ESPN Reportedly Requested Big Change to WWE PLE's

The first hour of WWE PLE's airing on ESPN will stay in place for the foreseeable future, but ESPN requested a different PLE change from WWE moving forward.

ESPN | IMAGO / SOPA Images

ESPN is flexing its muscle as the primary distribution platform for WWE PLE's in the United States.

WWE PLE's left Peacock and moved to ESPN in September of last year. Now, the PLE's air on the ESPN Unlimited streaming platform domestically and on Netflix internationally.

Earlier this year, ESPN began airing the first two matches of WWE PLE's on its cable channel, rather than exclusively on the Unlimited streaming service. That has been the strategy for most of the year, including WrestleMania 42.

A new report from WrestleVotes Radio indicates that ESPN has made additional requests, particularly regarding the matches that air on ESPN Unlimited after the free hour on ESPN.

ESPN reportedly made a major request to WWE regarding PLE's

Roman Reigns | WWE

According to WrestleVotes, ESPN approached WWE about adding additional matches to Night of Champions to strengthen the paid portion of the show. For the last year, WWE PLE's that weren't the big four were five matches long. When ESPN began airing them on the cable channel, two matches would take place there, with the remaining three airing on Unlimited.

With the change that began at Night of Champions, two matches aired on ESPN, while four took place on Unlimited for paid subscribers only.

The next WWE PLE is SummerSlam, which this year takes place in Minneapolis on August 1 and August 2. It was a busy week ahead of SummerSlam on WWE's programming.

At Night of Champions, Oba Femi became the King of the Ring and Iyo Sky became Queen of the Ring. They both earned shots at their respective world title at this year's SummerSlam. Sky immediately announced that she would challenge Liv Morgan for the belt. Oba Femi, hwoever, took a different route.

Instead of taking his title match at SummerSlam, Oba Femi chose to wrestle Brock Lesnar for a third time, foregoing his chance at a title. Each man has a win over the other and the trilogy match will take place at SummerSlam inside of Hell in a Cell.

With the Raw title match now open, Seth Rollins called his shot and challenged Roman Reigns for that title. Rollins made the challenge on this week's episode of WWE Raw.

At Night of Champions over the weekend, Sami Zayn shocked the world and won the Undisputed WWE Championship. Zayn will now potentially factor into SummerSlam plans that will undoubtedly still include Cody Rhodes.