WWE and NBCUniversal have reached a multi-year agreement that gives the Peacock streaming service exclusive rights to the WWE Network in the United States. The network will migrate to Peacock on March 18 and the first event will be the Fastlane pay-per-view on March 21.
WWE had been trying to sell its pay-per-view rights since early 2020 and the company reportedly talked to ESPN about broadcasting major events on the ESPN + service before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The WWE deal with Peacock apparently had repercussions with ESPN, as Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Live that ESPN “practically ended” the wrestling company’s coverage.
Meltzer gave more details on Wrestling Observer Radio and noted that ESPN introduced a ban on WWE, but not on professional wrestling as a whole.
Meltzer said: “It has nothing to do with wrestling … They didn’t ban wrestling, but it was like WWE. I don’t know if that means they will do anything to them (AEW), but the ban I was told was the WWE. “
Why ESPN closed WWE coverage has not been confirmed, but Meltzer believes that ESPN was still in negotiations with WWE through the Network and the sports channel found that they would not reach an agreement three weeks ago.