Aug 26, 7:58 PM
Report claiming ESPN already decided not to renew WWE fully retracted
Cageside Seats
Yesterday (Aug. 25), SEScoops ran a report about the ESPN/WWE relationship. It claimed multiple sources at those companies told writer BJ Bethel that, just one year into a five year contract, Disney-owned ESPN has already determined they won’t be renewing their billion-dollar+ contract with WWE for U.S. premium live event streaming rights. Within hours, the story spread around the internet — including via a blog post I wrote about it for Cageside Seats. It also drew a strong denial from ESPN, which included that Bethel had never reached out to the network/brand for official comment. Bethel posted on social media that he stood by his story, but admitted he only tried contacting ESPN via publicly posted support lines and forms, and “forgot” about the direct contact person he’d interacted with just months ago. As GM05 first shared with us in The Feed this afternoon, SEScoops fully retracted the report. It also announced it was parting ways with Bethel. Statement on our WWE–ESPN report Ye