MR. TITO: The TRUTH About WWE’s ESPN Deal to Host PLEs and Other Blood-Sucking Corporate Deals
Did you know that the Endeavor/TKO-owned WWE has obtained brand new customers that they’ll cater to and show favoritism towards over YOU, the loyal fan who has been supporting the WWE for years? That’s right, all of that merchandise bought, all of those tickets purchased for live events, Pay Per Views purchased, WWE Network subscriptions, and many other things that you’ve supported that the WWE tried (XFL, movies, music, etc.)… It didn’t matter. You were loyal to a fault because the WWE cares more about the new line-up of customers.
Who are those new customers, you might ask?
– Netflix for RAW – 10 years, $5 billion ($500 million per year)
– Disney/ESPN for ESPN’s new streaming service – 5 years, $1.6 billion ($320 million per year)
– NBC/Universal – USA Network for Smackdown – 5 year, $1.4 billion ($280 million per year)
– CW Network for NXT – 5 year, up to $125 million (up to $25 million per year)
– Fanatics taking over WWE Shopzone (details undisclosed)
– Saudi Arabia: Over $25 million per show, with Royal Rumble 2026 likely fetching a higher price
– Any large city who wants to pay extra to post WWE Premium Live Events
– Any Corporate Sponsor who wants to plaster their ads on WWE shows, the ring, or digital screens roaming throughout the arena.
– International TV markets
In other words, NOT YOU.
THAT is what you need to realize…
In fact, YOU have become customers of Netflix, ESPN, whatever cable/satellite/streaming provider has USA Network, CW Network, and Fanatics thanks to WWE’s massive deals.
You’ve gone from paying WWE directly for their $9.99 WWE Network since 2014 to becoming a NBC/Universal customer (which was almost the same price, actually cheaper if you like ads) to becoming an ESPN customer to pay $29.99 per month to watch Premium Live Events. This HIGH pricepoint for ESPN is thanks to them overpaying for NFL, NBA, NHL, and WWE content.
Liked RAW on your cable/satellite package? Well, now you’ll have to be a subscriber to Netflix and their prices went up thanks to the WWE deal.
Liked WWE Shopzone? Well, enjoy whatever Fanatics wants to charge you. They’ve been gobbling up sports deals with various leagues and getting a real stranglehold on the market. The merchandise prices that I saw at Royal Rumble 2025 were ridiculous!
While WWE has brand new customers, YOU have become a customer for multiple other companies. Look what they made you do!
In fact, Netflix, ESPN, Fanatics, and others are transferring their higher amounts paid to WWE through increases in their prices. That’s right, YOU ARE PAYING FOR THEIR DEALS. And non-WWE fan Netflix or ESPN users shall become paying for the WWE deals, too, just as WWE fans will now be helping to subsidize expensive NBA and NFL deals on the ESPN streaming service.
That’s kind of like this idea of a tariff, which you are seeing pushed heavily during 2025… Tariff is actually a tax paid by an American company who imports raw materials or goods from another country. United States customs agents reviews the shipped goods at the ports and assesses tariffs or taxes to be paid by the American company (not the foreign country, as ignorantly claimed). With higher tax expenses to be paid, what does the American company do? They pass those higher expenses onto their customers via higher price increases. (NOTE FROM TITO: I studied International Economics in college, so this isn’t a political attack, just relaying a recent example of increased expenses being passed on to the consumer through prices).
Any time a company sees higher expenses for anything, be it taxes or tariffs, higher regulatory costs, higher energy costs, higher water/electricity costs, natural disasters to crops or other damage, higher employee costs, etc… They attempt to push on those higher prices onto YOU, their customers. If you’ve taken business mathematics at the college level, there’s a simple formula taught up front that shows Price = Cost + Mark-up. Thus, if a producer’s costs go up, then prices could go up.
But there’s another factor to all of this… DEMAND.
