ESPN Executives Reveal Whether They Had Any Role In Bringing Brock Lesnar Back To WWE

WWE is gearing up for Wrestlepalooza, its first premium live event on ESPN's new direct-to-consumer service. The company has reportedly been hyping up the event in hopes to one day make it on the level of a WrestleMania or SummerSlam, especially with the recent announcement that WrestleMania 43 will be held in Saudi Arabia in 2027. In hoping to give Wrestlepalooza the feel of a major event, WWE brought back Brock Lesnar after a two-year absence, despite Lesnar being named in an ongoing civil lawsuit alleging sex trafficking against Vince McMahon. 

ESPN executives held their first media call regarding WWE on Wednesday ahead of Wrestlepalooza. Jon Alba of Sports Illustrated inquired as to whether or not ESPN had any involvement in bringing back Lesnar, and asked whether ESPN had any jurisdiction in requesting WWE talent for various events streamed on its platform. According to ESPN Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions Matt Kenny, WWE handles all talent requests and who is booked on specific events.

"For us, our relationship with the WWE is such that they have creative control," Kenny said. "I think it's important to provide some context there, where we are distributors of the events. It's not all that dissimilar to all the other rights holder relationships that we have, where we have relationships with the league. Obviously, a glove, stick, and ball league is a little bit different than the combat sports world, as we can all appreciate. But in regards to our relationship with the WWE, they retain creative control. Which, by the way, we're fine with because they have built an incredible business for a long period of time."

Wrestlepalooza will stream on the ESPN service via the ESPN Unlimited Plan on Saturday at 7 pm EST. Lesnar's match against John Cena is set to be the main event of the show.