A new era kicks in tonight for WWE as it makes its long-
awaited debut on Netflix live at 8PM ET. Raw becomes the
first weekly live broadcast on the streaming giant, airing
in pretty much almost every corner of the world.

For those living outside the United States, their deal is
even sweeter: apart from live Raw, there will be live NXT,
live Smackdown, live premium live events, and a lot of WWE
library as part of their current Netflix subscription.

This is a 10-year deal worth over $5 billion, a deal which
was announced last year by the company as it shopped their
weekly television broadcasts to different networks. It’s the
first time that Raw will not air on cable television since
its inception in 1993 and it will be quite the change with
Raw omitted from the weekly cable chart, a chart which has
catapulted USA Network to the top for around eight months of
the year.


Netflix went all in with their promotion for WWE on their
website, with a WWE: Live & Upcoming section showing what’s
coming. John Cena, Roman Reigns, and Rhea Ripley are part of
the graphic hyping up tonight’s live broadcast. Gunther, Dom
Mysterio and Liv Morgan, and CM Punk each are used to
promote the next three weeks of Raw. On social media,
promotion is also at full force with Netflix accounts from
different regions each hyping the broadcast.

Over 16,000 fans already have their ticket to attend at the
Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, with the brand-new
arena sitting next to the majestic SoFi Stadium, the host of
WrestleMania 39. The show is likely to break the gate record
for any WWE event held inside an arena, with sky-high prices
even for the nosebleed section.


The cheapest tickets available are resale tickets for
$442.80 plus taxes and fees on Ticketmaster. Third-party
websites have even-higher tickets, starting from just over
$500, an incredible get-in price for any show.

Tonight’s show will not be a regular Raw. It’s a special
event level Raw which will be used to gain new viewers from
Netflix’s 270+ million subscribers worldwide hoping they
stick around for next week and the following week and the
one following that.

Netflix has a good track record of sending shows into the
stratosphere. Shows such as Squid Game, Money Heist, Cobra
Kai, and others all achieved status which was unheard of
thanks to the Netflix machine. WWE is hoping they’ll be the
next ones to gain that level of popularity in places where
maybe the product isn’t followed as much.


Tonight is the night history will be made and the (Netflix)
world will be watching. Streaming is probably the future for
many shows and just like it’s usually the case, WWE is there
to experience it.