WWE’s ‘Monday Night Raw’ Netflix Debut Draws 4.9 Million Views

The first episode of WWE‘s “Monday Night Raw” to stream live on Netflix pulled in 4.9 million views globally.

That is according to Live+1 data provided by Netflix, with a view defined as total hours viewed for the program divided by its runtime. The 4.9 million views came from countries like the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Latin America, but did not include 92 countries/territories where Netflix doesn’t yet distribute WWE, including France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea.

The Netflix debut of “Raw” was also viewed by 2.6 million households in the U.S. according to VideoAmp, compared to the 1.2 million households “Raw” was averaging in 2024.

It is difficult to make a direct comparison between the Netflix and USA Network viewership for “Raw,” as linear channels measure their viewership differently than Netflix does. For the sake of some comparison, however, the final episode of “Raw” on USA Network averaged approximately 1.596 million viewers across its two-hour runtime, according to Nielsen Live + Same Day data. From the beginning of October through the end of December, “Raw” averaged approximately 1.65 million viewers per week on USA Network.

During the first “Raw” on Netflix, Roman Reigns defeated his cousin Solo Sikoa in a Tribal Combat match for the sacred ula fala and the title of Tribal Chief. Later, Rhea Ripley defeated Liv Morgan to regain the women’s world championship title, Jey Uso defeated Drew McIntyre, and CM Punk won a brutal main event match against Seth Rollins.

The night also saw John Cena kick off his 2025 retirement tour, while Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson opened the show and later appeared alongside Reigns. WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan made an appearance toward the end of the show, but was met with a barrage of boos from the crowd.

This is the latest in push by Netflix into live streaming. Previously, the streamer aired a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul that drew an estimated average minute audience (AMA) of 108 million live viewers globally. The event peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, with 38 million concurrent streams in the US. Over Christmas, the NFL matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans averaged 24.3 million viewers on Netflix, while the earlier Chiefs-Steelers bout brought in 24.1 million viewers.

source: variety.com

Triple H Responds To Criticism Of WWE Video

During the post-show press conference for WWE RAW on Netflix, Triple H discussed creating the RAW cold open video and their purpose behind it.

The three-minute cold open video featured the use of several “insider” terms, such as “heel,” “face,” “shoot” and “work,” and the WWE CCO explained how the goal was to provide something for everyone while also presenting WWE to new audiences.

You can check out some highlights from the media scrum below:

On their goal with the opening video: “I think when we first started talking about Netflix and this opportunity tonight. And you look at Netflix’s audience, it’s everybody. And it’s one of the things I think Netflix does so well, they have something there that appeals to everybody. They have something for young people, they have something for older folks like different products, different things, documentaries — they have everything under the sun on Netflix and there’s something for everybody. So when you have the opportunity to appeal to those people, you want to give them a little of everything. And we felt like it was important for us to sort of pay homage to the past, talk about what this business is. Like if you’ve never watched this, if you grew up and you never saw it, what is it?”

On criticism of the use of insider terms: “That was the intent, to capture the emotion — and let people know, ‘We’re not hiding what we do.’ You know, I saw a lot of chatter today from people saying like, ‘Oh my God, they said heel and face and shoot and work and one promo.’ Like, we’re not hiding what we do. That’s what we do. And to be honest, I think most of the world understands those terms and sort of now, they’ve almost transcended our business. I see people talking about that in other [venues], ‘He’s a heel, this guy.’ It’s transcended our business. It’s what it is, people know what we are. We talk about it, we’re not insulting anybody’s intelligence.

“But we’re an art form. Absolutely an art form that captures people’s emotions. It’s not — we don’t take ourselves as seriously as most other people take us. So it was all part of trying to capture that and say, ‘If you’ve watched, watch this and hopefully we honor what you love. If you’ve never watched this, watch this, we’ll explain to you what we are.’ That was the attempt.”

Hulk Hogan Gets Booed During WWE’s Netflix Debut

Although WWE‘s Netflix debut was a hit, not everyone was met with a warm welcome.

During Monday Night Raw, Hulk Hogan made a surprise appearance to push his beer brand’s partnership with WWE, but his quick speech in front of an American flag largely attracted boos from the audience at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

As the camera panned across the audience, thumbs could be seen pointed down as the booing intensified throughout his product plug.