How much you desire a product, expectations of the economy, and income also act as determinants for how much of a good/service is consumed but also what is the highest price that you’re willing to pay. In microeconomics, there is a term called “elasticity”, which is defined as the responsiveness of someone to CHANGE. In other words, if the producer RAISED prices, would the consumer notice? Or would they care? If their tastes/preferences were so strong for a product or maybe an individual is doing well financially, they could be OK paying the higher prices… Otherwise, raising prices could have adverse and opposite effects to harm revenue.
Since 2020, the WWE has greatly improved its product thanks to the Bloodline storyline while also pushing many superstars to climb the ladder rather than Vince’s old model of pushing just one or two guys too strong and disregarding the rest of the roster. Through 2025, WWE has been doing RECORD business on ticket sales and merchandise, despite them raising prices… So if WWE raises prices on both tickets and merchandise yet sales revenue and numbers purchased keeps going up, why that’s a sign that demand by WWE fans are going up. Now, whether that is due to tastes/preferences, incomes doing well, or expectations of the economy as a reason is to be determined. In my opinion, I think tastes/preferences for WWE’s product is strong while there are many doing well since the 2020 pandemic and recession.
The economy has me worried, moving forward… Since the 2020 pandemic, but I’d also argue in the decade before it, we’ve had a “tale of two cities” kind of economy. Those at the top are doing extremely well while those at the bottom are not. Inflation REALLY hurt lower income families, as prices increased at a faster rate than nominal incomes brought home. Meanwhile, businesses took advantage of lower interest rates during 2020-2022 to invest in capital to make their companies more automated and leaner than ever, while also buying back shares to make them even richer and dominant as the primary shareholder. Heading into 2025, too, housing, credit card delinquencies, money held in savings accounts, and other product/service sales dropping due to higher prices were signs of an economy wobbling. Now, we have higher taxes on imports (tariffs) that could deliver the knockout punch to the consumer who has been drowning in higher grocery costs for the past 3 years and has accumulated lots of credit card debt trying not to drown from inflation.
Getting back to the WWE, even if the economy recesses or declines in WWE’s quality drives tastes/preferences downward, WWE is still locked into most of these deals for another 5 years, at least. Those are guaranteed funds to the WWE’s revenue streams, too.
BUT – What happens long-term to the WWE?
Eventually, you hit that point where WWE fans switch from being “inelastic” or not responses to prices of live events/Netflix/ESPN/USA Network to becoming very “elastic” or very responsive to price increases. For example, fans are quite vocal about paying $10-15 per month on Peacock to watch WWE Premium Live Events (plus some archived stuff) to paying $29.99 per month. That is doubling or tripling the monthly payment. So how much of that price tag will cause loyal WWE fans to walk away? Or maybe they just switch to paying ONLY for the months of the bigger PLEs events? Just pay for January, April, and August and that rounds out to $90.00 per year, but if you did that already with Peacock, you were paying $30-45 per year… There is that doubling/tripling effect again.
The entire reason why WWE Network was created during early 2014 was due to sagging Pay Per View buyrates by the WWE. Why? Well, as I so wrote eloquently around that time, WWE PRICED OUT their fans with increased prices AND increased quantity of PPVs that they wanted their fans to purchase. Remember when we had 2 PPVs per month thanks to the brand split? So what happened? Well, fans began PIRATING Pay Per Views on illegal streaming sites… By the way, those illegal streaming sites still exist and have been capturing NFL fans who REFUSE to pay for the overpriced NFL Sunday Ticket package that was on DirecTV but is even more ridiculously priced on YouTube TV.
WWE Network was created, at the wonderful price point of $9.99, to counter that market. Fans no longer wanted to pay $45-60 per month with WWE Pay Per Views, but they found an appetite to pay just $10 per month. What WWE found is that fans went from occasionally buying a Pay Per View to watching EVERY Premium Live Event (PLE) on WWE Network. Thus, revenue lost on the Pay Per View prices and revenue was gained by their LOYAL wrestling fanbase SAVING MONEY and being WILLING to buy WWE products that WWE could market to them on all of the PLEs they were now watching.
