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WWE Raw debut episode on Netflix

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WWE Raw debut on Netflix
Promotional poster featuring various WWE wrestlers
PromotionWWE
Brand(s)Raw
SmackDown
DateJanuary 6, 2025
CityInglewood, California
VenueIntuit Dome
Raw special episodes chronology
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The Monday Night Raw debut episode on Netflix is an upcoming professional wrestling television special that will mark the debut of WWE's weekly Monday Night Raw program on the streaming service Netflix. The event is set to take place on January 6, 2025, at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, and will feature performers from the Raw brand as well as the SmackDown brand. This episode of Raw will mark the shift from broadcasting on traditional linear cable television to over the top digital streaming, as well as the start of John Cena's farewell tour.

The episode will also feature an appearance by Houston rapper, Travis Scott, who will be performing the show's new theme song.

Production

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The event will take place at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.

Background

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Monday Night 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.[1] 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, TKO Group announced that Netflix would acquire the rights to 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 current agreement with NBCUniversal). The agreement will initially cover 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.[2][3][4] 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 will be 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.[5][6][7]

It was then reported that Intuit Dome, which opened in August 2024 to host the Los Angeles Clippers in Inglewood, California, is set to host the debut episode on Netflix.[8] WWE confirmed the location on November 18, 2024 with tickets to be on sale to the general public on November 22.[9] That same day, it was announced that Travis Scott will be making an appearance at the Netflix premiere, on which he will perform the new theme song for the program.[10]

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 current partners in regards to standards and practices that have sometimes resulted in portions of WWE programming being censored on U.S. television.[11] 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.[12]

Storylines

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The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,[13][14] while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.[15]

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).[16] It was then announced that Cena will be at the upcoming debut episode of Raw on Netflix.[17]

On Night 2 of WrestleMania XL in April, Cody Rhodes defeated Roman Reigns to win the Undisputed WWE Championship in a Bloodline Rules match, ending Reigns' historic title reign at 1,316 days.[18] After the event, Reigns took an extended hiatus while Solo Sikoa appointed himself as the new leader of The Bloodline, removing Jimmy Uso and manager Paul Heyman from the group while adding Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and Jacob Fatu. Sikoa would also begin referring to himself as the new Tribal Chief of the group, stealing Reigns' Ula Fala.[19] Reigns would eventually return at SummerSlam to cost Sikoa his title match against Rhodes, turning face for the first time since 2020.[20] Rhodes and Reigns would then team up to defeat Fatu and Sikoa at Bad Blood with the help of Jimmy.[21] Reigns and Jimmy would subsequently be joined by Jimmy's twin brother and former Bloodline member Jey Uso, who had left the group on his own terms a year ago and was moved over to Raw; they ended up losing to Sikoa, Fatu, and Tama at Crown Jewel.[22] Former honorary member Sami Zayn would join Reigns' group, reuniting the original iteration of The Bloodline (Reigns, The Usos, and Zayn). They, alongside CM Punk, would defeated Sikoa's Bloodline with Bronson Reed in a WarGames match at Survivor Series: WarGames.[23] On the December 13 episode of SmackDown, Reigns challenged Sikoa to face him in Tribal Combat for the Ula Fala and title of Tribal Chief on the debut episode of Raw on Netflix, which was later made official.[24]

At Survivor Series WarGames on November 25, 2023, immediately following the men's WarGames match that Seth "Freakin" Rollins participated in, CM Punk made a surprise return to WWE after a 9-year absence, much to the chagrin of Rollins.[25] The two would continue feuding throughout 2024 during Punk's feud with Drew McIntyre. Rollins, who had also feuded with McIntyre over the World Heavyweight Championship, served as the special guest referee for the match between Punk and McIntyre at SummerSlam, which Punk lost after he attacked Rollins, believing he was trying to sabotage him.[20] Their feud culminated on the December 16 episode of Raw as the two insulted each other before brawling throughout the arena. Later that night, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce announced that Punk and Rollins would face each other on the debut episode of Raw on Netflix.[26]

