No major PPVs? No PLEs? No problem. Things have understandably quieted down now that we’re two weeks removed from Wrestlemania, but don’t think for a second that there’s no wrestling on. We’ve picked out nine shows to consider for this weekend, including a company vs. company showdown in Mexico, three big events in Japan, a return to a historic hardcore wrestling venue, and more! Let’s get started.
Friday
CMLL vs. MLW 2026 / 7 p.m. ET / Youtube or Triller PPV
The second-ever CMLL vs. MLW card will go down tonight from the legendary Arena Mexico. Three different MLW champs are bringing their titles into Mexico City tonight, putting them on the line against some of CMLL’s top names. The main event here, KUSHIDA facing Templario, is easily the most exciting part of the show. I believe Templario is an underrated CMLL name at times, and KUSHIDA has established himself as a fun talent.
It’s worth noting that this card will begin at 7 p.m. ET, a few hours earlier than the typical Friday night CMLL offering. The event will be live-streamed on CMLL’s paid Youtube page, and is also available as a one-off purchase on Triller TV.
- Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II vs. Ikuro Kwon & Okumura
- Olympia vs. Lady Frost
- Shotzi vs. Garra Negra (MLW Women’s World Championship)
- Bishop Dyer & Donovan Dijak vs. Averno & Euforia (MLW World Tag Team Championships)
- Neon vs. Diego Hill
- KUSHIDA vs. Templario (MLW World Middleweight Championship)
WWE Friday Night Smackdown / 8 p.m. ET / USA Network
While it seems likely that the days of three-hour Friday Night Smackdowns will soon come to an end, that won’t happen tonight. Fans at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma will see 180 minutes of Smackdown this evening, and if you’d like, you can watch along on the USA Network.
Little has been announced about tonight’s show, so it’s a little hard to preview what to expect. But, here’s the deal: We don’t know what’s next for the “easy to find, hard to beat” Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, and it’s unclear what newly-crowned WWE Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley will do next. I’ll be surprised if neither are represented on the quickly-approaching Backlash Premium Live Event (PLE), so I’d expect an angle with one of them to be shot tonight.
Another major focus of the show will be the brand’s new faces.
After putting the women’s division on notice last week with a violent debut alongside the rest of Fatal Influence, Jacy Jayne will be in action this week against Charlotte Flair. We’re also expected to see former NXT Champion Ricky Saints, appearing for the first time since getting called up to the main roster. Blake Monroe will be joining the blue brand as well at some point, but they haven’t specified if that’ll be tonight.
- Charlotte Flair vs. Jacy Jayne
- Ricky Saints makes Smackdown debut
Saturday
NOAH Spring Mayhem Ryogoku / 12:20 a.m. ET / Wrestle Universe
It’s been over a decade since Shane Haste last held gold in NOAH. While Haste was once a staple of the company’s tag division alongside Mikey Nicholls, it wasn’t until recently that he had been a factor in the promotion again. After his years in WWE and NJPW, Haste recently returned to NOAH in hopes of earning a title he never captured during his first run, the brand’s most important belt, the GHC Heavyweight Championship.
Haste will get that opportunity as part of tomorrow morning’s Ryogoku Kokugikan card from NOAH when he challenges dominant champ Yoshiki Inamura. Six men have tried and failed to take down Inamura, who has held the GHC belt since November. Will Haste be able to pull off the upset, or will Inamura continue his crawl toward the 200-day mark as NOAH’s top name?
Since they’re visiting the massive Ryogoku Sumo Hall, NOAH has loaded up the card with other names as well. AMAKUSA and Dragon Bane will put on what should be a fun junior heavyweight title showdown, Tetsuya Naito will be in singles action against OZAWA, The Good Brothers will return, and more.
- Atsushi Kotoge, Hi69 & Hajime Ohara vs. Hayato Koyanagi, Hiroto Tsuruya & Aoi Takahashi (Pre-show)
- Eita vs. Katsumi Inahata (Pre-show)
- KENTA, Tetsuya Endo & HAYATA vs. Muhammad Yone, Kazuyuki Fujita & Daiki Odashima
- Kid Lykos & Kid Lykos II vs. Knull (Two-on-One Match)
- Kaito Kiyomiya, Harutoki & Alejandro vs. Masa Kitamiya, Takashi Sugiura & Tadasuke vs. Manabu Soya, Saxon Huxley & TBA
- Angel Reyes & RYUSEI vs. Alpha Wolf & Kai Fujimura
- BUSHI vs. Jun Masaoka
- Naomichi Marufuji & Kenoh vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows
- AMAKUSA vs. Dragon Bane (GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship)
- Tetsuya Naito vs. OZAWA
- Yoshiki Inamura vs. Shane Haste (GHC Heavyweight Championship)
AEW Collision / 8 p.m. ET / TNT
A live edition of AEW Collision will go down tomorrow night from Peoria, Illinois. A week full of high-stakes matchups in the company will continue on this show, as three more title bouts will take place. Most notably, Anna Jay will wrestle for the first time since November when she takes on TBS Champion Willow Nightingale. Will Jay score a massive upset, or will Nightingale’s “comeback killer” run continue?
The match I’m most looking forward to here is Jack Perry facing off against CMLL’s Mascara Dorada, who has been an absolute treat to get showcased in AEW as of late. While they’re fighting over the least important title in the company, I believe Perry and Dorada could steal the show.
