The next era of WWE streaming content is ready for a big shift for Netflix. It was almost a year ago that Netflix first announced that WWE would move new episodes of Monday Night Raw to the streaming platform starting January 6, 2025. Expectations for Raw’s debut on Netflix are sky-high, but so are has left some fans wondering what will happen to WWE’s previous streaming homes.
Last week, WWE Network subscribers received a press release email confirming that the WWE Network will officially shut down starting January 1, 2025, just days before Netflix debuts. Although the WWE Network has been largely closed in the United States since 2021, it has maintained a presence in international markets. Now, however, the WWE Network will cease to exist everywhere.
After this announcement, questions still remain for the public about where classic WWE content will go after this, and whether Netflix is acquiring the entire WWE library backlog or not.
The History of the WWE Network
Where it all started
Plans for WWE to offer its own library to the public date back to 2011, when the company aired a commercial promoting the WWE Network for a 2012 launch. At the time, however, the WWE Network was announced to be presented not as a streaming service, but as a premium channel. The concept remained generally the same, with the Network being a place where new and old content would be broadcast, but on a channel that buyers would pay for. The hype for the said channel was immense as the previous date and countdown was set for April 1, 2012.
However, mysteriously, all WWE Network promos, commercials, and even the countdown silently disappeared. Without explanation, the launch of the WWE Network was delayed without any clear indicator of when it would launch or what the delay was. It was widely speculated by insiders that the delay was caused by the company’s difficulty managing the distribution agreements and permits required to broadcast all of its library’s programs and pay-per-view on one television. channel. Not to mention, the early 2010s were when the cable model was starting to die as online streaming slowly grew.
Instead, WWE would spend the next two years surveying its fans, trying to gauge interest from a potential paying audience, as well as trying to figure out how much streamers would be willing to pay for the WWE Network. Fast forward to January 8, 2014, at the Consumer Electronics Show, where the company would officially unveil WWE Network as a 24/7 streaming service airing original programming, exclusive shows and PPVs throughout the year. WWE Network launched on February 24, 2024, with NXT Arrival as its first exclusive special, airing WWE WrestleMania XXX as its first official PPV.
The rise and fall of the WWE Network
What led to Netflix’s move
Although the WWE Network has received critical praise from fans who have subscribed, It wasn’t exactly a runaway hit.. Reports revealed that a month after its launch, the Network received 667,000 subscribers, which seems like a small success on paper, but not when WWE needed a million to break even. In July, this number only increased to 700 thousand. The subscriber count was especially troublesome when, after the Network expanded to hundreds of international markets in September, the number only increased to 731,000. That same month, only 75.2% of users remained subscribers after the Network’s initial launch.
In the midst of all this, WWE shares plummeted by 50%, causing concerns among WWE investors. The WWE Network would not reach 1 million subscribers until January 2015. Even after reaching 2.1 million subscribers in April 2018, with only 1.8 being paid users, the number would drop to 1.6 in the third quarter of that year. . It wouldn’t be a huge surprise when, in 2021, WWE signed the U.S. distribution rights for its network to NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, meaning the WWE Network would merge with NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock (where it resides). today). The WWE Network officially shut down in the United States on April 4, 2021. However, the deal did not affect the WWE Network outside of America and therefore the Network survived in international markets.
What to expect from WWE on Netflix
What does and doesn’t air on Netflix
That changes on January 1, 2025, when the WWE Network will shut down for good. The announcement states that Netflix will become the “exclusive home of WWE,” promising to include Raw, SmackDown and NXT, as well as premium live events, “key moments,” “historic PLEs and curated programming.” The wording is vague with regards to what “key moments” might entail. One might assume that “historical PLEs” refer to classic programming, but “selected programming” leaves us wondering how much content will be moved to Netflix.
It should be noted that SmackDown will still air on the USA Network until 2026so US Netflix subscribers likely won’t get Friday’s show. However, WWE fans outside the US have already seen a message popping up during their SmackDown final shout out, stating that the show will be coming to Netflix in their region in January.
There is no mention of other content from the WWE librarywith ECW and WCW shows and PPVs, for example, moving to Netflix along with their live shows. It can be assumed that everything will come to Netflix, but nothing has been confirmed yet. The phrase “selected programming” also leaves readers wondering whether there will be content excluded from membership of the Netflix streaming service. It’s also unclear where Peacock fits into all of this, as WWE’s deal with Peacock won’t end until the year 2026.
No one knows whether the Peacock deal would cause a delay in how much content moves to Netflix and when, or whether both streaming services will share content in the interim. In both cases, there is also a question about whether Netflix’s backlog of WWE content will be uncensored, as Peacock has removed or censored the company’s most controversial content. There are still many questions about what WWE content will or will not be available on Netflix, but if one thing is certain it is that after a decade, the WWE Network is dead.