Max Adler's Wrestling Roots Meet WWE in ESPN's New Era
NLL Vancouver Warriors

Max Adler's Wrestling Roots Meet WWE in ESPN's New Era

Published on February 6, 2026 under National Lacrosse League (NLL)
Vancouver Warriors News Release


Before he was projecting ad revenue tied to WrestleMania, Max Adler was fighting for position on a wrestling mat.

Long before WWE became part of ESPN's streaming future, the Warriors' faceoff specialist was learning about leverage, discipline, and merit one takedown at a time. Wrestling shaped Adler's competitive edge and aligned with his belief that if you put in the work, the results follow.

Alder began wrestling in his freshman year of high school, encouraged by his friends to try it. The Fort Lauderdale native attended high school in New England and wanted to try out for the ice hockey team because he loved playing roller hockey in Florida. Adler didn't know how to skate, so his advisor suggested he not bother trying out for the hockey team, so he went out for wrestling instead.

He hit the mats and took to the sport immediately. He won a wrestle off to earn the starting spot for his weight class and loved that everything in wrestling is based on merit, leaving no room for bias.

"If you won, you were the starter. If you lost, you weren't," Adler said. "It's based on clear-cut rules which is really unlike any other sport I ever played or saw."

His high school wrestling team was one of the best in the country, and Adler earned three All New England honours and qualified for the Prep Nationals three times. The 5'10", 190-pound faceoff man admits he was always one of the shorter kids in high school and liked that he could compete against athletes in the same weight class.

"I was pretty undersized in high school. I went from always competing against bigger kids to competing against kids my own size, so that was great," Adler said.

"What I really fell in love with in wrestling is you could beat someone because you worked harder than them. I figured out how I could beat people who had more experience and more talent than me based on hard work."

The conditioning needed for wrestling is some of the most grueling he's experienced. There's sprint training and the repetition of working on moves until you perfect them. Beyond the physical demands of training to build stamina, there's a lot of work on technique and strategy practiced as well.

Adler's go-to move was a double-leg takedown, similar to a football tackle where you wrap your arms around the opponent's legs and bring them down to the floor.

Years later, a different type of wrestling would reappear in his life in an unexpected way.

Now, working in finance for Ad Sales at ESPN, Adler found himself helping communicate the business implications of a partnership that would make the ESPN platforms the exclusive U.S. home of all WWE Premium live events beginning in 2026. WWE can be streamed on ESPN Unlimited on the ESPN+ app, the same platform that hosts NLL streams.

He's been involved in videoconferences with retired pro wrestler John Cena and has learned a lot about what goes into WWE events.

"Seeing how many different fans there are across the world is pretty interesting." Adler said. "It has a bigger global footprint than I anticipated."

"It's huge in a lot of different Asian markets. It's really a global sport, and the tryout process is very difficult. Just seeing all that goes into it, for both the athletic and performance parts of it is impressive."

In some ways it feels fitting, although they are fundamentally different sports, but at their core, they both demand discipline and preparation. Adler recognizes how the lessons he learned in wrestling, like hard work and pushing yourself to be the best, are very apparent in WWE training.

Adler is looking forward to Wrestling Night at Rogers Arena on Saturday as the Warriors take on the Rochester Knighthawks in the second game of a back-to-back series.

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