Slam Fest to bring pro wrestling festival to Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas

Las Vegas will turn into the pro wrestling capital of the world for a few days in April.

WrestleMania 42 will be the main course for most fans who will make the trek to Sin City. But in the days leading up to the star-studded show at Allegiant Stadium, there will be plenty of events taking place up and down The Strip that could leave them satisfied and smiling.

Paragon Talent Group and Palms Casino Resort announced last week that Slam Fest will be hosted at the venue, starting on April 15 and lasting until April 18. It will bring several pro wrestling companies together, including Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW), Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), House of Glory (HOG), World Wonder Ring Stardom and Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, for days of matches.

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Additionally, WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley will host his comedy show, pro wrestling star Saraya will have a live episode of her podcast, "Rulebreakers with Saraya" and tag team legends Matt and Jeff Hardy will put on a "Hardy Party" with Matt Hardy sharing stories of his career.

Dean Muhtadi, the co-founder of Paragon Talent Group who performed in WWE as Mojo Rawley, told Fox News Digital the event received good marks among fans last year, and they wanted to do it again.

"How can we do this this year bigger and better? One way we decided to do that would be for us to put on the wrestling shows at the Palms this year," Muhtadi explained. "That was gonna be a big one. We’ve also brought in some really awesome events. The Hardys are doing their ‘Hardy Party,’ Mick Foley is going to have his comedy show, Saraya is going to do a live podcast. Of course, you already know, we’re going to bring the pool party back because that was our biggest event last year by a mile.

"A lot of fun for the fans. A lot of fun for us as well – tons of games and activities and things to do. We don’t ever want to throw parties where everyone is just kind of bored, standing around. We want to create very intimate experiences for the fans where they can actually hang out with the wrestlers, play games with them, have a bite, have a drink, have a conversation. With Paragon, that’s always what we’re trying to do with our events is to make the talent accessible and let everyone have a good time together."

One key component of having an event like Slam Fest was for it to be affordable.

Major pro wrestling events could see prices go from anywhere between $200 and $2,000.

Muhtadi said that with any event that Paragon has put on, affordability has "always been a top goal."

"One of the biggest core competencies of Paragon is sponsorships and third-party brand deals. With those, sometimes we’re able to get our partners to come on board and cut those costs down so that we can either do free admission or half-price admission, or something like that," he said. "If we’re able to bring in any of our partners, we want it to be a win-win for everybody. I think a lot of wrestling fans can agree that sometimes, when you see events too heavily branded, the sponsor logos everywhere, it can be a detraction unless fans feel a win from that too.

"We did our wrestlers combine event that was sponsored by DraftKings previously. We brought ticket prices down to next to nothing for that. We have done free admission for other events thanks to sponsors. DreamMania was a show that was put on that was totally free for fans to come in and that had pro wrestling shows and FloRida performing and musical performances, all that. But I think, especially in this climate, things are just getting more and more expensive by the day and I think that’s imperative to have a successful event. Get everybody in the door and let them have their fun once they’re there."

Either way, fans will be in for a treat throughout the week. Muhtadi had immense respect for each of the companies coming into the building.

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TJPW, Stardom and CMLL are well-established pro wrestling companies outside the U.S. that have created top stars and leveraged partnerships with the best of the best in the industry to bring their wrestlers to places like WWE and All Elite Wrestling.

Muhtadi said having companies like these come into Palms Casino for Slam Fest "shows you the strength of the pro wrestling world."

CMLL will make history as they will showcase its first standalone event held outside of Mexico at the Palms Casino Resort.

Scott D’Amore, the former Total Nonstop Action (TNA) president, founded Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling (MLP) and relaunched the brand in August 2024. The company has hosted several events since reentering the pro wrestling fray.

"Maple Leaf Pro, their first-ever show in the United States. When you go back and look through Scott D’Amore’s background, man, that’s kinda saying something right? This is a guy who is incredibly accomplished," he said. "He’s been one of our partners with Paragon to put on this entire thing in the first place, helping us spearhead the wrestling portion of Slam Fest and he’s been great.

"Also, kind of funny, considering we used to negotiate contracts against this guy. And everyone always used to say Scott D’Amore is such a nice guy and I was like, you know, I’ve never seen that part. I think he’s kind of a jerk a little bit. But that’s what happens when you’re negotiating these things, right? But now we’re on the same team, man, I understand every bit. I ever told him that, we were cracking up about it, but a wealth of knowledge bringing so much to the table for us here to put all this on."

HOG was co-founded by former TNA star Amazing Red in 2012 and is the lone U.S. company that will be featured in Slam Fest. The Hardys are HOG’s tag team champions and are expected to be in action during Slam Fest.

"As you can tell, we’re just really excited about the team that we put together, the shows that we’re going to be able to give to the fans. I mean, a lot of our events are going to be free admission, the pool party. You got some of the biggest names in the history of the business and fans can come meet them and hang out for literally $0 and the place is big enough to be able to house everybody, free entertainment supplemented by all the events. … it’s gonna be a lot.

"We got a lot of things cooking."

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