WWE’s World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins appeared on ESPN’s ‘Get Up’ on Thursday to tout the deal between the two companies.
His appearance came after Wednesday’s confirmation that ESPN will carry all WWE PLEs on its new direct-to-consumer streaming service starting September 20.
The original announcement of the deal had specified 2026 as the timeframe for the first PLE to stream on ESPN.
Rollins appeared via video to promote the Wrestlepalooza PLE in Indianapolis and spoke of how the tie-up with ESPN was a “huge step for us, legitimizing what we do as artists, as athletes.”
.@WWERollins joins @GetUpESPN to talk about Wrestlepalooza, the WWE’s first Premium Live Event on ESPN ? pic.twitter.com/HLeDBUjzCp
— ESPN (@espn) August 21, 2025
The ESPN streaming service launched in the United States on Thursday at a cost of $29.99 a month or $299.99 per year. Viewers who subscribe to ESPN through certain cable providers can currently access the service for free.
In full, Rollins said:
If you’re a wrestling fan, you’re used to watching our premium live events on Peacock for the last four years. We are moving to ESPN, and we are moving sooner than expected […]
I’m stoked to be a part of the ESPN family…For me personally, I mean, I grew up – a lot of people had the Saturday morning cartoons or the morning cartoons before school. I grew up watching SportsCenter. That’s what kind of sports fan I was. I grew up watching replays at SportsCenter in the morning before I went to school. So the fact that we’re here teaming up with ESPN, it’s like my two favorite things in the world, sports and WWE coming together.
And it’s huge for us as an industry. Professional wrestling has been a part of kind of Americana for many, many, many, many years and different iterations. And as we start to dip our toe even further into the mainstream and really integrate ourselves into the mainstream, this is a huge step for us, legitimizing what we do as artists, as athletes.
And like I said, for me personally, to be a part of the ESPN family is huge. I’m looking forward to this partnership and everything that it brings.
In most markets outside the US, Raw, SmackDown, NXT, main roster and NXT PLEs, and much of the WWE archive are all included in a Netflix subscription.
Within the US, Raw is exclusive to Netflix, NXT airs on The CW, SmackDown is on USA Network, and the PLEs stream on Peacock until September 20. Peacock will retain the WWE archive through the end of 2026, and has inked a multi-year deal to stream ‘Saturday Night’s Main Event’ four times a year.
