Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[El-P]

They are SO fucking pathetic 😂

https://www.disruptionist.com/p/wwe-hooked-up-rfk-jrs-niece-with-summerslam-tryout

[Alucard]

 

no more PLE on Peacock next year, moving to new ESPN platform at $29.99 a month. 

[Blehschmidt]

I am so looking forward to watching the mental gymnastics of the firmly WWE aligned people who were all "AEW sucks because they charge for their PPVS" as they attempt to justify how this is actually a good thing and totally different from what AEW does.

[El-P]

Come on now. For 5 matches cards with 1 hour of adds scattered in between, that's a bargain...

[DMJ]

Welp...there goes the record viewership.

Tripling the price of the PLEs will effectively price me out of watching them and I'm sure I'm not the only one*. I also think, as much as there are certainly people who watch a ton of major sports and also follow the WWE, there are probably lots of people like myself who really don't follow sports enough to subscribe to a sports-centric platform like ESPN. At least with Peacock, you got the Dick Wolf-iverse, some good movie releases (still need to watch Phoenician Scheme), and the occasional great original series (AP Bio, Killing It, Paul T. Goldman, Mr. Throwback, Laid). At $10.99/month, it was basically the same as the Network cost-wise too. 

Obviously, from a business standpoint, the WWE is making HUGE money with this deal, but personally, this will force me to pirate the PLEs and/or go back to being someone who really only follows WWE by reading results online (which is basically what my fandom amounted from 2006-2014, post-college [when my buddies and I watched the PPVs at BW3's] and pre-Network [when I couldn't afford to order more than maybe 1 show a year]). 

On the bright side, with the company continuing to dig deeper and deeper into its MAGA Era and recycling feuds and storylines that I don't care about, there has never been an easier time for me to fully call it quits on being a WWE viewer. I'll miss Rhea, IYO, and Gunther, but even among that group, IYO and Gunther are basically just padding their resumes at this point and there's probably dozens and dozens of matches of theirs I haven't seen that I can watch on YouTube from pre-WWE. 

 

And because Blehschmidt mentioned AEW, I'll say this: If I'm HBO/Tony Khan this morning, I'm getting on the phone this morning and hammering out a deal to put the AEW PPVs on HBO MAX. I do believe that the WWE Network/Peacock deal played a key role in the WWE's success over the past decade and some of it had to do with the sheer ease of becoming a fan that the Network (and later Peacock) afforded. Like I wrote above, pre-Network, I was not ordering PPVs (maybe 1 a year), watching the TV shows regularly, or going to live events. I followed mostly online. Then, they made it so I could get every PPV for $9.99/month and access their immense library. I still never became a regular TV viewer, but there's no question that it re-ignited my fandom and that, over the next decade, through just my subscriptions, they made over a thousand dollars from me (I know, I know, drop-in-the-bucket) where, pre-Network, they made closer to 0. They made it so simple and so affordable to follow the product. Following AEW is still a little cost prohibitive, requiring either cable or an HBO MAX subscription, and those only getting you the weekly TV and the library. The next step is the PPVs. You add those and, with the basic HBO MAX plan being $9.99 (ad-free being $16.99), and HBO MAX offering a shitload of other consumer-friendly and appealing programming that the ESPN platform can't and won't, there could be a mass migration of wrestling fans in 2026.

I mean, when this transition happens, there are going to be a ton of wrestling fans who are going to be left high-and-dry and scared off by the $30/month price tag of an ESPN platform they can't justify subscribing to who might look at HBO MAX, with its lower cost and significantly broader content, and consider making the jump (or are already subscribed but don't follow AEW because the WWE is their "go to"). Throw in the PPVs, which are routinely stellar, and the pendulum swings where it will be easier and cheaper to be an AEW fan than a WWE fan. 




* Unless this new platform will be bundled with my Hulu? Like Disney+ is? As far as I know, I do not currently have ESPN+ as part of my bundle.

[strobogo]

Terrible for fans. They trained their audience for 10 years to never pay that much for PPVs again. First it was $9.99, then it was $4.99 on Peacock (and free for most Xfinity customers). And that was with all the back catalogue on Network, and then all that PLUS all the stuff on Peacock. 

Now, $30 a month for PPVs on ESPN, which has fucking no content besides talking heads yelling at each other. In terms of actual live sports, they split every major sport in the US with NBC/CBS/Turner and have the least of each. In terms of international, it iss just US distribution 90% of the time. Maybe it's worth ESPN streaming whatever version if you really love college football bowl games, I guess.

After next year, to keep up with WWE you'll need $30 per month for ESPN, $20 a month for Netflix for Raw, however much for Youtube TV or Hulu, whichever has SD replays. That shit is going to add up real fucking fast and a whole bunch of young kids super into WWE are going to drop out because their parents can't afford all that shit plus whatever other services like Disney. 5 years of that and when the deal runs out, shareholders probably aren't going to be as thrilled when business is down as they've been unable to grow the younger audience because they priced them out.

