WWE Moving Premium Live Events to ESPN in 2026 — Fans Confused and Concerned Over More Streaming Shuffles

WWE’s new partnership with ESPN will see all of its Premium Live Events — including WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and SummerSlam — to ESPN’s forthcoming streaming platform starting March 2026. ESPN will pay an average of $325 million per year, a massive increase over what WWE currently receives from NBCUniversal’s Peacock, where PLEs have resided since 2021.

“WWE has an immense, devoted and passionate fanbase that we’re excited to super-serve on our new ESPN DTC platform,” said ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro. “This agreement...helps drive our streaming future.”

The ESPN DTC service is slated to launch August 21, 2025, ahead of the NFL and college football seasons. The streaming platform will cost $29.99/month, with bundling options available for Disney+ and Hulu.

The deal expands ESPN’s sports-entertainment reach and gives WWE access to ESPN’s powerful broadcast and marketing machinery. WWE President Nick Khan called the partnership “tremendously exciting,” adding, “We know the sky is the limit.”

Thousands Upon Thousands of Fans Already Speaking Out: “Why So Many Subscriptions?” and claiming they will not pay the price of $29.99 for an ESPN streaming service.

While the business metrics look strong for WWE and ESPN, the fan reaction paints a more complicated picture. U.S. subscribers who have enjoyed every major WWE event on Peacock for $10.99 are now being asked to shell out almost triple the cost for a standalone ESPN service — one that may not even include the full WWE archive post-2026. Keep in mind Peacock also includes the full NBCUniversal lineup, including box office hits and classic films.

International fans will still be able to access PLEs through Netflix as part of WWE’s 10-year, $5 billion global rights deal. But this has caused confusion among U.S. fans, many of whom assumed Raw, SmackDown, and PLEs would all end up on one streamlined platform. Instead, we now have a fragmented ecosystem:

• Raw: Streaming on Netflix (U.S.)
• SmackDown: Airing on USA Network
• NXT: Tuesdays on The CW
• PLEs: Streaming on ESPN (starting 2026)

Add in archived content (currently on Peacock), All Elite Wrestling on MAX, and Total Nonstop Action working on new media deals as well, and the average wrestling fan is feeling exhausted — and stretched thin.

Backstage Take:
“While the ESPN deal is a financial win for WWE, it’s also another example of the industry’s increasing reliance on premium streaming models. Loyal fans who’ve stuck with WWE through the Network and Peacock eras are now facing ‘subscription fatigue.’ At nearly $30/month, the ESPN model isn’t outrageous for hardcore fans — but it's a lot to ask in a post-cable, multi-platform era. Especially factoring in if you're a multi-organization wrestling fan with All Elite, etc.”

Many are also wondering about the future of WWE’s massive archive — including Raw and SmackDown episodes from decades past, classic PPVs, and original Network content. WWE has yet to confirm where that will live after the Peacock deal expires in March 2026.

More Media Moves in the Pipeline
Despite the mixed reactions, WWE’s parent company TKO Holdings seems confident that ESPN is the right home for its biggest events. TKO President Mark Shapiro emphasized ESPN’s legacy of storytelling and big-ticket content: “We are proud to reinforce the ‘E’ in ESPN at such an exciting juncture in its direct-to-consumer journey.”

With SmackDown locked in on USA through 2029, and Raw making history as the first weekly wrestling program on Netflix in 2025, WWE continues to diversify its media reach — though perhaps at the cost of fan clarity.

The message is clear: WWE is betting big on ESPN. The only question is whether we will all follow.

🗣️Wrestling.news | Backstage Take

In a move that marks another seismic shift in WWE's media landscape, the company has officially inked a five-year, $1.625 billion deal with ESPN to broadcast all Premium Live Events (PLEs) in the United States beginning in 2026. WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and more will stream exclusively on ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform — a change that's creating waves across the WWE Universe. While ESPN is touting the partnership as a game-changer for its digital future, fans are split. Did WWE/TKO make a mistake? Time will tell.