“Well you know, brother, in the wrestling business, when you’re getting ready to draw some big money, you got to shoot an angle, put some hot spice on the feud,” he said on Fox News. “And when I had Trump in the back at the Garden, I said, ‘You know something? This Robert Kennedy Jr., he’s onto something with nutrition.’ But if you tag team us up as the mega powers, you know – the MAGA-powers, RFK Jr. and Hulk Hogan – he can get them eating the right food and I can get all of our kids in shape, brother.”

In addition to a star-studded audience, this week’s Monday Night Raw also featured appearances from Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and John Cena. source: deadline.com

Netflix Announces Several New WWE Shows Debuting On Their Platform On January 1

In addition to WWE Raw airing every Monday night on the platform, Netflix will be hosting a number of additional digital and other original WWE shows fans have seen, and some new ones. This week, Netflix announced the following list of WWE programming that will be debuting on their platform starting on January 1, 2025: WWE Top 10 “Monday Night Raw hosts some of the biggest and best matches in WWE history, featuring Superstars John Cena, Triple H, Becky Lynch and more.” WWE RAW Classics “Big E hosts this collection of most-see Raw matches and moments, featuring WWE Superstars and Legends including CM Punk, Becky Lynch and Triple H.” WWE Road to WrestleMania “The Road to WrestleMania goes through Raw, where WWE’s top Superstars raise the stakes in must-see matches and thrilling moments.” WWE Superstar Profiles “WWE Superstars step inside the squared circle in pursuit of championships and glory in front of the WWE Universe.” WWE Legends Profiles “Legendary Superstars of WWE make history with unforgettable matches and moments inside the squared circle.” As noted, WWE Raw debuts on Netflix starting on January 6, 2025 from the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, CA.

Update On WWE Programming On Peacock

A new report provides an update on WWE‘s programming on Peacock.

WWE shows are on the move, as SmackDown has moved to USA Network, while NXT will premiere on The CW Network on October 1.

Steven Muelhausen of The Takedown on SI reports that, per a Peacock spokesperson, as part of their agreement with WWE, SmackDown’s complete past season library is available, while new episodes will be available only 30 days after airing on USA.

With RAW, new episodes will be available 30 days after airing, as the show will remain on USA Network through the end of 2024.

The spokesperson also said that Peacock will no longer have the libraries of NXT and RAW when their contracts expire. The streaming service will have countdown clocks to inform viewers of their expiration dates starting on September 19 and December 2, respectively.

Muelhausen also writes that a WWE spokesperson said that all PLEs will continue to air exclusively on Peacock.

WWE RAW will move to Netflix in January 2025. It is currently unclear how this may affect programming otherwise.

source: WrestleZone

Netflix to Become New Home of WWE Raw Beginning 2025

WWE, part of TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TKO), and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) today announced a long-term partnership that will bring WWE’s flagship weekly program – Raw – to the world’s leading entertainment service. This marks a major programming shift as Raw leaves linear television for the first time since its inception 31 years ago.

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 transformative,” said Mark Shapiro, TKO President and COO. “It marries the can’t-miss WWE product with Netflix’s extraordinary global reach and locks in significant and predictable economics for many years. Our partnership fundamentally alters and strengthens the media landscape, dramatically expands the reach of WWE, and brings weekly live appointment viewing to Netflix.”

“We are excited to have WWE Raw, with its huge and passionate multigenerational fan base, on Netflix,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer, Bela Bajaria. “By combining our reach, recommendations, and fandom with WWE, we’ll be able to deliver more joy and value for their audiences and our members. Raw is the best of sports entertainment, blending great characters and storytelling with live action 52 weeks a year and we’re thrilled to be in this long-term partnership with WWE.”

“In its relatively short history, Netflix has engineered a phenomenal track record for storytelling,” said Nick Khan, WWE President. “We believe Netflix, as one of the world’s leading entertainment brands, is the ideal long-term home for Raw’s live, loyal, and ever-growing fan base.” 

With 1,600 episodes to date, Raw is the most iconic show in sports entertainment. Since its debut in 1993, Raw has delivered action, compelling drama and unmatched athleticism – 52 weeks a year. Blending the best of scripted content with unpredictable live entertainment, the three-hour show has helped launch the careers of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Triple  H, John Cena, Roman Reigns, Bianca Belair and Charlotte Flair.

The show is currently the No. 1 show on USA Network, where it brings in 17.5 million unique viewers over the course of the year. One of television’s best performing shows in the 18-49 advertising demographic, Raw trends on X 52 weeks a year while each new episode is airing. On social media, WWE has more than one billion followers across its platforms.

WWE Reportedly Sets All-Time Record At Madison Square Garden Live Event

Business is booming for WWE right now, with the promotion reportedly setting an all-time record at the recent Madison Square Garden live event.

