Since last week’s announcement that Sirius XM’s wrestling channel is becoming WWE Radio, there’s been some concern about the loss of a prominent independent outlet in pro wrestling media, Busted Open Radio.
Dave LaGreca’s Busted Open was the flagship property of Sirius XM wrestling. It and its spinoff shows remain a significant portion of WWE Radio’s line-up, and it will remain very important to the channel’s success. But it will now sit next to podcasts from Stephanie McMahon and Cody Rhodes, and WWE-produced
efforts hosted by the likes of Sam Roberts that center solely on WWE shows.
Whether or not Busted Open will center solely on WWE products isn’t much of an issue, because WWE’s largely been it’s focus in recent months anyway. But LaGreca and his various co-hosts, the line-up of which is even more tied to WWE now with Thunder Rosa announcing her official departure last week*, did at least briefly cover Dynamite and AEW’s PPVs along with their regular Raw, NXT, SmackDown, and PLE talk. LaGreca insists Busted Open won’t change.
While we await word on if or how hard the Busted Open crew went at a widely–panned Raw last night — the only thing I’ve heard about it so far is that LaGreca cut a promo on people calling him a sellout — they already started promoting tomorrow’s edition.
The guest they’re promoting for Weds., July 29 has done little to assuage concerns, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque:
Oh boy.
While it’s only fair to give LaGreca a chance to back-up his promise, count me among the concerned. I haven’t heard his comments from today yet, and so far I’ve seen a lot of concerns being dismissing either because they’re coming from AEW “sickos”, or because WWE only partnered with Sirius and didn’t purchase a controlling stake in the whole satellite radio operation, or because Busted Open’s coverage of AEW and non-WWE-affiliated companies was already negligble.
But we’re already living in the effects of corporate-controlled media in the world of 2026, and I feel confident saying most of us don’t love it. WWE Radio is another example of that, albeit one that won’t be a blip on most people’s radars because it’s “just wrestling”.
More specific to our fandom, it’s another step in WWE’s all-but-publicly-stated plan to control the pro wrestling space in the global marketplace. If successful, sure they’ll try to differentiate the products a bit (perhaps by telling “Claude McMahon” or whatever they’ve named the AI chatbot on Triple H’s team). But not gonna be that different, and whatever distinctions they have will fade over the time. It’s a process we’ve seen enough now there’s a word for it.
So I’ll withhold judgment on Busted Open on WWE Radio. But while I was admittedly already a skeptic, they’re getting serious side-eye from me after this Triple H announcement.
Where do you stand? Among the concerned? If not, why not?
To the comments, Cagesiders!
