WWE has gained quite a lot of notoriety in the last 12 months owing to its erratic hopping between streaming partners. The latest example of this is the company’s upcoming move to ESPN for Wrestlepalooza on September 20, 2025. However, this move comes with a hefty increase in costs to fans, and here’s how much you will need to spend to catch the premium live event.
WWE has entered a $1.6 billion streaming deal for its PLEs for five years with ESPN. Fans will need to pay a fee of $29.99 per month ($299.99 for a yearly bundle) to watch Wrestlepalooza
The move to ESPN has come five months in advance, as WWE ended its partnership with NBCU’s Peacock. However, fans paid $10.99 for ad-supported and $16.99 for ad-free content on Peacock. Thus, the prices have climbed by $13 per month. Additionally, fans will be paying more for less value, as ESPN will only host PLEs and not the regular weekly episodes.
The WWE Universe Isn’t Happy With the Move to ESPN
The move to ESPN has invited backlash from a big chunk of the WWE Universe. Existing subscribers of ESPN on cable are more frustrated since they are basically being asked to pay twice, as the PLEs will be a part of the platform’s ESPN Unlimited tier.
Fans who use the cable services of Spectrum (Charter), DIRECTV, FuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, and Verizon Fios won’t need to pay the extra fee for this tier if they can validate their account. However, subscribers who get their services from Comcast, YouTube TV, Sling, and Dish will most likely be forced to shell out more money.
To add fuel to the fire, this mess in prices is native to the US. Fans outside the US, like in India, will be getting all of WWE’s content, from weekly episodes of RAW, SmackDown, and NXT, to the PLEs on Netflix.
$30 per month for just PLE is insane 😭 Unless you’re into other sports they offer too.
otherwise, VPN + Netflix is the easier and cheaper way.
Thus, several international fans aren’t just getting everything on a single platform, but won’t be paying a higher fee for it either. Owing to this, several fans are saying that instead of burning a hole in their wallet, they would rather use Netflix via a VPN and enjoy everything WWE offers.
The Endless Streaming Problem of WWE
WWE used to have its own native network that hosted the entire library of all its weekly shows, premium live events, and live programming. This helped the company gain a lot of traction and heavily increased its fanbase. However, the WWE Network has been disbanded in favor of deals with existing streaming giants.
WWE RAW is available on Netflix, SmackDown is available on the USA Network, NXT is available on the CW Network, and now ESPN will join the mess for PLEs. This has disappointed several fans who need to subscribe to several providers at once if they wish to consume and enjoy everything WWE has to offer.
Despite this, the company is confident that its fans have enough loyalty to follow it to ESPN for PLEs. Speaking on the matter on the Varsity podcast, WWE’s President Nick Khan said:
Will the subs follow the product to whatever that new platform is? I think we’ve demonstrated to Peacock our subs will follow. They certainly all followed from the WWE Network, and that expanded that subscriber-ship extensively with Peacock. Same will be the case with ESPN, and we’re excited for that.
What do you think about this new move to ESPN in light of all the existing fragmentation of WWE’s content? Do you think Nick Khan’s confidence is valid? Or will fans prove him wrong? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