"Fightful Select" has reported that the December 26 live event at the iconic New York venue is the highest-grossing domestic non-televised event in the history of the promotion. The show saw CM Punk wrestle for the first time since his return to WWE, defeating former "NXT" North American Champion, Dominik Mysterio, whom he will face once again at a live event in California. The report added that WWE has stated internally that the show was sold out, with WrestleTix revealing that over 15,000 tickets were sold for the show. 

"Fightful" has also revealed that the live event in Baltimore, featuring the "WWE SmackDown" roster, was the highest-grossing non-televised WWE show in the region.

The stacked card at the Madison Square Garden show featured several of "WWE Raw's" top stars, including the likes of Rhea Ripley, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Becky Lynch, and Cody Rhodes. Rollins and McIntyre closed out the event, where the former retained his WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Finn Balor and Damian Priest retained their tag team titles against Sami Zayn and Jey Uso, while WWE Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley defeated Ivy Nile and Shayna Baszler in a triple threat match.

The "Raw" and "SmackDown" rosters have a string of live events lined up ahead of the new year. This week's "SmackDown" will air a best-of show, recapping the highlights of 2023 from the blue brand, much like the "Raw" show on Christmas day.

Paul Levesque On WWE’s Merger With Endeavor: ‘I Can’t Tell You How Excited I Am’

Front row at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater last night for the Callum Walsh-Ismael Villarreal boxing match were UFC CEO Dana White, WWE President Nick Khan, and WWE Head of Creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque.

 
The fight aired on UFC Fight Pass, which is investing more resources into its boxing and building around potential cornerstones like Walsh. A highly touted super welterweight prospect, Walsh (9-0) won a closely contested bout by unanimous decision, earning Levesque’s respect with his performance.

 
“It’s the first time I had the chance to see him fight live,” said Levesque, who spoke with Sports Illustrated while ringside. “He’s so well-rounded. I think this kid has it on all levels.”

 
Levesque marveled at the ten-round performance of the 22-year-old Walsh, who extended his undefeated streak with the victory.

 
“No matter what the genre, when you reach the next level, there are nerves and second-guessing that come at this level–and maybe a part of you that doesn’t believe in your hype,” said Levesque. “When you get to a certain level, a lot of it is a head game. To see how poised he is at this level, it’s awesome to see.”

 
Levesque is in the midst of a superb run of storytelling in WWE, especially since the company’s merger with Endeavor, which is also the parent company of the UFC. An old-school booker willing to embrace wrestling’s modern aspects, Levesque is molding Raw and SmackDown back into must-see products. Raw has been especially strong, with seemingly minute details–like advertised matches taking place–allowing multiple talents to have significant storylines.

 
Endeavor CEO has tasked Levesque to oversee all of WWE’s creative, a role he relishes.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am,” said Levesque. “Working with Endeavor, it’s next level. The flywheel for all the things they touch–if you were trying to build that on your own, it’s taking you a decade. For us, now, it fast tracks everything we’re doing.

 
“Endeavor, UFC, they’re the best in the business at what they do. They put things on a different level of professionalism, and we fit right into that. The future is so bright because of the opportunities Endeavor is going to provide for us and the synergies that are there. We’re going to take this to a whole new level.”

source:  si.com

End Of An Era

Tonight's WWE Raw will be the last WWE show under the full majority control of Vince McMahon. End of an era.

Analysis Shows WWE's Fan-Driven Business Metrics Improved Under Paul Levesque

However you feel about the state of WWE programming and the specifics of how shows have or haven't differed when spearheaded by Paul "Triple H" Levesque as compared to Vince McMahon, there absolutely have been differences. Levesque brought back various wrestlers who had been cut by the previous regime, and under his guidance, the last-minute changes that were constant under McMahon had subsided. Past that, it becomes a matter of personal preference and business metrics. On Thursday, Wrestlenomics offered the latter, comparing TV ratings and live attendance for Levesque's eight months running creative to how McMahon's WWE was doing a year earlier. And the answers are favorable to Levesque.

On the TV side, "WWE Raw" averaged 1.80 million viewers each week under Levesque, up 4% from McMahon a year prior, which is doubly impressive considering USA's reach among cable customers has dropped. "WWE SmackDown," meanwhile, saw a bigger increase, going up 6%, from an average of 2.14 million viewers under McMahon to 2.28 million viewers under Levesque. Since "SmackDown" is on FOX, a free broadcast network, the caveat about its potential viewership does not apply, though.

