Sports
WWE Wrestlepalooza preview: Cena-Lesnar to kick off ESPN’s first PLE
As a service to fans who have a general interest in WWE but might not have watched a match in months, we’re happy to provide this FAQ as a guide to Wrestlepalooza, which is Saturday at 7 p.m. ET from Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. ESPN’s first Premium Live Event with WWE, Wrestlepalooza, is streaming exclusively in the U.S. for fans with a subscription to the ESPN Unlimited plan — either directly or through a traditional pay TV package — on the ESPN App.
What is a Wrestlepalooza?
Back in 1995, the late, great Extreme Championship Wrestling had an idea: What if there was an event that took its name from Lollapalooza, but instead of a music festival featuring the Red Hot Chili Peppers, it was a wrestling show that featured The Public Enemy and The Gangstas, in a tag team stretcher match?
WWE, which acquired ECW and its trademarks in 2003, wanted to kick off its new ESPN rights deal with a special Premium Live Event (PLE) that needed a memorable name. So WWE dipped into its deep bag of wrestling intellectual properties and decided on Wrestlepalooza. (Apologies to those who were hoping for “Barbed Wire, Hoodies & Chokeslams,” another ECW pay-per-view classic.)
Despite its roots, there aren’t a lot of extreme wrestling matches on this weekend’s Wrestlepalooza. Just extremely interesting ones, such as John Cena continuing his retirement tour against the formidable Brock Lesnar.
What has the John Cena retirement tour been like?
Here’s a summary of why “the last time is now” for Cena: Cena announced at Money in the Bank in July 2024 that he will retire as an in-ring performer at the end of 2025. His goal was gold: Cena was tied with Ric Flair for the most WWE world championships (16), and now the clock was ticking on breaking that record.
He was eliminated by Jey Uso in the 2025 Royal Rumble in February, costing him a title shot, but won the subsequent Elimination Chamber match in March to earn a match against undisputed WWE champion Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41.
Here’s where things get a little weird. The Rock had finally come back to WWE to ask Rhodes to hand over his “soul.” He appeared at the end of Elimination Chamber with his henchman, rapper Travis Scott (told you it got weird), to collect said soul from Rhodes, who was in the ring with Cena. Rhodes, being rather fond of his soul, declined The Rock’s offer. But in his desperation to break the record, Cena turned heel again after two decades as a babyface and joined an attack on Rhodes with The Rock and Scott. Thanks to interference from Scott, Cena beat Rhodes for the title at WrestleMania. Scott and The Rock wouldn’t play a role during Cena’s title reign.
The angle gave us one of the most shocking heel turns in wrestling history … and a slew of moments where Cena tried on an ill-fitting heel persona, cutting promos about his disdain for the fans that he had consistently praised during the rest of his retirement tour.
Luckily, Cena and WWE pumped the brakes on this persona in August on the SmackDown before SummerSlam, telling fans he realized that his reputation had been “flushed down the toilet” in pursuit of “shocking TV.”
“The people that were supposed to be on my team? They left. And they left me alone, trying to pretend that I’m something I’m not,” Cena said.
Cena entered SummerSlam at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to cheers, but Rhodes left with the championship. And that’s where Brock Lesnar reentered the picture. Fans were stunned when his music hit during Cena’s farewell to SummerSlam. But Cena probably wasn’t all that shocked when Lesnar delivered an F-5 to him, given their history.
Why does Brock Lesnar want to fight John Cena again?
There are a few ways to answer that question.
The first answer is that Lesnar, who hadn’t been seen in WWE since 2023, just likes to beat people up. He attacked Cena and Sami Zayn during their U.S. title match on SmackDown recently. He attacked R-Truth (aka “Ron Cena”) when he touted up Cena. He’s the Beast Incarnate. It’s his nature.
Now what did @RonKillings do to deserve that? 😡 pic.twitter.com/ypDWVs1T40
— WWE (@WWE) September 13, 2025
According to WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque on the SummerSlam postgame show, Lesnar was on Cena’s “wish list” of opponents who would help him write “the last chapter of his book.”
