The Rock and Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins during Wrestlemania XL Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field. Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

In recent years, WWE has made a habit of turning its biggest shows into events that cities are willing to bid on to host.

Now it appears the professional wrestling giant is taking that strategy to the next level, announcing a deal with Indianapolis Sports Corp that will bring its three biggest shows — WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and SummerSlam — to the Circle City. Awful Announcing has also learned that the deal includes the largest site fees ever for both its WrestleMania and Royal Rumble events.

While the agreement had previously been reported by the WrestleVotes social media account, WWE made it official on Monday — the same day that Indianapolis is set to host WWE Raw. A video featuring WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Raw announcer/former Colts punter Pat McAfee revealed that Lucas Oil Stadium will host the Royal Rumble on Feb. 1, 2025, with the dates in which the city will host WrestleMania and SummerSlam yet to be announced.

“Oh holy hell, the holy trinity of wrestling is going down in beautiful Indianapolis,” McAfee says in the video. “Lucas Oil Stadium has hosted the Super Bowl — check. The college football national championship — check. The college basketball championship — check. The Olympic Trials — check. And of course, an anvil smash or two — double-check.”

It would be interesting to see what the site fee for each event winds up being, with WWE reportedly receiving $5 million from Las Vegas for next year’s WrestleMania. In addition to its major shows like WrestleMania and SummerSlam, WWE has also recently shopped its lower profile shows to foreign countries for eye-popping site fees, in addition to the $100 million it receives from Saudi Arabia for two shows each year.

While we already know Indianapolis will host next year’s Royal Rumble, it’s unclear when WrestleMania and SummerSlam will be taking place in Naptown. With Minneapolis already announced as the host city for SummerSlam in 2026, it would make sense for Indianapolis to host WrestleMania 42 in 2026 and perhaps SummerSlam in 2027 — although that’s just speculation on our end.

[WWE]

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.