Today has already been a huge day for TKO the new parent company of World Wrestling Entertainment. Not only has Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson been named to its board of directors, it was also announced that starting in 2025 the flagship cable show will be leaving cable altogether to be exclusively streamed on Netflix.
Beginning in January 2025, Netflix will be the exclusive new home of Raw in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Latin America, among other territories, with additional countries and regions to be added over time. Likewise, as part of the agreement, Netflix will also become the home for all WWE shows and specials outside the U.S. as available, inclusive of Raw and WWE’s other weekly shows – SmackDown and NXT – as well as the company’s Premium Live Events, including WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble. WWE’s award-winning documentaries, original series and forthcoming projects will also be available on Netflix internationally beginning in 2025. This deal is reported to be worth $5 Billion over 10 years with Netflix having an option to exit after 5 years or extend it.
There’s no confirmation on if Netflix plans to keep RAW streaming on Mondays or move it to another day of the week.
Other current cable shows in the WWE portfolio will keep their planned moves as Smackdown will air on RAW’s current network USA later this year while NXT will move to the CW in 2024. In the U.S “premium live events” are planned to stay on Peacock at least until that license deal runs out.
The shift to find more high audience capturing programming which started during the pandemic and only intensified through last year’s entertainment labor strikes is not stopping anytime soon. Wrestling fits the needs of networks looking for programming that can continue during most union strikes and when even the biggest sports shut down from the end of the world, wrestling still continued. While the biggest players in the industry are seemingly locked in there remain a few alternatives looking for TV homes in the near future such as the rebranded TNA Impact and National Wrestling Alliance.
