ESPN Denies It Is CANCELLING WWE PLE Deal After Just One Year (WWE News)
No, ESPN is not scrapping its partnership with WWE.
Is ESPN looking to bring an end to their working relationship with WWE after just one year? Err, no...
Of course, WWE and ESPN struck up a $1.625 billion five-year deal last year for WWE PLEs to air on the ESPN Unlimited app. However, a new report from BJ Bethel at SEScoops claims that ESPN has already made the decision not to renew this deal, citing “culture and synergy” issues between the two parties.
Pouring cold water on such talk, Ben Cafardo of ESPN Communications took to X to say there is "no truth" to this SEScoops report, calling it "completely false".
There is no truth to the report that we have decided not to renew. They never checked with us before publishing and had they, we would have told them that was completely false. https://t.co/jxJ8rkaoWU— Ben Cafardo (@Ben_ESPN) August 25, 2026
In response to Cafardo, BJ Bethel said he tried to contact ESPN via their support phone line and by raising a support ticket.
I tried contacting ESPN through https://t.co/yJ5rF6wm1G last night. Also left a voice mail on a support phone line. In fairness I forgot about previous correspondence with Ben in April and his email or I would have contacted him there.
I'm also standing by my story. https://t.co/xDtHG2am1V
Advertisement— B. J. Bethel (@BJBethelTweets) August 25, 2026
To further hammer home their point, ESPN reached out to PWInsider with a statement that mirrors the words of Ben Cafardo.
There is no truth to the report that we have decided not to renew. They never checked with us before publishing and had they, we would have told them that was completely false.