WWE hosted a media event at Netflix HQ in Los Angeles on December 3rd to address the media, hype the upcoming Raw switch and answer some questions that have been on fans’ minds for the best part of a year.
In just over a month, Monday Night Raw will be exclusively broadcast on Netflix worldwide. With main roster WWE shows never being on a streaming platform before [NXT was on the WWE Network before being broadcast on the USA Network in 2019], the company is entering brand new territory. With no mandatory commercial breaks, runtimes or network guidelines, this really will be a whole new era for the biggest professional wrestling company in the world.
Along with top stars from Raw and SmackDown, Chief Content Officer Triple H and company President Nick Khan represented WWE. From Netflix, chief content officer Bela Bajaria and non-fiction series and sports VP Brandon Riegg were also in attendance and answered questions regarding how the process will work and prior tech concerns.
WWE PG Era Ending?
With Netflix being known to produce adult-orientated content in their own right, many fans have theorised that WWE will drop the PG rating as a result of the Netflix switch and will focus on an edgier product. However, as reported by Variety, Triple H confirmed that a family-friendly presentation is here to stay:
“It’s a safe place for families, for kids, for everybody, to be able to view the programming,” Levesque said. “That will not change.”
Nick Khan also reiterated this at the event, stating that an “X-rated Raw” is not happening under any circumstances:
“There’s some online chatter about how it’s going to be ‘R’ rated or, for us old folks, ‘X’ rated. That’s definitely not happening,” he said. “It’s a family friendly, multi-generational, advertiser-friendly programming. It’s going to stay that way.”
Netflix Tech Issues
Despite being a juggernaut in the streaming market, Netflix’s experience in live broadcasting is minimal. While some specials have been live-streamed, the bulk of their content remains on demand. Unfortunately, the live boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson was plagued with technical issues, sparking outrage from fans in general and WWE fans expressing concerns over what will happen in January. Speaking at the conference, Bajaria confirmed that this problem will not repeat itself and that Netflix is ready for Raw to make its way to the platform:
“Whenever we do any live events, obviously, we want it to go very smoothly for every single one of our members,” Bajaria said. “That’s really important, I think, also to put it in perspective: It was 65 million concurrent streamers. The scale was very big, which is great. There was a lot of interest in it. When you test and push something to 65 million [streams] at the same time… you can’t learn these things until you do them.
“So you take a big swing, and our teams and our engineers moved super quickly, stabilized it, and many of the members really had it back up and running pretty quickly,” she added, noting that Netflix’s Christmas NFL doubleheader will be the next test. “We learned from those things, and we’ve all obviously done a lot of stuff to learn and get ready for the NFL and Beyoncé. We’re totally ready and excited for the WWE.”
Triple H added that if there are 60 million people watching Raw, he is not concerned about some minor technical difficulties:
“I’ll just say, if it blinks a couple of times and we do 60 million, I’m good with that.”
Pat McAfee Returns
As previously reported, another commentary shake-up will take place in January as Michael Cole and Pat McAfee will return to the flagship show, replacing current announce team Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett, who will be moving over to SmackDown. Although McAfee has other commitments with ESPN College GameDay, Triple H confirmed at the conference via USA Today that McAfee will be back full-time:
“Letting the cat out of the bag a little bit right now. Pat’s actually about to come back with us here, full-time on Monday Night RAW,”
Featured image: Meg Oliphant via Variety
