Rumor killer on way forward for WWE-ESPN partnership [REPORT]

A new report has emerged clarifying the situation involving WWE and ESPN’s partnership.

Lately, there has been a rumor making the rounds in the pro wrestling community that ESPN will not be renewing the contract with Nick Khan’s company, which is ending in 2030. For those unaware, the contract allows ESPN to be the exclusive U.S. domestic streaming home for all the Stamford-based promotion’s Premium Live Events.

According to a new report from Angel Aramboles of WrestlingNews, there is no truth to the rumor. In a post on X, he said:

“I had to double-check on this—I know it’s getting a lot of traction online, so I had to double-check on this—and I got word from both people inside WWE and ESPN, and they’re denying that this is true. One person stated that there was absolutely zero truth to it. Now, with that said, there’s been a lot of talk about WWE and ESPN, some sports fans or a lot of sports fans not being happy, or some fans not being happy with PLEs on ESPN. I don’t know. It all boils down to: are both sides happy as far as how much ad revenue is coming in? WWE is obviously happy because they are being paid. ESPN, I have no idea if they’re happy or not as far as the ad revenue.”

Aramboles further stated:

“Those decisions aren’t going to be made four years out. So, who knows what happens in 2030, but there’s still a lot of time left.”

ESPN is reportedly not a silent partner in the contract with WWE

A few months back, there had been some discussion regarding ESPN’s influence on the wrestling product. According to a report, the company is not just a silent bystander.

A report from Wrestling Observer Newsletter claimed that ESPN had a hand in making Night of Champions have six matches instead of five.

“WrestleVotes reported that this show was six matches instead of five due to ESPN feeling that they needed at least four matches not on television to convince people who aren’t ESPN Unlimited subscribers to subscribe. This was largely confirmed to us as accurate and it was noted that ESPN are definitely not silent partners in this deal and are always coming up with ideas”, the report read.

As of now, it remains to be seen how the partnership between ESPN and WWE works out in the coming years.

If you use any quotes from the first half of the article, please credit the source and give an H/T to Sportskeeda for the transcription.