ESPN wants to absolutely own the news cycle tomorrow when it and Fox launch their semi-competing/semi-collaborative new streaming apps. To that end, ESPN is moving up its rights-takeover date for WWE’s premium live events (PLEs) from 2026 to one month from today, Sept. 20, 2025, beginning with a whole new PLE, Wrestlepalooza.
WWE personnel currently are in Indianapolis, the site of the first-ever Wrestlepalooza, to announce the news of the event on Thursday — the same day the new ESPN direct-to-consumer app launches.
Peacock, which had to give the “OK” for this to happen, will live stream its last WWE PLE later this month. ESPN did not buy out Peacock’s remaining rights, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Instead, the arrangement for WWE’s PLEs to exit Peacock was brokered between WWE and Peacock and then brought to ESPN, owned by Disney.
The feeling was that through splitting its top two PLEs — WrestleMania and SummerSlam — into two nights apiece, WWE actually fulfilled its Peacock PLE tally early, a person with knowledge of the deal told THR. WWE and Peacock have worked out a deal to include new main-roster WWE programming to stream on the NBCUniversal digital platform.
In the multiyear deal, Peacock gets four primetime WWE Saturday Night Main Events per year. Two will take place in 2025: one on Nov. 1 and the other on Dec. 13. The latter will feature John Cena’s retirement match.
The WWE Network library will remain available on Peacock through the end of 2025, and (WWE’s minor leagues) NXT’s PLEs will stream on Peacock until March 2026. We do not yet know what will happen with the robust WWE archives next year., but throughout the duration of the new multi-year partnership, SmackDown’s library will stay on Peacock (on a 30-day delay). The weekly episodic SmackDown series airs live on NBCUniversal’s USA Network on Friday nights. (WWE’s flagship show, Raw, streams live Monday nights on Netflix.)
The 2025 Royal Rumble previously took place in Indy at Lucas Oil Stadium, setting the event’s all-time attendance record. Wrestlepalooza will be set at the city’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and will stream live on the ESPN app, beginning at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
Peacock’s final WWE PLE, Clash in Paris, will stream live from France on Sunday, Aug. 31; with the time difference, it starts at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. The other 2025 WWE PLEs that will now be on ESPN, not Peacock, include Crown Jewel on Saturday, Oct. 11, and Survivor Series on Saturday, Nov. 29.
The new, ambitious ESPN app, launching on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, will cost $29.99 per month. Users will be able to access all of ESPN’s programming, including live feeds of its many linear TV channels. Beginning on Oct. 2, streaming users can also choose to bundle ESPN with Fox One for $39.99/month; the new Fox streamer, which includes live feeds of its own news, sports and broadcast channels, costs $20 a month as a standalone option.