On Thursday, WWE announced that its weekly digital series, “Main Event,” will begin airing exclusively on the streaming platform Rumble.
To clarify, this isn’t the much larger digital property, “Saturday Night’s Main Event,” which airs exclusively on Peacock.
In the wake of the promotion’s mass media exodus from NBC and Peacock, “Main Event” has streamed exclusively on YouTube since the beginning of 2026, hovering around 200,000 viewers every week.
The debut is scheduled for Oct. 14.
In a press release, WWE stated the following:
“WWE and Rumble, a video platform powering human imagination, part of RUM Group Inc. (NASDAQ: RUM), have announced a long-term distribution and content partnership in which Rumble will become the new home of the weekly premium program WWE Main Event.
“Beginning Oct. 14, Rumble will stream WWE Main Event every Wednesday starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, with each episode available at Rumble.com/WWE as part of Rumble Sports’ lineup on Rumble.com and Rumble’s mobile and connected TV apps.”
For those who are unfamiliar, Rumble became an incubator for right-wing politics during the 2020 presidential election. From its inception, the streaming platform was designed for content creators who were disenchanted with YouTube moderation; designed to build an infrastructure that is “immune to cancel culture,” according to Rumble’s own website.
Since then, it’s amassed a who’s who of far-right political pundits, from Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes to the late Charlie Kirk.
In 2021, Vice President JD Vance made a sizeable investment in the platform through his venture capital firm, Narya Capital.
It’s no secret that WWE has had a proprietary relationship with Donald Trump’s presidential administration for years now. WWE’s former CEO, Linda McMahon, is currently the Secretary of Education, and previously held the position of administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term of office.
The WWE has only continued fostering that relationship, partnering with the U.S. Department of Health and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to promote the Presidential Fitness Test.
So, the decision to move “Main Event” to Rumble certainly isn’t surprising from a socio-political standpoint.
From a business standpoint, however, it’s difficult to grasp the logistics of leaving YouTube for a niche, right-wing streaming platform. Not only does it diminish WWE’s overall footprint on YouTube, but “Main Event” averages nearly 200,000 views every week. What’s a generous figure for WWE on Rumble? Alex Jones hovers around 20,000. That would be a fraction of the show’s current viewership.
Under the direction of its parent company, TKO, WWE has positioned itself as a content machine, eager to license its digital properties to as many platforms as possible. In EVP Alex Varga’s own words:
“Serving a digital-first audience is a core focus for WWE, and Rumble has built an accessible platform that is committed to delivering premium sports and entertainment programming.”
This is more than a strategic move, though. In a business that extols the mantra that “dollars make sense,” this ostensibly does little for WWE’s bottom line. In reality, it’s just another opportunity for WWE to endear themselves to Trump and his despotic regime.
I’d be willing to support the WWE wholeheartedly if their greatest misdeed was being a mediocre wrestling company. Bad wrestling isn’t a sin, after all, but this move speaks to a moral bankruptcy that is systemic. And I think their reluctance to relocate “Crown Jewel,” despite the State Department’s travel advisory, as all reports would indicate, only reaffirms that truth.
As the old cliché goes, a lot of people blindly separate the art from the artist. I’m sure that I’m guilty of that as well, from time to time. Still, for the past decade, I’ve struggled to support the WWE in good conscience because their values are, or lack thereof, antithetical to who I am at my core.
So, if you’ve ever wondered why my coverage of WWE isn’t proportionate to its footprint in the pro wrestling game, look no further.
Share
