WWE’s media ecosystem has undergone a massive transplant, and the end tally shows three multi-billion-dollar deals banked for the foreseeable future.
$5 billion with Netflix.
$1.6 billion with ESPN for its U.S. PLE rights.
$1.4 billion with NBC Universal for SmackDown.
A decade ago, the idea of WWE commanding billions over millions would have been a ludicrous pipe dream when its stock traded at $27 and its U.S. rights were valued at approximately $77 million per year before its 2014 renewals.
The strategy has been to maximize revenue while carpeting the media landscape. WWE is spread across linear and streaming, leaving the fan gasping for air and holding the bag to justify some of these exorbitant deals.
In 2014, when WWE Network launched and its pay-per-views shifted from $44.95 propositions to becoming inclusive with a $9.99 price tag for a streaming network that included its archives. Michael Cole and JBL said you were a fool to spend that much money on old technology.
Fast forward, and for many U.S. fans, the ESPN direct-to-consumer service will now proposition you for a $29.99 monthly fee – more than double the previous ask by Peacock for the same shows.
Some will receive the ESPN service for free with their cable packages, but that’s limited to select carriers and far from a guarantee that what is a perk today won’t be a charged item tomorrow.
But there’s more.
If you felt you would get some kind of relief by trading in your Peacock sub for an ESPN one, WWE just made that decision a whole lot tougher by subsidizing the Peacock service as it licenses its most attractive content elsewhere.
Beginning on November 1, Peacock will be the sole means for U.S. fans to watch Saturday Night’s Main Event as it’s losing its national window on NBC but spun as an exclusive for the streamer. It’s a record-setting shift for TKO, which was touting the “reach” that comes with UFC’s ability to air select shows on CBS while simulcast on Paramount+, whereas this move is the opposite, and WWE loses that additional reach and pushes another streaming sub onto your mounting bill to be a WWE loyalist.
Peacock will also be the home of NXT premium live events through the deal’s expiration next March and house the WWE archives for the remainder of 2025 before those rights are tossed into the open market to the highest bidder.
The trifecta of Netflix (Raw), Peacock (SNME, NXT PLEs, and library), and ESPN (PLEs) will set you back approximately $500 for the annual plans, and keeping fans connected to their cable package for Friday Night SmackDown.
The UFC has gone a completely different direction where a yearly subscription to ESPN+ and purchasing thirteen numbered events totalled more than $1,100. The same numbered events with Fight Nights are now priced at $60 for the entire year on Paramount+ and are still more affordable if you toss in $100 for a year-long Fight Pass subscription.
But is WWE wrong to be elevating its pricing structure among its fanbase?
While online discourse of the skyrocketing ticket prices is a frequent debate, arenas continue to fill up, gate records are routinely set, so why should WWE have any resistance to placing a greater “ask” of its base?
There is an exorbitant number of hours to view if you want to keep up with WWE, with four-and-a-half hours of Raw and SmackDown each week, another two hours from NXT, two monthly PLEs, Saturday Night’s Main Event, and expanding its universe to include TNA and AAA into the mix. All fans have a breaking point, and it’s the reason EVOLVE and LFG are programs that technically exist but are so far down the priority list that it’s a “tree falling in the forest” situation for most.
Its programming runs counter to the method toward the live event strategy, where the former is about churning out as many hours as outlets will pay exorbitant costs for, while the latter is about scarcity and limiting shows for maximum prices. Many fans will strictly consume WWE through a screen rather than experience the product in person due to being priced out or WWE no longer coming to their market several times per year.
With shows spread across ESPN, Netflix, USA Network, CW, A&E, Tubi, and Peacock, it’s hard to ignore the intentional or unintentional benefit of tying down so many varied outlets with WWE programming that it dramatically minimizes the field for other suitors. Whether it’s AEW’s renewal process in several years, or another entity that manages to gain any traction in a market flooded with one brand, the pool is thinned among outlets that don’t have “pro wrestling” accounted for on their slate.
WWE has mastered the musical chairs of the media ecosystem, jumping from one outlet to the next and holding a presence on broadcast, cable, and streaming. It has ensured staggering levels of profitability for the years to come, and further extraction will be seen through “efficiencies” (read: cost cutting) and pushing the upper limit of pricing its product until its audience blinks, while opening its floodgates to generate revenue, such as in-arena sponsorships and growing site fees.
We are nowhere close to that breaking point with a reality that five-figure WWE travel packages, tens of thousands of dollars for premium tickets, escalating streaming subscriptions, and fan experiences that dictate the audience has demanded “more”, not “less” with their dollars.
Traditionally, competition benefits consumers as companies vie for your business. However, this current climate of pro wrestling has bred a loyalty to the brand itself. If WWE can dominate the market to such a degree, it could very well find enough of a base that only wants to consume professional wrestling under the umbrella of the three initials; their fandom is inexorably linked. Unlike its past era under Vince McMahon, this is an audience that displays limited pushback and a wholesale belief in all things WWE.
It’s the foundation for the UFC, where its audience is served by seeing one market leader with ninety percent of the top-tier fighters rather than a thriving competitor to force the market leader to place its audience above broadcast partners, sponsors, government entities, and shareholders.
The next frontier of these freshly signed deals will test the notion of one entity in WWE controlling so much market share of the industry. Under TKO, WWE has never had this much promotional muscle, profitability, mainstream acceptance, and influence across a broad swath of the media landscape.
Fans will pay the rising ticket prices, sign up for more streaming services, eyeball the latest intrusive product placement, and preach the notion that WWE is the market leader into the ether online.
It has never cost more to be a WWE consumer, and for many, they are all too willing to sign on the dotted line.
