As noted before, WWE announced on Monday that they had recently signed a multi-year contract with the Indiana Sports Corp to bring a future WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Royal Rumble event at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The first event of this new deal was announced to be next year’s Royal Rumble event will be taking place on February 1, 2025 in the city.
Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that next year’s Royal Rumble event taking place on February 1st was something that had long been discussed by WWE officials. It was reported that WWE officials had also recently discussed moving WrestleMania 41 to potential May date at one point before deciding on a late April date instead.
WWE officials reportedly also had great importance on wanting to avoid Super Bowl weekend and the NFL playoffs for their decision on a February date for next year’s Royal Rumble event. It was reported that this date change is not necessarily a permanent one and instead is entirely dependent on when the Super Bowl takes place each year.
In regards to a two-night SummerSlam event taking place in Indiana, it was reported that those spoken to stated that SummerSlam expanding to two-nights starting with the 2026 event in Minnesota is meant to be the start of a future trend.
In regards to the potential of Royal Rumble also expanding into a two-night event in the future, it was reported that there has been no word of the Rumble expanding to two nights as well. One source spoken to reportedly stated that the Rumble event is currently set up in a way that doing so would be easy.
One source spoken to praised Indianapolis as a host city for future events due to its ease of access. This same source also praised the city for its close proximity to other major cities and for its indoor stadium.