WWE, Netflix Set ‘Monday Night Raw’ Premiere Date
Netflix and the WWE are getting ready to rumble with “Monday Night Raw” debuting live from Los Angeles’ brand-new Intuit Dome on Jan. 6. at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET.
The premiere episode, which comes after the two parties struck a 10-year, $5 billion media rights deal, will feature some of the biggest names in wrestling including John Cena, WWE champion and “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Bianca Belair, as well as many other WWE Superstars and surprise guests.
The partnership with Netflix will bring WWE’s year-round content to fans outside the U.S., including “SmackDown,” “NXT” and premium live events such as “WrestleMania,” “Royal Rumble” and “SummerSlam.” Rapper and songwriter Travis Scott revealed during his sold-out concert at ComplexCon in Las Vegas that his new music will serve as the theme song for RAW.
Tickets for the premiere episode go on sale Nov. 22 at 10 am PT/1 pm ET via TicketMaster, with presale starting Nov. 20 at 10am PT/1pm ET.
The premiere date announcement comes after Netflix recently revealed that a record 60 million households tuned in to Jake Paul and Mike Tyson’s boxing match. However, some viewers had less than optimal experience on social media, with reports of screens buffering and freezing during the event.
Netflix Chief Technology Officer Elizabeth Stone acknowledged that the “unprecedented scale created many technical challenges.”
“We don’t want to dismiss the poor experience of some members, and know we have room for improvement, but still consider this event a huge success,” Stone added.
Previous live events on Netflix have included the Netflix Cup, a golf tournament featuring drivers from “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” and “Full Swing;” the Netflix Slam, a tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz; comedy specials from big names like Chris Rock and Joe Rogan; “Everybody’s in L.A.” hosted by John Mulaney; and “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef,” a hot dog-eating contest that saw Joey Chestnut break a hot dog-eating world record on Labor Day against his rival, Takeru Kobayashi, and the “Love is Blind” Season 4 reunion, which also ran into its own technical difficulties.
Next up, Netflix is set to air a pair of NFL games on Christmas Day, which will see the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers face off live at 1 p.m. ET on Dec. 25, followed by the Baltimore Ravins vs. the Houston Texans at 4:30 p.m. ET.
The event will feature an NFL halftime show performance from Beyoncé, who will appear at the Ravens-Texans game.
The “Cowboy Carter” creator previously headlined Super Bowl XLVII on February 3, 2013, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and then returned for Super Bowl XV on February 7, 2016, where she joined Coldplay and Bruno Mars on stage.
During the Financial Times’ Business of Entertainment Summit in September, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters teased that the streamer would “Netflix-ify” the pair of games.
“We’ll plan to have a little bit of stuff around the games with our talent and stuff like that that will hopefully make it super fun,” he said at the time.
Peters also emphasized that the games would be treated as a singular event, rather than something that would happen on a recurring basis. But he didn’t rule out expanding the company’s sports rights portfolio as long as it’s done in a way that “works for the business.”
“Those have been typically challenging deals to go do and make it work for the business,” the exec said. “Never say never, keep your mind open to how to do it and think creatively about it. Certainly, we’re poking at the edges of that, so maybe we’ll figure out a way, but we haven’t figured out a way yet. And a lot of the big rights deals are locked up for a while.”
