Welcome to The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter where you’ll always find the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis.

Did someone share this newsletter with you? Sign up for free to make sure you never miss it.

🎤 QUICK START ✍️

We do our best to cover the wide world of sports media, beyond the “four letters” of ESPN. That’s not going to be possible today. It was, quite frankly, a seismic for the network and the sports media industry — coming just one day after another seismic day for ESPN and sports media.

Let’s catch up:

‼️ WWE to ESPN. At long last, professional wrestling is coming to the Worldwide Leader. And not with the characters played by Stephen A. Smith or Pat McAfee, but real, exclusive Premier Live Events (PLEs). ESPN will pay a reported $325 million annually for rights to WrestleMania, Summer Slam and the rest of the weekend specials formerly known as pay-per-views.

🗓️ ESPN app gets a date. The long-awaited standalone streaming version of ESPN (called “ESPN”) has a due date. Disney announced on its Wednesday earnings call that customers can subscribe to ESPN through the internet for the first time starting Aug. 21. We already knew the service would cost $29.99 monthly, plus a “Select” tier featuring former ESPN+ programming for an additional $11.99 a month. The WWE PLEs and other content like The Rich Eisen Show will be exclusive to the streaming service, which cable subscribers will have free access to as well.

📺 NFL Draft returns to ESPN. As an offshoot of the NFL Media acquisition (which we covered extensively in Wednesday’s newsletter), ESPN will remain the U.S. television distributor of the NFL Draft for the next several years. The move was expected, but the NFL could add a global digital partner in time. Beyond this news, ESPN also announced plans to launch an NFL Draft television show on ESPN2.

🏢 ESPN in Inglewood. As part of the ESPN-NFL partnership, the network will take over the former NFL Network studio space in Southern California, near SoFi Stadium. Interesting, considering ESPN just recently left its longtime space in downtown Los Angeles.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

ESPN embraces the WWE, finally

There aren’t many sports that ESPN hasn’t touched. Until this week, pro wrestling was one of them.

From one angle, ESPN’s $325 million per year deal to broadcast WWE PLEs is a cheapening of the “Worldwide Leader” and its brand. From another, it is a vital acquisition of a maturing sports property.

More than anything, the deal signals that ESPN is firmly in “beggars can’t be choosers” mode. The company’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer service is the future. It knows that. In order to build ESPN into a must-have subscription in whatever replaces cable, it must have enough of the top live sports rights that every sports fan is driven to pay for it.

Whether they fit with the polished, corporate Disney brand or not, WWE PLEs are certainly among the top live sports rights. Now, all WWE fans must make sure they have access to the new ESPN app, either with their cable login or a digital subscription.

It is also telling that ESPN is not making WWE PLEs part of the “Select” tier of its new app, where old ESPN+ exclusives (like Big East sports and European soccer) will live. This deal was not just about squeezing extra money out of the service. It is a growth deal.

In the days when it was the most lucrative cash cow in media history, ESPN banked on being the best option among a crowded field on cable. They were the network people wanted to watch, so they could negotiate high rates from providers. Now, they are making that sales pitch directly to consumers.

Just like when ESPN scooped up the College Football Playoff, NCAA sports championships, NBA and WNBA, or NFL Media in recent years, the WWE deal is about value. In a crowded marketplace that competes with free content on YouTube and social media, sports fans will only pay for can’t-miss content. The more of it that ESPN can compile, the more it will grow its digital subscriber base and create an offramp for cable subscribers to cut the cord without losing the sports they love.

Pro wrestling may be a little more buttoned-up than the vulgar, violent reputation it made for itself as recently as the 2000s. At WWE specifically, Vince McMahon and his unsavory personal baggage are finally gone. That all helps.

The bottom line, though, is that people love the WWE. Now they have to have ESPN to get it.

Onto the next acquisition.

🗣️ NOTABLE QUOTABLES 🗣️

As with every big sports and media story, the wave of reaction to ESPN’s deals with the WWE and NFL this week were as big as the news itself.

Here’s the latest chatter and extra tidbits around the deals:

• “I assume all the mid level, powerless, bum ass suits at ESPN will attempt to muddy this somehow (out of context leaks/ignorant anonymous opinions/etc.) but, in the end.. this agreement will outlive the dinosaurs currently guarding desks in Bristol and this deal will be great for ESPN.” - Pat McAfee, who works for both ESPN and the WWE

• “The journalist in me … would point out the conflict of interest. … Well, the NFL has probably owned a lot of ESPN for a long period of time. It’s just not official, that’s all.” - Dan Patrick on the issue of the NFL owning a stake in ESPN, which covers it

• “Fired up for a great season! Optimistic about this new partnership!” - Scott Hanson, confirming he will return as host of NFL RedZone despite the ESPN takeover of the property

• “We believe there may be opportunities for us to bundle other companies’ sports offerings. … The more sports can be offered in one destination for the consumer or ease of use if we can improve the ease of use for consumers, ease of finding things, because as a devoted sportsman, I often have to work to try to find where, what platform sports are on…” - Disney CEO Bob Iger

🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥 

The end of ESPN’s journalistic integrity?

Dan Patrick was not the only one to question how ESPN will remain nonpartisan in its coverage of the NFL going forward.

Even before the league took an ownership stake, ESPN was very careful about its relationship with the NFL. It has run into trouble with owners on the scripted show Playmakers as well as controversies with star talent like Bill Simmons and Jemele Hill over the years. In most cases, the business relationship with the NFL won out.

So much so that when ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro took over as president last decade, he was urgent about his desire to make good with the league. His reward was a better Monday Night Football slate, a Super Bowl, and now this lucrative, groundbreaking partnership.

Maybe ESPN has never been a completely unbiased entity when it comes to the NFL. That hasn’t stopped people like Don Van Natta Jr., Mark Fainaru-Wada, Seth Wickersham and Kalyn Kahler from reporting unflattering things about concussions, domestic violence, labor relations and player protests over the years. If ESPN was in the pocket of the NFL, that pocket had a knife in it.

There is certainly a chance that changes under the new arrangement, which will see the NFL take 10 percent equity in the Worldwide Leader. I would bet that Van Natta, Wickersham and the other veteran reporters put up quite a fight if the league ever tried to intercede. Still, the new partners (team owners) won’t take their Ls laying down.

Overall, the concern-trolling over this deal seems misguided. The NFL is so big that every newsgathering outlet in the country will cover any major scandal or change with the league. At a more granular level, we’re just wrapping up a summer in which NBC Sports reporter Mike Florio and Meadowlark Media host Pablo Torre helped blow the top off problems in the NFLPA. Even smaller outlets like USA Today, Yahoo Sports and CBS Sports have NFL insiders who regularly break news.

I’m more worried about what happens with smaller stories that ESPN has broken in the past, like the abuse at NBA China academies or the ban of Jontay Porter for gambling irregularities, going away with less investment in journalism. The smaller scoops and the analysis that ESPN provided about the world of sports was just as valuable as its NFL coverage. And there are less competitors doing that work.

More of those resources will also go away as ESPN leans more into its games-first identity, including with the NFL and WWE deals this week. That’s what we should be worried about.

Someone else will break the next big NFL scandal, even if ESPN avoids it.