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WWE recently signed bumper $5 billion deal with Netflix to broadcast Monday Night Raw on the streaming service, in a first-time deal for the company. This deal marks the first foray into live professional wrestling for Netflix, while putting an end to 31 consecutive years of Raw being broadcast on network television.
The move came after a deal for Smackdown was announced to move the show back to the USA Network, in a huge year for the WWE financially. The move shocked the world with how huge the landscape of wrestling has changed this year, although very few saw the move as bad news following the announcement.
While appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, WWE President Nick Khan revealed that the reaction to the news with the streaming giant was “overwhelmingly positive”, as WWE entered into their $500 million per year contract
“Once the SmackDown deal closed, we hyper-focused on Raw. It was a robust market place, we had a number of meetings, there was a lot of interest, there were a number of offers. At the end of the day, to be the first movers with Netflix live, on a consistent basis.”
“I saw the Chris Rock special and the reality after show and they’re doing the Golf Pro Am, which is all great programming, but 52 weeks a year, we’re turn key. The fact that they could come to us and say, ‘We strike a deal and you guys do all the rest,’ is something they like and certainly something we thought was in our direct wheelhouse. It came together over the matter of a couple of months and we think it’s a great deal.”
Raw will move to Netflix in January 2025 in the United States, while the media giant has agreed to show Raw, Smackdown, NXT and all WWE PLE’s on Netflix internationally.
What do you think about Raw moving to Netflix? Will you keep watching WWE next year when it moves? Let us know what you think down in the comments!
January 26, 2024 11:52 am
