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WWE Enters Microdrama Market With ReelShort Original Series

Published on July 15, 2026

WWE is producing an original live-action microdrama with ReelShort, pairing wrestlers Drew McIntyre, Joe Hendry and Jacob Fatu with established vertical stars Marc Herrmann and Chase Mattson, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Plot details remain undisclosed. Filming begins next month, with a premiere slated for fall.

“By bringing WWE Superstars into the ReelShort cinematic world, we are creating a new storytelling experience for the WWE Universe, while reaching a fresh audience with premium content on ReelShort’s innovative platform,” said Ben Houser, WWE Head of Original Content and Development, in a statement.

ReelShort’s Head of Talent and Business Development, Sammie Hao, framed the deal as part of a broader shift in how the platform works with brands. “Brand partnerships are evolving beyond product placement,” Hao said in a statement. “We’re creating entertainment ecosystems where brands, talent, and storytelling come together to build cultural moments that audiences actively engage with and share.”

The WWE series extends a run of brand collaborations for ReelShort, which earlier this year struck a co-production deal with Korean studio Showbox and has released two microdramas with Crocs, “Charmed to Meet You” and its sequel. ReelShort has also been pushing to broaden verticals’ traditionally female-skewing audience, including with the 2025 thriller “American Sniper: The Last Round.” The WWE tie-up, pairing a male-skewing sport with the format’s melodramatic, cliffhanger-driven structure, is another step in that direction.

The deal comes as microdrama apps consolidate leverage over the studios and talent supplying them. ReelShort and rival DramaBox control both the commissioning budgets and the feed placement that determines whether a show reaches an audience, a dynamic that lets platforms set the terms with the producers selling into a concentrated field of buyers. For WWE, working directly with the platform on an original rather than licensing out content puts it on the production side of that arrangement rather than the audience-acquisition side, where ReelShort holds the leverage regardless of partner.