In stunning news before the stock markets opened on Tuesday, WWE announced the new home for Monday Night Raw — Netflix.
It was a simple post:
WWE Raw is coming to Netflix!
Starting in January 2025, Netflix will exclusively stream WWE Raw (in the US, Canada, UK, & Latin America) every single week, all year long!
Triple H tweeted out:
This partnership is one that will break new ground, and take @WWE to new heights. Thrilled to bring #WWERaw
to @Netflix, coming January 2025. Now we change the game!!!!
Variety is reporting that the deal is $500 million per year for 10 years, and “Netflix has the option to opt out after the initial five years and to extend for an additional 10 years.”
The move to Netflix in a year changes the landscape in many ways.
WWE had a network TV deal with FOX for Friday Night Smackdown, and that is gone, with Smackdown moving to NBCUniversal and USA Network. NXT will be headed to The CW.
Now, with Raw moving off cable on USA Network (though that deal is believed to end in October 2024) to a paid streaming service, it will force loyal fans to consider where Netflix sits in their collection of services that they pay for.
WWE Network with all its archives current resides on a competing streaming service, Peacock.
In the past, Raw had aired on TNN/Spike TV, in the US.
There are different deals in different countries, and, with Netflix’s global reach, there are likely to be complications or frustrations as it may not be available in places where an existing contract with another provider exists.
There was no mention of archives of past episodes, or how long a new episode might remain on Netflix — or whether it will just stream live and disappear.
Netflix had some success this past year with the original content reality show, Wrestlers, based around Al Snow’s Ohio Valley Wrestling promotion, and the original series, GLOW, loosely based on the women’s wrestling promotion from the 1980s, ran for three seasons. Netflix has had a few wrestling-related movies and documentaries available at various times, and had teamed with WWE on past films, like Escape the Undertaker and The Big Show Show.
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