Lesnar and Cena have wrestled only six times in one-on-one matches, with Lesnar holding a 4-2 advantage. The last match was at Night of Champions in 2014, which Cena won via disqualification against then-world-champion Lesnar. Saturday’s match will kick off Wrestlepalooza, as announced Thursday on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Their legacies are intertwined: They got their starts in the developmental Ohio Valley Wrestling scene, rising up to WWE superstar and champion status. Lesnar isn’t as essential to the Cena story as, say, Randy Orton was, but he’s a significant plot thread to tie up before Cena says goodbye.
But the ultimate factor might be the Cena face turn. Our wrestling heroes need the odds stacked against them. They need seemingly insurmountable opponents to stare down in the ring.
Cena admitted on Raw this week that he’s “afraid” of Lesnar. But he said that “The Last Real Champion” will “take the fight to the Beast” in a “final showdown between two generational titans.”
Man, that guy can hype a match, can’t he?
What about WWE champion Cody Rhodes?
Cody is facing Drew McIntyre for the undisputed WWE championship. These two had a feud just over a year ago that culminated in a street fight on SmackDown.
After Rhodes captured the title at SummerSlam, McIntyre attacked him on SmackDown with a Claymore Kick through the side of the announcers’ table, which was inventive. McIntyre would later argue that Rhodes attacked him first that night — a claim with a modicum of validity — even though McIntyre’s escalation of violence could hardly be called self-defense.
McIntyre fancied that kick through the table so much that he was going to deliver one to Orton a few weeks later on SmackDown when Rhodes returned from injury for the save and to challenge McIntyre to a title match at Wrestlepalooza.
The announcers might want to sit in the skybox for this one, as there is zero chance their ringside table isn’t going to be obliterated into sawdust.
As Rhodes has noted, McIntyre is one of only four wrestlers — along with Cena, Lesnar and Roman Reigns — to have defeated him in a singles match since he returned to WWE in 2022.
Since you mentioned Roman Reigns, does Wrestlepalooza have any Bloodline action?
Why, yes! For the first time on a PLE since 2023, Jey and Jimmy Uso are wrestling as a tag team as the Usos compete against Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker, who are members of world heavyweight champion Seth Rollins’ faction, The Vision.
Reigns had been feuding with this Paul Heyman-backed group, suffering an attack that led to a singles match against Reed earlier this month at Clash in Paris. After Reigns was victorious, Reed and Breakker left him so beaten up that he’ll be out several weeks while starring as Akuma in the new “Street Fighter” reboot … I mean, rehabbing that injury.
On the next Raw, Reed and Breakker were beating on LA Knight when Jimmy Uso made an ill-advised save. Jey Uso rushed the ring to save his brother, furthering the feud that has led to this tag match against The Vision.
Important sidebar here: Knight and Jey Uso have a building beef that started with some miscommunication during a brawl with The Vision that left Jey getting flattened by Reed. Jey responded by delivering a spear to Knight, leaving Jimmy dumbfounded. After the two shook hands and seemingly made up a week later, Knight gave him the ol’ Stone Cold “kick-boom-stunner” combo and claimed the score was now even.
Something tells me this animosity might just carry over to Wrestlepalooza. Who will win the immortal struggle of “YEET!” vs. “YEAH!”?
Is there a women’s title match on the card?
Yes, and it’s for a championship that’s currently vacant for a rather joyous reason: Reigning world champion Naomi announced that she and husband Jimmy Uso are expecting a child.
She relinquished the title on Aug. 18 and told the women’s division they had nine months before she returns to reclaim it. No word if her newborn will be worked into subsequent angles, with Naomi choking out opponents with a Baby Bjorn.
The new holder of that title will be determined at Wrestlepalooza between Iyo Sky and Stephanie Vaquer, who both have a claim to the championship. Sky was scheduled to challenge for the championship before Naomi announced her pregnancy. Vaquer won a 20-woman Battle Royal at WWE Evolution in July to earn a title shot.
Keep in mind, Sky dropped the title to Naomi in a triple-threat match at Evolution that also featured Rhea Ripley. Those three ran it back at SummerSlam, where Sky again couldn’t win back her title. Vaquer, meanwhile, is chasing her first WWE championship after reigning as NXT women’s champion earlier this year.
Exciting times in the women’s division. And that’s not even mentioning the former champion who dressed like a ninja and attacked CM Punk. Or AJ Lee, who’s wrestling at Wrestlepalooza in her first match since 2015.
