- 1 week ago
In this episode we discuss conflicting reports about the status of the relationship between WWE and ESPN and what changes are coming to ESPN Plus, we provide an update on the status of the Rock at WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the day's news and rumors!
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Find us an all social media including:
Facebook - Fro Wrestling Podcast
On X - @frowrestling
Instagram - @frowrestlingpodcast
Discord - Fro Wrestling Podcast
As well as these and many other platforms:
Daily Motion, Rumble, Podomatic, Odysee, Bluesky, and many more!
Please support our sponsors:
3WA Wrestling
www.worldwidewrestlingalliance...
Beezle Games - Sketchy People
Doodle Games - Banani Market
Foo Games - Legendary Elements
ALL AVAILABLE AT
www.thegamecrafter.com
Fro Life Educational Planning
www.frolifeplanning.com
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SportsTranscript
00:00Pro, pro, pro wrestling podcast.
00:06Pro, pro, pro wrestling podcast.
00:13Pro wrestling.
00:17What?
00:18What?
00:20What?
00:22Bam!
00:23Pro wrestling podcast.
00:30Just when they think they got the answers, I change the question.
00:35Breath through breath.
00:37Yeah.
00:39Woo!
00:40You need that!
00:42You need that!
00:45Who have you to doubt Elton?
00:48Because this guy's a serious professional.
00:50Can he do it?
00:51Oh, and a kick out.
00:54Unbelievable.
00:55Turn to my dangle into cold air.
01:00And I am a macho-pangu savage.
01:04Say hi!
01:06Say hi!
01:09Oh, I'm having a podcast.
01:12That's a magnet-thong wearing fatty.
01:13I said WWE stands for...
01:21It's me, Austin!
01:23I will never retire!
01:27For Austin!
01:28For Austin!
01:30Promotional considerations pay for by the following.
01:37Hey, yo, Pro Wrestling Podcast listeners.
01:40Welcome to the show where we don't sing it, we bring it.
01:42Help us out and click subscribe to show your support.
01:45Hey, are you sick and tired of dropping $100 or close to it every single year for the latest
01:50and greatest wrestling video game?
01:52Heck, after you buy all the expansion packs, you're over $100.
01:56Stop, dude.
01:56Put the money back in your pocket.
01:58Forget all this WWE and AEW branded video game nonsense.
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02:42If you want to become a member of the Fro Wrestling Podcast family,
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03:52Hello, everybody.
03:53I am Dr. Fro.
03:54Welcome to this episode of the Fro Wrestling Podcast.
03:57If you've got questions, comments,
03:59something you want me to touch on in the future episode,
04:01I'm happy to do that.
04:02We will do special episodes anytime I can
04:05with all sorts of questions, comments from you guys.
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04:17Tell me what you want to talk about,
04:18and I will make sure to include that in a future episode.
04:21Tonight, we are talking WWE and ESPN,
04:25their relationship, their mixed reports coming out,
04:28some reports stating that there is a serious problem,
04:31and that the future of the partnership is in jeopardy.
04:34That in 2030, when the current contract expires,
04:38the ESPN is not going to renew the contract.
04:41They're upset.
04:41If you didn't know, they're raising the price of ESPN Unlimited,
04:45which is the only way to see WWE PLEs through their server.
04:49They're raising the price to like $32.
04:52It's like a $3 increase.
04:54And most people didn't want to pay the price it was already.
04:57But the reason they're doing that is they were expecting roughly 2.1 million subscribers
05:02to their service by adding WWE's product.
05:05And it's kind of ludicrous if you think about it.
05:07And when you do big deals like this, they're paying a billion dollars for this.
05:13If you're going to make that kind of investment,
05:14you look at recent relevant history.
05:16The largest number of subscribers ever to the WWE network was 1.8 million in 2018,
05:24I believe it was.
05:26If you're looking at those numbers in 2018,
05:28and you know that that's the most they ever got,
05:30and the wrestling business as a whole is more overexposed now,
05:33there's another option now that's much more stable,
05:37there's some smaller companies that are putting out some great product,
05:40then it means that the landscape is changing.
05:43$2.1 million is not realistic.
05:44That apparently is what they were looking for.
05:46So they haven't gotten anywhere near that.