As for ticket sales, that data is from WrestleTix, which is able to count tickets distributed, but without being able to distinguish between paid admissions and comps. With that out of the way, for every month of the Levesque era, "Raw" averaged a higher number of tickets out than the McMahon regime did a year prior, and "SmackDown" did the same for all but one month, even with the latter including the initial surge in interest when WWE resumed touring after COVID-19 precautions eased. Across the full eight-month periods being compared, "SmackDown" averaged 8,555 tickets distributed for Levesque vs. 7,532 for McMahon, a 14% increase, while "Raw" averaged 8,463 tickets distributed for Levesque vs. McMahon's 6,787, a 25% increase. And though the McMahon period had a 2% lead on Levesque's for domestic house shows, that gain was carried by August through November 2021, the early months of post-pandemic touring.

Raw XXX delivers highest domestic gate in history of Monday Night Raw

Raw XXX was a defining night for the red brand and delivered the highest domestic gate in the history of Monday Night Raw.

A sell-out crowd at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia witnessed Sami Zayn's Tribal Court, an iconic moment shared between Bray Wyatt and The Undertaker, a joining of DX and Kurt Angle, the return of The Beast Brock Lesnar and much more.

WWE Announces Updates To Commentary Teams

Today WWE announced that Raw, SmackDown, NXT and Premium Live Events will all have updated announce booths starting with this week's season premieres. The news was first reported by Variety on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday Night SmackDown, the commentary table will be headed by Michael Cole with Wade Barrett doing color commentary. Samantha Irvin will be the ring announcer, and interviews will be conducted by Kayla Braxton and Megan Morant.

On Monday Night Raw, Corey Graves will still be providing his colorful insights and will be joined by Kevin Patrick on play-by-play. Mike Rome will continue to announce from the ring, and Byron Saxton will transition from the commentary booth to backstage interviews. Also joining Saxton in backstage interviews is none other than Cathy Kelley in her return to WWE.

Over on NXT, Vic Joseph will be assisted by six-time World Champion and WWE Hall of Famer Booker T. Alicia Taylor will still provide her exceptional voice to ring announcing, and McKenzie Mitchell will once again be conducting interviews.

On the Premium Live Event side, Michael Cole and Corey Graves will come together again to announce from the booth.

Pat McAfee will return to the WWE announce booth following his commitments to ESPN's College GameDay.

DX 25th Anniversary Episode of WWE RAW Announced

D-Generation X are set to reunite on the October 10 episode of WWE Monday Night Raw at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York to celebrate their 25th anniversary since forming. The episode will also be the USA Network season premiere.

The video released by the arena promoting the event features Triple H and Shawn Michaels, Sean "X-Pac" Waltman, and "Road Dogg" Brian James. During the video Triple H asked if there were more of them. AEW star Billy Gunn was not shown and is not expected to be involved.

It will be interesting if they honor Chyna who was also part of the group and passed away in 2016.

Triple H and Shawn Michaels are involved in running creative for the company while Road Dogg recently returned to the company as the Senior Vice President of Live Events.

Sasha Banks And Naomi Walk Out Of WWE RAW Mid-Show

Reports from PWInsider reveal that Banks reportedly went into Vince McMahon's office and raised concerns about how the booking was set to go down concerning The 6-Pack Challenge that was announced at the top of the show.

After McMahon rejected Sasha's concerns, Banks stormed out of the arena with Naomi.

The report reads:

The word making the rounds backstage at the taping is that Sasha Banks took issue with some of the planned creative for the original main event, a Raw Six Pack Challenge to determine Bianca Belair's next challenger at Hell in A Cell. Banks had a meeting with Vince McMahon and the belief among those we've heard from is that when McMahon didn't choose to change direction on the plans, Banks wouldn't back down on her issues and made the decision to leave the taping.

WWE reportedly shot several new segments with Adam Pearce and Becky Lynch to instead set up Asuka vs. Lynch as the new main event. Corey Graves officially addressed the situation on commentary, stating the duo of Sasha and Naomi had "unprofessionally left the arena" which is being viewed as a direct line from Vince McMahon who is known not to take too kindly to talent who act in this manner.

Banks also reportedly unfollowed a number of WWE Superstars and Vince McMahon on Twitter recently.

WWE Releases More Superstars

WWE has released multiple Superstars including multiple-time champion John Morrison alongside former NXT North American Champion Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott.