- Skye Blue in action
- Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly in trios action
- Jon Moxley, PAC, Claudio Castagnoli, David Finlay & Clark Connors vs. Myron Reed, Zachary Wentz, Dezmond Xavier, Darius Martin & Dante Martin
- Juice Robinson & Ace Austin vs. Wheeler Yuta & Daniel Garcia
- Jack Perry vs. Mascara Dorada (AEW National Championship)
- Willow Nightingale vs. Anna Jay (TBS Championship)
- Kevin Knight vs. Hook (TNT Championship)
GCW One Night Only / 8 p.m. ET / TrillerTV+
Returning to the 2300 Arena for the first time in a decade, GCW will present a special “One Night Only” event on Saturday night. They’ve put together a pretty strong card for tomorrow night. While there are many matchups here that stick out to me, Gringo Loco facing Vengador being one of them, the biggest match will likely be the return of Nick Gage.
Prior to Wrestlemania weekend, where Gage made a surprise appearance at Joey Janela’s Spring Break, the GCW poster-boy hadn’t competed for the company in over a year. In his first announced match back, inside the famous “ECW Arena,” he’ll take on TNA wrestler and fellow deathmatch vet Bear Bronson in a first-time showdown.
Not all GCW shows were made equal, but this is certainly one of their stronger lineups. If you like GCW, you won’t want to miss this one.
- Joey Janela vs. Vipress
- 1 Called Manders vs. TBA
- KJ Orso vs. Ricky Morton
- Gringo Loco vs. Vengador
- Nino Extremo vs. Lil Sicko vs. Reed Bentley vs. John Wayne Murdoch vs. Matt Tremont vs. Mr. Danger (GCW Ultraviolent Championship)
- Atticus Cogar vs. Marcus Mathers (GCW World Championship)
- Nick Gage vs. Bear Bronson
Sunday
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Night 1 / 5 a.m. ET / NJPW World
NJPW’s annual Wrestling Dontaku doubleheader will begin on Sunday morning from Fukuoka, Japan. The main attraction of the first night is a rematch from NJPW’s latest stateside card, as AEW’s Andrade El Idolo will look to end Yota Tsuji’s lengthy run as IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion.
An underrated part of this weekend’s Wrestling Dontaku card is the inclusion of numerous NJPW names you don’t usually see on each show. Will Ospreay’s drama within United Empire will continue this weekend, Konosuke Takeshita will be in action, and in a rare non-Fantastica Mania NJPW appearance, Mistico will wrestle as well.
The bigger Wrestling Dontakun card is on Monday. But, Sunday’s lineup has a main event that should deliver and also have some fun undercard tag bouts.
- Ryusuke Taguchi, Taisei Nakahara & Tiger Mask vs. Master Watu, Toru Yano & YOH
- Masatora Yasuda & Tomoaki Honma vs. OSKAR & Yuto-Ice
- El Desperado, Mistico, Taichi & Yuya Uemura vs. Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita, Robbie Eagles & Ryohei Oiwa
- Great-O-Khan, HENARE & Will Ospreay vs. Hirooki Goto, Tatsuya Matsumoto & YOSHI-HASHI
- Konosuke Takeshita & Shota Umino vs. Chase Owens & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
- Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, Jake Lee, Jakob Austin Young & Zane Jay vs. Daiki Nagai, Drilla Moloney, Robbie X, Shingo Takagi & Taiji Ishimori
- Don Fale vs. Aaron Wolf
- Ren Narita vs. Boltin Oleg (NEVER Openweight Championship)
- Yota Tsuji vs. Andrade El Idolo (IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship)
TJPW Yes! Wonderland ’26 / 10 p.m. ET / Wrestle Universe
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling will close out the weekend with a card from Korakuen Hall. The main event will see Yuki Arai look to defend her Princess of Princess Championship in Japan for the first time, taking on up-and-coming talent Arisu Endo. Earlier in the night, AEW’s The IInspiration will try to keep their run as Princess Tag Team Champions alive against the decorated duo of Miu Watanabe and Rika Tatsumi. After successful shows recently in Texas, Vancouver, and Las Vegas, TJPW has lots of momentum. If you’re someone who just recently checked them out through those shows and wants to keep following along, this is a solid show to give a shot.
- Ren Konatsu vs. Shion Kanzaki
- YuuRi, Wakana Uehara & Kira Summer vs. HIMAWARI, Shino Suzuki & Chika Nanase
- Mizuki, Mei Suruga & Uta Takami vs. Yuki Aino, Raku & Pom Harajuku
- Aja Kong & Yuki Kamifukuvs. Kakeru Sekiguchi & Mahiro Kiryu
- Ryo Mizunami vs. Toga
- Miyu Yamashita & Sakura Hattori vs. Shoko Nakajima & Hyper MIsao
- Suzume vs. Haru Kazashiro (TJPW International Princess Championship)
- Jessie McKay & Cassie Lee vs. Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi (TJPW Princess Tag Team Championships)
- Yuki Arai vs. Arisu Endo (TJPW Princess of Princess Championship)
Two more options before we go…
- House of Glory’s second-ever Los Angeles card will go down tonight. The show will feature Speedball Bailey taking on Amazing Red in a junior heavyweight dream match. For that bout alone, I’m curious to check it out. (TrillerTV+)
- This week’s episode of AAA TV will see El Grande Americano and The Original El Grande Americano meet in a contract signing ahead of their mask vs. mask match. The way this rivalry is portrayed on Monday Night Raw doesn’t do it justice. On AAA TV, it’s a heated, wild blood feud. I mean, did you see that one pull-apart brawl they had recently? The work between these two in Mexico has been great, so I’m looking forward to this segment. (Youtube)
