Maple Leaf Pro’s Northern Rising on Saturday, October 3 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto is sold out, and the building formerly known as Maple Leaf Gardens will see Adam Copeland wrestle in it for the first time.
MLP announced the sellout on August 6, six days after tickets went on sale on July 31. A Superfan Experience package is still being offered through mlpwrestling.com.
Copeland was announced for the show on July 30 and his opponent was made official on the September 2 episode of MLP Mayhem: Steve Maclin, the former TNA World Champion who was released by TNA in June. Copeland had been calling Maclin out on social media, and Maclin accepted at the commentary desk. “Adam Copeland, you just can’t seem to keep my name out of your mouth on social media. Northern Rising, October 3, I’ll see you then,” Maclin said. Maclin has spent the build calling Canadian wrestling a feeder system.
The second announced match is Gisele Shaw defending the MLP Women’s Canadian Championship against Nikki Storm. Storm, who wrestled in WWE as Nikki Cross until her release in April, won a four-way over Dani Luna, Shaw and Priscilla Kelly on the August 26 Mayhem and chose the title shot as her prize. Shaw has held the championship since winning it at the first Northern Rising in May 2025.
Copeland, who grew up in Orangeville, Ontario, saw his first live wrestling show at Maple Leaf Gardens as a kid. “Growing up, between watching Maple Leaf Wrestling and the Toronto Maple Leafs, the majority of my childhood TV came from Maple Leaf Gardens,” he said in MLP’s announcement. He said in an August interview that he had called the building “my hallowed ground that I have to perform in before I’m done,” and that MLP founder Scott D’Amore, who broke into the business at the same time he did and shared housing with him early in their careers, texted him afterward: “Hey, remember me? I think we can make this happen.”
“Adam Copeland is one of the greatest Canadian wrestlers of all time,” D’Amore said. “Seeing him return to the former Maple Leaf Gardens, where his journey began as a fan, is exactly the kind of special moment Maple Leaf Pro is committed to creating.”
Copeland remains under contract to AEW, where he is one half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions with Christian Cage. The two defend against the Young Bucks and FTR in a three-way chairs, tables and ladders match at All Out on September 26, one week before Toronto. Copeland has said Tony Khan allows him outside dates.
Northern Rising airs live on pay-per-view worldwide through MyAEW at 7 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. PT. MLP’s weekly show, Mayhem, airs Wednesdays at midnight ET on TSN2 in Canada and internationally on MyAEW.
This is the second Northern Rising. The first, on May 10, 2025, was MLP’s first show in Toronto and crowned the promotion’s first champions, with Josh Alexander winning a 20-man gauntlet for the Canadian Championship and Shaw beating Kylie Rae for the women’s title. Alexander is out following knee surgery, and Stu Grayson has held the interim Canadian Championship since March 28. Grayson retained over Johnny TV on the September 2 Mayhem. The tag team titles are held by Sheldon Jean and Brent Banks.
Only two matches are official so far. Rohan Raja issued an open challenge to any luchador on the September 2 Mayhem, and a four-way to determine tag team title contenders was announced for an upcoming episode. MLP, founded by D’Amore in August 2024, ran its first show at St. Clair College in Windsor that October and moved Mayhem onto TSN2 in July of this year under a deal announced in March.
Before Toronto, MLP runs MLP Live at the Cottam Fair in Cottam, Ontario on Sunday, September 13. Details are at mlpwrestling.com.
