Fantasy Booking Wrestlepalooza 2025

Wrestlepalooza is this upcoming weekend and looks to deliver on some big matches! With the card only being five matches long, I went ahead and fantasy booked every one of them. Don't get used to that because I am not booking every match on some of these 10+ cards (looking at you All Out!). Judge if you want, I love you anyways. Let's dive in!

Iyo Sky vs Stephanie Vaquer (For the Women’s World Championship)

Sky and Vaquer deliver a “Japanese style” influenced match but the Kabuki Warriors come out. Asuka looks like she might get involved, with Kairi Sane looking as if she wants Asuka to just leave it alone. (Remember that Iyo Sky has specifically asked them not to get involved). Rhea Ripley and Nikki Bella come out and confront Asuka, with Kairi Sane doing her “I’m uncomfortable with this” schtick she’s been doing (hiding behind Asuka slightly, nervous facial expressions, etc. If you have been watching the weekly program, you know what i’m talking about). Kairi actually ends up running away to the other side of the ring, looking as if she’s going to cry. Rhea watches her run away but isn’t concerned, as Asuka is the aggressor. As this shouting match is going on, the ref has their back to the action in the ring as they are distracted by the ringside commotion. 

Iyo Sky is facing the ringside action but turns around and BOOM - Kairi Sane hits Iyo Sky with a springboard Insane Elbow. (This will be the debut of the 2.0 version of her Insane Elbow finisher, giving it an ‘out of nowhere’ feel. She can still deliver it to a downed opponent from the top turnbuckle but I want to establish that it can also be a springboard to a standing opponent as well. Phenomenal Forearm-esqe.) She quickly rolls out of the ring, as Vaquer grabs Sky for a SVB - 1,2,3 and Stephanie Vaquer is the New Women’s World Champion. Rhea and Nikki are completely shocked by what just happened, as Sane is manically laughing like an insane person. Asuka rolls into the ring and starts beating up a fallen Iyo, but Rhea and Nikki get involved to fight Asuka off. Kairi hits another springboard Insane Elbow to Nikki as she gets back into the ring to even the odds. Iyo manages to get herself to her feet and gets in the middle of the Asuka and Rhea. She manages to stop them for a moment but she is attacked from behind by Stephanie Vaquer with the belt. Asuka and Kairi then beatdown Rhea and Nikki some more. Vaquer, Asuka, and Kairi stand over their fallen foes to end the segment.

The stable of Stephanie, Asuka, and Kairi is dubbed “Akuma Warriors” and they go against Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, and Nikki Bella over the next couple of months. With AJ Lee vs Becky Lynch happening over the Intercontinental Championship, the World Title picture scene needs to be as stacked as possible if it doesn’t want to be overshadowed by the “mid-card”. Calling Lee vs Lynch a “mid-card” feud is laughable honestly - and because of this, a babyface Stephanie title reign would derail her character development. Let’s create intrigue with a shocking heel turn, pair her with the legendary Asuka, and give her three of the biggest superstars as her rivals. Asuka will play the role of mastermind leader, with Stephanie as “Asuka’s Champion” and Kairi as “Asuka’s Assassin” (hits her new finish outta nowhere to incapacitate the groups enemies then quickly gets away in a flash). The reason I am making this mostly about Asuka instead of Stephanie, who is the champion, is because I want to avoid the "jealously angle" of Asuka eyeing the world title. In Asuka’s mind, no she doesn’t have the title but she has something better - the champion as her loyal soldier. Vaquer said on Chris Van Vliet's podcast that she actually speaks Japanese better than she can speak English AND was trained to wrestle in Japan, so that’s where this whole pitch stemmed from. Give that podcast a listen!

The Usos vs The Vision

After a match that could have gone either way, the Usos win - but the drama comes after the bell rings. Jimmy gets the pin on Bronson Reed, but is immediately attacked by Bron Breakker. As the two teams are brawling, LA Knight appears alongside the Usos to fight off The Vision. Jey, Big Jim, and Knight are standing in the ring, as Jey and Knight are getting into a shouting match with each other. Big Jim hits Knight with a super kick and as Jey is about to get hyped up, he is hit with a super kick as well. Commentary put over that Jimmy is beyond frustrated with playing middle man between the two. And let's not forget at the beginning of the Bloodline storyline, Jimmy Uso is nobody's bitch.

As Jimmy is the only one standing, Roman Reigns' music hits. Reigns makes his way down to the ring and stares down Jimmy. He helps Jey up and they leave together, leaving behind Jimmy in the ring with LA Knight - who is mad at Jimmy for the superkick. You can see it all over Big Jim’s face - regret, uncertainty, and concern for his brother. I like Jey's transition from "YEET guy" to a darker, conflicted character. The truth is, Jey has been angry and frustrated for weeks but he gives himself a pass. Jimmy was frustrated for just one night after dealing with picking up Jeys mess for so long, yet Jey won't give Jimmy the pass or understanding. 

