Clash in Paris
| Clash in Paris | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Promotional poster featuring Roman Reigns with The Starry Night painting in the background | |||
| Promotion | WWE | ||
| Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown | ||
| Date | August 31, 2025 | ||
| City | Nanterre, France | ||
| Venue | Paris La Défense Arena | ||
| WWE event chronology | |||
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| Clash chronology | |||
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| WWE in Europe chronology | |||
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Clash in Paris is an upcoming 2025 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE. It will be the third Clash event, truncated from the previous "Clash at the Castle" name used in 2022 and 2024. The event will take place on Sunday, August 31, 2025, at the Paris La Défense Arena in Nanterre, France, and will be held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This marks WWE's second PPV and livestreaming event held in France after Backlash in May 2024, and the first in the Paris metropolitan area.
The event will feature John Cena's first and only appearance at a pay-per-view and livestreaming event in France as an in-ring performer due to his retirement from professional wrestling at the end of 2025.
Production
Background
Clash is a recurring professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE since 2022, held in European countries. The original 2022 event was titled Clash at the Castle and was held in Cardiff, Wales, with the second event held in 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland. Following the critical and commercial success of the 2024 Backlash, which was the company's first PPV and livestreaming event held in France,[1][2] WWE President Nick Khan announced at a January 16, 2025, event in Las Vegas, Nevada that the company would be returning to France for another PPV and livestreaming event sometime later that year.[3]
On January 29, WWE officially announced through their YouTube channel and website that they would return to France on Sunday, August 31, 2025, for the third Clash event titled Clash in Paris, which will be held in La Défense, Nanterre at the Paris La Défense Arena, marking the company's first event in the Paris metropolitan area. This truncated the event chronology's name to simply "Clash" after the previous two events were titled "Clash at the Castle". It was also announced that the September 1 episode of Monday Night Raw would emanate from the same venue. Clash in Paris will be held for wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands. In addition to airing on traditional PPV worldwide, it will be available to livestream on Peacock in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, and the WWE Network in any remaining countries that have not yet transferred to Netflix due to pre-existing contracts.[4][5] This will be the last Clash event to livestream on Peacock in the United States, as ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service will assume the streaming rights beginning in April 2026.[6]
Storylines
The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,[7][8] while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.[9]
At the all-women's event Evolution, Raw's Stephanie Vaquer won the Evolution Battle Royal to earn a women's world championship match at Clash in Paris.[10][11] The next night on Raw, it was confirmed that the match would be for Raw's Women's World Championship.[12] Subsequently at SummerSlam the following month, Naomi retained the title, thus confirming that Naomi would defend the Women's World Championship against Vaquer at Clash in Paris.[13] However, on the August 4 episode of Raw, it was announced that Naomi would defend the Women's World Championship against Iyo Sky on the August 11 episode.
At Money in the Bank on June 7, a villainous John Cena and Logan Paul teamed together in a losing effort.[14] On the August 8 episode of SmackDown, after turning face the previous week, a now heroic Cena reflected over his career and subsequently issued an open challenge, which was answered by Paul. After an exchange of words, Cena wanted to face Paul on that night's episode, which Paul refused, instead challenging Cena to a match at Clash in Paris, which Cena accepted.[15]
Matches
| No. | Matches* | Stipulations | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Naomi (c) or Iyo Sky vs. Stephanie Vaquer | Singles match for the Women's World Championship[16] | ||||
| 2 | John Cena vs. Logan Paul | Singles match[17] | ||||
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References
- ^ POST Wrestling Staff (May 5, 2024). "WWE Backlash France: When The Crowd Becomes The Show". POST Wrestling. Archived from the original on May 27, 2024. Retrieved May 27, 2024.
- ^ Lambert, Jeremy (May 4, 2024). "WWE Backlash 2024 Breaks Record For Largest Gate For Any Arena Show In WWE History". Fightful. Archived from the original on May 27, 2024. Retrieved May 27, 2024.
- ^ Droste, Ryan (January 16, 2025). "Nick Khan Reveals WWE Will Return To France For PLE In 2025". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on January 17, 2025. Retrieved January 29, 2025.
- ^ Lang, Jamie (January 29, 2025). "WWE Announces First-Ever Premium Live Event in Paris". Variety. Archived from the original on January 29, 2025. Retrieved January 29, 2025.
- ^ WWE.com Staff (May 6, 2025). "Tickets for WWE August tour across U.K., Ireland and France on sale now". WWE. Retrieved April 20, 2025.
Undisputed WWE Champion John Cena will make his final WWE appearances in Dublin, Lyon and Paris as part of his 2025 Farewell tour.
- ^ Sherman, Alex (August 6, 2025). "ESPN inks five-year deal for WWE's live premium events including WrestleMania, Royal Rumble". CNBC. Archived from the original on August 6, 2025. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
- ^ Grabianowski, Ed (January 13, 2006). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
- ^ "Live & Televised Entertainment". Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
- ^ Steinberg, Brian (May 25, 2016). "WWE's 'Smackdown' Will Move To Live Broadcast On USA (Exclusive)". Variety. Archived from the original on May 26, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
- ^ Russell, Skylar (June 30, 2025). "Battle Royal Announced For WWE Evolution, Winner To Receive Title Match At WWE Clash In Paris". Fightful. Retrieved June 30, 2025.
- ^ Powell, Jason (July 13, 2025). "WWE Evolution results: Powell's live review of Iyo Sky vs. Rhea Ripley for the Women's World Championship, Tiffany Stratton vs. Trish Stratus for the WWE Women's Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved July 13, 2025.
- ^ Powell, Jason (July 14, 2025). "WWE Raw results (7/14): Powell's live review of CM Punk vs. Jey Uso vs. LA Knight vs. Penta vs. Bron Breakker in a gauntlet match for a World Heavyweight Championship match at SummerSlam". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved July 14, 2025.
- ^ Powell, Jason (August 3, 2025). "WWE SummerSlam results: Powell's live review of night two with John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes in a Street Fight for the WWE Championship, Naomi vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Iyo Sky for the Women's World Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved August 3, 2025.
- ^ Powell, Jason (June 7, 2025). "WWE Money in the Bank results: Powell's review of John Cena and Logan Paul vs. Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes, two MITB ladder matches, Lyra Valkyria vs. Becky Lynch for the Women's Intercontinental Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved June 7, 2025.
- ^ Powell, Jason (August 8, 2025). "WWE Smackdown results (8/8): Powell's live review of new WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and John Cena's appearances, The Motor City Machine Guns vs. Talla Tonga and JC Mateo". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
- ^ Fightful Wrestling [@Fightful] (July 13, 2025). "Stephanie Vaquer is headed to WWE Clash in Paris!" (Tweet). Retrieved July 13, 2025 – via Twitter.
- ^ Lambert, Jeremy (August 8, 2025). "John Cena To Face Logan Paul At WWE Clash In Paris". Fightful. Retrieved August 9, 2025.