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It has been more than a year since WWE announced that its Premium Live Events were leaving Peacock for ESPN.
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I didn’t hate the move when it was announced. WWE partnering with the self-proclaimed “Worldwide Leader in Sports” felt like another major step in the company’s continued push into the mainstream.
One year later, though, I have a hard time arguing that the deal has been good for WWE fans.
In fact, I think it has been a failure.
WWE Fans Are Paying More for Less
The biggest issue is the price. ESPN Unlimited now costs $31.99 per month, up from the $29.99 price it launched at last year. ESPN’s WWE package includes 10 PLEs annually, meaning WWE fans are paying nearly three times what Peacock cost for fewer than one live event per month on average.
There isn’t much additional WWE content between those events either. ESPN includes PLE replays and pre- and post-shows, but not the massive WWE archive that came with the WWE Network and later Peacock.
That’s a major difference from what came before it. The WWE Network wasn’t just a place to watch WrestleMania. It gave fans the PLEs, old pay-per-views, documentaries, classic episodes of Raw and SmackDown and an enormous archive of WWE history.
Peacock inherited much of that library while also giving subscribers everything else on Peacock for around $11 per month. Now, WWE fans are paying considerably more for considerably less WWE content.
If you’re a huge sports fan, ESPN Unlimited might be worth $31.99 per month, but that’s ESPN’s value proposition. I’m talking about WWE’s, and from that perspective, it’s difficult for me to see how fans are better off today than they were before the deal.
WWE Premium Live Events Feel Different on ESPN
The price would be easier to stomach if the move to ESPN had made WWE PLEs feel more premium. Instead, the shows have become increasingly crowded.
I’ve seen plenty of complaints from fans about commercials throughout the broadcasts, but that’s only part of it. There are ads on the ring mat, celebrity spots, sponsorships and seemingly endless promotion for whatever WWE, TKO or one of its partners wants you to watch or buy next. None of those things are particularly offensive on their own, but together they have changed the feel of the shows.
At times, 50% of the broadcast feels like hype for WWE or other companies, and the other 50% actually feels like wrestling.
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Advertising and celebrity involvement aren’t new to WWE. Celebrities have been part of WrestleMania since the first one, and wrestling has always been in the business of selling the next show. But there is a difference between advertising during a wrestling show and watching a wrestling show that increasingly feels built around advertising.
That’s particularly hard to ignore when WWE is asking fans to pay more than $30 per month to watch these events. The price has gone up, the amount of WWE content included with that price has gone down, and I don’t think the actual PLE viewing experience has gotten better in return.
The WWE-ESPN Battle Has Moved to Court
Now, some of the confusion that surrounded WWE’s move to ESPN is playing out in federal court.
Michael Diesa and Rebecca Toback filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against WWE alleging that public statements from WWE and ESPN led consumers to believe existing ESPN customers would receive access to WWE Premium Live Events without paying an additional subscription fee.
According to the complaint, Diesa already received ESPN through Xfinity and Toback through YouTube TV, but both allege they were still required to pay separately to watch Wrestlepalooza. The plaintiffs describe the marketing as, “in essence, a type of ‘bait and switch’ advertising.” Those are allegations, and the court has not ruled that WWE or ESPN engaged in deceptive marketing.
The case took another step on September 18 when a federal judge granted ESPN and BAMTech permission to intervene. ESPN and BAMTech are now defendants in the case, and along with WWE, have moved to compel arbitration of the plaintiffs’ claims.
Whatever happens next legally, the lawsuit underscores a problem that has followed the ESPN deal from the beginning. More than a year after it was announced, we’re still talking about who gets access, what fans have to pay and what exactly they’re getting for their money.
The WWE Network felt like it was made for wrestling fans. Peacock wasn’t, but WWE fans still got the PLEs, the archive and everything else on Peacock for a relatively low monthly price. With ESPN, WWE moved to a bigger sports platform, but its fans got a worse product.
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This story was originally published September 23, 2026 at 11:36 AM.