Clash in Paris

Background

Following the critical and commercial success of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE's event Backlash in 2024, which was their first pay-per-view (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 an 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. 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.^[4]

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.^[5] This will be WWE's last main roster PPV and livestreaming event to air on Peacock, as ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service will begin broadcasting these events starting with Wrestlepalooza on September 20, 2025. ESPN had originally been slated to begin broadcasting these events in the United States with WrestleMania 42 in April 2026, but as Peacock's contract allowed them to broadcast a select number of events per year, additional events that were not initially on WWE's touring schedule, such as Evolution and the second night of SummerSlam, made Peacock pass that quota and end their contract ahead of schedule; Peacock will still air NXT's livestreaming events until at least March 2026.^[6]^[7]

Storylines

The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,^[8]^[9] while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.^[10]

At Money in the Bank on June 7, a villainous John Cena and Logan Paul teamed together in a losing effort.^[11] 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.^[12]

In June, Seth Rollins began feuding with LA Knight, with both competing in the Money in the Bank ladder match at the eponymous event, where Rollins won the briefcase after Rollins's stablemates Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed interfered.^[11] Knight and Rollins continued feuding, leading to a match at Saturday Night's Main Event XL, where Knight won after Rollins seemingly injured his knee.^[13] After that, Breakker competed in a number one contender's gauntlet match for a World Heavyweight Championship match at SummerSlam. During the match, Breakker eliminated all competitors, including Knight and Jey Uso, who also had his own problems with Rollins's group since after WrestleMania 41. However, Breakker was eliminated by Rollins's longtime rival CM Punk, who earned the title match.^[14] On Night 1 of SummerSlam, Uso teamed with his cousin Roman Reigns to defeat Breakker and Reed in a tag team match, while later that night in the main event, Punk won the World Heavyweight Championship, only for Rollins to appear and reveal he had feigned his knee injury and subsequently cashed-in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Punk to win the championship.^[15] On the following episode of Raw, Rollins's group name was revealed as The Vision, and later that evening, Knight faced Rollins for the championship with Breakker and Reed banned from ringside, but it ended in a disqualification win for Rollins after Punk attacked him. The Vision subsequently got the upper hand on Punk and Knight.^[16] The following episode, Punk and Knight defeated Breakker and Reed by disqualification after Rollins attacked Punk. Uso then appeared to help Knight and Punk, brawling with The Vision. Raw General Manager Adam Pearce then announced that Rollins would defend the championship against Punk, Knight, and Uso in a fatal four-way match at Clash in Paris.^[17]

On the May 26 episode of Raw, after Rusev defeated Akira Tozawa, Rusev continued to attack Tozawa, with Sheamus making the save.^[18] Three weeks later, both Rusev and Sheamus competed in a King of the Ring tournament fatal-four way qualifying match, but neither won.^[19] They subsequently faced each other on the June 30 episode, where Rusev won,^[20] with a rematch taking place on the July 21 episode, where Sheamus won.^[21] A third match between both men took place on the August 4 episode, which ended in a double countout.^[16] On the August 18 episode, after several confrontations, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce announced that Sheamus and Rusev would face each other in a Good Ol' Fashioned Donnybrook match at Clash in Paris.^[22]

At Survivor Series: WarGames in November 2024, Roman Reigns and Bronson Reed were both apart of the men's WarGames match, where Reigns' team defeated Reed's team.^[23] Reed would take a hiatus due to an injury he sustained during the match, whilst Reigns would go on to main event Night 1 of WrestleMania 41 in April 2025, where Reigns was defeated by Seth Rollins in a triple threat match also involving CM Punk after Paul Heyman betrayed Reigns and Punk.^[24] Two nights later on Raw, Bron Breakker joined Rollins and Heyman's alliance and attacked Reigns, taking him out indefinitely.^[25] During this time, at Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIX, Reed was also recruited into Rollins' group. Reigns would return on the July 14 episode of Raw, saving Punk and his cousin Jey Uso from a post-match assault by Reed and Breakker. Reigns and Uso subsequently defeated both Reed and Breakker in a tag team match at Night 1 of SummerSlam.^[15] Two nights later on Raw, Reigns was viciously attacked by Rollins' group, now known as The Vision, with Reed stealing Reigns' shoes after the assault, something Reed had also done a few weeks ago.^[16] Two weeks later on the August 18 episode, Reed and Rollins attempted to interfere in an Extreme Rules match between Uso and Breakker, only for Reigns to come out and thwart them, helping Uso defeat Breakker. After that, Reigns challenged Reed to a match at Clash in Paris, which Reed accepted.^[22] The match was subsequently made official by Raw General Manager Adam Pearce.^[26]

Cancelled match

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.^[27]^[28] The next night on Raw, it was confirmed that the match would be for Raw's Women's World Championship.^[14] 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.^[29] However, on the August 18 episode of Raw, Naomi had to relinquish the title due to maternity leave as Naomi announced she was pregnant with her first child, thus the championship match was canceled.^[22]

Production

Background

Storylines

Cancelled match

Matches

References

External links

Wikiwand - on