Backstage Update on Why First Hours of WWE SummerSlam 2026 Didn’t Air on ESPN’s Linear Networks

Recently, ESPN changed its WWE premium live event format for last weekend’s SummerSlam 2026 broadcast. ESPN did not air the first hour for free on ESPN or ESPN 2, similar to past WWE PLEs. Sean Ross Sapp answered a fan question on the topic during the latest Fightful Select Answers Q&A.

In response to a fan question regarding whether ESPN was done showing the first hour of WWE PLEs, Sapp said that’s not the case. Sapp said ESPN not showing the first hour for either night of WWE SummerSlam was due to “scheduling conflicts” that prevented it.

Sapp added that ESPN will continue broadcasting the first hour of WWE PLEs on its linear networks in the future, including “for major shows” that ESPN was to push out to the world and draw the most eyeballs possible.

This conflicts with recent news reported by Dave Meltzer in The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Meltzer wrote that ESPN dropping the first hour of the WWE PLEs was because “there seems to be a feeling that the streaming services do not benefit with new subscriptions at the level expected the way things had been done.” He also added that in WWE’s case, ESPN dropping the first hour “isn’t a matter of ratings.”