05:49So instead, they're passing that cost,
05:52that residual cost that they needed.
05:53They needed that $2.1 million to be able to break even for their deal,
05:57not even to make a bunch of money,
05:58to hit the target they needed to to make this deal advantageous.
06:01And so instead, since we all aren't paying for it,
06:05instead, they're hiking up the price for the people who do.
06:08Now, I don't pay for it because I have DirecTV,
06:10and the plan that I have gives it to me for free.
06:12I love that.
06:13I would encourage you to check with your cable provider to figure out if you can get it for free.
06:17Because it doesn't say that many paid subscriptions,
06:20it's that many subscriptions in general.
06:22And what they really were hoping for is if you weren't going to be a paid subscriber,
06:25was to get some financial kickback from, say, DirecTV, Dish Network,
06:29or whoever had their programming,
06:31negotiating with them to make it advantageous to add that as a caveat
06:36to your regular subscribed program of television watching.
06:40They haven't gotten that kind of support, though.
06:43So that's why we're seeing some changes.
06:45Now, the conflicting report is that there's a gentleman by the name of Ben Caffardo,
06:51who is the guy who basically heads up ESPN's department related to WWE PLEs
06:57and some other things they referenced on the Little League World Series, stuff like that.
07:00And he flat out denies that this took place,
07:04that this is even a thought process.
07:08He called them out for not reaching out to him directly
07:11and verifying before they ran with the story.
07:13And I apologize, I don't have down here who broke the story.
07:16Might want to be WrestleVotes.
07:18Don't quote me on that because I'm not sure.
07:20But it was one of the bigger news sites.
07:25And he refutes that.
07:26But then they fire back saying, no, they're standing by their story.
07:30That they had had communication with him previously
07:33and had not remembered that or they would have emailed him directly.
07:35But they did email the customer support lines and all this other stuff
07:39and didn't really get a response.
07:41I don't know how to feel about this.
07:43Because if here's what would be a real simple way to quell any concerns.
07:48If ESPN came out and gave a vote of confidence in WWE's product
07:52and started announcing numbers that made it sound like it was advantageous
07:55for them to maintain the relationship,
07:57I'd be more inclined to believe that.
07:58But if they're just going to say, nope, nope, it's not happening,
08:01you kind of have to say that.
08:02You have shareholders to answer to.
08:04So does TKO.
08:06So you wouldn't come out right and say, oh, yeah, we hate this partnership.
08:09We're not renewing them.
08:10Because then TKO stock plummets.
08:12If their stock plummets because there's no profitability,
08:15that would be a problem.
08:16So you can't read too much into this statement.
08:19But I think the truth probably lies somewhere in between.
08:21Would they like more subscribers?
08:23Absolutely.
08:23Do they still want WWE program?
08:25Absolutely.
08:25How can you not want one of the largest global platforms in the world
08:29and the leader in its market, in its niche subject content area?
08:35That's not something you want to give away,
08:37even if you're losing some money on it.
08:39Now, this is obviously a lot of money, but still.
08:41So we're going to have to keep our eye on this.
08:43But very interesting that there was so many exchanges on X
08:47and other places about this.
08:48And you had major players making legit comments.
08:53By the way, I just want to throw this out there
08:54because I'm recording this on Tuesday night just after NXT went off the air.
08:59But if you are looking to find out information about SmackDown,
09:04the spoilers for SmackDown are already out
09:06because they recorded that after Raw.
09:08I am not going to report on those spoilers.
09:11I know that sometimes I've gotten comments from subscribers or listeners
09:16who want me to like, whenever there's an opportunity for spoilers,
09:19they want me to do like a review of a show using the spoiler reports.
09:22And I don't like to do that for two reasons.
09:25One, if you don't want to know, I don't want to ruin it for you.
09:28And two, I believe that I need to see the matches.
09:32I need to see the show to see how to get the vibe and the feel
09:35to see how the crowd is reacting, things like that.
09:37I don't want to read some report online
09:39and then try to fabricate what happened
09:42and put my own spin on something I didn't actually see.
09:45So if you're looking to be spoiled, fine.
09:47SmackDown has spoilers out there.
09:49You can check them out.
09:50And look, I read them because I'm going to be busy Friday,
09:54so it'll take me a little while to get to the show.