After Judgment Day's Rhea Ripley costed Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship in mid-2023,[27] Ripley and Morgan were scheduled for a match, however, the match never began as Ripley viciously attacked Morgan with a steel chair, injuring Morgan's shoulder and taking her out for several months.[28] Morgan made her return at the 2024 Royal Rumble in January,[29] and embarked on a "revenge tour", with her goal to take the Women's World Championship from Ripley due to Ripley taking months of her career. On the April 8 episode of Raw, Morgan attacked Ripley backstage, which legitimately injured Ripley's right arm and forced her to vacate the championship.[30] Over the next few weeks, Morgan began to display more villainous traits. At King and Queen of the Ring, Morgan won the Women's World Championship after accidental interference from Ripley's onscreen love interest and Judgment Day stablemate, "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio.[31] Morgan would subsequently interfere in the Judgment Day's matches to their advantage.[32] Following Ripley's return on the 8 July episode of Raw, a title match between Ripley and Morgan was scheduled for SummerSlam, where Morgan defeated Ripley to retain the Women's World Championship following seemingly accidental interference from Mysterio. After the match, however, Mysterio betrayed Ripley and kissed Morgan, ending their partnership. Ripley was subsequently kicked out of the group, with Morgan taking her place.[20] After Ripley pinned Morgan in a mixed tag team match which also involved Mysterio at Bash in Berlin,[33] a rematch for the championship took place at Bad Blood, where Ripley won by disqualfiication after being attacked by the returning Rodriguez. Since championships do not change hands via disqualification or countout unless stipulated, Morgan remained champion. Rodriguez also became the newest member of The Judgment Day.[21] At Survivor Series WarGames on November 30, Ripley's team defeated Morgan's team in a WarGames match, with Ripley pinning Morgan.[23] On the December 16 episode of Raw, Ripley announced that she was named by Raw General Manager Adam Pearce the number one contender for Morgan's championship,[26] and on the Raw on Netflix kickoff event on December 18, it was announced that the match would take place on the debut episode of Raw on Netflix.[34]

Matches

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No.Matches*Stipulations
1Roman Reigns as (The O.T.C.) vs. Solo Sikoa as (The New Tribal Chief)Tribal Combat for the Ula Fala and recognition as Tribal Chief of the Anoaʻi family and the leadership of The Bloodline[35]
2Liv Morgan (c) vs. Rhea RipleySingles match for the Women's World Championship[36]
3CM Punk vs. Seth "Freakin" RollinsSingles match[37]
(c) – the champion(s) heading into the match
*Card subject to change

