WWE Signs Landmark 10-Year Deal With Netflix For Their Raw Show

The WWE is coming off a hot show last night, and with it being Royal Rumble week, they are adding to the most anticipated event of the year by making a huge announcement. The WWE signed a new deal with Netflix starting in 2025 for their Monday Night Raw Show. It’s a 10-year deal that will bring WWE off of linear TV for the first time since its debut in 1993. According to someone familiar with the matter, Alex Sherman and Jacob Pramuk of CNBC.com reported, “The 10-year deal is valued at more than 5 billion.”

The WWE has been busy with their programming as most of their deals were soon expiring, and they would be looking for new homes. In 2025, Smackdown will move to the USA Network and NXT to the CW. Next Year, the WWE will have programming on three platforms that serve three different consumers.

In the TKO Press Release sent out earlier this morning were quotes from TKO, WWE & Netflix.

“This deal is transformative,” said TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro. “It marries the can’t-miss WWE product with Netflix’s extraordinary global reach and locks in significant and predictable economics for many years. Our partnership fundamentally alters and strengthens the media landscape, dramatically expands the reach of WWE, and brings weekly live appointment viewing to Netflix.”

“We are excited to have WWE Raw, with its huge and passionate multigenerational fan base, on Netflix,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria. “By combining our reach, recommendations, and fandom with WWE, we’ll be able to deliver more joy and value for their audiences and our members. 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.”

“In its relatively short history, Netflix has engineered a phenomenal track record for storytelling,” said Nick Khan, WWE President. “We believe Netflix, as one of the world’s leading entertainment brands, is the ideal long-term home for Raw’s live, loyal, and ever-growing fan base.”

The WWE is no stranger to the streaming platform as it was one of the first companies to create its network in 2014. Although there were plenty of learning lessons during the network’s streaming existence, they were still able to land a huge five-year deal with Peacock last year, which is worth over a billion dollars. This Netflix deal is another chapter in the company’s long history.

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson added to the TKO Board of Directors

If that announcement wasn’t enough, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was named part of the Board of Directors for the TKO group, which also carries the UFC. The Rock’s popularity has not missed a step, and having a name like that will bring star power to the Board of Directors.

Here are some quotes and details from the press release that announced the addition of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

Ariel Emanuel, CEO, TKO, said: “I am thrilled to partner with Dwayne and welcome his immense talent to TKO’s Board. Dwayne brings an incredible track record of creating content and building globally recognized consumer brands, and he will play a key role in realizing our ambitions for TKO.”

WWE has also entered into a services and merchandising agreement with Johnson that provides for his promotional, licensing, and other services, and an intellectual property assignment agreement pursuant to which Johnson has secured ownership of the trademarked name, “The Rock.” The name is derived from his father, WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson, who was the first Black champion in WWE history (alongside partner Tony Atlas). Johnson’s grandfather, Peter Maivia, a Samoan-American professional wrestler, was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008.