ESPN has swiftly denied a report from BJ Bethel of SEScoops.com that suggested the sports news giant has already decided it would not be renewing its current five-year deal with WWE.
“Only one-year into ESPN’s five-year deal to air World Wrestling Entertainment events on its Unlimited app, the network won’t be renewing the contract when it expires. Multiple sources told SEScoops the deal faced multiple problems,” read the faulty tweet.
The story went on to note that “one source said there were virtually no discussions between the two companies when the app was launched and WWE PLEs began airing on it. That changed recently, with ESPN promoting WWE content, making the PLEs available on lesser tiers and airing the first hour of shows on linear networks, much to the chagrin of sports fans.”
ESPN Denies BJ Bethel’s Faulty Report About WWE Deal
ESPN Head of Communications Ben Cafardo issued a strong denial, going as far as to say that Bethel never even checked with ESPN before running the story.
“There is no truth to the report that we have decided not to renew. They never checked with us before publishing and had they, we would have told them that was completely false,” wrote Cafardo. In an unsettling response as far as journalism goes, BJ Bethel claimed he reached out to ESPN through a customer support request. This despite ESPN Communications contact information being public information through the ESPN Press Room website.
A pro-AEW reporter who favors positive narratives over facts, BJ Bethel has a strained relationship with credibility. He is most known for writing a dubious report in 2025 about HBO Max garnering 500,000 additional views for AEW Dynamite. This story was widely rejected within the wrestling community, with wrestling reporter Andrew Zarian outright saying this was not a factual number.
WWE signed a $1.6 billion deal with ESPN last August. As a result, WWE became the crown jewel of the new ESPN Unlimited subscription service, which airs WWE Premium Live Events for $30 a month. WWE typically airs the first hour of PLEs for free on ESPN and ESPN 2, however this was not the case for SummerSlam. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter suggested that ESPN removed the free hour of WWE PLEs from ESPN Unlimited due to unhappiness with its viewership, and this would likely be the plan moving forward.
“The reason for not doing it, obviously, has to be they must be unhappy with the amount of signups that they’re getting or the viewership that they’re getting on ESPN Unlimited,” said Meltzer.
Dave Meltzer’s stream-of-conscious guesswork proved to be wrong as Awful Announcing reported that ESPN would continue to simulcast the first hour of WWE PLEs on its linear networks.
Though ESPN continues to stand by WWE and its billion-dollar partnership, there certainly have been whispers of the worldwide leader in sports being underwhelmed by the worldwide leader in sports entertainment.
“ESPN, by the way, so unhappy with the deal,” said actor and former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. on his “Wrestling with Freddie” podcast. 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.’” WWE content was ubiquitous during WrestleMania 42 week, prompting criticism from sports fans online who watch ESPN for its coverage of traditional, “real” sports such as basketball, hockey and baseball.
It is possible that ESPN and WWE could go their separate ways by the end of this deal, but after ESPN’s recent comment on Bethel’s report, that decision hasn’t been made yet. Despite the controversy that follows pro wrestling everywhere it goes, ESPN and WWE’s brief relationship has already amplified the most feel-good moment in sports of 2026.
WWE Superstar Danhausen cursed, then uncursed, the New York Knicks, leading to the downtrodden franchise’s magical run to topple the Spurs in the NBA Finals. Danhausen appeared on ESPN throughout the Knicks’ championship surge, and the moment led to increased viewership and merchandise sales for WWE, ESPN and even the NBA, which partnered with WWE to sell Danhausen t-shirts at the NBA Store.
Both WWE and ESPN staged mass layoffs this year, leading to unrest and bad will with iconic figures from both brands being released from their contracts. The cost-cutting is a reminder that, despite being A-list brands, WWE and ESPN are businesses that value profit above all else. WWE and ESPN have four years to figure out a rhythm that will be best for all parties involved. Both are industry leaders in their fields, so they should have more than enough resources to make the most out of yet another lucrative deal for WWE after WWE’s PLE package left Peacock.