World Wrestling Entertainment, higher often called WWE, has survived scandals, controversies and seismic shifts within the media business. Next week, the wrestling franchise enters one other new area: Netflix.
Starting Monday on the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, WWE’s fashionable weekly wrestling present “Raw” will stream solely on the streaming large within the United States, marking the primary time in additional than 30 years that it’s going to not be broadcast on TV linear.
For Netflix, it is the most recent in a sequence of strikes geared toward rising the streamer’s reside TV enterprise in an effort to extend viewership, subscribers and promoting {dollars}. For WWE, it is a chance to seize a big international viewers.
WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, a former skilled wrestler, mentioned the transfer to Netflix, with its 283 million international subscribers, represents a “recreation changer” for the franchise.
“The attain and the way a lot this could increase our base … while you have a look at the exhibits they do and the liberty they’ve inside them, it is a game-changer for us,” Levesque mentioned at a media occasion final month in Hollywood . “…This will in the end be referred to as the Netflix period, as a result of that is the place the massive change occurs.”
First launched in 1993, “Raw” was one of many first wrestling exhibits on TV and cable that led to growth instances for the style, mentioned David Meltzer, wrestling historian, editor and writer of Wrestling Observer Longtime wrestling publication and commentator. WWE.
“Raw” is thought for producing larger-than-life characters like Hulk Hogan and cleaning soap opera-like plots. Many careers of outstanding wrestlers akin to Rock (Dwayne Johnson), Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin have been launched throughout the “Attitude Era”, which ran from the late Nineteen Nineties to the early 2000s. Some of the best stars, like Johnson and John Cena, have discovered success exterior the ring in motion pictures and on TV.
Meltzer referred to as the cope with Netflix the “subsequent evolution” for WWE and an essential step as viewers, notably as youthful audiences have migrated from conventional TV channels to streaming.
“With the decline of tv, it is most likely good to have eggs within the cable TV and streaming basket,” he mentioned. “They attain a bit of totally different viewers, there are individuals who haven’t got Netflix and have USA Network, so it covers all of the bases.”
The 10-year cope with Netflix is reportedly price greater than $5 billion a regulatory filing. After 5 years, Netflix has the choice to exit or prolong the deal for one more 10 years, underneath the phrases of the settlement. Netflix has unique rights to “Raw” within the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Latin America and also will have the ability to stream the present globally.
In 2023, WWE mentioned it signed a five-year broadcast rights deal for its different main weekly telecast, “SmackDown,” which can air on the USA Network following its the contract with Fox has expired. Under the Netflix deal, the streamer will also be home to other WWE programs and specials outside the United States such as “SmackDown,” “NXT,” “WrestleMania,” “SummerSlam” and “Royal Rumble.”
“This means there will be a lot more eyes on WWE than there ever have been in the past on a global basis,” said Brandon Ross, an analyst at New York-based research firm LightShed Partners.
Ross said putting “Raw” on Netflix provides stability in the streaming age and could spur more fandom and allow WWE to make more money from tours and sponsorships.
Netflix executives said they were attracted to WWE’s loyal, multigenerational audience. “Raw” also adds to Netflix’s live offerings, which include NFL football games, boxing matches and comedy specials that can attract large audiences and attract advertisers.
The move to Netflix is the latest in a series of changes for WWE in recent years.
In September 2023, the owner of talent agency Endeavor acquired WWE and merged it with mixed martial arts league Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, creating a $21.4 billion combat sports and entertainment powerhouse. dollars, TKO Group Holdings.
Publicly traded TKO is led by Endeavor boss Ari Emanuel, while UFC president Dana White has been named CEO. Wrestling impresario Vince McMahon, former CEO of WWE, was tapped to serve as TKO’s executive chairman.
McMahon, who was credited with much of WWE’s success, stepped down from the role in January 2024, one day after a former WWE employee, Janel Grant, sued the company, McMahon and former WWE chief talent relations John Laurinaitis, for alleged sexual assault, human trafficking. and emotional abuse. Grant claimed that McMahon agreed to pay her $3 million in exchange for her silence.
At the time of Grant’s lawsuit, a spokesperson for McMahon said in a statement to the Times that Grant’s lawsuit was “filled with lies, obscene fabricated cases that never occurred and a vindictive distortion of the truth.”
TKO said McMahon is no longer involved with the company.
McMahon previously stepped down as WWE CEO in June 2022 following revelations that he paid millions in hush money to multiple women between 2006 and 2022 to silence allegations of sexual misconduct.
A WWE board investigation found that McMahon made at least $14.6 million in payments for “alleged misconduct,” according to regulatory filings. McMahon has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct. He returned to the company’s board of directors in early 2023 as it explored strategic alternatives. (Linda McMahon, Vince’s ex-wife, is now President-elect Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education.)
Despite the controversy, WWE has endured and continues to bring in money. Last year, according to the company’s 2023 annual report, WWE’s revenue reached $1.3 billion, up 3%. TKO shares have risen 43% since going public. Executives are counting on the Netflix deal to continue the momentum.
WWE President Nick Khan said a number of steps had been taken to enable the deal with Netflix to come to fruition, including Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria, who was promoted to the role in 2023.
Bajaria called this a “full-circle moment” for her. When her family moved from London to Los Angeles and she was a little girl, she watched the WWF (or World Wrestling Federation, the organization’s former name) with her grandfather, who loved Andre the Giant.
So when TKO executives contacted her about a year and a half ago about WWE, she was interested.
“First of all, as a fan, all those early memories came flooding back,” Bajaria said at a media event last month. “The more I learned about the wrestling business, the more I felt like it could really work.”
“Raw” could provide a significant audience for Netflix. According to LightShed Partners, the series averages more than 1.7 million weekly viewers in the United States. The show has more than 1,600 episodes and has attracted celebrities like Bad Bunny to participate in matches.
“In WWE, you really have one of the most enduring and resilient programs out there,” said Brandon Riegg, vice president of nonfiction and sports series at Netflix, during the media event. “I think it fits with a lot of the programming that we do and also expands the audience that maybe we don’t have as broad of an offering for right now.”
When it launches on Netflix, WWE “Raw” will still be a multigenerational, family-friendly program, Khan said. He said Netflix’s international reach was a big draw. “We can’t just be an American company, broadcasting American content, hoping that people will show up and tune in,” Khan said. “We need to be on the ground.”
WWE star Drew McIntyre said the release of “Raw” on Netflix could boost the careers of top professional wrestlers.
“Our product is so gigantic… but I’m curious to see how much it will spread in countries like America, in particular, and where they’ll start to see WWE superstars pop up, maybe on other Netflix shows,” McIntyre said in an interview.
“I have a sneaking suspicion that my personal life outside the home is over,” he added. “But we’ll see, which is fine, as long as wrestling gets as big as it can.”
Netflix launched live events on its streaming service last year, first with a Chris Rock comedy special. Since then, it has livestreamed sports tournaments, a hot dog eating contest, Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Tom Brady roast and NFL football games. The football matches, streamed on Christmas Day, attracted an average of more than 30 million viewers worldwide.
Netflix drew criticism last month for buffering issues during the boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. The streamer said it worked quickly to stabilize viewing for the majority of its subscribers during the boxing event. The Tyson vs. Paul match attracted 65 million concurrent streams. Since then, Netflix has improved its systems to better handle live events.
When Netflix executives discussed the issue last month at a media event, Levesque said it didn’t bother him.
“I’ll just say if it flashes a couple times and we make 60 million, I’m fine with it,” Levesque joked.
