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A Letter From A Frustrated WWE Fan

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AJ Styles Shinsuke Nakamura WWE Smackdown

Like many of you reading this article I frustratingly made my way through Sundays WWE Backlash event, a show that certainly brought out the anger in many wrestling fans across the world. Most fans on both Facebook & Twitter expressed their disdain for Backlash and attributed it to the worst qualities we know the WWE can bring out every now and then, I however saw Backlash as part of a much bigger picture.

Backlash to me didn’t just represent everything I dislike about the WWE product but was the boiling point of so much pent up emotion & frustration I’ve been having lately.

In 2016 when the re-introduction of the brand split came about, the new WWE business model excited me; 3-4 smaller shows (like Backlash) in between the 4 marquee spectacles (Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series & WrestleMania) that occur seasonally and would set the tone for everything leading into the next respective event. This model isn’t just brilliant on paper but can adjust the flow of your entire product to work to perfection if executed correctly, clearly, I don’t believe this has been accomplished.

The last 6-8 months of the WWE product as a whole has quite frankly drained a little bit of the life out of me. The expansion of the company and its ever-growing roster of talent might be exciting to some but to me comes across as incredibly overwhelming. Some were ecstatic over the announcement of new show concepts such as ‘The Greatest Royal Rumble’ & the combination of both brands under monthly network specials instead of the traditional 2 shows per month method they had been following, but my excitement seems to have sadly dwindled.

As a fan for close to 2 decades now this concerned me, has my passion for the business gone? Is wrestling too stale? Is the product not as exciting as I once remember it to be? The answer however was dead-centre the entire time, the mainstream WWE product is simply exhausting.

When I refer to exhaustion I in no way mean it’s entirely poor booked or scripted, I mean we as fans are being fed far too much in what seems like such a short space of time, but in reality, is a combined 7-hours of weekly television between Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live & NXT. This combination excludes the occasional specials WWE tends to place on its Network, such as; The Mae Young Classic, Cruiserweight Classic, Mixed Match Challenge and countless others we can expect to be announced anytime now with summer just around the corner.

But surely the only way to critique a product is to look at external competitors, right?

Wrong.

A product as broad at the WWE gives us the perfect opportunity to analyse the issues from its own internal structure and thankfully we have more than enough evidence to sink our teeth into and get an idea of far larger issues lurking below the depths of what we as fans tune into weekly.

NXT

The NXT product is arguably the best professional wrestling product on the planet right now and arguing against this would be quite the challenge.

This brand acted as Triple H’s pet project, something he took under his wing and over time turned into a global phenomenon which many cite as the best thing going under the WWE banner, having outshined the main roster talent of the company on countless occasions. It combines everything great about the art of professional wrestling; the simple yet excellent storytelling, compelling characters, rabid audiences & some of the best in-ring work in the business of the last 5 years regardless of the company you choose to discuss.

What I find as the main attraction however, is the brands use of timing. Only providing one episode per week that runs anywhere from 45-60 minutes, NXT is able to cram a ridiculous amount of fun professional wrestling into a small space of time that surprisingly works.

A format such as this keeps it simple, rotate your storylines on a weekly basis while keeping the key championships at the forefront of your programming & let the wrestling do the talking. It may not provide the eccentric energy and chaos of the 90’s Attitude Era but that isn’t the intention here at all. It’s a classic call-back to the roots of the business and does it in a way I never thought could be so perfect.

Using familiar faces from International brands such as Asuka, Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Aleistar Black & many more is also a brilliant move on the part of the brands creative team, as it introduces the wrestling world to names some never thought would have the WWE light shun on them. The brand isn’t exclusive to just independent talents though, current names such as Velveteen Dream & Lars Sullivan were homegrown under the WWE Performance Centre and have been highlights of the programming for months now.

NXT itself highlights the primary aspect the 2 mainstream WWE shows slips up on, the importance of timing. Brands such as Smackdown & RAW may provide some good storytelling & wrestling, but both shows clock in at 5 hours of weekly programming, something a lot of us don’t have time to sacrifice for regardless. This only gets worse when we take into account each of the brands key events, in this case NXT’s TakeOver specials which run roughly 3 hours as opposed to the 6-8 hour monstrosities that the mainstream product offers us every 3-4 months.