AJ Lee is back in WWE?!
In the words of Kurt Angle: Oh, it’s true. It’s damn true.
For about five years, the sight of AJ Lee skipping out from the back with a mischievous grin meant something eventful was about to go down. She was an essential part of the “Divas Revolution” just over a decade ago, not only as one of the longest-reigning titleholders but as the opposing force to the “Total Divas” reality television era. Please recall Lee calling out the Bella Twins and others as “ungrateful, stiff, plastic mannequins” during a “pipe bomb” promo that no doubt endeared her to her husband and pipe-bomb originator CM Punk, whom she married in 2014.
Ever since Punk returned to WWE in November 2023, there’s been speculation that Lee might also make her long-awaited wrestling comeback. Becky Lynch finally gave her a reason.
At Clash in Paris, Punk faced Seth Rollins, who cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to win Punk’s title at SummerSlam. Punk had Rollins hoisted up for a final GTS when a mysterious assailant emerged and decided it was clobberin’ time with Punk’s lower extremities. Off came the black mask to reveal Lynch, marking the first time she aligned herself in the ring with Rollins since he gave her a wedding ring in 2021.
Lynch explained in a face-off with Punk that she and Rollins run WWE and that Punk doesn’t fit “the vision,” punctuating it with a slap to Punk’s head. During that promo, fans started an “AJ Lee!” chant, to which Lynch venomously snapped back, “She doesn’t work here!”
Cut to SmackDown in Chicago a few days later. The fans are still chanting “AJ Lee!” Lynch is telling them to “shut up.” Punk informs her that he’d never put his hands on a lady, but “thankfully, I’ve got someone who will.”
And then out skipped AJ Lee.
The mixed tag team match between these four stars could be the showstopper and main event at Wrestlepalooza. Punk and Rollins hate each other. Lynch and Lee are icons from different generations of the women’s division — and now AJ has a receipt from Becky slapping her husband.
It’s got nastiness and drama and, let’s not forget, a former women’s champion competing in her first match since March 2015. One prediction we’re comfortable making about Wrestlepalooza: There will be a “you still got it!” chant during this match.
HOUSTON — David Mirkovic had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and third-seeded Illinois flexed its defensive muscles to eliminate last year’s national runner-up from the NCAA tournament, beating Houston 65-55 in the South Region semifinals on Thursday night.
Next up is a meeting Saturday with ninth-seeded Iowa to see which Big Ten team will advance to the Final Four. It will be the 11th Elite Eight appearance for Illinois (27-8) and its second in three seasons under Brad Underwood.
In the Sweet 16 for a seventh consecutive time, the second-seeded Cougars (30-7) were thrilled to be playing just over two miles from their campus. But their poor shooting gave Houston fans little to cheer about and delighted the orange-clad Illini faithful who made the long trip to Texas.
“At the beginning of the game Houston fans were a little louder, but as game was going, [our fans] started being louder in their city,” Mirkovic said. “So it’s just really important for us, I would say just like a wind to our back. They pushed us, and thanks for them.”
Star freshman point guard Kingston Flemings, who is expected to be an NBA lottery pick, had 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Milos Uzan made just 2 of 11 shots.
But they were far from the only Cougars who struggled offensively. The team shot just 34% in its lowest-scoring game of the season.
Underwood was asked about his team’s defensive performance.
“I think it’s a mental focus,” he said. “We’ve been very good at times defensively. It’s just sustaining it. We’ve got very capable defenders, we’ve got size and length, and we just got to make shots difficult.”
Illinois finished well under the 84.7 points a game it averaged entering Thursday. But its offense was still plenty powerful enough to send Houston back to its nearby campus. Keaton Wagler had 13 points and a team-high 12 rebounds for the Illini; he and Mirkovic became the first pair of freshman teammates to each have a double-double in the same NCAA tournament game since freshmen became fully eligible in 1972-73, according to ESPN Research.
“Coaches were telling us before the game: ‘It’s going to be a guard game to get rebounds. We need 10-plus out of the guards,'” he said. “So I took that challenge on. I went in there, tried to play as tough as I could, not let them get any second-chance rebounds. I went in there and tried to get every rebound I could.”
Andrej Stojakovic — with his dad, three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic, in the stands — also scored 13.
