WWE Partner ESPN Increases Cost Of Unlimited Subscription

It has nearly been a year since WWE and ESPN kicked off their working relationship with WWE Wrestlepalooza, which aired on the then newly launched ESPN Unlimited streaming service. And it appears there will now be a change to the service that some may take issue with. On their support website, ESPN announced that Unlimited will be seeing an increase in price across the board, starting on September 17.

Previously, available subscription plans were $12.99 for select monthly, $129.99 for select annual, $29.99 for unlimited monthly, and $299.99 for unlimited annual. Those plans will now see an increase to $13.99, $139.99, $31.99, and $319.99 respectively, with select annual and unlimited annual plans increasing by $10 to $20. No reason was given for why ESPN was increasing the cost for subscriptions.

Since reaching their deal with ESPN last year, WWE has aired ten PLEs on the streaming platform, including both nights of WrestleMania 42 and SummerSlam. This weekend,, the promotion will have their first "NXT" PLE, Heatwave, air as well, as part of an agreement between "NXT's" streaming partner The CW. 

Despite all this, ESPN has remained largely cagey when it comes to WWE's viewership numbers on Unlimited, and to date has not released any hard data for any WWE PLE's, though Dave Meltzer believes viewership is lower than it had been on previous services. The only viewership data made available regarding WWE on ESPN is when portions of the PLE's have aired on either ESPN or ESPN2, which was the case for WrestleMania, Backlash, and Clash in Italy. 

WWE's first ESPN PLE to air under the new subscriptions will be the AAA/WWE cross promotional event Worlds Collide, which will take place in Chicago, Illinois on September 26. The show will air the same day as AEW All Out, which is also taking place in Chicago.