Stephanie McMahon Reportedly Upsets ESPN With Podcast VPN Advice

Stephanie McMahon seems to be having a lot of fun with her spot in the pro wrestling world today.

Vince McMahon's return to WWE as chairman in January 2023 prompted Stephanie's immediate departure from the company, but since her reemergence in early 2024, McMahon has maintained a steady presence in and around WWE.

She spent months producing her "Stephanie's Places" interview show on ESPN+ which debuted in March. In the show, McMahon traveled the country and interviewed WWE superstars at locations that mean a lot to each guest.

McMahon also launched her podcast "What's Your Story? With Steph McMahon," where she interviews "the most interesting people in sports, entertainment, business and of course WWE to find out their personal stories of hardship and success"

And it's there that the controversy started.

McMahon's most recent guest on the show was the longest-reigning world champion of the modern era, Roman Reigns. One of the sponsors of the episode was a VPN company was a company called Surfshark, which gives people access to the internet through different locations allowing them to unlock content that's not available in their own country.

While completing an ad read for Surfshark, McMahon gave a useful yet unethical tip to her viewers as to how they should go about maximizing the Surfshark VPN's capabilities.

"A lot of you are still watching WWE the old school way: on cable. Dealing with boring commercials while I'm enjoying uninterrupted action. Let's fix that with today's sponsor: Surfshark VPN!"
Stephanie McMahon

WWE fans all over the world reacted hilariously to the quotes considering the conflict of interest. McMahon is employed by WWE, but is encouraging fans to pirate their way into watching WWE programming for less or no money through a VPN.

WWE PLEs are only available on Netflix to international viewers and a VPN could give American users access to those same PLEs through Netflix as well instead of ESPN once the events move over to that platform.

ESPN will be hosting all WWE PLEs starting September 20 beginning with Wrestlepalooza inside the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The new direct-to-consumer app is likely bracing for potential VPN users looking to finesse their way into watching premium WWE programming, especially after McMahon's move.

ESPN Responds

Stephanie McMahon Triple — IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

A report by Fightful Select revealed that a source at ESPN did not appreciate the remarks by McMahon on her podcast. The source also did not expect the issue to become significant, but that they weren't thrilled to hear her promote the product that way.

ESPN has about three weeks until Wrestlepalooza when the surge of WWE fans looking to watch future PLEs will join the platform. How much damage McMahon's promotion of Surfshark has done to potential subscriber growth is unknown.

John Cena is confirmed to wrestle on the show and is heavily rumored to be facing Brock Lesnar.

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