ESPN and its streaming technology arm, BAMTech LLC, are now official defendants in the class action lawsuit over WWE’s move to ESPN Unlimited, and they got there by asking. A federal judge in Connecticut granted both companies’ motions to intervene on September 18, PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported Tuesday.
The plaintiffs, Michael Diesa and Rebecca Toback, never sued ESPN. Their complaint says that was deliberate, because Disney’s subscriber agreement requires arbitration and bars class actions. That clause is exactly what ESPN wants applied, and the company first filed to intervene back in March.
How ESPN Got Into The Case
The judge didn’t hand ESPN everything it asked for. In the ruling, the court found ESPN had no automatic right to intervene because it hadn’t shown WWE couldn’t adequately protect its interests. The court still called ESPN’s case for permissive intervention “compelling” and granted both motions.
The opening came from the plaintiffs’ own amended complaint. It names only WWE as a defendant, but it accuses ESPN of violating the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act and conspiring with WWE to do it. ESPN and BAMTech argued they deserved the chance to answer those claims, preferably in arbitration rather than federal court. WWE has made the same arbitration argument.
What The Fans Are Claiming
The suit centers on the launch window around WrestlePalooza 2025, the first WWE premium live event on ESPN Unlimited. According to the complaint, ESPN press releases told fans the app would be available to anyone subscribing directly or through a traditional pay TV package, and WWE President Nick Khan said on a podcast the events would carry “no upcharge.”
Access actually depended on individual carriage deals between Disney and each provider. Verizon Fios, DirecTV, Spectrum, and Hulu + Live TV let customers log in at launch, while Cox, Xfinity, and YouTube TV did not.
Diesa, a New Jersey cable customer paying more than $100 a month for a package with ESPN, had to upgrade his Disney streaming bundle so his child could watch. Toback, a YouTube TV subscriber in New York, paid $29.99 on the day of an event and canceled afterward.
The proposed class covers U.S. customers who paid for the ESPN app between August 6 and September 20, 2025, while already paying for ESPN through cable or a live TV service. That gap has mostly closed since, with YouTube TV subscribers finally getting ESPN Unlimited just before SummerSlam this summer.
The plaintiffs want a jury trial, damages including punitive and statutory awards, attorneys’ fees, and an injunction barring WWE from conspiring with ESPN to violate the state law. With ESPN and BAMTech now formally in the case, the next fight is whether it stays in a courtroom at all.
