It's been a significant year for WWE in breaking traditional viewership. From moving "WWE Raw" from television cable to Netflix, then striking a deal to have all of its premium live events streamed through ESPN, the well-renowned company isn't slowing down just yet. Since WWE's move to ESPN, the question of where all of its archives will go has arisen.
In 2021, NBCUniversal's Peacock network acquired the streaming rights to WWE and all of its content. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, all of the library archives on Peacock, including past PLEs, flagship programming, and all of ECW and WCW's content, will no longer be available on Peacock after the end of December, compared to the original reports that it would remain up until March of 2026. The listed archives will be up for bidding, with ESPN appearing as the frontrunner for where the content might move to. Additionally, it was noted that past and current episodes of "WWE SmackDown" and "WWE NXT" may stay up for now, but "Raw" and the other libraries won't.
In August, it was reported that specialty events like "Saturday Night's Main Event" will move from NBC television to Peacock exclusively, with four events scheduled per year. Meanwhile, "SmackDown" will remain on the USA Network through 2029, with the show changing from its two-hour format to three, beginning January 2, 2026.In other news, this week, the landscape of streaming broadcasts will drastically change once more, afterNetflix announced it had reached an agreement to acquireWarner Bros., the home of AEW's flagship programming. More will be revealed on this matter. Stay tuned.
