Last week, WWE announced a five-year, $1.6 billion streaming deal with ESPN to feature the company’s premium live events (PLEs) starting with WrestleMania 42.
Unfortunately for wrestling fans, this move will be expensive, as WWE PLEs will be exclusive to ESPN under this new contract. ESPN is preparing to launch its new streaming service on August 21st for $29.99 a month. When WWE PLEs transition over to the service in April 2026, wrestling fans will be forced to pay three times as much as they have under WWE’s Peacock era.
Peacock signed an exclusive billion-dollar streaming deal with WWE back in 2021. Currently, the cheapest Peacock subscription is for $10.99 a month. Wrestling fans are paying $7.99 a month just to watch Monday Night Raw on Netflix each week. However, tripling the price for PLEs has wrestling fans livid and curious about how much it will cost to watch everything as a WWE fan.
GettyWWE is ‘cashing in” on its fanbase after signing a lucrative streaming deal with ESPN.
How Much Do Fans Pay Just to Watch WWE TV Every Month?
In order to understand how the ESPN-WWE deal will impact the average wrestling fan, you need to have an understanding of its weekly content that leads into PLEs. If you’re unfamiliar, here is how WWE’s weekly TV schedule works today, which excludes smaller brands and other content:
- Every Monday is Monday Night Raw on Netflix (2.5 hours)
- Every Friday is Friday Night SmackDown on USA Network (2 hours)
- Once every 3 or 4 weeks, a PLE happens on a Saturday or Sunday (4 hours)
As mentioned, WWE fans pay $7.99 for Netflix and $10.99 for Peacock now. A cable provider can give access to the USA Network, but the price range depends on what each person wants out of their entertainment. For the sake of argument, let’s use YouTube TV and Sling as examples.
- YouTube TV costs $82.99 per month after the $59.99 promotion rate.
- Sling costs $45.99, depending on the package type you choose.
For an avid WWE fan to watch all of WWE’s weekly content in 2025, the cheapest option is $65 a month, or roughly $780 a year. Granted, Netflix, Peacock, and a cable service offer a lot more for $780 a year than just WWE or ESPN. However, the ESPN deal to bring WWE PLEs to its latest service in 2026 will force wrestling fans to pay a lot more money.
GettyWWE is increasing its overall price to watch all its weekly content by 29% in 2026.
WWE Fans Expected to Pay Over $1k After 2026 ESPN Launch
If a wrestling fan is legally watching WWE TV every week, they are paying a minimum of $780 a year for Netflix, access to the USA Network, and Peacock. Once WWE PLEs move to ESPN next April, wrestling fans will go from paying $132 annually for PLEs on Peacock to $360 a year under ESPN. That’s just for the monthly WWE events. Also, Netflix is $96 annually. The cheapest cable subscription service, like Sling TV, is still $552 a year.
Suffice to say, the numbers add up. On paper, wrestling fans should expect to pay a minimum of $1008 under the current prices to watch Raw, SmackDown, and all PLEs. It’s crucial to note that the total does not include access to WWE’s extensive library of decades of wrestling. It doesn’t feature new behind-the-scenes content or additional shows, such as NXT, that cost even more.
Old wrestling fans are reminded of the prime pay-per-view of the ’90s and ’00s. Back then, WWE sold their “pay-per-views” for $30 to $50 a viewing. You bought it and could watch it twice that night before it was lost forever unless you taped it. Wrestling fans remember that before ESPN, there was WWE Network, which was just $9.99 a month.
WWE fans are passionate and dedicated. Many of them will pay these kinds of prices to watch television every month. Unfortunately, it’s clear these prices also edge out a ton of wrestling fans who can’t afford to pay this much to watch wrestling. Times are changing. Prices are soaring, and it seems that ESPN and WWE are no different.
WWE TV Will Cost You $1,000 a Year to Watch After 2026 ESPN Launch