Background
WWE Raw is a professional wrestling television program produced by the American promotion WWE. It first aired on January 11, 1993, on the USA Network and since became the longest-running weekly episodic program in television history with no reruns, airing almost exclusively on USA, apart from a brief run on TNN (renamed to Spike TV in 2003 and now known as the Paramount Network) from 2000 to 2005.[2] It is one of WWE's two flagship television programs, alongside Friday Night SmackDown, and is also the namesake program for the company's Raw brand, a subdivision of WWE's main roster where wrestlers are exclusively assigned to perform on a weekly basis, albeit with some exceptions.
On January 23, 2024, WWE's parent company TKO Group Holdings announced that Netflix would acquire the rights to Monday Night Raw beginning in January 2025, in what was reported to be a 10-year deal worth $500 million per-year (roughly double the value of WWE's agreement with NBCUniversal). The agreement initially covered the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Latin America, with other territories to be added in the future. The agreement also includes international rights to WWE content outside of the United States, including SmackDown and NXT, live events, and other shoulder content.[3][4][5] While USA Network's contract for Raw was to expire in October 2024, WWE reached a short-term extension of its agreement with NBCUniversal to keep Raw on the network through the end of the year. In preparation for the move to Netflix, Raw was shortened from three to two hours from October 7 through December 30; wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer stated that this was a request made by USA Network.[6][7][8]
It was then reported that Intuit Dome, which opened in August 2024 to host the Los Angeles Clippers in Inglewood, California, was set to host the debut episode of Raw on Netflix.[9] WWE confirmed the location on November 18, 2024; tickets went on sale to the general public on November 22.[10] That same day, it was announced that Travis Scott would be making an appearance at the Netflix premiere to perform the program's new theme song.[11]
During a June 2024 episode of The Pat McAfee Show, WWE chief content officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque noted that Netflix would offer greater flexibility than WWE's previous partners in regards to standards and practices that had sometimes resulted in portions of WWE programming being censored on U.S. television.[12] Although a placeholder listing for Raw with a TV-14 rating appeared on Netflix in the months leading up to the move, WWE president Nick Khan subsequently clarified that Raw would remain a "family friendly [...] advertiser friendly" program, and that episodes on Netflix would have the same TV-PG content rating used since 2008.[13] On December 16, 2024, Levesque officially unveiled the new Raw logo.[14] On the January 4, 2025, edition of the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast, Levesque said that the length of the show on Netflix would be flexible and would not have a fixed runtime, though aiming for an average runtime of 2.5 hours.[15]
Storylines
The event included matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,[16][17] while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.[18]
On July 6, 2024, at Money in the Bank, 16-time WWE world champion John Cena officially announced that he would retire from professional wrestling at the end of 2025, having wrestled for WWE since 2002 (though part-time since 2018).[19] It was then announced that Cena would be appearing on the debut episode of Raw on Netflix.[20] On January 5, 2025, The Rock confirmed that he would be appearing on the debut episode of Raw on Netflix.[21]
