WWE: Peacock Reportedly Had Put Bid to Retain WWE PLEs & WWE Shopped Around WrestleMania as Separate Deal from PLE Package, 8/15 WWE SmackDown Show Reportedly To Have “King Of The Hill” Tie-In, More News

Peacock Reportedly Had Put Bid to Retain WWE PLEs & WWE Shopped Around WrestleMania as Separate Deal from PLE Package

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.

Bryan Alvarez reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Live that his sources stated that Peacock had put in a bid to try to retain their deal for WWE PLEs on their service. This bid reportedly was “in the neighborhood of $275 million per year.”

Alvarez reported that it is currently unknown if hat offer was for five years and for the same terms that Peacock had before TKO President Mark Shapiro had announced that ESPN’s package deal does not include. ESPN’s current deal does not include the WWE video library nor commitments for five documentaries and 250 hours of original programming.

Alvarez also reported that WWE was “shopping around WrestleMania” as a separate deal from their PLE package at one point with the idea of selling those media rights to one partner while the rest of the package went elsewhere.

WWE’s current media rights deal with Peacock expires in March of 2026.

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August 15th WWE SmackDown Show Reportedly To Have “King Of The Hill” Sponsored Tie-In

Variety reported that next week’s WWE SmackDown show on August 15th in Boston, Massachusetts will be having a special “King of the Hill” animated series sponsored tie-in.

It was reported that this tie-in will feature a custom wrestling mat with the “King of the Hill” signage and a “Kill of the Hill” digital creative will be shown throughout the arena.

It was also reported that Sheamus and Johnny Gargano will create videos inspired by moments from the show.

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WWE News & Notes

Bryan Alvarez reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Live that WWE’s recent creation of this past July’s Evolution 2 event and adding a second night of SummerSlam for this year’s event will mean that WWE will satisfy their 2025 PLEs commitment to Peacock with this November’s Survivor Series 2025 event. Alvarez reported that this will leave this December wide open for WWE’s schedule for the final Saturday Night’s Main Event show for John Cena’s retirement match. Dave Meltzer reported that should this be the case, the date to watch would be December 13th due to the TD Garden currently has nothing scheduled to take place that night.

WrestleVotes reported that their sources stated that NXT talent Sol Ruca has been getting a lot of praise within WWE over her work and WWE officials think the world of her for her potential as a big star in the company. Those spoken to reportedly stated that there is a growing sense internally that Ruca’s time on the main roster is coming and that she is more than ready for the challenge. It was reported that some on the main roster want Rica to be called up quickly.

WWE is currently advertising that Roman Reigns will be making an appearance at the August 25th WWE RAW show in Birmingham, England.

Peacock recently announced that premium and premium plus subscription prices will be increasing with Premium Monthly going from $7.99 to a new price of $10.99 and Premium Monthly Plus going from $13.99 to a new price of $16.99 effective on or after August 22nd. It was also announced that Premium Annual prices will also be increasing from $79.99 to a new price of $109.99 and Premium Monthly Annual prices will be increasing from $139.99 to $169.99 effective on the same date.

WWE did not air a new episode of WWE Speed on Twitter for the fourth week in a row. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the exact reason for the lack of new episodes for WWE Speed is currently not known. Johnson speculated that the reason might be due to WWE not coming to terms for a deal to continue the show so it is on hiatus for the foreseeable future.

In a recent interview with The Varsity with John Ourand podcast, WWE President Nick Khan gave his thoughts about his issues with out-of-office messages from WWE employees and him not liking when people try to message him saying they are tired from work. Khan stated “I just don’t understand why any human would do that. Basically, if someone emails you, it’s typically because they need a question answered or they need something. It’s in our hiring practice, you know Chris Legentil, who is not only our head of comms [communication], but our head of talent. Chris is never an out-of-office guy. If you call Chris Legentil at 3 AM, he’ll answer on the first ring and say, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ In addition to out-of-office email replies that drive me crazy, the ‘Hey, I’m tired.’ That drives me crazy. Everyone is tired. ‘I’m so busy.’ I read an article years ago, ‘I’m busy is a way of saying I’m important,’ which I get, so assume everyone is busy. You’re busy every day. Are there days where you’re like, ‘No one has texted me, I don’t have anything to do.’ It just doesn’t work that way. No out-of-office replies here. No, ‘I’m busy.’ No, ‘I’m tired.’” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Six Feet Under with The Undertaker podcast, Gunther gave his thoughts about how his achievements in his wrestling career do not mean that much to him in the grand scheme of things. Gunther stated “I really enjoying working for the company right now, the people I work with I enjoy working with them. Yeah, fulfill my contract that I have right now and kind of like ride along. I try to get better every time I step in the ring. Its like the small things, they just carry on all the time. It’s not really like, ‘I gotta win this now’ or ‘I gotta achieve this’. For me personally, wrestling accolades — in our bubble, they are good achievements but when I’m outside of that, it’s not really — I don’t know, I don’t want to put stress on my life for that. Before WrestleMania, there was this whole deal where like, is it gonna be the main with Jey and stuff like that. You catch yourself a little bit where you’re like, oh yeah, it should be, it’s for the title. But then, you kick out of it and go, at the end of the day, if I look my son in the face and tell him, ‘Son, I main evented WrestleMania’, he’s not going to give a [fuck] about that. You’ve got to put things in perspective a little bit sometimes.” Gunther also gave his thoughts about how he would feel more comfortable if nobody knew him in regards to his fame. Gunther stated “That’s like something I got to be honest, like I’m still overwhelmed with, not overwhelmed, that’s maybe the wrong word, but like I never cared about fame or anything like that. Reality, I would love nobody to know me. It’s like, I appreciate it [the support from fans]. But then I did a meet and greet recently and there was like one person, they said drove like nine hours or something to a meet and greet. And I said to her, I was like, ‘Appreciate it, but never do that again.’ Like, do something with your time that actually benefits you. It’s like a waste of time. And I felt like, she looked a bit sad, but I felt like that’s the only responsible thing to say at that point. Like, I don’t know. I feel like if my kid would drive somewhere to see that person, I wish the same message would be transferred [laughs]. 100 percent, like, ‘Please don’t do that.’” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com, F4WOnline.com)

