Key details emerge on WWE/Peacock/ESPN arrangement, new main roster show

While it was a bit of a surprise to see WWE’s premium live event deal with Peacock end seven months before it was contractually supposed to, new details out Wednesday illuminate some of the thinking behind the new arrangement: more WWE content.

Announced Thursday, ESPN will take over as the domestic home for PLEs starting with September’s freshly-announced Wrestlepalooza instead of with this April’s WrestleMania 42 as had been the contractual plan.

The thinking, as our Bryan Alvarez had previously reported, was that WWE believed they had honored their commitment of PLEs to the NBCU-owned streaming service with the additional night of WrestleMania, the additional night of SummerSlam, and then this year’s Evolution.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, ESPN did not buy out the seven months. Rather, a deal was brokered first between WWE and Peacock and then brought to ESPN. ESPN is launching their new streaming service on Thursday with this news being a big part of their launch day and WWE a key part of the early success of the service.

The outlet reported that WWE personnel is currently in Indianapolis, Indiana, where Wrestlepalooza will take place to mark the occasion Thursday.

So what does Peacock get out of this? The outlet reported that the deal between they and WWE will “include new main-roster WWE programming to stream on the NBCUniversal digital platform; details of that programming are expected to be announced soon.”

WWE’s final PLE on Peacock will be next weekend’s Clash in Paris. October’s Crown Jewel and November’s Survivor Series will air on ESPN.

At this point, NXT PLEs will continue to air on Peacock through March 2026. With WWE moving their PLEs to ESPN, the NXT special events do not have an announced home after that date. The future of the WWE archives currently on Peacock is also unknown after March 2026.