Jim Cornette on Raw Moving To Netflix In 2025 

Endeavor bought WWE for $9 Billion. In less than a year they’ve brokered TV deals worth $7 Billion. To quote Tyrone Biggums, “goddamn!”

Meltzer's going to be excited about Dynamite beating Raw in the ratings every week.

AEW fans saying cable is dying is reason why the decline in viewership and attendance RAW goes to netflix with over 200+ million users in the whole world Aew fans says they've won the "war" forgetting that smackdown will be on the USA Network and NXT on free TV

Netflix could have had the whole company for 2.5 billion in 2016 but didn't do it so now 5 billion for 10 years of 1 show

The Netflix deal isn’t for just RAW. It’s also WWE’s other content (Smackdown and the PLEs) outside of the U.S./internationally.

All I see is my Netflix costing $50 a month with it already $25.

Good thing Vince McMahon just resigned, I’d hate to see his idea of “Netflix and Chill”.

I mean how many people under 40 can you imagine still having cable in 5 years? How about 10? It's frankly very forward thinking

Globally, this makes a ton of sense. If Netflix gets 5 million new subscribers just from Raw, that’s easily $10 billion over 10 years. Hulu and peacock are not available overseas, so this will be a lot of peoples best option.

Netflix can afford $5 billion for one show, but they expect me to not use a friend's password?! 🤔😅

I'm 46. I don't care about cable. Haven't had it in over 20 years. Only thing I watch on broadcast TV is the NFL. I watch all the weekly wrestling highlights on youtube, whether it's the Fox, USA, or main WWE channel. Then I watch the PLEs on Peacock. Now I can watch the entirety of Raw on Netflix. I'm sure Smackdown will go up on Peacock shortly after it's done airing. I love these moves.

This makes WWE far more accessible in the UK than trying to faff about getting BT Sport or whatever it’s called now. Plus it costs me a tenner twice a year on the Network to see the Rumble and Wrestlemania, now I can do the same for five quid twice and I can watch the other bits on Netflix. Logically this is going to increase the amount of plastic toys and t-shirts and games WWE will sell as they grow the viewership of kids. Still not stupid enough to watch Raw every week.

WWE Raw is going to Netflix in January 2025 and Mr. McMahon is finally gone from TKO.

Wwe is playing chess while Aew is playing checkers.

Fascinating discussion about how flix will present a live weekly show. With no ads it might even be watchable.

There's also the fact that with something like RAW you'll get a guaranteed episode each monday. So a guaranteed release each week. And that's actually a big thing for Netflix. As with other shows providing that consistency is a lot tougher. It could create a viewership spike each monday for Netflix from the WWE fanbase.

Tony Khan losing money while WWE is gaining WWE is a multi billion dollar company now they gained so much since AEW was created

If they allow replay similar to Peacock, that solves a big problem people like me (parent to a toddler, two parents working full time, etc. ) encounter when trying to watch RAW. They also put up all the best shows and matches on YT anyway. This makes sense.

I second what Brian said about kids, especially young kids, don't care nor have any idea what network television is. My kids are so bored with regular TV and I don't see that changing as they get older. It's just dying out. All they care about is streaming if I'm lucky and mostly their phones and games.

I think Brian hit it on the head near the end of it. I’ll go one step further, I’m in my 30s and i don’t know a lot of people in my age group that have cable, but we sure as hell have 3-4 different streaming services to watch various shows/movies on demand. Along with the money, I see this as a win-win for the future of WWE programming.

Netflix can gauge audience a lot easier than a select amount of people filling out a ratings book. It's just like youtube. This video shows right now 16, 619 views.

All Netflix will care about is A: The total number of people watching it whether live or otherwise and B: the dwell time as those two combined will give them a decent idea of whether the content is driving their subscriptions. Whether they watch live or otherwise is irrelevant

WWE has Wheeler dealers. AEW has Wheeler Yutas

5:20 Zero commercials. It will be ad-free for Netflix subscribers

Thanks for lighting up my Friday!

