as a future SummerSlam, when revealing that the 2025 Royal Rumble would take place there. That event saw a strong turnout in January, setting the stage for future shows in the city.
However, WWE has been increasingly willing to take its premium live events international, heading to Germany, France, and Australia, with the latter two set to host marquee events for the second consecutive year in 2025. And that’s not even counting Saudi Arabia, which will host Night of Champions in June and the 2026 Royal Rumble, and could even host a future WrestleMania.
But the United Kingdom remains the most glaring omission from WWE’s international PLE schedule, despite hosting numerous episodes of Raw and SmackDown over the years and Clash at the Castle. The UK has long been speculated as a potential WrestleMania site, so maybe the door has finally burst open for that to happen. John Cena famously appeared at a TV taping in 2024 to tease the possibility of this happening.
WWE is already set to go international for the Royal Rumble next year, so having arguably the two biggest PLEs of the year take place outside the United States, especially with how close they are on the calendar, might not sit well with domestic fans. At the same time, WWE has turned Elimination Chamber, the show that bridges the Royal Rumble to WrestleMania, into a stadium show. Booking the 2026 edition for somewhere like Houston or Los Angeles, two warm-weather cities during this wintertime event, could ease blowback.
WWE has an important decision on its hands, if it hasn’t already been made. Either way, it seems a new location is primed to host their biggest show of the year.