ESPN-WWE Premium Live Event Partnership Beginning Earlier Than Expected 

Earlier in August, it was announced that WWE entered a significant partnership with ESPN to distribute its Premium Live Events (PLE) beginning in 2026. However, Disney released a press release that has changed the scope of the deal and moved up the beginning of the deal together. Let’s take a closer look at the press released and discuss when WWE PLEs are going to be on ESPN.

ESPN-WWE Premium Live Event Partnership Beginning Earlier Than Expected

In a press release on Wednesday, ESPN announced it will begin hosting WWE Premium Live Event partnership earlier than expected, as it will host the first-ever Wrestlepalooza for the company on Sept. 20. They also announced a few top stars that will be part of the show, though matches have not been announced as of this writing, but they are also expecting Brock Lesnar to be wrestling on the show as well.

“Wrestlepalooza will feature a blockbuster headline attraction with John Cena, as well as Undisputed WWE Champion ‘The American Nightmare’ Cody Rhodes, World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch, CM Punk and Drew McIntyre in major matches throughout the night. This event, held in partnership with Indiana Sports Corp, will mark the last time Cena wrestles in Indianapolis.”

This marks the end of Premium Live Events being streamed on Peacock. It is unknown if this was a buyout of the deal with the streaming platform or if it was simply an amendment to the deal. WWE Clash in Paris will still be streaming on Peacock for United States viewers, and this deal with ESPN does not affect any international viewers, as the Premium Live Events will continue to stream on Netflix. Interestingly enough, there was no mention of the past PLE events in the press conference, meaning it is likely that they will stay on Peacock, but that is not a report and more of a hunch at the time of this article being published.

Wrestlepalooza was the name of Extreme Championship Wrestling’s yearly pay-per-view event in the late 1990s, with the final event happening in 2000. All Elite Wrestling will be hosting its All Out event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that same night. It will be interesting to see how the ESPN-WWE partnership looks as this will kick off their agreement, where ESPN will host PLEs on their direct-to-consumer platform.