Update on WWE’s PLEs Deal with ESPN Starting Earlier Than Expected & New Main Roster Show In The Works for Peacock

As noted before, WWE announced earlier today that their new media rights deal with ESPN to air their WWE PLEs on ESPN’s new streaming service will be starting earlier than originally announced. This new partnership deal will now officially kick off with next month’s Wrestlepalooza event.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that their sources stated that ESPN did not buy out WWE’s deal with NBC Universal for PLEs on Peacock for the reason why their new deal with WWE is starting earlier than originally planned.

It was reported that WWE had negotiated with Peacock to end their media rights deal for PLEs on the service before its original expiration date of end of 2025. It was also reported that WWE had believed that they fulfilled their contractual obligations to Peacock for PLEs with multi-night events like WrestleMania and SummerSlam along with additional events.

WWE reportedly then approached ESPN with the idea of moving their live events content to their service with Peacock’s approval.

It was reported that WWE’s Clash in Paris event on August 31st will be the final WWE PLE event to air on Peacock.

In regards to Peacock, it was reported that WWE’s deal with Peacock to move PLEs over early to ESPN included terms for WWE to produce “new main-roster WWE programming to stream on the NBCUniversal digital platform.” It was reported that details of this new programming are currently expected to be announced soon.

In regards to the status of WWE’s NXT PLEs, it was reported that NXT PLEs will continue to air on Peacock through March of 2026.