In a recent interview with PEOPLE, John Cena gave his thoughts about how grateful he is for his connection to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in his wrestling career. Cena stated “I’m so grateful for the time I’ve been able to spend on Make-A-Wish. I’m even more grateful that my fellow [WWE] Superstars, my coworkers, my colleagues, now look at it as an aspirational thing.Because they’re only going to want to meet John Cena for a little bit. And the reason I just drop what I’m doing in that environment to do whatever I can is because the experience can truly make a difference – to talk with the families just like I’m talking to you right now, you get to kit them up for the night, you get to give them stuff that, like I came to see this person, well here’s all the stuff I have.And with me, it’s a great lineup because it’s my ring gear. I’m not giving them like a T-shirt that looks like me in wrestling tights. I’m like, ‘Hey, this is the stuff I’m going to wear. Here, here you go.’And then I’ll ask them for advice. They’ll be like, ‘Oh, you should do this move.’ And I’ll just go put it in the match, because we’re entertainment. I think that’s the absolute magic of sports entertainment. No one in the audience knows that that young person was like, ‘Hey, I want you to do this move.’ And it will seamlessly be put into the performance, but it will affect both of us on a plane that’s indescribable.“

As noted before, this past Sunday’s WWE SummerSlam 2025 Night 2 event featured Brock Lesnar making his surprise return and attacked John Cena. Lesnar’s return generated mixed reactions online over some who were happy to see Lesnar back and others who were upset and angry at WWE for bringing him back despite the allegations against him in the on-going Vince McMahon sex trafficking lawsuit. In a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Live, co-host Lance Storm gave his thoughts about how people really should view Lesnar’s return from the perspective of women within WWE. Storm stated “I don’t think it’s about Brock (Lesnar). I think it’s about the working environment of women within WWE, and under Vince (McMahon), there was a very unfavorable, bad — pick your own word — work environment for women. Dating back to Rita Chatterton to the objectivity of women with Bra and Panties matches and thong-a-thongs and ‘puppies, puppies, puppies.’ The very handsy makeout sessions that women had to do with Vince McMahon. Take that forward to whatever necessitated Vince to offer multi-million NDAs to women to stay silent, to what we learned about Janel Grant, and Vince was removed and Hunter has made things so much better. Women are making way more money. Women are legitimate stars, women aren’t objectified like they used to be, women can wear non-revealing outfits and still be big stars. So, to me, whether you bring Brock back or not or anyone else back or not, to me, you need to ask your question: Does this support your move to improve and make a respectful, safe environment for women in your company? Or does it detract from that and make it feel like you’re going backwards? Because I think if you just look at each individual case, well, did this person do something that’s really worth that? Oh, was this one instance? It’s not about the individual instances. It’s about the overall message you send to women who work for you in your company about the environment they are going to have to perform in, and I think you need to look at it from the women’s standpoint, and whether they would be in favor of something or not.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with ESPN, Cody Rhodes gave his thoughts about Brock Lesnar’s recent return to WWE and how Lesnar fits right in with the direction that WWE is going in terms of sport meeting entertainment. Rhodes stated “Brock, in terms of athleticism, one of the things — we held tryouts going into SummerSlam weekend and you have so many NIL athletes and so many people coming from the world of sport. Tiffany Stratton is a great example, someone on our roster now who came from the world of sport and has grown into becoming a professional wrestler and part of sports entertainment. Brock is somebody who is a NCAA Champion, UFC Heavyweight Champion, he fits right in with the direction that WWE is going in terms of sport meeting entertainment.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)