Details Behind ESPN’s Coverage of WWE

The latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has provided details behind ESPN’s coverage of WWE over recent weeks. As previously reported, former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar announced that he had re-signed with WWE during an edition of ESPN’s “Sports Center” prior to WrestleMania 31, and then the leading sports cable network continued to cover WrestleMania and WWE more consistently in the days following.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer goes into why ESPN has decided to cover more WWE related stories, which used to be a big “no no” for the network, saying,

“There has been a lot of talk over the past two weeks about how much ESPN has been covering WWE, which used to be off limits. It was one thing to cover Lesnar’s signing a new deal, because that was a major news story and it involved a real sport.

They also noted Bill Simmons appearing on Raw and the upcoming E:60 special on the WWE Performance Center. But the key was covering WrestleMania like it was a major sports event on Sports Center. Once again, part of that was the two key stories involved matches with Lesnar and Rousey, both legitimate UFC champions.

But their Twitter account was covering WrestleMania as a live sporting event throughout the show with results of all the matches. It was noted that WWE and Lesnar’s management team brought the announcement to ESPN to give them the exclusive. Josh Krulewitz of ESPN told SI.com that the increased WWE coverage was not a management decision as far as covering WWE more, but a series of independent things that transpired, combined with one-house connections to the company.

A Jon Gruden piece talking WrestleMania came up because a former production person for Monday Night Football on ESPN has moved on to WWE and suggested the idea. They also said the expanded coverage was because they were given the Lesnar scoop, and that Lesnar and Ronda Rousey are athletes that they’ve regularly covered. In the end, if interest is there, and during Mania week interest was there, that’s a pretty good reason for coverage.”

While time will tell if ESPN will continue to feature WWE-related material on their broadcasts, it seems as if moves that the company is making has enticed the network to at least cover the biggest event of the year, WrestleMania.

Editor’s Note:

It’s funny, in 1995 I remember “Sports Center” commercials featuring The Undertaker, Paul Bearer, Diesel, Shawn Michaels, and more, but wrestling very seldom appears in any of their legitimate sports news coverage. It will be incredibly beneficial to the notoriety of WWE if ESPN continues to cover events and news updates for them.