I also would not at all be surprised if it gets treated like UFC PPVs have with ESPN, where you have to pay the ESPN streaming platform price, then the UFC PPV price on top of that. 

[Timbo Slice]

TKO deciding to run the UFC model they slammed out with ESPN when they don’t understand the audience is different is some hilarious shit. 

[El-P]

And now the rumor is that Peacock is gonna get NXT PLE's, AAA (aka NXT Mexico) and.... TNA (which absolutely are their own alternative company and are just partnering with WWE and not at all a weaponized little cuck).

Gotta remember than next year, there will be three Saudi PPV's PLEs, including the Royal Rumble. Numbers from Netflix seems to indicate that while the Rumble has been majorly the highest viewed event of the year even above Mania, the Saudi PLE was watched considerably less than all of the others. Interesting dynamic for sure. 

[The Thread Killer]

Not that anybody here at PWO will care, but apparently this deal will only affect customers in the United States. Here in Canada, we never got Peacock to begin with, and I don’t think we’ll be getting this new ESPN stuff either. For International viewers, everything WWE is all bundled on Netflix: RAW, NXT, SmackDown, all PLE’s and the PLE/PPV archives. So I suppose, in theory if you wanted to see a PLE you could just use a VPN to log into Netflix. Apparently a lot of people have been doing that already because there are fewer ads as opposed to Peacock.

[Jmare007]

Same here in South America, but that happens with pretty much any live sports deal. If I wanna watch almost every sport on Earth I have my Disney+ subscription, which has ESPN and a whole bunch of shit that the U.S doesn't has rights for. 

I gotta wonder how strict Netflix is gonna be with VPN, apparently Disney+ is pretty harsh on them. 

[ohtani's jacket]

There are less than 40 countries that have access to the WWE on Netflix. In Japan, the WWE signed a multi-year deal with a streaming service called ABEMA back in 2023, and there are dozens of other countries with pre-existing agreements that the WWE has to honor. 

[Boss Rock]

The Network really was a steal, wasn't it?

[Robert S]

In some parts of Europe (e.g. Austria or France), WWE PLEs are still part of the original WWE Network. The expectation was that content will be moved to Netflix in 2026 or so when local TV deals expire, though so far nothing official was announced. Not that I care too much, to be honest. I am neither interested in their product to begin with, them going full-MAGA (and stuff like bringing back Brock) does not help either.

[NintendoLogic]

Enshittification continues its inexorable march to take over every aspect of the human experience.

[Lukeless]

Watching wrestling in 2026: "Yea, dude you should come over, it's the fifth match John Cena and Brock Lesnar have had this year, it's gonna be awesome.  Yea, so I'll just need to load my ID into Netflix and then their AI bot is gonna scan the room so for that part, you'll have to hide, just so it doesn't see you because I'm actually not supposed to let anyone watch anything on Netflix without them paying for it.  And then when we get caught up on that, we'll load up Disney Plus because through Disney Plus I have a deal with ESPN that lets me watch all the WWE events for just 24.99$ every month instead of 29.99$.  Yea, I save 5$.  Pretty cool right?  And then, right after I give ESPN the requisite blood test, we'll be all set for the big match!"

[Dav'oh]

This thread is more depressing than a thousand Benoit obits.

[Dav'oh]

Where's the escapism in 2025 WWE?

Wrestling's meant to be taken lightly. Ugandan Giants, Missing Links, Dragons, Snakes, Nature Boys, Giants, Bastions of Booger.

Hard to take child-molesters and cunts lightly. And I hold every single person employed by WWE culpable. No-one gets a pass.

[Jmare007]

By 2027 Nick Khan gonna be selling the wrestler's signature move to advertisers. The top rope chick fil a elbow and the Verizon dropkick, lmao. 

[El-P]

It absolutely is coming. Already there is talk of commercials *during* PLE's on ESPN. (which would be akin to commercials interrupting adds, dunno how this shit works). 

What's undersold is how Levesque was on ESPN talking about the deal joking around about Brock Lesnar and saying shit like "Whatever he wants". I swear, I know he just doesn't care anyway, but he's using the precise *worst* wording you could think of every time around, it's insane how bad he is. 

[JRH]

On 8/6/2025 at 6:46 AM, DMJ said:

 

And because Blehschmidt mentioned AEW, I'll say this: If I'm HBO/Tony Khan this morning, I'm getting on the phone this morning and hammering out a deal to put the AEW PPVs on HBO MAX. I do believe that the WWE Network/Peacock deal played a key role in the WWE's success over the past decade and some of it had to do with the sheer ease of becoming a fan that the Network (and later Peacock) afforded. Like I wrote above, pre-Network, I was not ordering PPVs (maybe 1 a year), watching the TV shows regularly, or going to live events. I followed mostly online. Then, they made it so I could get every PPV for $9.99/month and access their immense library. I still never became a regular TV viewer, but there's no question that it re-ignited my fandom and that, over the next decade, through just my subscriptions, they made over a thousand dollars from me (I know, I know, drop-in-the-bucket) where, pre-Network, they made closer to 0. They made it so simple and so affordable to follow the product. Following AEW is still a little cost prohibitive, requiring either cable or an HBO MAX subscription, and those only getting you the weekly TV and the library. The next step is the PPVs. You add those and, with the basic HBO MAX plan being $9.99 (ad-free being $16.99), and HBO MAX offering a shitload of other consumer-friendly and appealing programming that the ESPN platform can't and won't, there could be a mass migration of wrestling fans in 2026.

