The final WWE televised program before Royal Rumble 2025 will go down from Indianapolis as recently confirmed by the WWE. Taking to its official website, WWE has announced that the January 31, 2025, edition of Friday Night SmackDown will take place at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana to kick off a packed weekend around the first WWE premium live event of the year.
It was further noted that this coming Smackdown alongside Royal Rumble 2025 will also mark the beginning of a new partnership between WWE and Indianapolis as the city will host WWE’s three largest stadium events at Lucas Oil Stadium including WrestleMania and a two-night SummerSlam in the future years. This is a first-of-its-kind partnership between WWE and Indiana Sports Corp that was signed, earlier this year.
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Apart from the large WWE PLEs, Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and WWE live events will also emanate from arenas across Indiana including Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Evansville throughout the partnership. This Royal Rumble 2025 weekend Smackdown will be one of those episodes for which tickets will go on sale on Wednesday, December 11 at 10 AM ET/7 AM PT Via Ticketmaster.com.
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Royal Rumble 2025 will be airing with a new start time
In more news around Royal Rumble 2025, the trend set by recent WWE Premium Live Events, it will begin streaming exclusively on Peacock at 6 PM EST/3 PM PT on January 31, 2025. This earlier start time will be similar to the shift made for Survivor Series: WarGames, which also moved away from the traditional 8 PM EST slot.
Also, the ongoing tradition, Royal Rumble 2025 Priority Pass ticket packages are available from On Location which will allow the fans to have the chance to be at ringside to choose from a premium seating range, pre-show hospitality with WWE Superstar appearances, ringside photo opportunities and more.
The Royal Rumble 2025 will bring back the fan-favorite spectacle, that’s the 30-men and 30-women matches with the winners getting a main event slot at Wrestlemania 41. No such confirmations have come on WWE’s part regarding these over-the-top-rope matches for a guaranteed title shot. For the time being, John Cena is the only name confirmed for the show.