While I understand those that enjoy the spectacle of the WWE product in its weekly televised shows, it just isn’t enough to substitute for a more coherent and simple form of entertainment that NXT can provide fans with. Many of us have jobs, hobbies & interests outside of professional wrestling that potentially cannot be fulfilled with the level of dedication the mainstream WWE product requires from us, as sad as that may sound.

You may read this as anti-WWE and pro-NXT rhetoric but all I’m doing is comparing a product to another one that I feel will give us as fans far more to sink our teeth into. After all, it’s always quality over quantity.

The Greatest Royal Rumble

My overall tone & voice to this article, is as stated, one of exhaustion. Which is something I highly attribute to the overcrowding that the WWE product has currently. By overcrowding, I mean far too much content with very little breathing room that us fans need in order to appreciate what we’re given on a weekly basis. I see no better way of displaying this, than mentioning ‘The Greatest Royal Rumble’.

I previously wrote an article expressing my excitement towards The Greatest Royal Rumble, its cultural significance and what it meant to myself, someone originating from the Middle East. Regardless of how much hype the company placed behind it, the final product certainly didn’t live up to the expectations we were leading to believe.

The show itself felt like a prolonged house show, featuring one-note matches (albeit an excellent ladder match) & a main event that never quite clicked with the live crowd in the manner we’d imagine it would. Add on some of the bizarre booking decisions that took place throughout and you had a show that while large in scope, presented very little content with any form of re-watch value behind it. However, it wasn’t the failed expectations that are the primary issue here, it’s the shows long-lasting impact on the fans across the globe.

Being assigned the task of following up WrestleMania 34 seemed ambitious on paper, but you can only drag out so much excitement from a global fanbase that is already pre-exhausted from what transpired a matter of days before this event went underway. WrestleMania is our version of Christmas and this show felt like a forced rehash of it at a time when we need to kick back for a little while to soak in the events that occurred in New Orleans. It also didn’t help that the WWE’s Post-WrestleMania schedule featured the ‘Superstar Shake-Up’ roughly 8 to 10 days prior, their dual-branded Backlash event which would occur shortly after and last but certainly not least, their annual tour of the United Kingdom.

What I’m trying to express here, is overkill. Plain and simple. This in no way means ‘The Greatest Royal Rumble’ is solely responsible for the excessiveness of WWE content, but it’s a representation of such issues. Any larger scale franchise, brand or product maintains its relevancy & excitement behind it by letting their loyal customers behind it breathe for a while, giving a chance for what has been produced to resonate and sink in while plans for any future developments be slowly introduced as time roles on.

Understandably, many will disagree with me on this point, as the nature of the professional wrestling business is a non-stop thrill ride with ‘‘No Off-Season’’ as we are told every week by WWE commentators. You can’t change the nature of the business, but you can change the way its structured to keep fans more in tune with the excitement you’re attempting to resonate through your programming.

I obviously appreciate The Greatest Royal Rumble for what it was, and the efforts put in by the massive roster present on the day, but all of this just seemed like far too much at a time when we need far less. It also wasn’t helped by the car crash that followed.

Backlash

I don’t really have as much to say about Backlash as I do the other sub-topics in this writing, partially because of how outright terrible I found the show especially since I had to sit through it between 1am and 4am in the morning.

Backlash wasn’t just panned by critics online but to anyone who saw the show live, angered the live audience in ways we rarely see nowadays. From fans walking out of arena to chants for CM Punk, the WWE seemingly turned an entire fanbase against a show that had all the potential to be the years best, and you don’t blame those who acted in that manner in the slightest.

We got swerves we never asked for, match conclusions that were flat-out ridiculous, matches that came across as nothing but rushed & the constant reminder that Roman Reigns is bigger than even the WWE Championship when discussing the main event slot. Decisions like these won’t just anger your fans but will have them questioning their dedication to you entirely.

Most of us admire the company’s determination to build up the ‘Next John Cena’, but its clear this is yet another issue that exhausts people like myself and that’s being force-fed talent. Guys like Roman Reigns are insanely talented without question but from a logical perspective, how many of us are buying into him in the role he’s being pitched?

