WWE Saturday Night's Main Event XLIV will take place in Fort Wayne, Indiana, shortly after WWE Backlash. The event's card is not finalized yet, but top stars are expected to appear.
TULSA, OKLAHOMA - MAY 01: Gunther in action against Cody Rhodes during SmackDown at BOK Center on May 1, 2026 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Craig Melvin/WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
Just two weeks after WWE Backlash, the promotion will head west, well to the midwest, for Saturday Night's Main Event in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The card isn't in place yet, but I'd bank on seeing some of the top stars who don't have matches in Tampa in action in Fort Wayne. Here's what we know so far about the card.
SNME XLIV goes live Saturday, May 23, 2026, from Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The broadcast starts at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. PT, the standard SNME prime-time slot WWE has used across the revival.
This is WWE's first televised event in Fort Wayne since 2014, and it slots between SNME XLIII (Montreal, January 24) and SNME XLV at Madison Square Garden on July 18 — the latter set the night before the 2026 FIFA World Cup final in the New York metro area.
The two-week turnaround from Backlash gives WWE a chance to use SNME as a creative reset, especially for talent the booking didn't fit onto the Tampa card.
The show emanates from the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, a 13,000-seat venue that hasn’t hosted WWE programming in over a decade. That makes this event pretty historic and important overall.
I know someone who lives nearby and they were both surprised and excited about the event landing in their backyard.
The mid-sized arena fits SNME's throwback presentation — no TitanTron, red, white, and blue ring ropes, referees in formal outfits, and the original "Obsession" by Animotion as theme music — better than the larger PLE venues like Tampa's Benchmark International Arena.
The Allen County booking continues WWE creative's pattern of routing SNME through markets that don't get major shows year-round. Montreal got XLIII in January, Fort Wayne gets XLIV in May, MSG gets XLV in July — a deliberate spread across regional markets that don't typically appear on the premium live event calendar.
In the United States, SNME XLIV streams exclusively on Peacock. The August 2025 deal pulled SNME off NBC's linear schedule and moved it to Peacock as part of WWE's broader streaming reshuffle that also sent premium live events to ESPN. A Peacock Premium subscription unlocks the live broadcast plus the on-demand replay.
Internationally, the show streams on WWE's official YouTube channel in most markets, the same model WWE has used for SNME XLII, XLIII, and the upcoming XLV. The YouTube approach makes SNME the most accessible WWE event globally — no subscription required for international viewers — even as the U.S. side gets pulled deeper into paid streaming.
WWE hasn't announced any matches yet, which is standard for SNME at this point in the cycle. Backlash needs to wrap first before booking shifts to Fort Wayne, and the post-Backlash Raw and SmackDown episodes will likely set the table for two to three confirmed bouts before fight week.
In fact, it wouldn’t be too surprising to learn of at least one of the matches for SNME during the Backlash PLE or the post show after the event.
The most likely pattern, based on prior SNME builds: one championship match, one grudge bout, and one or two singles matches involving talent who didn't make the Tampa card.
Expect names like Cody Rhodes, Gunther, Rhea Ripley, and rising acts to surface in the booking, especially anyone WWE wants to give a featured spot before the Madison Square Garden show in July.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
WWE Saturday Night's Main Event XLIV is scheduled to take place on May 1, 2026.
The event will be held in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The exact start time for WWE Saturday Night's Main Event XLIV has not been specified yet.
Details on how to watch WWE Saturday Night's Main Event XLIV will be provided closer to the event date.
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