WWE Rumors on Stephanie Vaquer Title Match, Earlier Raw Start Time, NXT PLE Rights

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

Reported Potential Location of Vaquer Title Match

Stephanie Vaquer's scheduled Women's World Championship match for Clash in Paris has been postponed, but it reportedly could be ticketed for another major event in the near future.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Randall Ortman of Cageside Seats), WWE is considering the possibility of Vaquer getting her title opportunity at Wrestlepalooza on Sept. 20.

At Evolution, Vaquer won a battle royal to earn a title match at Clash in Paris, and after Naomi beat Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley in a Triple Threat match to retain the women's world title at SummerSlam, she was set to be Vaquer's opponent.

However, Naomi announced last week on Raw that she is pregnant, which forced her to vacate the title.

On this week's episode of Raw, general manager Adam Pearce spoke with Vaquer backstage, telling her that the Clash in Paris title match was off.

Pearce said Vaquer is still the No. 1 contender, though, and noted that he will announce her opponent, as well as the date and location of the match during next week's Raw.

Wrestlepalooza is shaping up to be a huge show in Indianapolis since it will be the first WWE premium live event to air on ESPN's streaming service.

It is widely assumed that John Cena and Brock Lesnar will clash on that show, and Vaquer vs. an opponent to be named for the Women's World Championship would add even more depth to the card.

Sky and Ripley are recent women's champs who would make sense as Vaquer's opponent at Wrestlepalooza or whenever the match is slated to happen, but predicting Vaquer's opponent remains guesswork at this point.

Raw Scheduled for Earlier Start Time Next Month

Raw has typically had a start time of 8 p.m. ET for many years, but there is speculation that changes are coming due to WWE's advertised start time of some upcoming Raw events.

On the WWE.com events page, WWE lists a start time of 6:30 p.m. ET for the Sept. 15 Raw in Springfield, Massachusetts, a 5:30 p.m. CT (or 6:30 p.m. ET) start time for the Sept. 22 Raw in Evansville, Indiana, and a 6:30 p.m. ET start time for the Sept. 29 Raw in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Typically, the advertised start time is a half hour before Raw goes on the air since it allows for dark matches or matches taped for Main Event to be presented to the crowd prior to Raw.

The reasoning for the change isn't yet clear, but there are a couple of possible explanations.

One is that WWE is planning to tape additional matches or shows before Raw, which would require fans to be at the arena and in their seats earlier than usual.

Another potential explanation is that WWE is looking to start Raw earlier on Netflix during the NFL season to lessen the impact of going head-to-head with Monday Night Football.

Monday Night Football games usually start at 8:15 p.m. ET, meaning essentially an entire episode of Raw that starts at 8 p.m. ET is in direct competition with the NFL.

Starting at 7 p.m. ET means a typical Raw would end at around 9:30 p.m. ET, so just over an hour of Raw would go head-to-head with football rather than the whole episode.

Reported Present and Future of NXT PLEs

Although WWE main roster premium live events are making the move to ESPN's streaming service starting next month, that won't be the case for NXT PLEs.

According to Fightful Select (h/t Ortman), NXT premium live events will remain on Peacock for the foreseeable future, but there has been some discussion about the rights to those shows being available at some point.

While Peacock has been the home to all WWE PLEs since 2021, a big change recently occurred when WWE struck a deal with ESPN.

It was assumed that the move from Peacock to ESPN would take place at the start of 2026, but it happened way sooner than anyone expected, as Wrestlepalooza on Sept. 20 will be the first WWE PLE on the ESPN streaming service.

Peacock was not left empty-handed, though, as NXT PLEs are remaining on the service, and Saturday Night's Main Event is being made a Peacock-exclusive show rather than airing on NBC.

On top of that, the WWE library is also still on Peacock, although the future of that arrangement is very much up in the air.

By allowing Peacock to keep NXT PLEs, SNME and the WWE library for now, it gives WWE fans an incentive to keep Peacock rather than canceling it.

NXT PLEs are not as popular as the main roster ones, but NXT typically does solid weekly viewership on The CW, which suggests there is an appetite for watching WWE's future stars.

Since WWE was able to get NXT its own TV deal independent from Raw and SmackDown, it is fair to wonder if a separate streaming deal for NXT PLEs could be in the works at some point in 2026 as well.