ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Professional wrestling is set to return to headline an Allentown Fair grandstand show for the first time in 32 years, it was announced Thursday.
The independent Stars, Stripes & Slams card will feature high-profile former WWE champions and contenders.
WWE Hall of Famer Tito Santana will make an appearance at the show, but will not compete.
Combatants will be former WWE tag team champions Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson (The Good Brothers), former WWE and TNA performers N-Zo (formerly Enzo Amore), HEATH (Heath Slater) and more.
Stars, Stripes & Slams wrestling will be at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 3. A special fan meet-and-greet will take place at the Fairgrounds from 6-7 p.m. Tickets, the prices of which were not immediately announced, will go on sale at 10 a.m. April 10 on the fair website or at the box office at 302 N. 17th St., Allentown.Allentown Fair release
The event will be "a live, family-friendly show designed to appeal to longtime fans and new audiences alike," the fair said in a release.
The event will be at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 3. A special fan meet-and-greet will take place at the Fairgrounds from 6-7 p.m.
Tickets, the prices of which were not immediately announced, will go on sale at 10 a.m. April 10 on the fair website or at the box office at 302 N. 17th St., Allentown.
Special box office hours will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 10.
All show tickets include admission to the fair. The fair also offers discount ride tickets, half price fair admission, and prepaid premium parking.
Stars, Stripes & Slams is the second grandstand headline show to be announced for this year's fair, which will run Sept. 2-7.
Previously announced was platinum country singer Warren Zeiders,who will perform at 7 p.m. Sept. 4. Tickets for his show also go on sale at 10 a.m. April 10.
Top participants
Official matches will be announced later on the fair’s social platforms.
But the lineup includes:
• The Good Brothers, who were two-time WWE Raw tag team champions 2016-19 and competed in the WWE until 2025.
• N-Zo (formerly Enzo Amore), a two-time WWE cruiserweight champion who last year wrestled in TNA.
• HEATH (Heath Slater), who wrestled in WWE 2006-2020, and later in the TNA. He was the first wrestler to have won both the WWE SmackDown and Raw Tag Team championships.
• “The Franchise” Shane Douglas, a former WWE Intercontinental champion and a four-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion.
• James Ellsworth, who wrestled in the WWE and multiple independent organizations.
• Ricardo Rodriguez, a former WWE wrestler.
• The Patriot, a former WWE and WCW wrestler.
Santana, who was in the WWF (now WWE) from 1979-93 and was a two-time Intercontinental Champion and two-time tag-team champion, will interact with fans.
He battled such wrestling icons as Hulk Hogan, Randy "Macho Man" Savage and fought Ric Flair to a draw. Santana was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.
'Deep roots'
The show will revive "a tradition that played a key role in the sport’s rise during the late 20th century," the fair said in a release.
In the late 1970s and the 1980s, Allentown Fairgrounds, particularly Agricultural Hall, served as a regular television taping site for what was then the World Wide Wrestling Federation.
Matches filmed in Allentown were broadcast throughout the Northeast, helping introduce professional wrestling to a broader audience.
“Bringing wrestling back in 2026 allows us to honor that history while offering today’s fans the chance to experience live professional wrestling in a setting that helped shape the sport.”Allentown Fair Marketing and Entertainment Manager Jessica Ciecwisz
During that era, the fairgrounds hosted appearances by many of wrestling’s most recognizable stars, including Andre the Giant, Bob Backlund, Ivan Putski and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine.
The venue became widely known among wrestling fans and earned Allentown a lasting reputation as an important wrestling town.
“Professional wrestling has deep roots at the Allentown Fairgrounds,” Fair Marketing and Entertainment Manager Jessica Ciecwisz said.
“Bringing wrestling back in 2026 allows us to honor that history while offering today’s fans the chance to experience live professional wrestling in a setting that helped shape the sport.”
A WWF wrestling card last was a fair grandstand headline show in 1994, with others in 1993 and 1992 that drew nearly 4,000 fans to the grandstand.
In 1985, a card by the National Wrestling Alliance at the fair grandstand drew 3,194 fans. That year closed out eight straight years during which the fair had a headline grandstand wrestling card.
The first WWF card shown in fair records was 1978.