The man is certainly over but just not in the way the WWE would like him to be and this is clearly on display now that his 3rd straight big match has come out with disastrous results. We currently have of talents like Braun Strowman & Seth Rollins who the WWE Universe adores with every ounce of their heart but instead we are served a man that seems ‘out-of-date’ if you will.

Booing a talent remains cool for a little while initially but as anyone watching this product knows, we aren’t that easily wavered into thinking the way a set of certain individuals wants us to and much like Backlash, these decisions come back to haunt you.

They say the first sign of madness is doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting different results. We can all but confirm this is a topic the WWE has clearly lost their minds over.

50/50 Booking

I doubt there is another topic in the world of professional wrestling, aside from the Monday Night Wars that has been done to death in the way that of 50/50 booking has over the last number of years.

To those who are clearly mature enough to avoid the constant complaints of internet ‘fanboys’, the concept of booking in wrestling is how a character is presented in regard to his/her wins & loses which in turn impacts the credibility of these characters to the general audience. One of the biggest plagues of the WWE product is just this, 50/50 booking which relates to even numbers of both wins and losses amongst feuding characters.

The primary issue of such a direction isn’t just how boring it can be in storyline but that it generally stagnates much of the programming it’s attached to. Nobody buys into a character that loses all the time and when you make a character so invulnerable he/she never loses, it can on occasion hurt the character in a similar manner in making any feud they have remotely interesting. There is however no curse more harming than going neither direction and having characters trade aimless wins & losses.

Currently we can look at the Bobby Roode vs Elias feud. Now I happen to be a massive fan of Elias, who may have the most over gimmick in all of WWE, but I’d be lying if I said Bobby Roode has turned into anything more than just a catchphrase at this point in time. A feud like this can be used to introduce the newly drafted Roode into a refreshing new role and potentially further elevate the status of Elias, WWE however have turned it into easily the most stagnant part of each weekly RAW show.

Why is it so stagnant you ask?

Because there’s no endgame. Fans of your product aren’t going to invest in a feud that just consists of passable matches on a weekly basis and this is the same mistake we’ve seen WWE conduct for what seems like an eternity.

Both ‘Road Dogg’ Jessie James & Triple H themselves in the past have stated that wins & losses generally ‘don’t matter’ in the grand scheme of the WWE product, an answer I’d never expect from two names so synonymous with the business. Talents such as Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, The New Day, Rusev, Jinder Mahal, Baron Corbin & Bayley have all suffered because of this particular issue, in spite of all the mentioned names possessing more than enough talent to hold their own.

Watching the product as long as I have, I doubt this will change anytime soon. A part of me hopes this trend continues and eventually the company’s creative team but as a fan I feel an obligation to express what a negative impact this style of booking is having on my long-term interest in storylines and like any wrestling fan, we deserve the best from every aspect.

Solution – What now?

I can easily see people misinterpreting this essay in a negative light and take it as a simple bashing of the WWE product as it currently stands. The truth is, the WWE & Professional Wrestling are a massive part of who I am today as a person, providing me with some of my fondest memories to date and is something I love so much that I spend my days writing pieces like this.

In no way is this intended as simple slander, it’s a look at the product from the eyes of someone who sees countless glaring issues with what the WWE is trying to do and there is no better time than now to fix them. Simply throwing the solution of ‘listen to the internet more’ is certainly not the way of overcoming these obstacles, if anything that would be regressive, the WWE however need to open their eyes to the issues that are facing them.

Some of what I spoke about may not seem like much, but each point represents a much larger picture, and something I fear will result in the backlash of many fans who have remained loyal for so long. I do not implore any fan to act in the manner that some fans this past Sunday at Backlash did, but there is a growing tension between the WWE and its fanbase with each passing major show and like we saw this past week, that tension could lead to something ugly.

I along with millions of fans love this business and will stand by it for as long as I can, I’m just sick of my passion being taken for granted.


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Opinion

Greg DeMarco’s 2024 WWE Royal Rumble Reaction

It’s the Royal Rumble! A favorite of many fans, the Rumble kicks off the Road To WrestleMania. Greg DeMarco is here with his live reactions to the event!

