IYO SKY’s match with Asuka appears to be off the WrestleMania 42 card, and there are two clear pieces of evidence pointing to the change.
Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the match was still on the internal schedule as recently as last week and that WWE was actively building toward it as late as this week’s Raw. However, Meltzer said he believes the match has been removed.
“This has not been officially confirmed to us, but I believe Iyo Sky vs. Asuka is off,” Meltzer wrote. “The match was on the schedule last week. They were building it up last week and still did a segment for it on Raw this week.”
Meltzer pointed to two key developments that led him to that conclusion.
The first was how SKY’s SmackDown match with Jade Cargill was handled. SKY lost clean in under 10 minutes, with Meltzer noting that the finish was designed to elevate Cargill heading into her Women’s Championship match with Rhea Ripley rather than further the SKY vs. Asuka program.
“It was clear Sky’s role was to put over Cargill, and not for herself,” Meltzer wrote, noting that had the Asuka match still been on, a logical finish would have been Asuka costing SKY the match to build heat for their WrestleMania encounter.
The second and most telling sign was what happened on social media. Meltzer reported that SKY had issued a challenge to Asuka on social media and was specifically told to do so because the match was confirmed.
“She was told to do that because the match was on. She quietly deleted that message on 4/13,” Meltzer wrote.
Meltzer added that the last word he received was that the match was likely off but had not been fully decided at that point.
“The last word we got is that it is probably off but that it was not decided, but that was a few days ago.”
The other remaining question heading into the weekend is whether Nikki Bella will be able to wrestle after sustaining an ankle injury. Meltzer reported that the situation was still up in the air as of press time.
“The other question is if Nikki Bella will be able to wrestle after her ankle injury. The last word we got on that is that it was still up in the air.”
Meltzer noted that the rest of the WrestleMania 42 card is “pretty much locked in.”
WrestleMania 42 Full Card
Night One — Saturday, April 18 (Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas)
- Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton
- Women’s World Championship: Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan
- Women’s Tag Team Championship Fatal Four-Way: Lash Legend and Nia Jax (c) vs. The Bella Twins vs. Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley and Lyra Valkyria
- Women’s Intercontinental Championship: AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch
- Seth Rollins vs. Gunther
- Six-Man Tag: IShowSpeed, Logan Paul, and Austin Theory vs. LA Knight and The Usos (ESPN first hour)
- Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre in an Unsanctioned Match (ESPN first hour)
Night Two — Sunday, April 19
- World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk (c) vs. Roman Reigns
- WWE Women’s Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Rhea Ripley
- United States Championship: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Trick Williams
- Demon Balor vs. Dominik Mysterio
- Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Penta (c) vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Dragon Lee vs. Rusev vs. JD McDonagh vs. Rey Mysterio (ESPN first hour)
- Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar (ESPN first hour)
John Cena hosts WrestleMania 42. The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony takes place Friday, April 17. Both nights of WrestleMania will stream on the ESPN app through the Unlimited plan, with the first two matches each night airing on ESPN 2 (Saturday) and ESPN (Sunday).
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