Reported Details Behind WWE's Decision To Move Next Year's WrestleMania

Earlier this year, "The Final Boss" The Rock announced that next year's WrestleMania was set to take place in New Orleans. However, since yesterday, reports broke out that the location would be changed, and at the time of writing, it's reported that WrestleMania 42 will be back in Las Vegas again.

According to a report from "Wrestling Observer Newsletter," one of the reasons why 'Mania is set to take place in Las Vegas again next year is because of the amount of money the event made this year, and the belief that a similar revenue would not be possible in New Orleans. Additionally, the report claims that the company simply loved being in Las Vegas since key TKO executives live there and Nick Khan grew up there.

Following this, the report also notes that WrestleMania will run in Vegas on a regular basis going forward and that the city itself wants to host other major destination sports events every year, including the Super Bowl, the Final Four, and the College Football National Championship.

The report details that talks with New Orleans had taken place over the days before the final decision was made, and head of New Orleans & Co., Walt Leger, claimed that WWE had mentioned bringing a future WrestleMania to the city instead but agreed to have the 2026 Money in the Bank Premium Live Event there. "We've worked with them for the last several days to try and identify some future dates and future events to bring to the city," Leger said.

Despite this quote, "Wrestling Observer" claims that neither New Orleans & Co. nor the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation have commented on the actual reasons why 'Mania's location has been moved. However, what Leger did disclose was that there's been several corporate shakeups since the original deal was put together, but that they're actively working with TKO to expand their partnership through s multi-event, multi-year agreement, which includes WrestleMania.

Another reason, according to the report, was that due to the success of WrestleMania 41, TKO decided that it would rather try to imitate the success, making this the first time the "Grandest Stage of Them All" will take place in a location back-to-back since Donald Trump brought the event to Atlantic City in 1988 and 1989. Lastly, the report added that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority allegedly paid WWE a $5 million site fee for the 2025 WrestleMania as well as an additional $4.2 million in tax credits.