ESPN Executives Comment On WWE Counterprogramming AEW All Out With Wrestlepalooza

This Saturday, AEW All Out will broadcast in the afternoon as a pay-per-view before WWE Wrestlepalooza marks the larger promotion's ESPN debut on that same night. Appearing on a media call ahead of Wrestlepalooza, ESPN executives John Lasker and Matt Kenny were asked about WWE scheduling the event on the same day as a competing show. According to Kenny, the two companies didn't have many options available, with the rest of WWE's 2025 schedule already planned out.

"In this particular case, we were just laser-focused on launching WWE," Kenny said. "We knew we wanted to have a marquee WWE event in September to support the launch of ESPN's direct-to-consumer offering ... so it really had less to do with any particular wrestling competition."

The Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions went on to emphasize that they view college football as competition as well, which is always going to command a dominant audience on Saturdays during the fall. He stated that they welcome the competition and will simply do what they have to do to best serve WWE and its audience.

"We've got an incredible sort of digital ecosystem here, and a great sort of product that we just launched," said Lasker, the Senior Vice President of ESPN's digital platform. "[It] effectively allows us to do what we need to do, even with or without competition."

WWE and ESPN just announced Wrestlepalooza a few weeks ago, with All Out long having occupied that spot on AEW's schedule. As a result of the new competition, All Out was moved to the afternoon. That show will be the first PPV available to buy on HBO Max, while Wrestlepalooza will be available to anyone with access to ESPN's new streaming service.

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