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WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Results

It’s the Royal Rumble! A favorite of many fans, the Rumble kicks off the Road To WrestleMania. Greg DeMarco is here with his live reactions to the event!

The WWE Royal Rumble is upon us, and while the Men’s Royal Rumble Match isn’t for the World Heavyweight Championship like I suggested, it’s still the most anticipated event of the year.

Why? The Unknown.

That’s right–in this age of the internet (usually incorrectly) telling us everything it possibly can about what is going to happen in the world of wrestling, the Royal Rumble stands out because despite what we’re told (or, more importantly, what we choose to listen to), the event is always full of fun and surprises.


Check out Steven Mitchell’s 2024 WWE Royal Rumble Results & Review!


Women’s Royal Rumble Match

  • They really are driving home the “main event WrestleMania” point this year–strengthens my thought that women will main event Night 1. Triple H would catch a ton of heat if he keeps women out for the third straight year.
  • NAOMI! Good to see her back, and the emotional response she had.
  • Love Michael Cole calling out Naomi’s time in TNA, and recognizing her as a former Knockouts Champion.
  • Entering #3 doesn’t bode well for Bayley. I honestly don’t think she is gonna win.
  • JORDYNNE GRACE! I saw the reports earlier today. This is a much bigger deal than Mickie James, because Mickie was a returning legend.
  • “TNA HAS A WEAPON!” So glad to have Pat McAfee on the call.
  • Honestly, Jordynne Grace belongs in WWE.

  • Asuka comes in, and they sell the surprise of Bayley. STORYTELLING, people!
  • Something tells me when we get Kairi Sane in there, The Kabuki Warriors will eliminate Bayley.
  • Ivy Nile enters, and I immediately want to see her go toe-to-toe with Jordynne Grace.
  • What if they pulled some crazy sh*t and had Jordynne Grace win???
  • Just step through the ropes next time, Bianca.
  • When I first saw the C4 clock, I thought I would get tired of it But I am already used to it.
  • Here’s Kairi Sane, time to set the plan into motion!
  • This crowd does not appear to like Tegan Nox.
  • Welp, there goes my idea o Asuka and Kairi eliminating Bayley.
  • That was a hell of a way for Jordynne Grace to go out.

  • I think Michael Cole secretly loves to call a Meteora.
  • There’s a reason Maxxine Dupri doesn’t wrestle much.
  • That tandem Code Red was very Young Buckish. And that’s not a compliment.
  • Hair,…gear…this might be the messiest Royal Rumble yet.
  • Ah, here comes the winner, Becky Lynch (I am calling Becky eliminates Bayley to win her second Royal Rumble).
  • LOVE the scoreboard of time in the Rumble for selected wrestlers.

  • R-TRUTH?!?! (Funny story, it was Truth’s spot that Nia Jax took in 2019.)
  • If you push Mia Yim, she’ll take it further than you could imagine.
  • “How is everybody the most athletic person on Earth?” – Pat McAfee
  • Surprising that Roxanne Perez, at #27, is the first NXT entrant. I don’t think we’ll be seeing Tiffany Stratton of Blair Davenport since we only have 3 more to come.
  • Amazing reaction for Jade Cargill. Give her time, she’s definitely going to be a huge star.
  • JUST GIVE HER TIME.
  • Seriously, Nia Jax had to help Jade eliminate her–A LOT.

  • Greg Was Wrong: It is indeed Tiffy Time in the Royal Rumble.
  • Back to Jade–she is insanely over.
  • I know it won’t be, but this should be Tiffany Stratton’s official main roster call-up.
  • Liv Morgan returns at #30, and good for Liv. She nearly went wire-to-wire last year.
  • Liv Morgan: “Thank you!” Pat McAfee: “No problem.”
  • Tiffany Stratton eliminating Roxanne Perez is, to me, an invitation for a match with them on Raw this Monday.
  • Still love the scoreboard as Naomi passes an hour.
  • The camera is catching a lot of in-ring communications right now.
  • And Jade Cargill eliminates my pick to win. Bye Becky.
  • Jade Cargill in the final three of the Royal Rumble (with Liv Morgan and Bayley) is huge for her.
  • Hell of a debut for Jade Cargill.
  • And a huge win for Bayley.

