Vince Russo has questioned a recent report claiming ESPN is already planning to walk away from its WWE partnership once the current five-year agreement comes to an end.

The report originally came from BJ Bethel, who claimed ESPN would not renew its WWE deal when the existing contract expires. Russo addressed the story during an appearance on The Coach and Bro Show, making it clear he was highly sceptical of the claim.

Russo first questioned Bethel's reporting history, pointing to a previous claim concerning AEW viewership numbers on HBO Max.

“The individual’s name is BJ Bethel. It’s the same Bethel who came up with the number of 500,000 people watching AEW on HBO Max, where there’s no such number out there. No one has been able to find this number. HBO and Max don’t give numbers for AEW, but he had it. And Meltzer now swears by that number.”

Russo then took a personal swipe at Bethel over his name, suggesting he should no longer use "BJ" as an adult.

“Let me give BJ some advice. When you’re a grown-ass adult man, I don’t think you should be referring to yourself as BJ. With all due respect, if you were being called that when you were 5, or maybe even 10, and your friends are still calling you BJ, bro, by 13, at some point you gotta stop. Seriously. An adult man should not be known by the name BJ, ever. Start using your real name.”

Turning his attention back to the ESPN and WWE situation, Russo argued that the timing of the reported decision simply did not make sense from a business perspective.

With WWE and ESPN only in the first year of a five-year agreement, Russo questioned why ESPN would already make a firm decision about what it intends to do four years from now.

“This is a five-year relationship. If WWE is unhappy, if there’s internal talk, that’s one thing. But no partner is going to say one year in, ‘We’re dropping you.’ Bro, you gotta work for four years. No one is ever going to say that on a business level.”

Russo added that plenty could change during the remaining years of the agreement, comparing the situation to a Major League Baseball team signing a player to a long-term contract before judging their entire future after just one season.

“#2, it’s year one! We don’t know what’s gonna happen in years two, three, four, or five. It’s like a major league team signing a free agent for five years, and in the first year he hits .260, and the organization says, ‘Well, we’ll have to get rid of this guy.’ There is no logic to this whatsoever.”

Russo's scepticism comes after ESPN publicly denied the original report. An ESPN spokesperson told Justin Barrasso on August 25 that there was "no truth" to the claim that the company had already decided against renewing its WWE agreement.

With several years still remaining on the partnership, Russo believes it is far too early to make any firm predictions about what ESPN or WWE will decide when renewal discussions eventually take place.