ESPN Is In An ‘Exploratory Phase’ In WWE Partnership

In early 2026, ESPN emerged as the official partner of WWE pay-per-view events and became the exclusive U.S. domestic home of all WWE PPVs. 

In a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, ESPN host Joe Fortenbaugh opened up about ESPN’s deal with WWE, acknowledging that both sides are still learning things. He said, 

“We are still in the exploratory phase with that. What does the viewer want the most? If we sit down and we have an interview with Seth, which we did recently, it aired this morning about tonight’s match, do people want to hear about the match, the history with Roman, his preparation for the match?”

Fortenbaugh then brought up the question of whether ESPN’s time is best catered to appealing to established fans, or trying to win over first-time viewers. He said, 

“Or do you want to bring in a new audience that might not necessarily watch wrestling, that might not necessarily want to hear about the storyline, but could be interested in the fact that Seth’s a huge Bears fan? They’re a Bears fan or they’re a football fan, now there’s a connection.

“Now they might be more interested in following Seth because they know something about him. So we’re working to marry those two, how best to serve the viewer. And it’s been fun because some of the conversations, like with Punk last night, we just nerded out over the match.”

The ESPN DTC service streams all WWE PLEs annually, in their entirety, with selected simulcasting on ESPN linear platforms. 

It has been reported that ESPN has been far from pleased with how their partnership with WWE has worked out so far. Click here to find out more.