WWE Facing New Class Action Lawsuit Over ESPN Streaming Deal

WWE is heading back to the courtroom for another battle.

In September of 2025, WWE kicked off their PLE streaming deal with ESPN on a new, special event called Wrestlepalooza. The show was sold as a new addition to the upper tier of WWE events and featured top stars like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, AJ Lee, and Cody Rhodes.

It's the first of many events under WWE's massive streaming partnership with ESPN, which will see shows like WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and others airing live on the ESPN Unlimited platform. The partnership between WWE is a five-year agreement worth $1.6 billion.

WWE will make a lot of money off this deal, but they now reportedly will have to spend some of that money on lawyers and court fees. A report by Post Wrestling indicates that a new class action lawsuit was filed against WWE on Thursday.

The suit alleges that current customers of ESPN were informed via company marketing that they'd have access to WWE events with their current ESPN subscription. In the end and ahead of the Wrestlepalooza premiere, that was not the case.

The plaintiffs in the case are looking to represent any customer in the United States that paid for the ESPN direct to consumer product, Unlimited, when they were already an ESPN subscriber.

Marketing communication is at the root of a new lawsuit against WWE

Nick Khan and Triple H | Imago/MediaPunch

The specific point of contention in the suit is a press release issued in early August of last year that confirmed the new product's features would be available to customers who already have ESPN content through a direct purchase or television package.

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Currently, WWE is the only listed defendant in the lawsuit. ESPN is obviously close to this situation, but is not currently involved in the suit directly. At the time of this report, WWE has not formally responded to the suit or allegations.

The WWE and ESPN streaming deal is only for customers inside the United States. WWE PLEs air on Netflix internationally.

The next time WWE is scheduled for an ESPN PLE is the Royal Rumble at the end of this month. For the first time ever, that event will take place in Saudi Arabia. Currently, matches for that event haven't been officially announced. However, that show has regularly featured a men's and women's Royal Rumble match, with the winners of each getting a world championship match at WrestleMania.

This year's WrestleMania 42 event airs live from inside Allegiant Stadium on April 18 and April 19.

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