New Lawsuit Against WWE Over Allegations of WWE Mislead Fans About WWE PLEs Access on ESPN Streaming Service

Post Wrestling and Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that a new class action lawsuit was filed on Thursday, January 8th before the United States District Court in Connecticut alleging that WWE and ESPN committed deceptive marketing practices. Thurston reported that the lawsuit revolves around WWE moving their Premium Live Events (PLEs) to ESPN’s new streaming service.

Thurston reported that this lawsuit takes issue with how some of those who already gave access to ESPN channels through cable or other providers were still required to pay an additional fee of $29.99 per month to access WWE’s PLE events on the service. The plaintiffs allege that this contradicts marketing communications from both WWE and ESPN, specifically in regards to all existing ESPN subscribers being told that they would have access to WWE PLEs for free.

Thurston also reported that this lawsuit only names WWE as a defendant and not ESPN or its parent company Disney. The reason reportedly is due to the plaintiffs are trying to avoid going to arbitration and the class action waiver provisions stated within Disney’s subscriber agreement for ESPN.

Thurston also reported that this lawsuit dispute also revolves around how some pay television subscribers who get ESPN as part of their pay TV service got access to WWE’s PLEs on the app for free while others currently have not gotten the same treatment. Thurston reported that this is due to the various agreements Disney has with each pay TV provider for ESPN.

The lawsuit reportedly outlines the events surrounding the August 6, 2025 press release that stated features of the new app would “be available to all fans who watch on the ESPN App on mobile and connected TV devices, whether they subscribe directly or through a traditional pay TV package.” The lawsuit claims that this statement misled consumers and similar messaging in ESPN’s press materials stating “all fans who subscribe to ESPN” through either the app or traditional pay TV means would have access when watching WWE PLEs on the ESPN app.

The lawsuit also cites comments made by WWE President Nick Khan in an interview with the Varsity podcast this past August which he stated “When we did the Peacock deal in 2020, same thing, no upcharge for what were pay-per-views. Same thing here with what has been referred to as ‘ESPN Flagship.’ You subscribe to that product, you get WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, all of our other premium live events, with no upcharge.”

The lawsuit alleges that Khan’s comments misled consumers who already have access to ESPN channels into making them believe they would not need to pay any extra fees to watch WWE PLEs on the service.

The plaintiffs allege that WWE and ESPN drew customers into a “bait and switch” by requiring many existing ESPN subscribers to also buy ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer product in order to get access to WWE PLEs.

In regards to the class action lawsuit, Thurston reported that the “proposed class would represent customers who paid for the ESPN Unlimited service between August 6 and September 20 while also being subscribers of services that get traditional ESPN channels. The class would exclude customers of DirecTV, Fubo TV, Hulu + Live TV, Spectrum, or Verizon FIOS — services that did allow their customers to authenticate into the app and watch the PLEs by September 20.” This reportedly could be around up to 95,000 to 125,000 people who signed up to ESPN’s service attributed to WWE content.