See how that works? While WWE did lose fans during the late 2010s thanks to poor quality RAW/Smackdown programming (2 million RAW viewers lost), the actual $ spent per fan WENT UP. Why? Because the WWE Network BUILT LOYALTY with longtime WWE fans and treated any newer fans joining with a cost effective product to enjoy daily or for monthly PLEs. THAT loyalty is why WWE has been getting away with increasing prices on BOTH live event tickets and merchandise combined with all of the casual fans hopping on the bandwagon since WWE improved its quality since 2020. So far, loyal fans + bandwagon riding fans have absorbing the higher prices… BUT, I’d strongly argue that both Wrestlemania 41 and SummerSlam 2025 could have had more WWE fans in attendance if their prices weren’t too ridiculously high. HOWEVER, WWE made their money on the suckers who were willing to pay those excessively high prices.
Speaking of live events… WWE is receiving large incentive deals to host big PLE events in various large cities. One would think that with those big city deals made, WWE wouldn’t have to charge a higher ticket price. WRONG! The are charging ridiculous prices right now, especially for PLEs. Again, WWE is purely price gouging its loyal fanbase and any casual bandwagon riders who find it trendy to attend WWE events at the moment.
Do you see how WWE treats you, fans? They get paid a massive lump sum by New York, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and Las Vegas, thus making Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, and SummerSlam instantly profitable… But WWE still charges you increasingly high ticket prices for events in those areas. Hell, if I was a local TAX PAYER in those surrounding cities, I’d request a discount to attend these higher price WWE events because my city’s tax dollars overpaid the WWE to host an event there. Oh, and the event is happening in the PUBLICLY FINANCED stadium, too… So damn, double tax whammy for locals in the city!
Sure, the TKO stock price is going to do well… The stock price closed at $100 on opening day during September 2023 and just closed this Friday at $163.29. These “new” customers of the WWE will provide revenue streams and shall pad WWE’s Financial Statements to help produce amazing Net Income, Earnings Per Share, and Return on Assets/Equity numbers for the next 5-10 years as WWE uses Netflix, Saudi Arabia, Disney/ESPN, NBC/Universal, Fanatics, etc. uses them as ATM machines.
But what happens when fans stop attending live events? Bound to happen, as NoDQ’s Virtue points out, WWE is top heavy with main eventers in their top 30s or at various ages in their 40s. Some of those guys will cling onto their top spots for deal life, while it’s a debate if WWE has good replacements for them or not that are ready to go. Sorry, but I need more faith that Jacob Fatu or Bron Breakker are as good as Cena, Lesnar, Roman, Rollins, Cody, and others. If WWE sees a drop in attendance, then big cities will PAY LESS and thus a ticket price crash will adversely affect the WWE financially.
Furthermore, what happens if customers of Netflix and ESPN feel it’s too overpriced and leave the app? One thing that is heavily noticed is that younger fans aren’t exactly into sports like previous generations. NBA, NHL, and MLB have all seen their numbers drop, but they are each propped by the 35+ age group who still loves those sports and really appreciates the NFL too. Same age group props up the WWE, too…
And let’s be honest about ESPN… It’s a sinking ship. Viewership has been dropping HARD for them during the past 15 years and has some partial correlation for cable’s downfall, particularly with male viewership. They have angered fans for years based on the tone of broadcasts, political bias, and the total blowhards brought onto sets to spout their opinions loudly. The quality has dropped hard for ESPN’s programming and caused much of their viewership to find sports-related content elsewhere. Hence the rise of Barstool Sports and Pat McAfee, which now FOX and ESPN are paying top dollar to delivery content.
ESPN buying the NFL Network and Redzone along with WWE’s PLE streaming has fans scared because they’ve seen what ESPN has done to sports and the presentation of sports for the past 15 years (I’d argue quality has been dropping since the mid 2000s). Backing ESPN is their corporate owner, Disney, who has heavily botched the Star Wars franchise, began to botch their Marvel franchise since 2019, and are ruining their own great stuff from their vault (see recent Snow White debacle). Disney has almost $43 billion in DEBT.
