ESPN Reportedly Dropped Letter Grades from Reviews of WWE PLEs After WWE Pushbask

Dave Meltzer reported in this past week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the reason why ESPN stopped releasing their reviews of WWE PLEs with letter grades on their website was due to pressure from WWE. Meltzer reported that WWE officials were not happy with the low grade ESPN gave their debut Wrestlepalooza event on ESPN, which was a “C,” and had pressured ESPN to stop doing scores for their PLEs and post-show evaluation columns on their website.

Post Wrestling’s John Pollock and Brandon Thurston reported that their sources confirmed that ESPN dropped their review scores for WWE PLEs due to objections from WWE.

Pollock reported that while an ESPN spokesperson declined to provide official comments, one source with knowledge of ESPN’s approach stated that the decision to discontinue letter grades was ESPN’s alone and claimed that WWE did not request the change to be made. This same source reportedly declined to explain the reasoning for the removal of the grades score and if WWE took issue with the reviews when asked.

Pollock also reported that WWE did not return inquiries from Post Wrestling when asked for comments including if the company had expressed discomfort with any aspect of the WWE PLE reviews that included letter grades on ESPN’s official website.

These reviews and scores were written by ESPN combat sports reporter Andreas Hale, who also currently reviews and grades UFC events as recently as this past weekend’s UFC 326 event.

WWE signed a five-year deal with ESPN in 2025 for the exclusive broadcast of their PLEs on ESPN’s ESPN Unlimited streaming service in the United States.