It’s only been a little less than four months since WWE and ESPN agreed to a 5 year, $1.6 billion dollar deal to air all WWE PLE’s on ESPN’s new streaming platform, ESPN DTC, a deal that was supposed to begin next year at WrestleMania, but instead started in September with Wrestlepalooza. Given the start of the deal being moved up, it would stand to reason that WWE and ESPN started strong, with little reason to believe the honeymoon phase wouldn’t be over quickly. But at least one person is hearing that’s not the case.
On the latest edition of “Wrestling With Freddie,” actor and former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. was reviewing the Survivor Series: WarGames PLE from last weekend, when he almost nonchalantly passed along something he had heard regarding ESPN’s happiness, or lack thereof, with WWE.
“ESPN, by the way, is so unhappy with the deal,” Prinze Jr. said. “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.’ Like, he said they’re [ESPN] hot.”
While the “She’s All That” star didn’t elaborate on why ESPN was unhappy with their WWE deal, he suggested to listeners that they buy more WWE PLE’s, and jokingly suggested that naming them PLE’s instead of PPV’s may be a reason why more fans aren’t buying shows. While WWE had touted the success of their PLEs while they were airing on Peacock, including providing attendance and viewership numbers, that has not been the case since PLE’s began airing on ESPN, with neither WWE nor the broadcaster releasing any viewership data.
If you use quotes in this article, please credit “Wrestling with Freddie” and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