Do you see where I’m going here? That $29.99 ESPN price is only going to INCREASE, my friends… NOT just for the expensive NBA, NFL, NHL, WWE, or College Football content that it hosts. Actually, payments to each of them are FIXED and should thus not cause any inflation… OHHHHHHHH NOOOOO… Prices for Disney crap always goes up, as they push THEIR FAILURES onto you, the customer, through various price hikes. Have you been to F’N Disney World or Disney Land lately? While both have always been expensive, they are REALLY expensive now and nickel and dime you everywhere on that trip.
Netflix has $15 billion in DEBT… Now, they have much more subscribers to their service, along with merchandising of their original shows (Stranger Things, Squid Games, etc.) that causes a ton of revenue to come in… But, what happens when their quality falls off? How will they pay back that debt? Oh yeah, raising the prices of their service. Once again, you’re NOT paying for just WWE content on Netflix… You’re paying for the rest of the network PLUS any expenses that Netflix is willing to push onto you.
For you to be a WWE fan during 2026, here is what you’ll pay per month:
ESPN streaming service: $29.99
Netflix: $7.99 with ads, $17.99 without ads, but pay for additional users. $24.99 premium for up to 6 simultaneous users
USA Network: Comcast and DirecTV seem to start around $85 per month for their basic Cable TV package. From personal experience, Sling’s Blue package costs $45.99 per month to get the USA Network to watch Smackdown.
CHEAPEST ROUTE = $7.99 + $29.99 + $45.99 = $83.95 per month, $1,007 per year
Basically, by WWE joining with ESPN, they are costing each WWE fan to pay $120 to $180 per year extra (assuming they remain monthly paying customers).
WWE’s choices to make money for themselves and to please shareholders is costing their fans MORE money.
Are you seriously OK about that, wrestling fans?
And let me ask one more question, my brothers and sisters…
Are PRO WRESTLERS receiving any RAISES in their salaries or payoffs thanks to these deals?
If my back was bumping in that ring on an ESPN streaming service that nets my employer $280 million MORE per year, I think that I’d say something… Maybe that’s just me?
When Jesse Ventura during 1986, just before Wrestlemania 2, stood up on a chair and challenged the wrestlers to group together and unionize, that was easily squashed because Vince McMahon was the singular boss and his strategy was to overpay the top guy to keep the rest of the locker room in line. Thus, if the top guy wouldn’t unionize and the rest of the locker room tried, Vince could just keep the top guy and fire the rest of the locker room and easily replace them. Hence why the late Hulk Hogan stooged on Jesse Ventura.
The model has changed… Endeavor majority owned TKO is now in charge and they are aggressively seeking revenue, which is why these deals are getting increasingly more lucrative for WWE but less cost effective for the fans. Sure, ESPN will give WWE $1.6 billion to stream live PLEs, but will do so at pushing that expense through higher prices to paying customers.
BUT for the wrestlers, TKO has that same aggressive thought… KEEP EXPENSES DOWN! Twice now, Braun Strowman has found out that he was “overpaid” in TKO’s eyes. GONE! How about R-Truth… Oh, I’m sorry, “Ron Killings”. Remember why he was terminated? He was deemed to have been paid too much based on output. Had fans not have rioted online about the termination, he wouldn’t have been brought back. Trust me on this one, TKO executives are furious about re-signing him and that has probably affected how he has been used since his return.
For SummerSlam 2025, why don’t you count how many Slim Jims tables were used… Yeah, that might take a moment, provided the many TLC, no disqualification, street fights, and cage matches they had that pulled out many tables. For ANY wrestler who was slammed through a Slim Jim table, did they receive ANY dollars from that deal?
Hell, look at that UGLY WWE ring these days, FULL of ads. Anytime they get slammed on that ring, do the wrestlers receive any of that ad money?
Nope.
TKO and WWE would argue that these TV deals, sponsors, city/Saudi payoffs help pay for the wrestlers… Really? And tickets and merchandise bought don’t? YOUR WRESTLERS are drawing in the customers for the WWE and TKO to price gouge. And now, YOUR WRESTELRS are drawing in the customers for Netflix and ESPN to price gouge.
