After three decades on terrestrial TV, “Monday Night Raw,” WWE’s weekly flagship program, will debut today on Netflix for subscribers worldwide. This marks the start of a $5 billion, 10-year global partnership between the streamer and the brand, bringing all kinds of new possibilities for the fans, the brand and its superstars.
In the US, the deal is limited to WWE’s weekly ‘Raw’ program, but most international territories will receive all three of the brand’s weekly shows – ‘Raw’, ‘SmackDown’ and ‘NXT’ – as well as the Premium Company Live Events. (PLE) and a range of supplementary and catalog content.
This means that for the first time, audiences in many countries will have up-to-date access to all of WWE’s current offerings. For the company’s international talent, this is especially important as their hometown friends, families and fans will now have much better access to their work.
Born in Madrid, current NXT Tag Team Champion Axiom is the first Spanish superstar to make a major impact in WWE. In 2024, he and his British tag partner, Nathan Frazier, teaming as Fraxiom, had an impressive (continuing) performance as champions and were voted the best tag team in the world across all promotions by Sports Illustrated. Despite its success, Axiom’s presence in WWE is notable as professional wrestling remains niche in Spain and difficult to find on TV.
Axiom
Credit: WWE
However, that was not always the case. “Wrestling was really popular here in 2007-2008, when it arrived on TV for a while,” Axiom says Variety ahead of WWE’s Netflix debut. “I already knew it a bit from video games, action figures and video tapes, but when I saw WrestleMania for the first time I was blown away. I’ve always loved superheroes and was a big fan of movies, and for me this was the perfect combination of those things.”
For Axiom and other Spanish fans, the arrival and availability of WWE on TV was exciting but short-lived. For several years now, the only way to access WWE programming in Spain – and many other countries around the world – has been through the company’s own streaming platform, the WWE Network. However, shows like ‘Raw’, ‘SmackDown’ and ‘NXT’ were often delayed by weeks.
In Scotland, WWE and local independent wrestling have thrived for decades, with the country producing professional wrestling talent such as frequent headliner and former world champion Drew McIntyre, former women’s tag team champion Piper Niven and the Unholy Union tag team of Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre, who competed last June won the women’s tag team championship at the “Clash at the Castle” PLE in Glasgow and is part of a red-hot feud with the division’s other top teams.
Isla Dawn at WWE’s Clash at the Castle
Credit: WWE
Dawn remembers watching WWE programs as a child and the lengths her family went to to get access to PLEs, which were pay-per-view at the time but will now be available on Netflix in Scotland.
“We didn’t have much growing up, so we saved for the pay-per-views: my sisters, my uncle and some other relatives,” she recalls. ‘Then we all watched together. But even then it was difficult to maintain the way fans can now see them on Netflix.”
NXT newcomer and one of the biggest free-agent signings of 2024, Stephanie Vaquer, says that growing up in Chile, WWE was popular but often hard to find: “When I was young, WWE was on open TV for a while, but Then it turned into cable. So when I was about eleven years old, I begged and begged for cable so we could watch wrestling on TV. My dad used it as motivation and told me we could get cable as long as I continued to do well in school and behave.”
Stephanie Vaquer
Credit: WWE
Now she is thrilled that her friends, family and fans of all ages across Chile will have much easier access to professional wrestling whenever and wherever they want to watch. “WWE is already popular in Chile, but I think people there are extremely excited and waiting patiently to watch WWE on Netflix. It will be more accessible than ever,” she says.
Dawn agrees: “Fans can watch it whenever they want, and all the shows, including ‘Raw’, ‘SmackDown’ and ‘NXT’, that was previously unheard of in Scotland,” she says, citing the nine – hour time difference faced by European fans hoping to keep up with the weekly WWE shows in the US
Back in Spain, Axiom sees the Netflix deal as a major opportunity for WWE and professional wrestling to grow in profile, as the global Spanish hit series ‘Money Heist’ did when it was picked up by Netflix. The crime drama did decently but not that well on terrestrial TV in Spain before Netflix took over, marketed it as an original and turned it into a global phenomenon and one of the best-performing non-English-language shows of all time.
“That’s an accurate comparison,” the tag champion said. “When ‘Money Heist’ was on TV in Spain, I didn’t know much about it and didn’t watch it. But when it came to Netflix and was right there on the home screen, everyone became aware of it. I think this will happen with WWE in many countries.
The WWE Netflix debut comes at a time of increasing diversification of the company’s on-screen product. Over the past two decades, the WWE roster has become increasingly international, and each new performer who joins brings something unique that helps evolve the product and make it more appealing to a global audience.
“I feel like we have so many international stars across all three brands that everything has adapted to what we’ve brought,” says Dawn.
WWE’s live shows have also been shown abroad more often in recent years. In 2024, some of the highest-rated and best-received PLEs took place abroad – Backlash in Lyon, France; Elimination Chamber in Perth, Australia; and the aforementioned Clash at the Castle – and as the company moves in that direction, the international stars are excited about the prospect of performing in front of a home audience.
Starting in March, WWE will launch its Road to WrestleMania show series in Europe and host an episode of “SmackDown” in Barcelona, where Spanish fans will surely hope Axiom will appear. While nothing is planned yet in Chile, Vaquer says she is hopeful she will make her professional debut in her hometown on the WWE roster.
“That would be a dream come true for me,” says Vaquer. “The first time I saw wrestling live was when WWE went to Chile in 2009, but despite being a professional for several years, I have never fought professionally in Chile. I have fought all over the world, but never in my home country. So I would be so proud to be a WWE superstar for the first time.
Dawn says that aside from the immediate benefits of WWE being available in so many new territories, many of the company’s superstars are excited about other opportunities the Netflix deal could bring their side. “Obviously wrestling has a huge fan base, but it’s still kind of in its own world. But if it’s on Netflix, it could create entirely new fans who turn on the TV or go to the homepage and want to see something different. Many WWE stars are already making a huge impact in the entertainment industry, such as John Cena and The Rock, and I think this will create more crossover opportunities as WWE stars become more recognizable around the world. It’s a truly exciting opportunity for everyone at WWE to become an even bigger part of the broader entertainment industry.”