{"id":373716,"date":"2026-07-29T14:14:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=373716"},"modified":"2026-07-29T14:14:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:44:59","slug":"report-espn-may-not-be-thrilled-with-wwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/report-espn-may-not-be-thrilled-with-wwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Report – ESPN May Not Be Thrilled With WWE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WWE and ESPN are taking a special approach for this yr\u2019s SummerSlam 2026 pay-per-view event, eliminating the free one-hour preview that previously aired on ESPN before the event moved exclusively to ESPN Unlimited. The choice has fueled speculation that the unique strategy may not have generated the streaming subscriptions each corporations were hoping for.<\/p>\n

Speaking on today\u2019s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said he doesn\u2019t imagine the move has anything to do with television rankings. While ESPN will proceed promoting SummerSlam 2026 with studio coverage, countdown specials, and repeat airings of Cody Rhodes\u2019 appearance alongside Tom Brady, fans will not get a free portion of the event on linear television.<\/p>\n

Based on Meltzer, WWE programming almost actually outperformed ESPN\u2019s typical Saturday night lineup, making poor rankings an unlikely explanation. He said,<\/p>\n

\u201cThey decided to not do the one hour. My gut is \u2014 we didn\u2019t get the rankings for the last two of the one-hour shows, which I assumed was interesting. Nonetheless, there\u2019s no way, within the time slot that they were doing those hours, that they weren\u2019t way, way, way, way, way above what ESPN would do in that point slot. So it may well\u2019t be low rankings based on ESPN. It does a lot better than programming in that point slot would do.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe rationale for not doing it obviously needs to be that they need to be unhappy with the quantity of signups that they\u2019re getting or the viewership that they\u2019re getting on ESPN Unlimited, and feel that putting the 2 matches on ESPN was cutting into the numbers that they wanted.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers which might be vital to them are the cash numbers\u2014not even the viewer numbers\u2014because the cash numbers to them are how many individuals subscribe on the day of the show. That\u2019s where they really make their money on this deal or don\u2019t make their money on this deal.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe one-hour show also heightens interest and gets people, like they did for the whole lot of the UFC contract, where they at all times tried to search out somewhere on the ESPN networks to place those two hours before the beginning of the pay-per-view to get people to purchase the pay-per-view. Nevertheless it\u2019s a special animal. That was selling a pay-per-view. This isn’t selling a pay-per-view.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the long run, it tells you that they weren\u2019t pleased with the number of people that were buying\u2014latest people buying subscriptions for ESPN Unlimited\u2014because in the event that they were, they’d have kept going and doing what they were doing.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been rumors of that from the beginning, that they’ve not been pleased in regards to the numbers. My gut was, at first, that they weren\u2019t going to be since it was limited what number of homes could get it they usually were paying an awful lot of cash.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose this might be the primary just about confirmation that, yeah, they\u2019re trying a brand new strategy because they feel that the strategy didn\u2019t repay.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe very fact they\u2019re doing it on SummerSlam tells it even stronger. In the event that they skipped it on the show the month before, the June show, it\u2019d be one thing and you may just go, \u2018Perhaps they don\u2019t have to do it on a small show.\u2019 But that is as big because it gets aside from the Rumble and WrestleMania. So there you go.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> If you may have any news suggestions or podcast recaps that you just\u2019d wish to send in for us to post (full credit might be given to you), please email me at [email\u00a0protected]<\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WWE and ESPN are taking a special approach for this yr\u2019s SummerSlam 2026 pay-per-view event, eliminating the free one-hour preview that previously aired on ESPN before the event moved exclusively to ESPN Unlimited. The choice has fueled speculation that the unique strategy may not have generated the streaming subscriptions each corporations were hoping for. Speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":373717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21056],"tags":[13023,2185,11027,6221],"class_list":["post-373716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe-and-more","tag-espn","tag-report","tag-thrilled","tag-wwe"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t