References

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  1. ^ Truitt, Brian (July 22, 2012). "WWE's 'Monday Night Raw' packs 1,000 episodes under its belt". USA Today. Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
  2. ^ Hayes, Dade (2024-01-23). "Netflix Gets In The Ring, Locking Up WWE's 'Monday Night Raw' In 10-Year, $5B-Plus Deal For Longtime TV Staple". Deadline. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  3. ^ Sherman, Alex; Pramuk, Jacob (2024-01-23). "Netflix to stream WWE's Raw starting next year in its biggest jump into live entertainment". CNBC. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  4. ^ Otterson, Joe (2024-01-23). "Netflix, WWE Strike Deal to Move 'Monday Night Raw' to Streamer Beginning in 2025 for $500 Million per Year". Variety. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  5. ^ Hayes, Dade (2024-05-08). "WWE 'Monday Night Raw' To Stay On USA Network Through Year-End Before Netflix Shift; Rights Extension With NBCU Valued At $25M". Deadline. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  6. ^ Thompson, Andrew (2024-09-10). "WWE Raw to be two hours starting October 7th through December 30th on USA Network". POST Wrestling. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  7. ^ "Wrestling Observer Radio: WWE Raw recap & shift to two hours, UFC Sphere debut, Kuniyaki Kobayashi passes away". F4W/WON. 2024-09-10. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  8. ^ "Possible location for first WWE Raw on Netflix". 27 September 2024.
  9. ^ https://www.si.com/fannation/wrestling/wwe/wwe-releases-netflix-monday-night-raw-premiere-details-date-location-ticket-sale-information
  10. ^ https://thesource.com/2024/11/19/travis-scott-to-appear-on-wwes-monday-night-raw-netflix-debut/
  11. ^ Axelrod, Ben (June 24, 2024). "Paul 'Triple H' Levesque says WWE will be uncensored on Netflix". Awful Announcing. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
  12. ^ Gallagher, Simon (December 4, 2024). "WWE Boss Confirms No Rating Change When Raw Comes To Netflix: "That's Definitely Not Happening"". ScreenRant. Retrieved December 4, 2024.
  13. ^ Grabianowski, Ed (January 13, 2006). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  14. ^ "Live & Televised Entertainment". WWE. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
  15. ^ Steinberg, Brian (May 25, 2016). "WWE's 'Smackdown' Will Move To Live Broadcast On USA (Exclusive)". Variety. Archived from the original on May 26, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
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  17. ^ "John Cena Reveals if He'll be on WWE Raw Netflix Debut – TJR Wrestling". 18 August 2024.
  18. ^ Powell, Jason (April 7, 2024). "WrestleMania XL results: Powell's live review of night two with Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes for the WWE Universal Championship with Bloodline Rules, Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre for the World Heavyweight Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  19. ^ Barnett, Jake (June 28, 2024). "WWE Friday Night Smackdown results (6/28): Barnett's review of The Bloodline's Acknowledgement Ceremony, three Money in the Bank ladder match qualifiers". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
  20. ^ a b c Powell, Jason (August 3, 2024). "WWE SummerSlam results: Powell's review of Cody Rhodes vs. Solo Sikoa in a Bloodline Rules match for the WWE Championship, Damian Priest vs. Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved August 3, 2024.
  21. ^ a b Powell, Jason (October 5, 2024). "WWE Bad Blood results: Powell's review of Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes vs. Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu, CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre in a Hell in a Cell match". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on October 6, 2024. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  22. ^ Powell, Jason (November 2, 2024). "WWE Crown Jewel results: Powell's review of Gunther vs. Cody Rhodes for the Crown Jewel Championship, Nia Jax vs. Liv Morgan for the Women's Crown Jewel Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  23. ^ a b Powell, Jason (November 30, 2024). "WWE Survivor Series WarGames results: Powell's review of OG Bloodline and CM Punk vs. The Bloodline and Bronson Reed in a WarGames match, women's WarGames match, three title matches". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
  24. ^ Barnett, Jake (December 13, 2024). "WWE Smackdown results (12/13): Barnett's review of Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens final words before SNME, Bayley vs. Chelsea Green and Tiffany Stratton vs. Michin in Women's U.S. Title tournament matches". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
  25. ^ Powell, Jason (November 25, 2023). "WWE Survivor Series WarGames results: Powell's review of Randy Orton, Seth Rollins, Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso, and Sami Zayn vs. Drew McIntyre and The Judgment Day in a WarGames match, Women's WarGames match". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on November 26, 2023. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  26. ^ a b Powell, Jason (December 16, 2024). "WWE Raw results (12/16): Powell's live review of Bron Breakker vs. Ludwig Kaiser for the Intercontinental Title, Finn Balor and JD McDonagh vs. The War Raiders for the World Tag Team Titles". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  27. ^ Powell, Jason (July 17, 2023). "WWE Raw results (7/17): Powell's live review of Brock Lesnar's appearance in Cody Rhodes country, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs. Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green for the WWE Women's Tag Team Titles". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on July 18, 2023. Retrieved July 17, 2023.
  28. ^ Powell, Jason (July 24, 2023). "WWE Raw results (7/24): Powell's live review of Seth Rollins and Finn Balor contract signing for SummerSlam, Becky Lynch vs. Zoey Stark, Tommaso Ciampa vs. Bronson Reed, Logan Paul and Ricochet, Gunther and Drew McIntyre". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on July 24, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  29. ^ Tessier, Colin (January 28, 2024). "Liv Morgan Returns At WWE Royal Rumble". Wrestlezone. Archived from the original on January 28, 2024. Retrieved January 28, 2024.
  30. ^ Powell, Jason (April 15, 2024). "WWE Raw results (4/15): Powell's live review of Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable for the Intercontinental Title, Rhea Ripley appearance, Andrade vs. Dominik Mysterio, Sheamus returns, Jey Uso vs. Finn Balor". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
  31. ^ Powell, Jason (May 25, 2024). "WWE King and Queen of the Ring results: Powell's live review of Cody Rhodes vs. Logan Paul for the WWE Title, Gunther vs. Randy Orton in the KOTR finals, Nia Jax vs. Lyra Valkyria in the QOTR finals". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved May 25, 2024.
  32. ^ Powell, Jason (June 24, 2024). "WWE Raw results (6/24): Powell's live review of Wyatt Sicks follow-up, Bron Breakker vs. Ludwig Kaiser, Triple Threat qualifiers for the Money in the Bank ladder matches". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 21, 2024.
  33. ^ McGuire, Colin (August 31, 2024). "WWE Bash in Berlin results: McGuire's review of Gunther vs. Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Title, Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens for the WWE Championship, CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre in a strap match". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on September 27, 2024. Retrieved August 31, 2024.
  34. ^ Powell, Jason (December 18, 2024). "WWE Raw on Netflix Kickoff Event report: Logan Paul moves to Raw, title match added to the Netflix premiere". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  35. ^ Lambert, Jeremy (December 13, 2024). "Roman Reigns Issues Challenge For WWE Raw On Netflix Debut". Fightful. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
  36. ^ Tessier, Colin (December 18, 2024). "WWE Women's World Title Match Confirmed For WWE Raw On Netflix Debut". Fightful. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  37. ^ Russell, Skylar (December 16, 2024). "CM Punk Bout Added To WWE Raw On Netflix Debut". Fightful. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
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