ESPN & WWE Respond To Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Claims of Alleged Unhappiness

As previously reported, actor and former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. made some waves with his comments on the latest edition of his Wrestling With Freddie Podcast. During the episode, Prinze claimed that he heard from a friend at Disney that ESPN isn’t happy with its deal to stream WWE premium live events.

Prinze stated during the podcast, “ESPN, by the way, so unhappy with the deal.” He continued, “I was talking to a friend of mine who works for Disney, and he was just like, ‘Yo, they better make their money back on this deal.’ He just said, ‘They’re hot.'” Fightful Select has since reached out to sources at ESPN and WWE to respond to the comments.

According to Fightful, a rep with ESPN claimed that they haven’t heard that type of chatter, and the rep said that ESPN has enjoyed working with WWE. When asking sources in WWE for comment, a higher-up reportedly stated, “No one in WWE upper management is aware of Freddie Prinze’s role in wrestling or otherwise.”

WWE and ESPN began their partnership back in September for the first Wrestlepalooza event, which was held in Indianapolis, Indiana. The new ESPN App is now the streaming home of WWE PLEs in the U.S., with Netflix streaming the shows internationally.

The latest WWE PLE that aired on the ESPN App was last Saturday’s WWE Survivor Series: WarGames 2025. The next major PLE that will stream on the ESPN App is the 2026 Royal Rumble. The WWE PLE will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on January 31, 2026.

ESPN and WWE’s five-year partnership is reportedly valued at $325 million annually, or $1.6 billion overall for five years.