By the time the final seconds ticked off the clock, many Houston fans had cleared out and the Illinois supporters stood and cheered as their team celebrated.
“I was proud of our kids’ effort,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “We just didn’t play good enough.”
The Illini were up by one early in the second half when they broke it open with a 17-0 run for a 44-26 lead with about 12 minutes left. Jake Davis scored five points during the burst, including a 3-pointer, and Mirkovic and Ben Humrichous capped it with consecutive 3s.
The Cougars missed seven consecutive shots as Illinois built its lead. When Uzan finally ended Houston’s drought with a 3-pointer with 11:20 left, it had been almost seven minutes since the team had scored.
“We were getting stops and we were limiting them to one shot, and to tough shots as well,” Wagler said. “Making them shoot tough middies or contested at the rim, 3-pointers, all of that, and then we were going in and grabbing the rebound and offensively we were getting the shots that we wanted, we were knocking them down.”
Consecutive 3-pointers by Chase McCarty got Houston within nine with about six minutes left. But Wagler and Tomislav Ivisic made 3-pointers to fuel an 8-0 run that extended the lead to 58-41.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sports
Trey Kaufman-Renn’s controversial tip-in gives Boilermakers spot in Elite Eight, ends Texas’ Cinderella story
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The No. 11 Texas Longhorns’ Cinderella story in the NCAA Tournament came to a heartbreaking end on Thursday night, as Trey Kaufman-Renn’s tip with 0.7 seconds left on the clock gave No. 2 Purdue a 79-77 lead to advance to the Elite Eight.
It was a thriller to the end in this Sweet 16 matchup between a team that needed to play in the First Four to kick off the tournament, and one of the higher seeds in March Madness.
The Longhorns’ Dailyn Swain made a clutch and-one layup with 11 seconds left that allowed him the opportunity to tie the game at 77 apiece if he made his free throw. He nailed it with the pressure on, but the Boilermakers had 11 seconds to get up court and potentially win the game.
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Trey Kaufman-Renn of the Purdue Boilermakers dribbles the ball against the Texas Longhorns during the first half in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 26, 2026, in San Jose, California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
It was Braden Smith finding his way to the lane and putting up his own layup. However, the ball didn’t have the correct English off the glass, as it started to roll off the rim.
But Kaufman-Renn, who positioned himself underneath the basket, tipped home the game-winning bucket, giving himself 20 total points to help Purdue move on and keep their tournament dreams alive.
8TH-GRADER STANDS ALONE WITH LAST PERFECT WOMEN’S NCAA BASKETBALL BRACKET
There was some discourse on social media, though, as an overhead shot of Kaufman-Renn’s tip showed a potential foul, as he was hooking the arm of the Longhorns player jostling for the rebound.
Either way, no whistle blew, and the Boilermakers were celebrating, while the Longhorns couldn’t believe their season came to a close in that fashion.
Trey Kaufman-Renn of the Purdue Boilermakers shoots the game-winning shot against the Texas Longhorns during the second half during the second half in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 26, 2026, in San Jose, California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
This was a back-and-forth game throughout the 40 minutes on the court, as both teams traded the lead, especially in the second half. The largest lead any team had was Purdue at only seven points, while Texas’ lead never got higher than four.
But it’s because both teams were shooting well, with Texas making 52% of its shots (29-of-56), while Purdue poured in 48% (30-of-62).
Looking more into the box score, every Boilermakers starter had at least 10 points, while Fletcher Loyer (18), and Braden Smith (16) doing crucial work in the backcourt to help the winning cause.
Meanwhile, Texas’ Tramon Mark left it all out on the court, shooting 11-of-15 for 29 points, including 5-of-7 made from beyond the arc. Swain also just missed a double-double with nine rebounds, while tallying five assists.
Trey Kaufman-Renn of the Purdue Boilermakers celebrates with teammates after making the game-winning shot against the Texas Longhorns during the second half in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at SAP Center on March 26, 2026, in San Jose, California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
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Purdue now awaits the winner of Arkansas and Arizona to see who they must play to earn a spot in this year’s Final Four, which will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
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This St. John’s team can’t shoot.
The Red Storm are 182nd nationally in field goal percentage (45.2) and 225th from 3-point range (33.2).
