Backstage Update on WrestleMania 42 Being Moved out of New Orleans & Plans for Las Vegas to Become New Host

As noted before, next year’s WWE WrestleMania 42 event will no longer be taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana. Next year’s event is currently believed to now be taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada for the second year in a row for a WrestleMania event.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources confirmed that WWE officials current plans are for next year’s WrestleMania 42 event to take place in Las Vegas.

Meltzer reported that TKO and WWE officials made the decision to change the location partially due to this year’s WrestleMania 41 event made so much money overall in Las Vegas from all revenue sources and felt they could not make that level of money in New Orleans for next year’s event.

Another reason reportedly is due to TKO officials loved having WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas because key TKO executives live in the area and WWE President Nick Khan grew up there.

Meltzer reported that TKO’s current plan is to now run WrestleMania on a regular basis in the city but not necessarily as a new annual tradition but frequent enough instead. Meltzer also reported that Las Vegas officials wants to have a major destination sports event every year and they are currently looking at the Super Bowl, NCAA Basketball Final Four, College Football National Championship Final, and WrestleMania. Meltzer reported that the idea would be Las Vegas would host a WrestleMania in years that they are not able to get any of the other three major sporting events.

In regards to a date for next year’s WrestleMania 42 event, Meltzer reported that those spoken to have confirmed that WWE has already reserved Allegiant Stadium for Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19, 2026. This will be one week later than its originally announced dates of April 11-12 when it had been set for New Orleans.

Meltzer also reported that there are still a couple of issues that are being worked out in order for next year’s event to take place in Las Vegas. These issues reportedly involve a concert being booked at the stadium that has not been announced yet and stadium officials have attempted to move the concert date but the promoters are currently unwilling to move due to them having a contract for that date.

Another issue reportedly is due to the Las Vegas Convention Center is currently open for that weekend but does not have the same amount of open space as it had for WWE for WrestleMania 41. Meltzer reported that the Convention Center currently has an event booked taking up space for that weekend but is also unwilling to move out for WWE. Meltzer also reported that WWE could end up using less space in the building or move to a different convention center such as the Mandalay Bay as the likely option.