The Consumer and Commercial Relationship in WWE
This past weekend, WWE WrestleMania was on ESPN programming for the first time. They have now been on ESPN since Wrestlepalooza in September. One of the biggest chief complaints I read all weekend was the amount of commercials that took place on Night One and how there were commercial breaks that were longer than the Women’s World Championship Match, which arguably had one of the best story buildups going into a WrestleMania. I do firmly believe that Liv Morgan and Stephanie Vaquer should have had way more time to shine than what they were given. You could also argue that the Becky Lynch-AJ Lee match and the Fatal Four Way Women’s Tag Team Match was also short changed.
I understand that some of the matches were short and should have been given more time, but what I don’t understand is the constant complaining about the advertisements and complaining. The last WWE pay-per-view I ever ordered was Elimination Chamber 2014, where I paid $54.95 plus fees. Currently, I have the Hulu plus Live TV bundle, which includes all ESPN programming. For those who don’t have the Hulu bundle, the ESPN Unlimited plan is $30/a mo. You may not agree with this, but I enjoy not paying $60 every month to watch the big shows WWE puts on. I will gladly deal with commercials and advertising. Do I think it should come at the expense of cutting time on matches? Absolutely not. I think it is something that needs to be worked on and ironed out for the future.
If you are still angry about advertisements and commercials after reading this far, let me break it down for you. The following major sporting events have advertisements and commercials:
MLB World Series
NBA Finals
NFL Super Bowl
NHL Stanley Cup Finals
NCAA March Madness
NASCAR Daytona 500
IndyCar Indianapolis 500
The Olympics
PGA The Masters
UFC
I bring all of this up because it still baffles me that people are so upset about advertisements and commercials being on the WWE Premium Live Events. The WWE has stated for the last five years now that they are trying to compete with everything else in the market. It is very clear that WWE is trying to go with the professional sports model in terms of advertising and commercials.
Do I think it’s the right model? Not necessarily. Do I think it’s greed? Maybe so, but if you’re going to call them greedy then you can say that about all of the major sports organization. People will argue that you can watch all of those other sporting events for free. I’m wondering what world they live in because in this day in age there’s nothing that’s free. There are so many different streaming outlets that have media rights to sporting events and game, there is no way you can really say that those events are free to watch.
Here’s a breakdown of all the major streaming services and their lowest prices that include ads:
Netflix: $7.99/mo
Hulu: $9.99/mo
Disney+: $9.99/mo.
Max (formerly HBO Max): $9.99/mo.
Amazon Prime Video: $14.99/mo or included with $139/year Prime membership.
Paramount+: $8.99/mo.
Peacock: $10.99
Apple TV+: $12.99/mo.
Starz: $10.99/mo
YouTube TV: $82.99/mo.
Hulu + Live TV: $88.99/mo
DIRECTV Stream:$89.99/mo.
Sling TV: $45.99/mo.
I ask you again. In what world do you think you can a sporting event on TV for free? Even if you paid for the no ads option, you’ll still see ads and commercials through the actual sporting event because they have to satisfy the companies who are paying top dollars to advertise with them.
I completely understand that traditional pro wrestling fans hate this and it’s not how things were done for so many years. Unfortunately, it’s probably not going to get any better anytime soon. The merger of UFC and WWE into TKO created a lot of debt. The debt as of December 2025 is $4.06 billion. Until that debt has went down, I wouldn’t expect less advertisements or for ticket prices to go down. WWE under the TKO banner will continue to go after as much money as possible for the foreseeable future.
I will still continue to enjoy the product and not take what they’re doing personally. There are still some really great things about WWE even amongst all the crappy corporate things that are happening. At the end of the day, it’s just another form of entertainment that shouldn’t be taken that seriously. I choose to enjoy the moments and memories I make from watching these events with people I care about. For me, that’s what it’s really all about.
