WWE and ESPN entered into a partnership early this year. It seems, however, that ESPN is very pleased with the arrangement, as it has been said. At the beginning of the year, WWE had announced a fresh agreement with ESPN under which the former’s new streaming service would be the exclusive venue for all the company’s premium live events. This was the case for WrestleMania, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and all such events, they would be available for streaming on ESPN.
The first PLE, which was shown on the platform, was Wrestlepalooza. Nevertheless, ESPN created some doubts when it assigned a general grade of “C” to Wrestlepalooza. It was widely assumed at that time that the sports media giant might not be very pleased with the promotion based in Stamford.
SOURCE at ESPN in regards to Wrestlepalooza and the overall numbers thus far after two PLEs in response to reporting by Dave Meltzer:“Things are going well and we have started strong. We don't provide the viewership specifics, but things have been going well.”
— Steven Muehlhausen (@SMuehlhausenJr) October 22, 2025
ESPN allegedly doubtful about recovering WWE deal investment
This narrative was further told by Freddie Prinze Jr. on his wrestling with Freddie podcast, when recently, he recently stated that ESPN was not really happy with the deal.
“ESPN, by the way, so unhappy with the deal. I was talking to a friend of mine who works for Disney, and he was just like, ‘Yo, they better make their money back on this deal.’ He just said, ‘They’re hot.’” (H/T Fightful Select)
New ESPN update counters rumours as WWE agreement faces backlash
As per the latest updates from Fightful Select, an insider at ESPN mentioned that they have not received any info on this and are very glad to continue with Triple H’s company. A senior officer at the sports entertainment giants stated that they were not even acquainted with Freddie Prinze’s involvement in wrestling. Recently, ESPN faced criticism over the WWE contract again.
The moment WWE’s agreement with ESPN got started, it was already under the watchful eyes of fans and critics. The main reason for such a negative view was the speculation around the platform’s extremely low user registrations and audience figures.
The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer scrutinised the present figures and figured that it would result in an annual revenue of about $30 to $37.5 million, which is far below the yearly sum the firm pays for the streaming rights, purportedly $325 million. In the meantime, Dazn’s Steven Muehlhausen made a remark regarding the situation.
“Things are going well and we have started strong. We don’t provide the viewership specifics, but things have been going well,” the statement read.
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