With everything that happened literally the day after this was announced, it will be interesting to see if Netflix tries to cancel the contract.

The guy is absolutely right. These kids today (Gen z) don't even know or care about old fashioned TV, Cable TV, or the way things were back in the day before streaming it on your phones and tablets took most of it away. They probably don't even know what AM radio is or listened to it before and how it operates.

Streaming services don't release show ratings like networks, so say goodbye to that.

The wrestling news for this week has been a loaded card! The Rock joins the board of TKO, Raw moves to Netflix next year, and... hmm... wasn't there something else? I just can't put my finger on it.

They just got Vince out. It's the best they can do in the situation. That and replace as much of management as possible so they can say "those involved are no longer with the company".

Back in the 80’s, Vince had to pay local tv stations to air WWF programming.

"We got refrigerators talking to the stoves" Priceless Jim.

WWE shits on the head of its competition.

This is only fitting since people have dumped linear television in favor of digital streaming.

I’ve been waiting for your reaction to this since I learned the news

A few things: a) Kudos to Nick Khan and everyone else at WWE who helped push this deal over the finish line! Nick Khan is worth every penny he's getting paid -- and he's getting paid a lot of 'em! b) After 'Raw' moves to Netflix, do not be surprised to see other wrestling promotions put on shows Monday nights on other cable channels.

Big money deals like these is why WWE is going to be eventually cut out house shows all together. That amount of money is unbelievable. The gate now at PLE’s and Raw/Smackdown is almost irrelevant to the profits.

Netflix always reports x amount of people watched such show in the first day, week, whatever.

I truly hope this creates good wrestling matches. I’m not as interested in the ring setup and entrance ways being more grand, I want compelling stories and memorable wrestling.

I'm sure at the next AEW media scrum, Tony Kahn will remind everybody who the expert negotiator is for TV rights.

Netflix will likely have the entire WWE library after the deal with Peacock is done.

And the reason why you'd want Netflix to cover 4 devices at once is let's say you want to watch a movie and your kids want to watch something else at the same time on netflix. With multiple devices you don't have to fight over it.

I always watch RAW and SD on Hulu. It’s available the next day and are both 1.5hrs with 0 commercials and most of the stupid stuff cut out. Makes RAW way easier to watch.

They will start getting data at which Superstars/Feuds get the FF/REW button, it will effect who gets TV time.

Streaming services have just become a more confusing more fractured cable, with extra steps.

Hopefully they'll show some prime time wrestling 91-92

I stream raw and smack down on RU-vid tv every week. Sometimes I’m at work, I don’t see it live. The first thing I throw on my tv when I get home after work is those programs. I watch it live when I can. The joy of it streaming is I know I’ll get to see it even through I had to work through the original streamed broadcast. I’ve had Netflix for years. I’ll just be watching it on a different service. It’ll be ok.

“Jim, are you still watching?” 😁

Rock do smell what Vince is cooking!

Netflix isn't paying them 500mil a year. We're paying $500mil a year after they raise the subscription to $129 a month.

There will be 0 commercials or just a bump in the monthly service fee. Theyll do it like the series where they release episodes weekly.

if they are on netflix wouldnt that mean no more commercial breaks so no more breaks outside the ring when they go to break

So basically the average person now has a subscription to Prime, AppleTV, Netflix, Hulu, Peacock and Paramount. And the people that have one cable subscription are the crazy ones. Also, with all of this money floating around, nobody better complain about the economy or being unable to pay their bills.

The 500 million per year deal doesn't just get them RAW it also gets them the international rights to every other WWE program (Smackdown, NXT, documentaries, PLEs).

Yes Netflix has a better ratings system than cable would even have but we'll probably never see those numbers. Don't need to. Ratings just went out the window. These guys are paying for the content and that's that.