Winner of the 2024 Women’s Royal Rumble Match: Bayley (eliminating Liv Morgan to win)

Fatal 4-Way Match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Randy Orton vs AJ Styles vs. LA Knight vs. Roman Reigns (champion, with Paul Heyman)

  • Glad to see AJ Styles got his tights back. Pants AJ Styles (but still with the football gloves) was not working. Not just bring the beard back to your face Allen–the think beard also ain’t working.

  • Pat McAfee campaigning for Roman Reigns to be given at least a 26% chance is amazing.
  • Say what you want about LA Knight, he’s a damn star and totally belongs in this match.
  • Roman completely sandbagged Randy on the table drop. I don’t think it was on purpose, but he definitely didn’t jump.
  • Roman Reigns is very much like Gunther in that he does the simple things SO WELL, like a jumping clothesline. That’s how you do it.
  • Yes, I compared Roman Reigns to Gunther. Don’t @ me, I’m right.

  • RKO City, Bitch.
  • Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here’s Solo! (At some point, Solo will get tired of saving Roman’s ass.)
  • Solo ’bout to go through that barricade.
  • Solo indeed went through that barricade.

  • Yes, we had the Solo interference mid-match, but honestly in the end Roman won that clean.

Winner, #ANDSTILL your Undisputed WWE Universal Champion: Roman Reigns

WWE United States Championship: Kevin Owens vs. Logan Paul (champion)

  • Kevin Owens wearing Zubaz shorts in the Performance Center fight makes me very happy.
  • Logan Paul talking about a full time run, and now he’s putting on size.
  • Logan’s headband didn’t list very long.
  • I honestly hate it when modern-day wrestlers bust out a crotch chop.
  • If you were watching the Royal Rumble and didn’t know who Logan Paul was, you’d just assume he was a pro wrestler. That says everything you need to know about how good he is at this.
  • ANOTHER crotch chop. Now we’re at 2 too many.

  • Cue the “Better Buckshot Than Hangman” tweets. But they might be right.
  • I love the idea of a Logan Paul, Austin Theory, and Grayson Waller stable.
  • C’mon, there’s NO WAY Ryan Tran could see the knucks on Kevin Owens’ hand given his placement. It’s the little things.
  • Finish here tells me we’ll see KO vs. Logan Paul again. I’d guess on TV, if not in Australia.

Winner by disqualification, #ANDSTILL WWE United States Champion: Logan Paul

Men’s Royal Rumble Match

  • Jey Uso coming at #1 was expected thanks to the internet reports. But I still think Jimmy should be #1 and Jey #2, for the reaction shots on Jimmy.
  • Grayson Waller talking himself to the ring is perfect.
  • “No Yeet!” Grayson is a brilliant performer. I’d make a Roddy Piper comparison here, but y’all would get at mad at me.
  • Good to have Andrade back in WWE. Great reaction for him when the mask came off.

  • SmackDown superstar Carmelo Hayes! I really really really hope Trick is also in this match, just for the chants.
  • Melo pointed to the sign, C’mon, man.
  • Do you send Andrade to Smackdown, or do you send him to Raw and let him do his own thing?
  • Oh goody, Karrion Kross is here. Yay.
  • (Yes, that’s sarcasm you read.)
  • Dominik Mysterio is so good. Give him time, he’s going to be a huge star.

  • The Royal Rumble was a great place for the Apple Spot.
  • Here comes Bob Lashley–please just eliminate Karrion Kross.
  • Lashley wearing the WrestleMania white gear more than 2 months early.
  • Austin Theory still gets his concussion effect entrance, despite it being the Rumble.
  • What if–hear me out now–Finn Balor wins the Royal Rumble to get the shot at Seth Rollins, and Priest uses his briefcase to make that match a triple threat at ‘Mania?
  • I know he didn’t, but it sure looked like Jimmy was swerving while he drives in that interaction with Gunther.
  • Kofi did tell us the Rumble Magic wasn’t happening anymore.
  • Give me Ivar vs Gunther!
  • Bron Breakker is a star. It’s inevitable.
  • Of course Omos would be in the Rumble. Good to see MVP on my TV as well.
  • “I didn’t know humans came that big!” – Pat McAfee
  • I half think Pat McAfee didn’t know he was entering the Rumble.
  • Nice moment for Bron Breakker eliminating Omos. WrestleMania match?
  • R-Truth trying to get Dominik (Tom or Nick?) Mysterio to tag him in is brilliant.
  • DOM MADE THE TAG!!!
  • “And now R-Truth is the legal man.” – thank you Michael Cole.
  • Michael Cole delivers multiple TNA references tonight, along with a Dolph Ziggler reference. God Bless Michael Cole.
  • Imagine for a second that this was CM Punk’s actual WWE return.
  • The reaction to Drew McIntyre’s entrance is a reminder that they don’t actually need him.
  • Sami Zayn enters at #30, also known as “Not The Rock.”