Wrestler salaries are NOT increasing.
And in case you haven’t noticed, WWE has been pushing MORE guys at the top. They are no longer Roman Reigns-dependent as they probably were through 2023. Since TKO arrived and jettisoned Vince McMahon OUT of creative, WWE has a more productive model of pushing multiple main eventers versus Vince’s older model of just pushing a singular guy or two at the top (Hogan, Austin/Rock, Cena, and Lesnar/Roman). In my opinion, I like Triple H’s model of having and pushing multiple main eventers at once, but it plays right into the hands of the big Endeavor/TKO corporation who wants ALL wrestlers to be equal. Endeavor did that with UFC, as nobody is allowed to stand out, and thus they can exploit fighters with sluggish growing payouts too. Endeavor/TKO wants to push brand, brand, brand so that the logo draws more than a person.
So thus, the top guys are now expendable in the WWE… Anybody can be released unexpectedly at any time. That, or their contract negotiations will see lower offers than expected.
If you’re a wrestler in the WWE locker room and getting slammed on those ad-heavy rings or through Slim Jim Tables as you’re being broadcasted on the $500 million per year Netflix, $280 million per year USA Network or NBC, or $320 million per year ESPN streaming service… Maybe, just maybe, you ought to rethink how you and you’re fellow wrestlers operate.
And look behind you, too… TKO is heavily investing in WWE’s talent scouting and developmental system. While this system was initially created to replace older wrestlers who couldn’t perform like they used to, now it could be used for financial reasons. If a veteran becomes too overpaid, their younger replacement could be waiting in the wings.
Oh, and by the way, the Corporate Tax Rate just became permanent at 21%, as it could have become 35% for TKO if the Tax Cut from 2019 was allowed to expire after 2025. So thus for the wrestlers, the TKO/WWE has that breathing room to PAY YOU MORE as wrestlers!
While I think that Vince McMahon was pure pond scum and as NDA + lawsuit allegations are showing, a really bad form of pond scum… The older WWE corporation was run by him with his ideas. While Vince loved money, he liked packed houses, too… He also had an eye for quality control, such as not placing ads that much on his rings or other places in the arena. While Vince was becoming more corporate with time and started to cheapening up his WWE brand here or there, he’s not as aggressive as Nick Khan or the rest of the Endeavor folks who want to monetize everything.
The FACT is that Wrestling Fans AND Pro Wrestlers are getting RIPPED off with these massive WWE deals. What is happening only benefits the TKO Corporation, who owns WWE, but hurts longtime WWE fans financially. Here’s the cycle:
WWE <– Corporation with a service <– Wrestling Fans
Do you see it yet?
WWE keeps inserting a middle man between you and them. During 2014, you paid the WWE directly for WWE Network and ShopZone for WWE merchandise (granted, WWE paid vendors to perform that service for them, but both were managed by them). Much, much, cheaper… Now, your money is paid to ESPN, which covers non-WWE stuff, and also to Fanatics to distribute merchandise. WWE has made YOU become their customer, and opens the door for them to price gouge you. Trust me, you’ll be eating part of Disney’s extremely high debt for years. Enjoy it!
Folks, you’re getting ripped off on everything… Recent tariffs will only pile on the allowed price gouging that has been going on for years. Utilities, colleges, healthcare providers, sports, and energy companies are anti-trust exempt and can screw with you through restricting quantity and price gouging. Do you enjoy paying back those college loans? You’re getting ripped off! The CEO of Kroger grocery chains literally admitted in court, as he was trying to acquire another grocery chain, that they were charging well above retail on necessity items. Why? Because they could… We’ve let these bigger companies and their supply chain advantages dominate the market place without any challenge. Complete unchecked monopoly-like power.
WWE is just another corporate brick in the wall, looking to jerk off shareholders by obtaining new revenue from corporate clients. Meanwhile, those corporate clients such as ESPN, Netflix, Fanatics, etc. now have YOU as their customer and they can price gouge YOU.
Through 2025, it has become much more expensive to remain a pro wrestling fan and that sucks thanks to corporate greed.
Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