Freddie Prinze Jr. stirred the pot big time with claims that ESPN is secretly unhappy with its $1.625 billion WWE deal — but now WWE and ESPN sources are firing back and throwing serious shade.
In an update reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, both companies responded to the actor and former WWE writer’s remarks from his Wrestling with Freddie podcast, where he said ESPN was “hot” over the money involved in the massive deal.
Sapp revealed he reached out directly to both WWE and ESPN sources and they weren’t exactly giving Freddie’s story a lot of weight. From the WWE side, a top executive reportedly said:
“A WWE higher-up said ‘no one in WWE upper management is aware of Freddie Prinze’s role in wrestling or otherwise.’”
As for ESPN’s side, they were equally dismissive of the drama:
“An ESPN rep claimed that they haven’t heard that chatter, and have enjoyed working with WWE.”
That’s a far cry from Prinze Jr.’s original comments, where he claimed a Disney-connected friend told him ESPN was feeling major buyer’s remorse.
“ESPN, by the way, is so unhappy with the deal. I was talking to a friend of mine who works for Disney, and he was just like, ‘Yo, they’re so—they better make their money back on this deal.’ He just said, ‘They’re hot.’”
Prinze Jr. even threw shade at WWE’s terminology, saying fans aren’t connecting with “PLEs” the way they did with old-school pay-per-views.
“But anyway, guys, we gotta buy more PLEs. Just call it a pay-per-view—people would remember that, and they would buy them… maybe.”
Despite the noise, both WWE and ESPN seem unbothered by the gossip — and they’re clearly not giving Freddie’s comments much weight.
As WrestleMania 42 approaches and ESPN continues building out its new streaming platform, the real story might be less about behind-the-scenes tension and more about whether the numbers justify the hype.
Do you think ESPN’s WWE deal is paying off — or is there truth to what Freddie Prinze Jr. is hearing? Sound off in the comments and let us know what you think about the billion-dollar partnership.