  • In the ring, Drew McIntyre is amazing. Just keep the microphone away from him. (And stop the damn counting!)
  • And there goes my choice for the Men’s Rumble!
  • Love having both Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins in the press boxes watching to see who wins.
  • Punk kinda looks like Chris Jericho in there. Seriously.
  • Between Punk and Cody, Cody is the right choice. I really don’t want to watch Punk right now–he needs to hit the cardio, and hard. Given Seth Rollins’ injury and Punk’s conditioning, WWE would be smart to make the World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania 40 a multi-man match.

Winner of the 2024 Men’s Royal Rumble: Cody Rhodes


Overall thoughts on the 2024 WWE Royal Rumble

For at least the second straight year, the Men’s Royal Rumble Match was kinda disappointing. Not the result–that’s fine. But the match itself. It just wasn’t nearly as exciting as the Women’s. Of the four matches, I would place it 4th in terms of enjoyment.

Great moments for both Bayley and Cody Rhodes. Logan Paul continually shows that he deserves to be considered a pro wrestler, not a celebrity who is wrestling. Pat McAfee is a joy on commentary. Jordynne Grace is a WWE Superstar, regardless of what company she is signed to. Bron Breakker is a star.CM Punk is very out of shape. Cody Rhodes is about to become THE guy, and he deserves it.

Overall I give the event a thumbs up, but they have to do something about the Men’s Royal Rumble Match moving forward.


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WWE Raw Heads To Netflix: What Does It Mean?

Monumental news drops as WWE RAW is moving to Netflix. Is it truly a game changing move? Greg DeMarco analyzes this shift for the TV wrestling business.

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WWE Logo Metalic

Monumental news drops as WWE RAW is moving to Netflix. Is it truly a game changing move? Greg DeMarco analyzes this shift for the TV wrestling business.

Being a wee little kid in the 80s, I am “lucky enough” to remember having 3 TV channels, and my dad explaining what an 8-track is, how shocked I was when I say a laser disc for the first time, when I bought a 6 CD changer, installed my own car stereo, and all the way up to the fact that I have now been watching WWE pay-per-view/premium live events on the WWE Network and Peacock for 10 years. Hell, in the same month (February 2014) I signed up for the WWE Network, cut the cord to drop cable and got Sling TV. I have since moved onto YouTube TV which is highly recommended.

Over the last two years the NFL has put Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, simulcast to various streaming services, and less than 2 weeks ago put a playoff game exclusively on streaming when a Wildcard Weekend showdown between the Chiefs and Dolphins was only shown on Peacock.

And now it’s fully permeated into pro wrestling.

WWE and AEW are both in the midst of a very important time on the business side, with all of their TV rights up for grabs. The first domino fell when SmackDown On FOX became SmackDown on USA Network, and soon after we learned that WWE NXT was moving to broadcast television and joining The CW (which is also rebranding, but just to CW).

The AEW suite of programming that includes Collision, Rampage, and their most successful show Dynamite is up for renewal with Warner Bros/Discovery, and Tony Khan has been optimistic about the relationship and potentially an increase in rights fees.

That brings us to Tuesday morning, and the likely groundbreaking WWE announcement that Raw is moving to Netflix, starting in January 2025. Triple H tweeted that they’re changing the game, and TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro (who knows a thing or two about shifts in media consumption) used the word “transformative” in his statement, and I really think he couldn’t be more right.

But what does it all mean?

