Update on WWE’s Partnership with ESPN & Level of Involvement ESPN Has For WWE Shows

WWE has been in a partnership with ESPN since August of 2025 to air their PLEs (premium live events) exclusively on ESPN networks and the ESPN Unlimited streaming service in the United States. ESPN had recently requested for an expanded card for this past June’s Night of Champions 2026 event in order to better benefit their ESPN Unlimited service.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources confirmed that ESPN was the reason for the larger than usual card done for Night of Champions compared to a regular WWE PLE card under WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s creative control.

Meltzer reported that those spoken to stated that ESPN are not silent partners and instead have been active and are always coming up with ideas for WWE to potentially use for their shows.