CNBC’s Alex Sherman breaks down ESPN-WWE PLE deal | Pollock & Thurston
POST Wrestling
POST Wrestling
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 8 August 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston present a bonus show as they welcome Alex Sherman of CNBC to break down the WWE deal with ESPN.
On the show:
- The value of the deal for ESPN for its direct-to-consumer service
- Carriers that are offering the service to cable subscribers, and others that are not
- WWE splitting its rights across platforms and impact on the fan
- The status of the UFC rights negotiations
- The prospects of ESPN’s streaming service and the future of cable
Plus: John & Brandon review this past Wednesday’s TKO Q2 earnings report and call with analysts, the major talking points, and what was the value of its deal on Peacock?
📌 Subscribe for weekly coverage of the business of professional wrestling with John Pollock & Brandon Thurston.
Music courtesy: “Panic Beat” by Ben Tramer
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This month at post wrestling cafe.com, go Excel, and you get live editions of Rewind a raw, |
| 0:06.2 | rewind a dynamite, and rewind a Smackdown, featuring all the news of the day, your questions |
| 0:11.1 | and answers, as well as feedback. Post Wrestlingcafe.com. $6 gets you in the door. |
| 0:17.6 | Brandon Thurston from Ressalonomics is up next, and we're going to follow Brandon with John Pollack from post-restle. |
| 0:24.3 | Delivering on the returns, increasing our margins. |
| 0:28.4 | Radies go down the toilet if I'm not here. |
| 0:31.3 | All I do is simply put the math in my favor. |
| 0:35.3 | We agree that Brandon and John do good work. |
| 0:38.5 | The reason is simple wrestling economics. |
| 0:42.5 | I've been told the Netflix numbers. |
| 0:45.3 | I've been told the metrics a little bit. |
| 0:47.2 | Probably five different times. |
| 0:48.2 | I still don't get it. |
| 0:49.5 | There were respectable wrestling journalists who needed answers. |
| 0:53.9 | Thank you very much members of the media. |
| 0:55.8 | I hope you all go to hell. |
| 0:57.8 | How about we pop a number right here, right now? |
| 1:06.3 | A whole part of the show, ma'am. |
| 1:09.7 | It is John Pollock and Brandon Thurston coming at you for a second time this week, |
| 1:14.8 | some wonderful bonus content, and we cleared the deck because a returning guest here to |
| 1:20.2 | Pollock and Thurston, a very big week for the WWE announcing its five-year pact with ESPN, |
| 1:26.4 | a deal worth $1.6 billion, And here to break it down with us. |
... |
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