WWE star John Cena to hold last-ever Australian match

Last year, Perth hosted WWE Elimination Chamber, a series of cage match-style competitions featuring Australian wrestlers Rhea Ripley and Nia Jax, as well as franchise heavyweights Logan Paul, Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre.

Held on a rainy Saturday in February and abandoning the previously iconic Rottnest Channel Swim, the event nevertheless attracted crowds of over 50,000 to Optus Stadium and was enough of a success for the swift promise of a next event.

This weekend’s offering is larger and is rightly billed as a “takeover.” Saturday night’s Crown Jewel: Perth event was accompanied by Friday Night SmackDown and Monday Night Raw.

The caliber of the superstar has also been increased. In addition to Cena, who is arguably the biggest star of the series, Cody Rhodes, AJ Styles and Seth Rollins are among the leading stars of the weekend.

Okay, but why Perth of all places?

That’s a question wrestling fans across the country would be forgiven for asking.

Fans of UK soft rock band Coldplay were asking themselves the same thing in 2023 when Chris Martin and his bandmates announced two special shows in Perth in November of that year as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour.

Football tragedies across the country will also be checking Skyscanner After it was confirmed that Italian giants AC Milan and Como would play Serie A matches earlier this week. (that’s right for the score) in the western capital in February 2026.

In conjunction with all these major events, the Western Australian government’s shift in tourism strategy aims to draw crowds west, where they will spend big on accommodation, shopping, dining out and may even check out parts of the state for a road trip while they’re here.

Following the Coldplay concerts in 2023, then Tourism Minister Rita Saffioti credited the post-COVID decision to pump nearly $14 million into the WA Tourism Commission for events alone and give it a free license to entice big acts to come to the state.

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Speaking to media at a “superstore” packed with wrestling fans in Perth’s CBD on Thursday, current Tourism Minister Reece Whitby said he had met visitors from across the country and abroad, some of whom had rented cars to go to northern attraction The Pinnacles while here.

It’s not just wrestling, concerts and sports, although they make up the bulk of what’s on offer.

Melbourne street artist RONE has staged an immersive “worldwide” exhibition at the Art Gallery of WA from July 2024. One of the largest exhibitions of Shaanxi terracotta warriors outside mainland China is currently on display at the WA Museum..

It sounds like a good strategy, but does it work?

Well, Tourism WA’s annual report for the 2024-25 financial yearIt showed the number of visitors last month fell to 11.7 million from 11.9 million in the previous financial year. The tourism agency had aimed to attract 12.1 million visitors to the state.

The total dollars spent by visitors to WA also fell from $17.7 billion in 2023-24 to $17.2 billion in 2024-25; This is approximately $1.3 billion below the $18.5 billion target.

While cost-of-living pressures and strong growth in Australians traveling abroad were partly blamed for lower spending, the report also said the recovery rate of international visitors to WA was slowing, particularly in the business sector.

When it comes to major events though, the report highlighted the Wallabies-Springboks clash at Optus Stadium, the Perth International Football Cup at HBF Park and UFC 305 at the RAC Arena; these games collectively attracted more than 11,300 out-of-state visitors and generated more than $20 million in visitor spending.

But this week in the CBD Whitby was enthusiastic.

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“Perth is burning. It’s on the world map,” he said.

“So you attended the 12,500-seat UFC event, which was the biggest gate of any UFC fight night in Australian history.

“Then you had the Bledisloe Cup, again there were over 60,000 people at that event, again a sellout.”

Whitby pointed out that the upcoming Ashes was another blow for the city’s tourism industry.

“There are 25,000 people from the UK paying tickets to watch cricket in Perth in November,” he said.

“We are creating a calendar of exciting, big, blockbuster events all year long.

“We’re getting criticism in some quarters for doing this, but you know, the naysayers just have to look around Perth today to see that it’s working.”

But cultural experts warn that the success of international actions has the potential to come at a local cost.

Sam Whiting and Justin O’Connor of the University of South Australia argue that the return on government investments in arts and events should be measured over a decade and include social and cultural benefits, which take time to emerge.

He writes on The Conversation after it was revealed the WA government donated $8 million to bring Coldplay to PerthThe pair complained that headline talent was almost always imported and expressed concerns about the intent of the arts and culture policy.

“Local music was the heart of Australian popular culture, inseparable from the country’s sense of self-confidence and identity. It is now in dire straits,” they wrote.

“Importing mainstream British artists at a cost of millions while Australian music is atrophying is ultimately counterproductive.”

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