It’s a brand new day in the 45+ year history of ESPN. But while much of the focus has been on the impact of their equity deal with the NFL, the WorldWide Leader in Sports is embarking on a new era as partners with WWE. And we quickly saw the impact of that agreement on Sunday night’s edition of SportsCenter as the sports highlight show of record had a complete highlight package from the Clash in Paris premium live event.
As SportsCenter covered a busy day in sports, there was also room to cover sports entertainment as well. Coming out of a commercial break, the program kicked it to WWE lead announcer Michael Cole, who narrated a full highlight package with analyst Wade Barrett.
The highlight package lasted over two minutes and focused on Roman Reigns vs Bronson Reed (with Reed and stablemate Bron Breakker writing Reigns off television for the foreseeable future after a post-match attack), the World Heavyweight Championship fatal four way between Seth Rollins, CM Punk, Jey Uso, and LA Knight, and John Cena’s match with Logan Paul.
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Of course, there was also significant promotion for WWE’s next premium live event. The first WWE Wrestlepalooza takes place in Indianapolis on September 20 in Indianapolis. It will be the first PLE on the ESPN app and direct-to-consumer service since the rights deal between the two sides was announced last month. Michael Cole also emphasized that Cena will be present, and it’s expected that he will face returning superstar Brock Lesnar in a huge match for the company.
The deal was expected to officially launch next year after WrestleMania, but it was moved up after WWE fulfilled their event obligations to Peacock, with Clash in Paris being their last exclusive show on that streaming platform. Wrestlepalooza also just so happens to coincide with competitor AEW and one of their signature events in All Out.
If there was ever any doubt before, a SportsCenter highlight package proves that ESPN is going to cover WWE alongside all the other major sports leagues, especially the ones that they are in business with together. It’s a pretty incredible thing considering that WWE itself is fully comfortable presenting itself as scripted entertainment and pulling back the curtain. But it now resides fully in the mainstream sports world.
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