Las Vegas hosted both WrestleMania 41 and 42, marking the first time WrestleMania was hosting by the same city back-to-back since WrestleMania IV and V in Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1988 and 1989.

Not everyone was happy about having Vegas host the massive PLE two years in a row, especially after WM’42 was originally meant to be in New Orleans, but WWE President Nick Khan justified the choice during a recent interview with “Sports Business Journal.” 

“Last year we set records, which we set the year prior, [and] the year prior to that,” Khan pointed out. “When I went out there for their first Super Bowl a couple of years ago? I was shocked but not shocked at how easy it was for Vegas to handle that big of a crowd.”

Khan further stated that he believes that Las Vegas is a city built for tourism, and since he and the TKO higher-ups were impressed by the city, they decided to make ‘Mania happen there in 2025. 

“We sat down with a gentleman named Steve Hill from Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority, [and] struck a deal with him,” he recalled. “The event was quite successful the last year, boom. So we struck another one this year.”

Additionally, Khan also recalled how he grew up in Las Vegas and watched sports on CBS and TBS, specifically boxing, which he called the “local sport” and Basketball. “And wrestling, also, which was at least monthly at an old hotel called the Showboat Hotel,” he recalled.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Sports Business Journal” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Throughout 2026, WWE star Sami Zayn has undergone a slow burn of a character transformation, sped up around his WWE WrestleMania 42 feud with the United States Championship against Trick Williams. Many fans of Zayn’s haven’t been keen on his character arc, and one WWE Hall of Famer offered his advice to the former US Champion

Jimmy Hart appeared on Cody Rhodes’ “What Do You Want to Talk About?” podcast and said he still keeps up with all three brands of the product and loves it all, from “WWE NXT” to the red and blue brands. He explained to Rhodes that he rode with Zayn around WrestleMania weekend, and had a thought, but didn’t voice it to Zayn at the time.

“We were talking and everything else, and I knew he was going against Trick,” Hart said. “Look, when you got the outfits Trick’s got, and you got the music and you got the manager and you got the everything you got, people are going to love you… I didn’t say it to Sami, but I wanted to say, ‘You know Sami, when you make a change, you gotta change that look.’ I wanted to say, ‘Look, dye your hair black. Cut your beard different. Black, that’s a change. Do a different outfit, because sometimes, you just can’t keep the same look and be the same.'”

Hart said that in the professional wrestling business now, everything changes and you just have to roll with it. He explained that he always would check merchandise sale numbers and ratings for segments to help him get a better grasp on things when it came to the talents he managed.

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Regarding the WWE product currently surrounding Rhodes, Bischoff clarified that “flatlining” doesn’t equate to death, but rather, a plateau. A heel turn from Rhodes, in Bischoff’s eyes, would freshen up the product, and more importantly, possibly get WWE back on an upward trajectory, however.

“That just means it’s kind of cruising along, just doing the same old stuff every week,” Bischoff said. “That’s not good TV. Good TV grows. There are certain times a year it’s a little harder. It’s harder this time of year for a lot of reasons. It’s harder in the fall when football kicks in. But there’s a period between the end of the football season, the regular season, especially the end of the playoffs and about now when NBA playoffs get hot. So you got a window there, couple months, you can really heat things up so that you could go into the summer with the audience engaged as best you can. Hopefully they’re going to come up with something that kicks it in gear. I’d love to see a different character out of Cody.”

In his three reigns as Undisputed WWE Champion, Rhodes has firmly cemented himself as a top face of WWE, so much so that he’s often referred to as “QB1.” Rhodes continues to be one of WWE’s best sellers in terms of merchandise as well, alongside the likes of former World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk and Danhausen.

Coming out of Clash In Italy, Rhodes’ rematch offering was accepted by GUNTHER, though under the added condition that “The Ring General” would choose the stipulation. Further details of the Rhodes-GUNTHER follow-up clash, including that stipulation and its time, have yet to be revealed.

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Former WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill has made strides in her in-ring ability since joining WWE in 2023 after leaving AEW. Throughout her career, Cargill has received help from many top names in the industry, but she credits WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry and legendary trainer Rip Rogers as her biggest mentors. Cargill spoke about both men on an episode of “The Rich Eisen Show,” where she said Henry is like a dad to her.

“I go to him for advice, and if I’m not doing good in the ring, best believe he’s going to call me and chew me out,” Cargill said. “At the end of the day, he put his favor in me and his legacy in me [and] Bianca [Belair]… There’s so many people, he trusts us so much.”

Cargill explained when she first got into the industry, Henry directed her toward Rogers. The former TBS Champion said that Rogers “put her through the ringer,” and she trained sun up to sun down. She said Rogers did everything he could to get her to quit, but she wouldn’t.

“[Rogers] saw I came out on top, he was like… ‘This is a tough woman. Like, okay, I see you, you’re not just pretty… You work hard and you can take a punch,'” Cargill explained. “He hit me so hard one time, I was like, ‘Is that it? Okay. Keep going.’ That’s just the athlete in me. I like when people tell me I can’t do nothing or I’m not going to amount to something I said I was going to do. I love that and I feed off that and I use that as motivation.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “The Rich Eisen Show” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.