WWE is goading Netflix & NBCUniversal's Peacock into a streaming battle bidding war for WrestleMania 2026 & beyond

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It's WrestleMania season, with the matchup for this year's WWE WrestleMania 41 coming into focus ahead of the two-day event April 19 and 20 at Nevada's Allegiant Stadium. Before that event, the people behind WWE and its parent company TKO Holdings are already building its meta main event for next year's WrestleMania 42... but it's not for the company's top championship, it's for the U.S. streaming rights to air 2026's WrestleMania and all of the other major WWE events following.

WWE chief content officer Paul Levesque (also known as Triple H in wrestling circles) said earlier this year that Peacock's deal with the WWE expires in March 2026 - one month before that year's WrestleMania event. And then recently at an investor-focused conference hosted by Morgan Stanley (and covered by F4WOnline's Josh Nason), TKO's chief operating officer Mark Shapiro spoke about NBCUniversal and Netflix as the two named options for when this deal comes up for renewal.

WrestleMania 2026 streaming battle's NBCUniversal/Peacock

In one corner, we have the reigning, defending, WWE events streaming champion Peacock, managed by its parent company NBCUniversal. Peacock won (as in, was the highest bidder) the U.S. WWE event streaming championship in 2021 on March 18, in a rousing bidding-war bout between NBCUniversal, several mystery opponents, and WWE itself - which had been the primary place to watch WWE's major events from 2014 to 2021 though its own self-started streaming service, the WWE Network. Variety reported that WWE received over 1 billion dollars from NBCUniversal for the five-year deal, which works out to $200 million per year

On NBCUniversal's side, Shapiro said his company and NBCUniversal were "keen to renew" the deal (assuming they can agree on terms, of course), and that formal discussions would begin this summer.

WrestleMania 2026 streaming battle's Netflix

In the other corner, we have Netflix, which possesses WWE's other major streaming title - as in January 2025 it began being the exclusive home for the wrestling company's flagship show Raw globally, and also owns the exclusive non-US streaming rights to its other shows and those special events like WrestleMania which Peacock currently owns the US rights to. This was reported to be a $5 billion dollar deal over 10 years, which works out to $500 million a year.

For Netflix though, TKO's Shapiro says that just as WWE's sister company UFC enjoys having all of its streeaming rights with one company (Disney), it makes sense to consider moving the US WrestleMania (and other events) rights to Netflix if the deal is "makes sense" - "not just the dollars," but for the "growth of our [WWE] brand and the property."

Who will be WWE US Streaming home in April 2026 for WrestleMania 42 and beyond?

WWE has a long history of engaging and encouraging potential bidders in the board room and in news articles such as this, and a deal for this could be announced as soon as this year's WrestleMania (as Netflix's 2026 deal was announced a year out) or possibly wait until the March 2026 deadline, as was Peacock's original streaming deal in 2021.

And you can't count out a surprise third party (or fourth). For now, wrestling fans just have to wait - and speculate - just like any great wrestling match.

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