Wait till Jim finds out he can watch Raw and then binge Seinfeld

I’m in my early 30s , I personally don’t know anyone that still has or uses cable anymore. I personally haven’t had or used cable since 2019 . It’s so many streaming platforms to choose from with everything you can desire to watch. And based upon whatever shows or movies you like, At least with 3 or 4 different streaming services, you literally don’t really need cable anymore. Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max , Disney+ , Starz , Amazon Prime, Tubi , Paramount+ , Showtime etc etc.

1:19 More people watch streaming than television, Jim.

Sooooo, since I only have an exterior tv antenna, no more wrasslin'? ....wuz gettin' boring anywaze.... twue thang 😎

I can't wait for the video for Jim and Brian to talk about Vince resigning

They care about the amount of streams. Also people have cable streaming services like sling.

NXT will be available in almost every home in the US on the CW broadcast network. The CW might have have gotten the best deal of all.

Vince will be number 30 tonight

Only thing I wonder about this is has Netflix done any live streaming before? Showing previously recorded content in HD is quite a bit different than showing a live broadcast.

As a person who doesn't have cable, this is the best possible scenario

"love to see the DNA test, good shit pal" - vinchenzo

In related news, AEW just signed an exclusive deal to stream their content on Tubi.

Going with streaming makes a lot of sense. Though being in Canada I'm wondering how this is going to mess up the WWE Network. Will old Raw episodes still be on that service? Will the Network even still exist? I'm also noticing a trend with this and with the NFL that isn't what I signed up for in regards to transitioning to streaming. Raw is on one platform but Smackdown is on another. The NFL has games on Amazon Prime but also had a playoff game on Peacock. They're splitting their show across multiple services. That isn't what anyone wanted. So I have to subscribe to multiple services to follow the WWE or NFL when I used to just be able to do it with one cable service? Streaming is a much more convenient service than television broadcasting but I fear they're going to nickle-and-dime us on it. Should we expect future deals where Raw episodes alternate weeks on two different services?

Waited for this one

"You want to see it before you hear about it." That is the reason why, if there's a movie I am interested in, I do try to go see it opening day in theaters.

Yo, Jim, Brian, and fellow Cult of Cornette-ors. I heard Netflix and Nielsen has an integration where you can show ratings for streaming shows soon.

With no commercials or less commercials to fill time maybe WWE will switch Raw back to 2 hours. 3 hours is way too long.

It isn't for one show. Also included is exclusive international rights to all WWE content outside the US.

Will they go to like the attitude Era since it's on Netflix and get away without being censored

Netflix are getting guaranteed views not only for the live stream, but the streaming after its aired too. This has killed aew completely

$5 billion sounds like a lot of money EXCEPT when you think about the cost for original content on their channel. 3 hours times 52 weeks times 10 years equals 1560 hours of content. so $5 billion divided by 1560 is just over $3.2 million per hour of content. How much do you think it costs per hour on average to make original movies? I bet you it's a lot more expensive to make movies than it is wrestling. So WWE gets a boatload of money and Netflix cuts their costs to create original content and WWE will generate more views than a lot of the movies Netflix puts on there.

Hulu has next day viewing for wwe. Also these services use live plus 30 day viewership nowadays or measure viewing hours etc. So it will be live but youll get the chance to see it not long after.

Immediately Brian isn't getting it. This is for Raw in the US, yes, but outside the US it's essentially the WWE Network in every market it still exists in, and live Raw, Smackdown and NXT. Netflix assuming they also get the video archive are getting pretty good value for money and WWE are settling for extravagant stability and widespread availability rather than the highest possible monetary value for all these rights.

Just a matter of time before either Amazon or Apple paying the NFL for an exclusive Sunday package. Perhaps when the next rights deal comes up.