As first broken by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, WWE has released the following WWE Superstars on November 18th:

John Morrison

Top Dolla

Ashante Adonis

Isiah Swerve Scott

Tegan Nox

Drake Maverick

Shane Thorne

Jaxson Ryker

WWE Releases Several Main Roster Names

WWE has released several main roster Superstars, according to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful. The following names were released this evening – “B-Fab” Briana Brandy, Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado, Eva Marie, Keith Lee, Mia Yim, Nia Jax, and Harry Smith.

Furthermore, the following WWE NXT Superstars were also cut – Trey Baxter, Jessi Kamea, Karrion Kross, Jeet Rama, Zayda Ramier, and Katrina Cortez.

WWE has also released Scarlett Boudreaux, Oney Lorcan, Franky Monet and Ember Moon.

New Report Claims India Doubles United States’ WWE RAW Viewership

According to a new report from Lucha Libre Online, WWE RAW’s average viewership in India for the month of Jan. 2021 exceeded 4 million viewers, more than doubling the 1.85 million viewers in the U.S. during the same timeframe.

The report added that while WWE SmackDown averaged 3 million viewers in India, WWE NXT surpassed the 1 million mark in the country for the month of Jan. 2021.

Furthermore, while South Africa averaged in excess of 1 million viewers for both RAW and SmackDown, Canada averaged 300,000 viewers for both shows during the same month.

Meanwhile, Germany and Italy averaged approximately 300,000 viewers for both RAW and SmackDown.

Therefore, only in India, South Africa, Italy, Canada, and Germany, RAW obtained average viewership of approximately 5.9 million viewers in Jan. 2021. SmackDown for its part averaged around 5.2 million viewers in India, South Africa, Italy, Canada, Germany, and South Korea during the first month of 2021.

These numbers do not include the viewership in the United States, Latin America, United Kingdom, Japan, China and many other countries that broadcast weekly WWE programming live on various TV networks.

Rumor Mill - USA Network Reportedly Upset With WWE RAW Ratings

Monday's TLC go-home edition of RAW drew an average of 1.527 million viewers, down 12% from last week's 1.737 million viewers. Monday's show drew a new all-time low in total viewership, a new all-time low in viewership for each hour, and a new all-time low in the key demographic. Furthermore, last week's AEW Dynamite episode drew a 0.45 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, which beat every hour of this week's RAW in that same demo. You can read our full report on this week's RAW numbers at this link. In an update, WWE officials aren't the only ones who had a big reaction to this week's record-low numbers as there was a similar reaction at the USA Network, according to Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT. It was noted that USA Network management is furious with the drop in ratings, and they want more dark and violent content. "USA Network are furious. They want more adult content. Not sexy adult, but dark and violent adult," the source said. It was also said that WWE officials are hoping that the 2021 Royal Rumble pay-per-view can serve as some kind of a "big reset" for the company. This new report comes after it was reported earlier this week, via Wrestling Observer Radio, that the low numbers were a wake-up call for WWE. Dave Meltzer noted that everyone he knows in WWE were stunned at the numbers, and that people in WWE "got the message" as well. It was also reported this week, via @Wrestlevotes, that the record low numbers for Monday's RAW were not "sitting well" with WWE higher-ups. People in the company expected some "reactionary decisions" to be made, but no other details were provided. It will be interesting to see what WWE does to bring the numbers up, and if anything major happens at the TLC pay-per-view on Sunday. It will also be interesting to see if USA officials recommend any kind of major "reset" storylines as they have in the past.

WWE Raw Draws Lowest Viewership Ever, Upcoming Booking Said To Be "Reactionary"

The ratings for this past Monday's WWE Raw are in--- and they're the lowest ratings that Raw has ever had.

WWE Monday Night RAW averaged 1.527 million viewers, which is down 12% from last week’s 1.737 million viewers.

The report has made it clear that people weren't tuning out of the show halfway through, but rather they just weren't watching it at all.

WrestleVotes is reporting that WWE higher-ups (including Vince McMahon) are said to be very unhappy about this development, and are likely going to do some reactionary booking to attempt to gain people's attention again.

source:  WrestleVotes

WWE Creative Update On Vince McMahon And Bruce Prichard

Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com revealed the following about WWE creative: "Creatively, everything flows through Prichard at the moment and his word has been described as 'very much the Gospel' for Vince McMahon, which as you might image, being in that position translates into a lot of frustration and heat towards Prichard among talents privately." Vince has been completely hands-on with is the sword entrance that WWE Champion Drew McIntyre has been doing recently. Triple H reportedly filled in for Prichard on this week's Raw and those backstage described the situatioas a "breath of fresh air" according to PWInsider.