Women of Wrestling Goes Live for Season 5 as Jeanie Buss Steps Into the Spotlight
Women of Wrestling will broadcast its first-ever live episode in Season 5, airing from L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles, according to Variety. The move shifts the only all-women's wrestling league on television from its taped syndication format to a live broadcast — a format change that puts the league in the same real-time territory as the major wrestling promotions it sits alongside.
Jeanie Buss, co-owner and promoter of Women of Wrestling, will take on an expanded on-camera role in the new season. Buss is also governor and minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, and has been involved with WOW since its relaunch, which she oversaw in 2022 (Variety, 2022). Her deeper presence on screen pairs the league's most recognisable name with its biggest format leap yet.
The league was co-founded by Buss and David McLane, who previously created Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling — the 1980s promotion that became a pop-culture touchstone and later the subject of a Netflix comedy series. McLane and Buss have appeared together publicly on behalf of WOW, including a panel titled "Bringing WOW Superheroes to Life" at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 (Variety, 2024).
Season 5 builds on audience numbers that have been climbing steadily. WOW reports a 93% audience return rate season over season, and its social following has grown 96% since its first season, per Variety. The first four seasons aired in national syndication through Paramount Global Content Distribution — meaning individual TV stations across the US carried the show rather than a single network. Heading into 2026, WOW also expanded its digital footprint, running a full hour of women's wrestling nightly on Pluto TV and The CW App (WOW Facebook, January 2026).
Andrew Simon, General Manager of L.A. Live, is named in the Variety report alongside the venue announcement. L.A. Live is a downtown entertainment complex adjacent to Crypto.com Arena — the Lakers' home floor — which gives the live broadcast a venue already steeped in Los Angeles sports culture.
For fans, the shift to live means outcomes play out in real time, with no edit suite between the ring and the screen. That is the format that built wrestling's biggest audiences, and it is the one WOW is betting on for its fifth season.