WWE in the Tokyo Dome with Jinder Mahal in the main event just to piss off Tony Khan

Streaming services also value viewers who will routinely renue their monthly subscriptions, which just from the TV viewership, shows that wrestling has a extreme dedicated base of viewers that'll always be a guarantee to tune in every week (and pay every month). These services have problems with people only subbing for a single month to binge one or two shows in full and then cancel their subscription. Having these year round content, like sports, are godsends to these platforms. Bonus point... Wrestling doesn't have an OFF-SEASON! Instead of having a dead period in the Summer for football/winter baseball, etc. wrestling is non-stop, year long. It's a guaranteed source of viewership.

This is difference between a kids club house and business: WWE doing billion dollar deals and Tony Khan still playing with toys

Look at where this shit is at 25 years after the attitude era. HHH, Shawn and The Rock running the show and making billions of fucking dollars. Without a McMahon. God damn dude

I ain't gonna lie, I watched the Royal Rumble live on Peacock live

If new Vince scandal happened just a few days earlier, i'am sure Netflix will cut this deal in half

wwe out here printing money like the nfl. wait until they raise wwe films from the dead and start producing direct to netflix films. they will make the iron claw look like a made for tv movie.

Monday Night Raw hasn't been great in many years and I don't see that changing on Netflix. Netflix & chill just got Raw no pun intended. Speaking of Raw, babies born in 2025 will have no idea how was it like watching Monday Night Raw live on cable TV. People who don't like wrestling will be paying Netflix back for their WWE deal. Smackdown is the A show, Monday Night Raw is the B show.

If you combine all the individual deals RAW has around the world with various networks around the planet it probably added up to close to this amount before already. Netflix is a global thing, so with this they're probably getting exclusive rights worldwide, meaning the WWE can't negotiate individual broadcasting rights on other networks anywhere in the world, that's asking a lot, it's a request worth a lot of cash. It starts off in only a few regions but will expand to the others, and if my theory is correct, that is due to the existing contracts that the WWE has with local networks that only expire after this Netflix deal goes into effect, so as those deals expire RAW shows up on Netflix for that country instead.

It's obvious that Jim does not have kids when he's asking" who's going to watch four things on Netflix at the same time"

Where will the library of all the old stuff be?

Meanwhile Tony Khan is still waiting on that Max Deal he's been talking about for well over a year.

This is wild. I honestly don't know how this will affect television ratings and shit like that but this is such a huge deal.

Jim, this will likely work the way it does for "PPVs" on Peacock. If you watch while it's live, you can watch it while it's live, you have access to it, but then, once it's over you're kicked out (with maybe a 30 minute delay if you're behind). And you're "Locked out" for a day or so of being able to start it from the beginning if you weren't there when it's "Live". Netflix (like Amazon, HBO etc.) likely want to get into the "live sporting events game", so yeah there'd still be ratings.

3 big things I took from this news. 1. Raw can reduce the runtime of episodes and use words they haven't used in years starting Jan 2025. 2. TV ratings are out the window for Raw cuz its streaming and only Netflix will know how the show performs. and finally 3. $5 billion is so much for Raw that I have a hunch that Netflix will want documentaries, specials, and maybe even the PLEs in the future. No matter how you look at it WWE got the bag on this deal.

I know Jim is old but I still find fascinating that he doesn't understand the size and success of Netflix, thinking a TV network (ANY TV network) is bigger than Netflix in 2024 is just baffling...

Not only do more people have Netflix than cable. But you’re also gonna get a lot of new casual viewers.

We cut the cord to cable years ago. Even with all the channels we subscribe to, it's still cheaper than cable for us in this area (an hour from Baltimore and DC). You should go on tour and share these stories with us all.

As a former Video Store Owner(like Randy Marsh), and still holdout in getting a NF subscription; I'll just listen to RaWs results, on JCE, a week late.. btw:still waiting for that fkn FBinvite/accept.. is THIS THING ON?!

"I heard it was ALL the WWE shows, not just the one being RAW! There bouncing the Peacock and going to Netflix! The real question is, are you gonna pay to watch a yearly TV network wrestling show on live streaming?.........????...............Ehhh!"

And Tony still thinks he can compete...