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Heartbreaking! WWE Likely Scraps Huge Clash From WrestleMania 42

By Harikesh Shekhar • Published Apr 14, 2026 14:29 EDT
WWE WrestleMania 42
WrestleMania 42 will take place in Las Vegas on Saturday, April 18, and Sunday, April 19, 2026 | WWE - Source: WWE.com

This major clash between two top WWE stars could be moved to Backlash, but has been cancelled from WrestleMania 42.

The internal tensions between IYO SKY, Asuka, and Kairi Sane were mounting weekly on WWE TV as the Genius of the Sky would try to persuade Sane to leave an abusive Asuka, who is her Senpai (mentor).

SKY, who was also Asuka’s student, left the Japanese stars to join forces with Rhea Ripley instead, forming the tag team RHIYO. Ripley and SKY became best friends over the course of last year after initially being rivals when IYO was Women’s World Champion.

Asuka has been calling SKY out weekly on RAW, telling her that she has betrayed her real family (Asuka and Kairi) to join forces with Rhea Ripley. Despite SKY’s efforts, Kairi Sane still refuses to leave Asuka, and the two had a match on RAW this past Monday.

With Asuka’s help, Sane picked up the win against IYO SKY, and although WWE reportedly thought of doing Asuka vs IYO SKY to culminate the feud at WrestleMania 42, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer has recently reported that it likely won’t be happening.

Dave Meltzer Says IYO SKY Vs Asuka Could Be Moved To WWE Backlash

Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer that SKY losing clean to Jade Cargill last week on SmackDown to get her revenge on a prior attack from the Women’s WWE Champion was just more proof that her ‘Mania match was likely not happening.

Although the reason behind her losing clean to The Storm was because of her (kayfabe) injuries after Cargill’s beating from a week prior, Meltzer argues that WWE would have gone for a different finish had Asuka and IYO SKY been planned for ‘Mania 42.

He also notes that IYO SKY had posted a WrestleMania challenge to Asuka on social media a couple of days ago, but later took it down.

(Iyo Sky’s) not got a match for Mania. Well, here’s what I’d say: A couple days ago she put something on social media which was basically a challenge for Asuka for WrestleMania. At that point I was like, ‘Okay. They’re gonna do the match and announce it on Monday, because she’s put out the challenge.

You’d never do that unless you were told to do it.”. Today, she took it down. Nobody has told me it’s dead. The last I heard was that it could happen, but it would probably be moved to Backlash. But it’s not like it’s for sure going to be at Backlash. But when I saw her do that job for Jade (Cargill) on Friday the way she did, clean and everything.

I thought ‘they’ve made their decision, shes not gonna be on the show’. Because if she was gonna be on the show they would’ve done a different finish in a different way. She was there just to be fodder.”

SKY is one of WWE’s top stars and is constantly referred to as one of, if not the greatest, female wrestlers in the world at the moment, and her not featuring at WrestleMania 42 is not sitting well with fans who shared their gripes in the comments.

Also read: Rhea Ripley Denies Shocking Personal Rumor: “That Never Happened.”