WWE fans are frustrated. And their feelings are justified. But they will not win a class action lawsuit over being misled about ESPN.
Root of the Lawsuit
A year ago, WWE fans knew where to find the content they wanted. Netflix had Raw, USA had Smackdown and Peacock had all of the library content and premium live events. Pecock had been a dependable provider since it picked up the WWE Network content in 2021. The contract was set to last until the end of 2025.
But ahead of the end of its deal with Peacock, (TKO/WWE) began to look for new partners and found one with ESPN, which, at the same time, was launching a direct-to-consumer version of ESPN. Disney/ESPN apparently decided it could sweeten the deal by adding in WWE content on top of all of its live sports and commentary shows.
So it was announced that starting in 2026 ESPN Unlimited would be the home of WWE Premium Live Events. Then in September, WWE announced that, never mind, the Premium Live Events are switching to ESPN in September instead. And that is where the problem started.
WWE and ESPN began to clumsily market the new setup and service, and totally botched the messaging. Fans were given terribly inaccurate information about how things would work going forward. It went something like “The new ESPN streaming service is the new home of WWE PLE’s. Fan’s can sign up for $29.99, but if you already have ESPN through your cable provider, you already have access to the service.” There were numerous articles repeating this.
WWE’s big broken promise
Ahead of its first event on the ESPN app, “WrestlePalooza”, the WWE even had a segment where one of its performers sat backstage and explained how to get the event and repeatedly said, “If you have ESPN already with your cable you can sign in that way.” The problem was this was not and still is not the case for many cable subscribers and streaming service subscribers. There are only a select group of providers that give their customers access to the WWE content via ESPN Unlimited they are listed here.
It did not help that TV providers did not get accurate info out to their customer support staff ahead of the announcements or even weeks after them. This caused more confusion. Because you see, there has been an ESPN app for a decade. And it can be accessed by most TV provider customers to stream anything their ESPN package provides. If you have ESPN through your TV provider, for instance, you should have access to the college football playoffs. There is not even a different app like there is with YouTube and YouTube TV. But unless you have Cox, DIRECTV, Fubo TV, Hulu + Live TV, Spectrum, U-verse, or Verizon FiOS you do not get access to the WWE stuff. While cord-cutting has definitely taken a bite out of pay TV subscriptions, there were probably plenty of WWE fans who have ESPN and paid for Peacock who now do not have access to the content via ESPN’s app. And they feel cheated and lied to.
Why there is there no case for a Class Action Lawsuit
Were WWE fans misled/lied to about how access to the service would work? Yes. Did they lose access to what they expected to be able to get through Peacock? Yes. Is it against the law to piss people off with muddled information? No. Neither WWE nor ESPN took away access to something that was paid for on ESPN. They just made it more expensive/confusing.
I’m not a lawyer, but if the plaintiffs were told that they had to sign up for cable in order to receive access to ESPN Unlimited and then didn’t get it after they paid for it, I could see why they would feel justified that there may be a case for a breach of contract. But what happened was that people who already had a pay TV service expected to have access and did not get it. And that is really damn irritating, but not illegal.
Whose fault is it? ESPN is not named in the suit, but it could have helped the situation a lot beforehand by working out deals with its numerous media partners before it launched the service in the first place. Or it could have at least held off on making major deals with third party partners and promising features it could not deliver, like the WWE, until all of the access rights were worked out. Instead, ESPN and WWE rolled out appearances by WWE personalities on major shows, hyping the new partnership.
In the end, ESPN Unlimited will probably be part of every distribution deal with every provider. For instance, at some unspecified point, Comcast and YouTube TV customers will apparently get access. But they have not been told when, just that it will happen in 2026. So, will they have it by Wrestle Mania? Who knows?
But as wrong on a number of levels as this is, it is not illegal. The combination of the jump to ESPN, climbing ticket prices, and fragmented distribution may end up costing WWE a lot of goodwill and damage its perception with longtime fans. But it will probably not owe anyone money in the end.
If I were ESPN I would be on the phone right now working out a plan to deliver Wrestlemania live on ESPN across all partners. Even if the rest of the details of the app were not worked out. It would be a major story, and likely a major ratings draw. It would be a great PR move and likely a good advertising opportunity.
