WWE SummerSlam 2026 is almost upon us, and for fans in the United States, the show will be available to stream on the ESPN app. However, there will be one major difference to how SummerSlam is presented on the ESPN app compared to the other WWE Premium Live Events that have aired since the deal was finalized in 2025.According to Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, ESPN won't be airing the first hour of either night of this year's SummerSlam. Instead, there will be a three-hour pre-show that will commence at 3PM ET, with no matches being featured on either Saturday or Sunday's pre-show.Meltzer noted that the idea of airing the first hour of previous PLE's on ESPN was to get people interested enough that they might actually purchase a subscription to the ESPN app to watch the rest of the show, but there has reportedly been a feeling amongst those in charge of many streaming services across the world that this tactic doesn't actually work as well as it should, and thus, the change was made. The other major TKO entity, the UFC, have already introduced this strategy as none of the fights from the UFC Freedom 250 card at The White House, or any of the prelim fights from the UFC 329 card that was headlined by Conor McGregor's return to MMA, were shown on CBS unlike other numbered UFC cards from earlier in the year.As far as whether ratings were to do with this broadcasting change, Meltzer believes that the ratings weren't a factor at all. In fact, Meltzer believes that with the lack of competition from other sporting events around this time of year, airing any portion of SummerSlam on ESPN would have drawn good-to-very good numbers, especially in the 18-49 demographic. Meltzer didn't have any nailed down statistics to showcase his point, but did note that the previous two WWE PLEs that have had the first hour air on ESPN, WWE Backlash and WWE Night of Champions, have drawn bigger ratings in the 18-49 demographic than recent episodes of "WWE SmackDown."