CM Punk and AJ Lee vs Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch 

CM Punk and AJ Lee get the win after a well fought match. Becky, who took the pin, attacks Lee after the match. A brawl breaks out with Punk and Rollins fighting as well. The Intercontinental Championship is on the mat and in the midst of the scuffle, Seth Rollins stomps AJ Lee right onto the belt. Yes that’s right, after so much talk of “I would never hit a woman” in this build, I am booking Rollins to Stomp AJ Lee. Boom. If this feud was at a level 10, we just turned it up to 20. Both aftermath scenarios bring us further away from the actual Wrestlepalooza PLE but the main piece of booking is the Stomp by Rollins that stops time. 

The aftermath from this is a Becky Lynch vs AJ Lee feud for the Intercontinental Championship at Crown Jewel - which AJ Lee wins. I would then use this championship reign to further reintroduce AJ Lee to the WWE audience with an IC open challenge series, even if it's only for a month or two. At Crown Jewel we will have Seth Rollins vs Cody Rhodes for the WWE Crown Jewel Championship, but in the three weeks to the PLE, CM Punk goes on a mission to find and brutally attack Rollins. Week one, Punk gets him and they are separated by security. Week two, Punk finds him again but is intercepted by Bron and Bronson. Week three, Punk gets LA Knight and Jimmy Uso to help him for the night so he can get to Rollins one more time. 

Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre (For the WWE Undisputed Championship)

In typical Rhodes old school match fashion, Rhodes vs McIntyre is your classic good vs bad match - complete with a classic ref bump. As the ref is down, Drew pulls Cody out of the ring and lines him up to Claymore him through the announcers desk like he did weeks prior - when suddenly a hooded man attacks him from behind. The hooded man reveals himself to be Logan Paul, who then runs back through the crowd and vanishes. Cody Rhodes gets to his feet, missing what happened for the most part - he doesn’t know what happened but it’s obvious something happened. Rhodes gets McIntyre with the Cross Rhodes and retains his WWE Undisputed Championship. (I highlighted the fact that Rhodes didn’t exactly know what happened just to preserve his babyface ways. Can’t have him knowing there was outside interference! That wouldn’t be honorable! Lol idk man, just a detail I decided to care too much about) On the following Smackdown, Logan explains he turned on Drew after Drew gave him ill-informed advice about attacking Cena prior to Clash in Paris. Logan says, “all that did was fire Cena up!”. Drew’s position on the matter - “If attacking Cena fired him up, what did you think attacking me would do?” 

Crown Jewel Perth will see Rhodes vs Rollins for the WWE Crown Jewel Championship, so McIntyre will need something that pissed him off so incredibly that he forgets he even wants the championship for a few weeks. Similar to Punk towards Rollins on RAW, Drew becomes obsessed with getting his hands on Logan - except the difference in story is Drew doesn’t get his hands on Logan until the actual Crown Jewel event. I was going to use this storyline to turn Drew into a tweener instead of a pure heel but after looking at the current Smackdown roster, Drew McIntyre is basically the only top level heel on the whole show. I was genuinely surprised to see how little the roster had to offer outside of tag teams. My point is after Crown Jewel, Drew does something to regain any heat lost by beating up Logan Paul.

John Cena vs Brock Lesnar 

I sort of pitched this similar situation last PLE but Cena gives Lesnar 17 AAs. When I pitched Cena doing this to Logan, Logan ate 17 in a row then the match was over. In this match, the 17 AAs are spread out with Lesnar recovering from most of them quickly. Let’s keep in mind that Cena needed to turn heel in order to win the championship then kept the belt through heelish shenanigans. He then lost it to Rhodes at Summerslam, then barely won against Logan Paul at Clash in Paris. R Truth claims Super Cena is back but we haven’t really seen that yet. This match is the way to fully bring him back and the most believable way for this guy who has been losing a lot lately to conquer the Beast, is to spam his finisher like it's the only move he’s got. 

The bell rings and Lesnar goes to grab Cena, who slips under Brock's legs. Brock spins around to attempt to grab him again but he walks right into a very quick AA. Lesnar is up and recovers quickly, but dazed and bounces off the ropes right into another AA. Lesnar again pops up but is still very dazed. Cena gets him up for another AA but Lesnar slips off the shoulders and pushes Cena. As Cena hits the ropes, Lesnar charges at him but Cena counters the rush into another AA and a pin but a kick out at two - three AAs very quickly in the match up. This pattern of hitting the finisher continues, with Cena attempting to do multiple AAs in a row in an effort to capitalize. Lesnar is put through both spanish and english commentary desks as well. The final AA being a top rope Super AA. Super Cena is truly here after slaying the beast. 

Alright Beach Bums. we did it!

Wrestlepalooza will be a historic event with it being the first PLE on the ESPN app. Let's hope the in ring action is just as historic!

Thanks for reading - keep it beachy, baby!