WWE announced a deal with ESPN, worth over $1 billion, in August 2025, and the company quickly moved its premium live events to ESPN Unlimited months ahead of schedule, beginning with WWE Wrestlepalooza. In the months that followed, reports emerged regarding WWE and ESPN’s relationship, with the latest on Wednesday painting a dire picture.
While SEScoops reported on issues between the two companies, to the point ESPN will not be renewing WWE’s deal when it expires in 2030, another report indicates that’s not the case. Notably, the companies are only about a year into the five-year term.
According to ESPN’s Ben Cafardo on X (formerly Twitter),the head of WWE premium live events, in addition to other events such as the Little League World Series, there is “no truth” to SEScoops’ report that ESPN has chosen not to renew the deal. He quoted SEScoops’ original report and called the outlet out.
“They never checked with us before publishing and had they, we would have told them that was completely false,” Cafardo posted.
In response to Cafardo’s post, BJ Bethel, the journalist behind SEScoops’ report, said he was standing by the story. Bethel indicated he tried to contact ESPN for comment through its fan support website and email, though admitted he had previous correspondence with Cafardo.
I tried contacting ESPN through https://t.co/yJ5rF6wm1G last night. Also left a voice mail on a support phone line. In fairness I forgot about previous correspondence with Ben in April and his email or I would have contacted him there.
I’m also standing by my story. https://t.co/xDtHG2am1V
— B. J. Bethel (@BJBethelTweets) August 25, 2026
Bethel’s report cited issues on ESPN’s side, including the culture and synergy concerns, as well as changes in the “current media market,” and cable providers not picking up the cost of ESPN Unlimited for customers. On Monday, it was revealed the cost of the subscription service, thus, the cost of WWE PLEs, is increasing.
In December, Freddie Prinze Jr., a former WWE writer, also claimed the ESPN-WWE relationship was strained. He hinted things had gone south following ESPN’s unhappiness with the lack of subscriber increase from the deal.
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