As the landscape of sports continues to shift, media partners continue to align with sports leagues in this streaming era. Not only did ESPN align itself with the NFL but, it also aligned itself with the WWE to get rid of Pay Per Views and start broadcasting "Premium Live Events". On Saturday, the two sides united for their first event "Wrestlepalooza" headlined by a matchup between John Cena and Brock Lesnar.
College Football fans learned of the partnership because of the constant promotion by ESPN throughout the day. Aside from the constant ads by ESPN throughout College GameDay, the panel even picked who would win the matchup between Cena and Lesnar which gave us a great moment when Nick Saban hit Pat McAfee with a "You can't see me" but it was strange to see WWE forced into GameDay.
College Football fans hated ESPN's promotion of Wrestlepalooza
Throughout the day, the constant promotion of Wrestlepalooza between the feature in College GameDay, the constant cut ins during the games, and all of the popups. Throughout the day, fans kept heading to social media to voice their displeasure with the promo from ESPN.
College Football Analyst Tom Fornelli had the perfect call back as the promos were just like the constant cut ins to Aaron Judge's chase for 62 Home Runs.
All these WWE promos are giving me Aaron Judge at-bat cut-in vibes.
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) September 20, 2025
Other fans felt that ESPN's ad for Wrestlepalooza were over the top.
ESPN it’s college football Saturday in the fall. Stop pushing Wrestlepalooza on us. @espn
— QB Country Atlanta (@QBC_Atlanta) September 20, 2025
Is it just me, or is anyone else completely overdosed on ESPN ads for WWE'S Wrestlepalooza? I can't wait to completely ignore it, and enjoy AEW ALL OUT instead, immediately followed by college football!
— Chris Kazmerzak (@CKazmerzak) September 20, 2025
Hey @espn. Stop shoving Wrestlepalooza down our throats when we are trying to watch college football. #espn #collegefootball
— Don (@DSB043) September 21, 2025
Hopefully, ESPN notices all of the complaints from College Football fans and takes notes as the constant pushing of the event became beyond annoying. ESPN has to know the fanbases at some point and realize that most fans aren't changing the channel to tune in to a Wrestling event especially on a College Football saturday night where there were several great games that the vast majority of the fans weren't turning off.
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