Did WWE ‘Raw’ Deliver a ‘WrestleMania’-Esque Netflix Debut?

WrestleMania has been WWE’s most prestigious event for the last 40 years. The company builds stories for months—at times, years—for the annual showcase, and presents a card with its top stars while also often bringing back some legends.

Last April, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Cena, and The Undertaker were all part of the festivities. And yet, with WrestleMania 41 about three months away, WWE used a similar formula for its flagship event to the 2025 opening episode of Raw, one of its weekly shows.

Because for the first time in nearly 32 years, Raw was not on traditional television. Instead, the Monday night show aired on Netflix, the first episode of a partnership between the two sides announced last January that Variety reported to be worth $5 billion over 10 years.

Following an introduction from WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Johnson, who is a board member for WWE’s parent company, TKO Group, welcomed the crowd in Los Angeles. He also spent time introducing Netflix execs in the audience, including CEO Ted Sarandos and CCO Bela Bajaria.

“You got to have the right partner who not only loves WWE and loves professional wrestling and they see the bigger picture. And that partner is Netflix,” Johnson said.

John Cena, who has made only sporadic appearances in recent years while balancing his Hollywood career, gave a promo at the Raw Netflix debut—the first of his retirement tour that runs through 2025.

Hulk Hogan, one of WWE’s most iconic superstars from the 1980s, also made an appearance. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, was removed from the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015 following racist comments but reinstated in 2018. The Undertaker, who won in the main event of the first ever Raw in Jan. 1993, also made a brief appearance.

The current superstars also finished media appearances leading up to Raw’s Netflix debut. Mike “The Miz” Mizanin was on ESPN’s NBA Today and notable Bears fan Seth Rollins appeared on Good Morning Football on Friday. Rollins’s opponent on Monday, CM Punk, guested on Nightcap, the podcast of Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson, on Sunday, while WWE women’s champion Liv Morgan was featured on Entertainment Tonight and the Netflix-aired Baltimore Ravens–Houston Texans game on Christmas.

WWE typically saves appearances on these sports networks for WrestleMania or SummerSlam, its second-biggest annual event. 

Big Plans

It’s not surprising that WWE is playing its biggest moves. WWE’s deal with Netflix reportedly has an opt-out clause after just five years, though there’s also an extension to 20 years.

Additionally, the two parties have a chance to showcase the impact of the streaming giant, which has around 283 million global subscribers, in the evolving media landscape. Netflix had successful one-off streams of the Mike Tyson–Jake Paul fight and Netflix’s NFL Christmas Day games, which both broke streaming records, but this is Netflix’s first live sports deal that will stream weekly, albeit with the WWE labeled as sports entertainment.

However, the entertainment label was one of the biggest reasons Netflix agreed to the deal, as it aligns with its other sports themes—particularly its documentaries for other sports like Formula One, golf, and tennis. Netflix vice president for nonfiction series and sports Brandon Riegg told The Athletic there are “challenges” to getting sports leagues, particularly because of “external IP” the company will lose if the deal ends.

But he still left the door open for Netflix diving deep into the live sports space.

“In terms of more traditional sports, it will depend in terms of what opportunities come up,” Riegg said.ional sports, it will depend in terms of what opportunities come up,” Riegg said.