WWE and Joe Hand Promotions Team Up to Bring SummerSlam to Bars and Restaurants

WWE fans looking to catch SummerSlam in a communal setting will have options beyond their living room. WWE and Joe Hand Promotions (JHP) have announced a partnership that will make SummerSlam available for commercial licensing at bars and restaurants across the country.

Joe Hand Promotions, based in Philadelphia and widely recognized as the largest commercial sports-event licensing company in the United States, will handle distribution rights for the event. The deal means establishments can legally screen SummerSlam for their patrons, giving fans a chance to experience one of WWE’s biggest shows of the year in a live, crowd-style atmosphere.

The partnership comes on the heels of what the two companies are calling a record-setting commercial distribution run for WrestleMania 42, suggesting the bar-and-restaurant model is gaining serious traction as a viewing option for premium WWE events. That WrestleMania success appears to have set the stage for expanding the program to SummerSlam, the second-biggest event on WWE’s annual calendar.

For bar and restaurant owners interested in hosting the event, the Joe Hand Promotions arrangement provides a licensed, above-board way to offer WWE programming to customers — a business that JHP has built its reputation on across decades of combat sports and entertainment events.

With WWE continuing to push its premium live events as major cultural moments, the commercial distribution push signals that the company sees significant upside in putting its marquee shows in front of as many communal viewing audiences as possible.