It doesn’t seem to matter. Rick Pitino’s team (30-6) has been opportunistic, physical and fearless in reaching the Sweet 16, where it will play Duke on Friday.
It is reminiscent of Pitino’s 2012-13 Louisville team that shot just 33.3% from behind the arc (216th nationally) yet won the national title. It’s a far cry, however, from his underdog 1987 Providence team, which reached the Final Four thanks to his then-revolutionary idea of prioritizing the newly created 3-pointer. Those Friars hit 42.2% of them.
Pitino can win one way, or the other, or back again; from the Camelot of Kentucky to the late-career rehab of Iona College.
The years change, the teams change. The players, style of play, rules, roster construction, and even the cuts of his neatly tailored suits change.
One thing remains constant.
Pitino wins.
The case for Rick Pitino as the greatest college basketball coach of all time takes some contorting, but each year it gains credence. The 73-year-old coached his first game 50 years ago, in 1976 as an interim at Hawai’i. He now appears better than ever.
Pitino’s 915 victories, .743 winning percentage and two national titles will never compare numerically to, say, Mike Krzyzewski’s 1,202 victories, Adolph Rupp’s .822 win percentage or John Wooden’s 10 championships.
Part of that is by choice — Pitino spent eight seasons in the NBA, including six as head coach in New York and Boston. He also had various NCAA and personal scandals that made him a temporary pariah and, to some, permanently ruined his reputation.
His legacy will always be linked to scandal. He had that Louisville national title, along with 123 victories, “vacated” by the NCAA as a result of its investigation into allegations that a staffer provided escorts at on-campus parties for players and recruits. The program was also at the center of a federal fraud and bribery case involving Adidas.
For a stretch, he was essentially professionally exiled to Greece, where he coached pro ball for two seasons, winning a couple of titles there, too.
Outside the lines, Pitino is one thing. Inside them, though, is a different story. Had he just stayed at Kentucky in 1997 rather than jump to the Celtics — and kept his business in order (perhaps unlikely) — there is no telling what his career totals would be. UK was rolling, after all, winning another national title under Tubby Smith the season after Pitino left.
But he has always bounced around, rescuing six bottomed-out programs (Boston University, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona and St. John’s). In the season before his arrival, those teams were a combined 76-105 (.419).
No matter.
He led five of them back to the NCAA tournament within two seasons (or in UK’s situation, when a tournament ban concluded). At BU, it took four.
This isn’t to punish other great coaches who built national powers and then stuck with it. Maintaining a juggernaut isn’t simple and deserves credit. Yet, Pitino has proven it was him, not the institution, that made the difference.
Pitino has had talented players (especially the 1996 Kentucky national champions), but he has coached just three future NBA All-Stars — Donovan Mitchell, Jamal Mashburn and Antoine Walker.
This isn’t as impressive as Bob Knight, who won 902 games and three titles despite having just one player who would become an NBA all-star (Isiah Thomas), but it’s also not the Hall of Fame parade that Dean Smith (UNC), Krzyzewski (Duke) or Wooden (UCLA) had.
Pitino, a former New York point guard, is about basketball. He still conducts one-on-one development workouts. He still grinds game footage. He still finds the way to maximize what he has — sometimes with a full-court press, sometimes the old 2-3 zone he learned as an assistant under Jim Boeheim.
He still communicates, harshly but honestly, in a way, for example, that not only empowers current guard Dylan Darling to confidently call for the ball in the waning seconds of Sunday’s victory over Kansas, but allows Pitino to trust “Church Bells” — a nickname stemming from Pitino’s description of Darling’s, uh, fearlessness — to pull it off, even with his off hand.
Pitino’s career has bridged multiple eras; not just in style of play (he coached pre-shot clock and 3-point line), but style of pay. As an assistant at Hawai’i in the mid-1970s, the NCAA dinged him for giving players coupons to McDonald’s. Now, they can own a franchise.
Some of his best work has come recently.
He returned from his Greek purgatory to lead low-major Iona to two NCAAs in three seasons. At age 70, he took over St. John’s, and won consecutive Big East regular-season and tournament titles. Now, the Red Storm are in the Sweet 16 for the first time this century.
The players still listen. They still defend. They still hustle. They still believe.
They still win, even when they can’t shoot all that well.
That’s a pure college basketball coach, perhaps the best there has ever been.
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