Wrestling Remains A Strong Media Product

I have been claiming this for over a year now. As many online will cite a decline in TV viewership for both WWE and AEW, the TV product has been a strong value to networks. Even in dropping SmackDown, FOX themselves said they didn’t pump enough resources into the show, and that the advertising return wasn’t what they wanted. That doesn’t mean the product (TV value, we’re not talking about creative here) isn’t strong. It’s so strong that USA Network picked up SmackDown for $280 million per year, giving WWE an increase over the FOX deal. CW is paying $20-$25 million annually for NXT, and now Netflix is paying $500 million for RAW.

Why? Because wrestling isn’t just a strong media product, it’s consistent. And that is key.

Look at this quote from Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria:

“Raw is the best of sports entertainment, blending great characters and storytelling with live action 52 weeks a year and we’re thrilled to be in this long-term partnership with WWE.”

Now cross reference that with a comment from CW President Dennis Miller from back when the CW/NXT deal was announced:

“We are thrilled to welcome the WWE brand into the CW Sports portfolio as they play an integral role in our mission to bring live sporting events to the network year-round.”

What do those statements have in common? The year-round, 52-week nature of wrestling programming. It’s an unbeatable value for networks. It’s cheaper than a deal with a major sports league, and it’s not finite. Wrestling joins news, talk, and sports talk as the only year-round programming available to networks. And WWE and AEW have shows that essentially always land in the Top 5 after you factor out live sports. You can’t beat it.

What Does This Mean for Netflix?

Don’t get it twisted, this is also a huge leap for Netflix. Prior to the WWE Raw deal, Netflix has only experimented with live events, streaming the live Chris Rock “Selective Outrage” special, and showing The Netflix Cup live (a golf event featuring athletes from their F1 series “Drive To Survive” and their golf series “Full Swing).

WWE is the perfect partner for Netflix as it gets into live programming. It’s sports entertainment: sports like programming (which Netflix has done) that focuses on storytelling (which Netflix has obviously done). And no one does it better than WWE. It’s essentially plug-and-play for Netflix, the perfect solution for their live programming aspirations.

The perfect solution that they were willing to pay $5 billion for.

What Does This Mean for AEW?

The biggest risk to an AEW renewal with Warner Bros Discovery was WBD picking up WWE Raw–and that risk has been eliminated by Netflix. Don’t discount that fact–Netflix did Tony Khan a huge favor by throwing $500 million per at WWE. The path is clear for AEW to remain on the Turner networks.

But at what price?

I know I usually write as if I have all the answers, but I have zero idea either way on this one. WBD no longer has any other options if it wants to keep wrestling (except for TNA, who recently expressed a desire to be on a bigger network), and AEW (at least, Dynamite) is a weekly Top 5 program for them on Wednesdays, on cable.

On the other hand, AEW doesn’t exactly have another network begging for their services. The reason WWE could get a yearly increase for Raw, SmackDown, and NXT is because it was truly a bidding war. Unless Tony Khan gets another network involved, any threat of walking away from a deal doesn’t really hold water.

So if I were a betting man (and who would ever bet on this) I would expect an announcement of a renewal for AEW and WBD relatively soon. We may not know the terms of the deal, I will take a shot in the dark and say that AEW gets a small increase (not the “nearly double” that had been reported last year).

Regardless of the increase (or not), given AEW’s recent attendance challenges, this likely renewal would have to be viewed as a win for the company.


Personally, this is simply an amazing time to be a fan. We’ve seen WWE go from one live TV show per week with Monday Night Raw, through the Monday Night Wars, the addition of SmackDown and later NXT, to being this global juggernaut that is commanding half-a-billion dollars per year for Raw. I also think this makes Raw the flagship once again. All of this comes after Vince McMahon is largely out of power, Triple H has taken over creative (and holds a pretty good success rate so far), and the company was sold to Endeavor, and merged with the UFC as a business entity under the TKO banner.

If you know me, you know I am a huge follower of the business side of the wrestling business. I often care less about WHAT wrestling companies do, but HOW they do it. I have always gravitated towards that, since middle school. And for the past near 24 months, I have been like a kid in a candy store.

The Peacock deal for the WWE Network runs out in 2026, right? The fun never stops!


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