WWE: Paul Heyman on “There Was A Payoff With Travis Scott And The Rock. It Fell Apart, We Moved Forward Without It”, WWE’s New Deal with ESPN for WWE PLEs in U.S. Update, CM Punk Announced for UK Tour This August

Paul Heyman Comments on “There Was A Payoff With Travis Scott And The Rock. It Fell Apart, We Moved Forward Without It”, WWE’s New Deal with ESPN for WWE PLEs in U.S. Update,

A recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show featured Paul Heyman as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Heyman’s thoughts about if there was ever a payoff for The Rock and Travis Scott’s involvement in the John Cena heel turn storyline.

“There was. It fell apart and we moved forward without it.”

Heyman also gave his thoughts about the recent rumors of Scott making people angry in WWE over his lack of commitment for wrestling and if he is actually done with the company.

“I don’t know if he’s done. Any meeting that I was in that involved Travis Scott, I got along with him fine. Have I heard things? I have. Do I know the accuracy of it? Haven’t heard Travis’ version of it. Like his music, like his taste in women that he has children with, wish I was dating one of those sisters. I’m not, he was married to one. He’s doing better in his personal life than I am.”

Heyman also gave his thoughts about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s abscense from the Cena heel storyline.

“I don’t know what happened with Dwayne. That’s something you should have Dwayne come into these beautiful Yahoo studios and answer for himself. I don’t know. Or have Brian Gerwitz come in and I’m sure he can tell you their side of the story, I don’t know. Especially WrestleMania, I had enough on my plate, I wasn’t really concerned with what happened with Cody Rhodes and John Cena’s storyline.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

---

WWE’s New Deal with ESPN for WWE PLEs in U.S. Update

As noted before, WWE recently signed a new media rights deal with ESPN to broadcast their Premium Live Events (PLEs) on ESPN’s new streaming service in the United States starting in 2026. WWE and ESPN’s announcement led to some online confusion over the availability of subscriptions to ESPN’s new streaming service and if users needed to pay extra or if they would get it for free if their provider already carries ESPN. This was later revealed to be only customers from select carriers will have ability to watch WWE PLEs for free or have access to it on ESPN’s new streaming service.

CNBC Sport’s Alex Sherman reported in his newsletter that his sources confirmed that only select carriers will have access to WWE PLEs on ESPN’s new streaming service for the time being.

Sherman reported that Disney and ESPN’s goal is to make the new direct-to-consumer service available to all cable subscribers but those carriage deals still need to be worked out with the outstanding ones. Sherman reported that Disney is currently hoping to get most of those deals done by the end of this year.

I’m told discussions with all of these pay TV providers are ongoing, and Disney hopes to have most of them done by the end of the year. It’s still unclear to me at this point if Disney can accelerate some of these discussions if their pay TV carriage renewals aren’t until 2026.

Long-term, ESPN plans to have authentication deals with every major pay TV distributor. Disney doesn’t want existing cable customers leaving the bundle just because ESPN is now available outside of it.

But when the application is ready for showtime on Aug. 21, there are going to be a bunch of pay TV subscribers who aren’t going to get their authentication access that they’re paying for. It’s possible this may lead to some pay TV distribution swapping. In other words, if I’m a YouTube TV subscriber and I want ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product now, maybe I switch to DirecTV or Charter, if I live in that territory.

---

CM Punk Announced for UK Tour This August

WWE announced on Twitter that CM Punk will be making an appearance at every WWE Live Event for their upcoming new tour of the United Kingdom later this month.

🚨 @CMPunk will be at EVERY #WWELive event in the UK on the Road to #WWEClash in Paris this month! 🇬🇧 🤩

Liverpool, August 23

Newcastle, August 24

Manchester, August 26

Leeds, August 27

Cardiff, August 28

🎟️ TICKETS: http://wwe.com/events

🚨 @CMPunk will be at EVERY #WWELive event in the UK on the Road to #WWEClash in Paris this month! 🇬🇧 🤩

Liverpool, August 23
Newcastle, August 24
Manchester, August 26
Leeds, August 27
Cardiff, August 28

🎟️ TICKETS: https://t.co/OSrJiHOsca pic.twitter.com/WQMXnl77tO

— WWE UK (@WWEUK) August 7, 2025