The WWE Draft did not air on ESPN as initially planned, and the reason behind it has been revealed. The promotion and ESPN had signed a 5-year deal in 2025 for all PLEs to be exclusively streamed on the platform in the United States. However, according to TC of WrestleVotes, ESPN’s interest in hosting the draft earlier this year dwindled as the format of the draft did not align with what ESPN typically offers its audience. The insider mentioned that the draft is better suited for RAW or SmackDown and might not fit well on the ESPN platform.
Furthermore, there are speculations that the WWE Draft may even be phased out now that the promotion has a strong pipeline to the future with NXT. Wrestling legend Vince Russo suggested that in the future, Netflix and ESPN could potentially compete for the rights to air the draft. Russo highlighted that WWE’s partnerships with multiple platforms could lead to conflicts between Netflix and ESPN as they may both want to broadcast the same content from the promotion.
Looking ahead to 2026, it will be interesting to see how WWE plans to navigate the distribution of the draft. With potential conflicts between streaming giants like Netflix and ESPN, the company will need to carefully strategize its partnerships and content distribution to avoid any clashes in the future.
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