ESPN executives asked about Brock Lesnar’s involvement at WWE Wrestlepalooza
Brock Lesnar is scheduled to have a match against John Cena at the 2025 WWE Wrestlepalooza PLE. During a media call to promote Wrestlepalooza, ESPN Programming and Acquisitions Lead Matt Kenny and ESPN SVP JT Lasker were asked about Lesnar. Here is the excerpt…
Q. Congratulations on all this early launch here. I wanted to ask about the amount of jurisdiction that ESPN has in requesting specific talent for any of these events. In the past a lot of WWE’s partners have had that. Brock Lesnar is a major part of this event, and while not specifically accused, he is a part of this ongoing Vince McMahon sexual misconduct lawsuit. So, what degree of involvement does ESPN have when it comes to talent and specifically, in this case, Brock Lesnar?
KENNY: “For us, our relationship with the WWE is such where they have creative control. I think it’s important to provide some context there where we are distributors of the events. It’s not all that dissimilar to all the other rights holder relationships that we have, where we have relationships with the league. Obviously, a glove, stick, and ball league is a little bit different than the combat sports world, as we could all appreciate.
But in regard to our relationship with the WWE, they retain creative control. Which by the way, we’re fine with because they have built an incredible business for a long period of time. For as much as I playfully talked about my WWE fandom at the top of the call, I don’t need to be opining on what a script should be to WWE. We’re excited about what they do, how they do it, and can’t wait for Saturday.”