I mean, when this transition happens, there are going to be a ton of wrestling fans who are going to be left high-and-dry and scared off by the $30/month price tag of an ESPN platform they can't justify subscribing to who might look at HBO MAX, with its lower cost and significantly broader content, and consider making the jump (or are already subscribed but don't follow AEW because the WWE is their "go to"). Throw in the PPVs, which are routinely stellar, and the pendulum swings where it will be easier and cheaper to be an AEW fan than a WWE fan. 



 

Heck, if you have a Cricket phone account (no, I'm not shilling for the company, just stating facts), you get HBO MAX free with your membership (ironic, since Cricket is one of WWE's sponsors).

[strobogo]

11 hours ago, El-P said:

It absolutely is coming. Already there is talk of commercials *during* PLE's on ESPN. (which would be akin to commercials interrupting adds, dunno how this shit works). 

What's undersold is how Levesque was on ESPN talking about the deal joking around about Brock Lesnar and saying shit like "Whatever he wants". I swear, I know he just doesn't care anyway, but he's using the precise *worst* wording you could think of every time around, it's insane how bad he is. 

They already do this on Peacock and they're never going to go back to fewer ads, be it commercials during PPVs or every inch of the arena covered in logos.

[Embrodak]

I can’t explain why, but I really do think WWE is heading for an early 90s-style contraction in the next decade. They’ve bet big on being able to maintain the hot streak they’ve been on, but they haven’t proven they can carry over their success to streaming and are never going to get TV rights as good as the ones they used to get again. They also got in bed with a shitty right-wing media organization that, by all accounts, ruined MMA as a watchable product and is clearly on track to do so with WWE as well. Bad vibes. Evil as Vince was, he always made decisions with the preservation of WWE as a going concern at the forefront of his mind. Ari Emanuel and his coterie of corporate demons aren’t that sentimental, they’ll sell WWE for parts the second it becomes a hindrance.

[El-P]

Vince McMahon was always, despite the self-loathing and denial about it, a pro-wrestling guy. That's basically all he ever knew (the infamous anecdote of him thinking the Razor Ramon vignettes were incredibly creative because he had no idea of Scarface) and all he was ever good at (WBF, XFL, WWE New York and on and on). Not to mention WWE was his family's business.

The TKO people only know and care about one thing : money. They acquired WWE like they would have acquired Starbucks, a banana plantation or a hedge fund. At its core Endeavor are artist/sports agents, so you might as well call them parasites. They will make Wrestling Worst Again on their way of making obscene amounts of money. The day that cow is milked, they'll throw its corpse aside.

[The Thread Killer]

3 hours ago, Embrodak said:

They also got in bed with a shitty right-wing media organization that, by all accounts, ruined MMA as a watchable product and is clearly on track to do so with WWE as well.

I wouldn't necessarily say that Endeavor ruined MMA as a watchable product. A lot of the issues MMA fans have with the UFC were in place when Zuffa still owned the company.  The problem is, TKO are using the same blueprint now with WWE, and I don't think a lot of those things translate over from MMA to Pro Wrestling as well as some of the suits in TKO (namely Mark Shapiro) think they do. MMA fans were already used to the canvas in the Octagon (and the Octagon itself) being plastered with ads. They were used to the fight clock and replays being "brought to you by" different sponsors.  MMA fans were used to huge delays between the fights, because of prolonged entrances and backstage interviews and promo packages for different fighters, not to mention movie ads and stuff like that. A lot of these traditions carried over from Boxing to MMA, to be honest. 

I think one of the reasons I haven't found the adjustment to the TKO takeover as jarring, is because I watch a lot of UFC shows and I was already used to all that stuff.  I'm not saying I like it (I don't) but I'm used to it. Having said that, I think TKO assumes that there is a lot more crossover between the UFC and WWE fanbase than there actually is.  Hardcore MMA fans tend to be men, aged 18-49 (every advertiser's wet dream demographic) and they are pretty much bloodthirsty jock goons.  Look at your average WWE crowd. There are a ton of families and kids there.

Not to mention, hardcore MMA fans tend to look down their noses at Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling fans. MMA fans are nowhere near as emotionally invested in the fighters, either.  Sure, some fighters are more popular than others, but if a guy gets cut from UFC, then he's cut.  UFC is much more of a heartless, cutthroat environment than WWE traditionally has been.  The fans don't relate to the athletes the same way at all.   I think TKO is going to have to realize at some point (if they want this to work) that the fanbases need to be treated differently...but Mark Shapiro is a total moron, so that may very well not happen.

 

 

[JRH]

Yeah, most fans of "legitimate" sports look down on pro wrestling, and vice versa.