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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

WWE WrestleMania 42: Roman Reigns to face CM Punk for World Heavyweight championship in main event

Acknowledge him: Roman Reigns, the 2026 men’s WWE Royal Rumble winner - (WWE via Getty Images)

The main event for WWE WrestleMania 42 has been set.

Roman Reigns will challenge CM Punk for the WWE World Heavyweight championship at the Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada on either Saturday, April 18 or Sunday, April 19, 2026.

Reigns earned the right to select the championship match of his choice at the showcase of the immortals in Las Vegas by winning the men's 2026 Royal Rumble match at the weekend, last eliminating Gunther after being the 26th entrant.

The 'original tribal chief' had the option of picking Undisputed WWE champion Drew McIntyre, thus reigniting their rivalry from a couple of years ago, but announced his intention to dethrone Punk during a special WWE Raw appearance on Monday.

Punk, now into his second reign as World Heavyweight champion since returning to the company at the back end of 2023, won the vacant title by defeating Reigns' cousin Jey Uso at WWE Saturday Night's Main Event last November.

Both Punk and Reigns headlined WrestleMania 41: Saturday, but in a losing effort to Seth Rollins thanks to some assistance from Paul Heyman in a terrific triple threat encounter.

Outside of that and last year's Royal Rumble match, Reigns and Punk seemed to have put any differences aside. They teamed together in successive Survivor Series war games bouts, even sharing a nice moment and the end of the Premium Live Event (PLE) just a few months ago.

Face off: CM Punk and Roman Reigns (WWE via Getty Images)

However, old wounds were reopened on Monday when Reigns revealed his hatred for Punk being the fuel for his decision to go after the World Heavyweight championship.

The pair have a storied history, dating all the way back to 2012 and the road to WrestleMania promises to be a bumpy one if their showdown on Raw is anything to go by.

How to watch Monday Night Raw before WrestleMania 42?

In the UK, WWE Raw will be shown live on Netflix overnight on Tuesdays at 1am GMT.

How to watch WWE Smackdown before WrestleMania 42?

UK viewers can tune into WWE Smackdown live on Netflix overnight on Saturdays at 1am GMT.

A standard subscription costs £5.99 a month and it can be cancelled at any time.

*The starting times are subject to change if WWE are running a live event in Europe.

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