ESPN Asked WWE To Add More Matches To PLEs

ESPN reportedly requested that WWE include more matches at its recently concluded Night of Champions PLE.

WWE's PLEs, excluding big events like Royal Rumble or WrestleMania, have had just 4-5 matches on its card, but that changed at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia. It has now emerged that ESPN, WWE's broadcast partner for PLEs in the U.S., had asked WWE to feature six matches for the PLE, as per "WrestleVotes on Fightful Select." The report claimed that ESPN had asked WWE to include one or two more matches on the main part of the broadcast, which is the paid section. This is separate from the first hour of the show, which airs for free on ESPN.

When looking at this year's list of WWE PLEs, only Night of Champions and both nights of WrestleMania had six or more matches. Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber both had four matches, with the respective matches named after the event taking up most of the time, while Backlash and Clash in Italy had five matches each. Last week's Night of Champions featured both the men's and women's King of the Ring tournament finals, while several titles were also defended, including the Undisputed WWE Championship, which headlined the show and saw Sami Zayn win the title for the first time.

WWE and ESPN's partnership has seen several WWE stars appear on ESPN programming, either to promote WWE shows or ESPN sporting events, including Danhausen's involvement in the New York Knicks' NBA Championship pursuit.