09:56And I was curious because I really thought there were some things they could do.
09:59And I'm not going to say whether they did or didn't,
10:01but you can check that out if you want.
10:03If not, don't.
10:04Leave the spoilers out there.
10:06Watch it on Friday night.
10:07It should be a good show.
10:08That being said, let's get into what I consider to be old news,
10:12but it's also new news because there's more information available.
10:17Saudi Arabia, the controlling interests there
10:20that are behind WrestleMania coming to Saudi,
10:22have made it very clear they absolutely want The Rock at WrestleMania 43.
10:28The problem, and Dave Meltzer comments on this on Wrestling Observer Radio,
10:32is that The Rock in December of 2026
10:36starts filming the final installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise.
10:40And there's just not a way,
10:43at least we don't think there's a way,
10:44for The Rock to be able to train and prepare
10:47and get in the shape he'd need to be in
10:49to then also have the time to go have the match in Saudi Arabia.
10:53Now, could he hop a plane, fly to Saudi, make an appearance?
10:56Yeah, absolutely.
10:57I actually suggest that that's far more likely
11:00because the Saudis really want him,
11:02but because he has so many movie projects.
11:04At the same time, let's be very honest,
11:07I'm not trying to be disrespectful here,
11:09but the authority in Saudi Arabia,
11:12they got stupid money.
11:14If they want The Rock bad enough,
11:17they'll get The Rock.
11:18We may end up having to see the Oba-Roman match pushed off
11:22because they do Rock and Roman
11:24if they want to pay The Rock $50 million to do a match.
11:28I am sure he would find a way for that kind of money.
11:32I have heard some conversation that perhaps it wouldn't do that.
11:36They would do Roman and Oba anyways,
11:39and they would do The Rock and Cody.
11:41Don't know how I feel about that.
11:43Something two years ago would have been interesting,
11:45or a year ago it might have been interesting,
11:46but this year, not so much.
11:48But we'll have to wait and see how that plays out.
11:51I, for one, I mean, at some point,
11:53he's not going to be able to go anymore,
11:54so you want to see him do as much as he can,
11:55but if he's filming,
11:57and it sounds like his filming schedule is very, very tight
12:00all through next year, from what we understand,
12:03I don't know if it's going to be possible.
12:05You know, we'll have to wait and see.
12:06Money talks.
12:07We all know that.
12:08And by the way, The Rock's not the only movie star in the news
12:11because Drew McIntyre is back in the United States
12:14after filming.
12:15He filmed Highlander,
12:16and then he was doing another film.
12:17I apologize, don't remember the name of.
12:19But he's been doing a lot of filming,
12:21but apparently he's back in the U.S.
12:22and will be probably back on your TV screens very, very soon.
12:27I don't know where he fits right now.
12:29I don't care where he fits.
12:30I'm a huge Drew McIntyre fanatic,
12:32so I want to see the guy.
12:35But it's exciting to know that he will be back soon,
12:37hopefully sooner than later.
12:39I expect him to be a big part of things.
12:41He may be there for Money in the Bank.
12:43Heck, he might win Money in the Bank.
12:44It would be very interesting if he did.
12:47As a guy who's been cashed in on,
12:49it'd be nice to see him cash in on somebody else,
12:51if possible.
12:53But there's a lot that can be done between now
12:55and well before WrestleMania season,
12:58so we'll have to wait and see how Drew McIntyre
12:59factors into those plans.
13:00But hopefully he's going to be back for the foreseeable future,
13:03and we can see him in a much more prominent role
13:05like we used to when he was world champion,
13:07only, what, eight months ago or so?
13:10So it should be exciting.
13:11Glad to see him coming back.
13:12That's all the time we have for this episode.
13:14Check back with us next episode.
13:15We'll run down the latest wrestling news and rumors.
13:17Special thanks, as always,
13:18goes to Suno for creating the music and sound effects
13:20I use in the show.
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14:49because Fro Life Educational Planning
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14:53and for life with Fro Life.
14:54I'm Fred Froelich, better known as Dr. Fro.
14:56I want to thank you for taking some time with us today.
14:58Until next time, take care, everybody.
15:00Have a great night.
15:27I'll see you next time.
15:34Bye.
15:35Bye.
15:43Bye.
15:58Outro Music
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