WWE’s ‘Monday Night Raw’ Is Reportedly Headed for a Disney Network; Could Premium Events Land on ESPN+?

It was inevitable that things would change once the WWE was acquired by Endeavor, the parent company of mixed-martial arts promotion UFC. With the majority of the wrestling federation’s media rights set to expire over the next few years — beginning in fall 2024 — the company is now exploring a number of alternatives to its current partnerships. In September, it was announced that one of the organization’s flagship weekly events, “WWE Smackdown,” would be moving from Fox to the USA Network. Earlier this week, the WWE announced that its developmental promotion “WWE NXT” would move from USA to The CW. Now, one wrestling insider is reporting that the WWE’s flagship show “Monday Night Raw” is potentially headed to Disney-owned FX.

• WWE has secured TV deals for two of its properties but is still looking for a home for its flagship show.
• Starting in October 2024, “NXT” will air on The CW, while “SmackDown” will air on USA Network.
• Wrestling Observer Radio host Dave Meltzer says “Monday Night Raw” could head to a Disney-owned station and leave USA Network

Where in the World is “Monday Night Raw” Headed?

During a recent edition of Wrestling Observer Radio (WOR), host and longtime wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer said “most of the talk” surrounding “Raw” is that the show will head to FX, leaving USA Network. This tracks with past reports from the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, who said FX was a player for WWE's signature show.

While it might seem counter-intuitive for the family-friendly Disney brand to align itself with the sports entertainment promotion, it does make sense given the relationship between the WWE’s new parent company and the broadcaster. Disney owns both FX and ESPN, the latter of which is the primary broadcaster of UFC programming. All of the MMA promotion’s pay-per-view events air on ESPN+; so moving one of WWE’s premiere shows to a Disney-owned network makes sense based on brand synergy alone.

However, as wrestling writer Raj Giri noted, moving from USA to FX would be a lateral move in terms of viewership, as both cabelers currently bring in just under 500,000 viewers per year, subtracting the WWE viewership from USA’s numbers.

Giri also notes that, as currently situated, “Raw” and “Monday Night Football” would go head-to-head from September to January. However, WWE CEO Nick Khan has mentioned in the past that “Raw” doesn't have to stay on Mondays, especially if a new broadcast partner desires a move. Disney could opt for “Tuesday Night Raw” or, if it really wants to go head-to-head with competitor “AEW Dynamite” on TBS, “Wednesday Night Raw.”

Could WWE Pay-Per-Views Eventually Move to ESPN+?

So, if “Raw” does move to FX, but doesn’t pick up any additional viewers, what else would be the incentive to leave a successful arrangement with its longtime partner in NBCUniversal? Perhaps the answer lies in what else Disney, and ESPN, could bring to the package.

When the NBCU-owned Peacock became the exclusive home of the WWE's premiere live events (PLEs), that changed how the company handled events like WrestleMania, Survivor Series, the Royal Rumble, and more. For decades, they had been pay-per-view events, and then they became part of the WWE Network. In both situations, viewers were primarily paying the WWE. However, when the PLEs moved to Peacock, the streamer paid the wrestling organization in order to include the events as part of a standard subscription.

The WWE’s $1 billion deal with Peacock is set to expire in 2026, meaning that it is free to find a more potentially lucrative landing spot for its PLEs. It would no doubt be enticing for Endeavor to have all of its eggs in the Disney basket as well, since it could cross-promote WWE and UFC events on each other’s programming, with plenty of crossover appeal between the two sports. With a significant amount of combat sports content already on ESPN+, adding even more could be a tremendous value proposition to wrestling and MMA fans. ESPN’s linear channels air live, studio, and library UFC content, including prelims for numbered UFC PPV events, studio programming featuring ESPN MMA personalities, and past UFC PPV events.

And, unlike with Peacock, Endeavor, WWE, and Disney could increase their revenue by not only including some WWE PLEs for free with an ESPN+ subscription, but by also making some — or all of them — pay-per-views again, as is currently the model for UFC events.

A Brief History of Endeavor

For the uninitiated, in 2016, Endeavor, then known as WME-IMG, acquired UFC’s parent company Zuffa, LLC for just over $4 billion. In 2019, Endeavor signed a massive seven-year rights deal with ESPN, and in 2023, Endeavor acquired WWE and merged the two combat sports entities into TKO Holdings. Now, Endeavor, TKO Holdings, and the WWE are all on a mission to get the best possible broadcast deals for the WWE’s weekly episodic television shows.