WWE’s Plans for IYO SKY vs. Asuka Match Update – Match Reportedly Unlikely for WrestleMania 42 & Could Be Moved to Backlash 2026

As noted before, WWE had been working on plans for a match between IYO SKY and Asuka to take place at next weekend’s WrestleMania 42 event in Las Vegas, Nevada. Those plans were in doubt following Nikki Bella’s recent ankle injury causing WWE to be considering backup plans for The Kabuki Warriors to replace The Bellas for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Fatal Four-way match at the event.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials currently have a backup plan in place for the SKY vs. Asuka match to take place at next month’s Backlash 2026 event instead of WrestleMania 42.

Meltzer reported that while the match had been listed on the internal lineup and Asuka issued a challenge to SKY at this past Monday’s WWE RAW show, WWE not announcing the match during the official card lineups for WrestleMania 42 was due to the plans being “up in the air” at the moment. Meltzer speculated that WWE might not end up announcing a seventh match for the card of Night 2 of WrestleMania 42 due to how long they want the show to go and how much time is allocated for the six matches.

Meltzer also reported that WWE officials currently have a plan to save the match for Backlash instead. An official decision reportedly is still up in the air.