Posted on 1/12/126 by Bob Magee
A new class action lawsuit filed Thursday night in U.S.
District Court in Connecticut accuses WWE and ESPN of
deceptive marketing practices. The suit centers on WWE’s
recent move of its premium live events to ESPN’s direct-to-
consumer streaming service.
The complaint takes issue with how some fans who already get
ESPN channels through cable or other providers were still
required to pay an additional monthly fee to watch WWE
events. The plaintiffs allege this contradicts marketing
communications from both WWE and ESPN, which they claim
suggested all existing ESPN subscribers would have access to
the WWE PLEs.
The plaintiffs are seeking to represent any U.S. customers
who paid for ESPN’s DTC service in the run-up to
Wrestlepalooza on Sept. 20 while already being an ESPN
subscriber through traditional means.
The lawsuit only names WWE as a defendant and not ESPN or
its parent Disney. By only suing WWE, the plaintiffs are
trying to avoid the arbitration and class action waiver
provisions that they note are in Disney’s subscriber
agreement.
The suit claims more than $5 million are at issue. If the
plaintiffs prevail, an eligible consumer might receive a
refund or partial reimbursement.
When PLEs moved to the ESPN app, some pay TV subscribers who
get ESPN as part of their service got access to the PLEs on
the app, and others did not — at least not yet. It depends
on various agreements ESPN’s parent Disney has with each pay
TV provider. Some TV systems allowed customers to
authenticate into the app and view the PLEs, others did not.
Cox, for example, recently told customers they now have
access to the ESPN app. YouTube TV and Disney recently
renewed their agreement, which is expected to give
subscribers that access as well.
So not only non-cable households but also those that do get
ESPN but just don’t get automatic access to ESPN’s new app
have had to sign up for the ESPN Unlimited service for
$29.99 per month to watch WWE PLEs since they moved to the
platform in September as part of a new deal that will pay
WWE an average of $325 million per year. That’s a strong
increase from the roughly $200 million Peacock was paying
for the PLEs and other content.
The suit outlines the events surrounding the announcement.
An August 6, 2025, press release said that the features of
the new app would “be available to all fans who watch on the
ESPN App on mobile and connected TV devices, whether they
subscribe directly or through a traditional pay TV package.”
The lawsuit says this misled consumers. The plaintiffs point
to that and similar messaging in ESPN’s press materials that
“all fans who subscribe to ESPN” through either the app or
traditional pay TV means would have access when watching WWE
PLEs on the ESPN app.
The complaint also cites WWE President Nick Khan telling
listeners on the Varsity podcast.
In his August podcast comments, Khan was going through the
history of WWE’s marquee events moving from pay-per-view to
the WWE Network, then to Peacock, and now to ESPN’s
platform. When WWE moved away from pay-per-view, he said,
subscribers could watch the company’s biggest shows for
$9.99, with no upcharge
“When we did the Peacock deal in 2020, same thing, no
upcharge for what were pay-per-views,” Khan said to host
John Ourand. “Same thing here with what has been referred to
as ‘ESPN Flagship.’ You subscribe to that product, you get
WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, all of our other
premium live events, with no upcharge.”
The plaintiffs allege that comment misled customers who
already had access to ESPN channels into believing they
wouldn’t need to pay extra to watch the PLEs.
ESPN declined to comment for this story. WWE did not respond
to our request.