Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes Reveals When He Found About PLE Deal With ESPN

On Wednesday, WWE officially announced that ESPN would be the new home to their premium live events starting in 2026. Over the past four years, all WWE PLE's have been available to watch on Peacock, but with WWE's deal with the streaming platform set to expire this upcoming March, ESPN decided to make an offer. Although the news broke major headlines yesterday, it seems like many in WWE didn't know about the announcement, including Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, who told ESPN that he just found out earlier in the week, but feels the multimedia sports company is the ideal host for the promotion's content.

"Nick Khan and Triple H, they just gave me the Iggy. They said, 'Hey, I know you're going to be on vacation, but just be ready. There's something going to happen on Wednesday,' and look at this, to be part of this family. What an honor. ... I knew we were going to be moving our PLE's around and the fact that we can now have  the Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank you mentioned, and of course, our biggest event, WrestleMania going to be on ESPN platforms, that's the perfect match. WWE is sports entertainment and ESPN is the king of sports media."

Rhodes continued to explain how premium live events migrating to ESPN will affect fans, stating that WWE will still deliver the product that viewers enjoy, but just featured on a larger platform.

"Triple H and Nick Khan, who have been ushering in this era, they had us all together. Brought this big talent meeting and it was all about WWE has broken every record that we ever had. We beat the Attitude Era. We beat the Golden Age of the 80s, but it's not peaked yet. He wanted to keep climbing. We wanted to keep growing and this is just a further extension of that. WWE is going to be at its very best, going to be trying all kinds of brand new things but also the same WWE you know and love just on the biggest platform it could possibly be."

Following the announcement, The Wall Street Journal reported that the contract between WWE and ESPN is set for five years and worth $1.6 billion, $325 million a year, which is a 1.6x increase over their initial deal with Peacock. That said, although ESPN will also have the ability to air original WWE content and air pre and post-shows after PLE's, they currently don't own the rights to WWE's video library or "WWE NXT" PLE's. Therefore, WWE could partner with other platforms or services to be the home of their additional content, unless ESPN decides to purchase it instead.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "ESPN" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.