The Rock, John Cena and Hulk Hogan were among the wrestling stars featured in the first Monday Night Raw to be streamed live on Netflix
WWE has entered its ‘Netflix era’, as the first episode of Raw made available on the platform streams around the world. Following the debut on Monday Night Raw on January 7, Netflix is now the exclusive home of the WWE’s weekly wrestling show in the UK all 52 weeks of the year.
The first episode is available to stream now, with new instalments airing at 1am every Tuesday – the same time it airs in the US. If you’re yet to catch up with the latest wrestling action, Netflix is now included free with Sky’s £15 Essential TV bundle, which also includes more than 100 channels like Sky Atlantic and a Discovery+ subscription.
Raw’s debut episode featured some of WWE’s biggest names, including The Rock, John Cena, Cody Rhodes, Rey Mysterio and Hulk Hogan, the latter of which was met with boos from the fans inside the Intuit Dome. The stars were out for the Raw Netflix debut, with the likes of Travis Scott, Macaulay Culkin and Logan Paul – who is set to join the show – in attendance.
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The first episode saw Roman Reigns defeat Solo Sikoa in a Tribal Combat match, while Rhea Ripley fought off Liv Morgan for the Women’s World Championship and Seth Rollins was beaten by rival CM Punk. Speaking to Netflix ahead of Raw’s Netflix debut, CM Punk said the move to streaming represents WWE’s ‘next mountain to climb’.
Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.
Sky Stream lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like The Day of the Jackal and the upcoming second season of Squid Game.
“I think a lot of us are, in a funny way, mountain climbers. We’re goal setters, so we’re always climbing mountains, and we get to the summit and want to find the next goal, the next mountain to climb. I think Netflix represents that,” he said. “Worldwide, the number of houses we’re going to be in for eyeballs to watch is astronomical. I don’t think a lot of people really understand yet how big this is going to be.”
As part of WWE’s partnership with Netflix, the streamer also now hosts SmackDown, NXT, and events including WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and SummerSlam. It also marks the first time in its 31-year history that WWE Raw is available on a streaming platform.
Raw’s debut Netflix show has gone down well with WWE fans, many of whom stayed up into the early hours to watch it live from around the world. Writing on X, one impressed fan said: “WWE might be more back than ever. That opening Raw on Netflix was awesome.”
Another said: “This was easily one of the greatest of Raw in the history of WWE. The Netflix era is starting with a bang. What a show.”
A third added: “WWE is on Netflix and this first Raw absolutely delivered. This was truly amazing.”
However, not everyone is sold on the new output, as one wrote: “Matches were decent, but felt more like a commercial for WWE on Netflix than an actual episode of Raw.”
It comes as WWE Raw and SmackDown are heading to the UK as part of the Road to Wrestlemania. The live tour will bring WWE to 11 cities across the UK and Europe, with live shows held in Glasgow, London, Belfast and Nottingham.
Tickets are available now from Ticketmaster and direct from venues like the Ovo Hydro Scotland and Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena.
