In January 2024, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) announced that their flagship program, “Monday Night Raw”, would leave the television by cable and join the streaming world by moving to Netflix. Streaming behemoth paid $ 5 million to join the WWE universe, and at the time, I thought it was a great idea. After all, WWE is an internationally renowned company, with a global audience that has helped transform sports entertainment into an industry of several billion dollars.
Advertisement
As a first streaming service on all continents, it was perfectly logical for WWE and Netflix to reach their forces … Then number of notes fell like Mick Foley on The Undertaker during their match Hell in Cell 1998. As a fan of life struggle, I should now know that I always expect a distance from the narration of WWE, but I could never imagine “Perfect affair” would prove to be a disaster.
To be clear, the product has been among the best for years. The stories are exciting (John Cena finally turned the heel!), Physics is unrivaled with any other moment in the history of the struggle, and the whole city of Las Vegas was completely transformed for “Wrestlemania 41”. It seems that every two days, I learn a new friend who has embarked on the fight (many have been converted thanks to the current “Titan Takedown” season of “Dimension 20”, where WWE superstars play D&D on Dropout). Since it is Mania Weekend, one might think that the figures of “Monday Night Raw” would be through the roof, but according to the long -standing journalist, Dave Meltzer, there was a massive Deposit the hearing, and this is based on metrics already CAGEY, Netflix is ready to provide.
Advertisement
It is not only a bad sign for the fight, it is a bad sign for the whole entertainment industry and cinema and television fans everywhere.
Monday evening of raw viewer numbers fell
Looking at the number of audiences of April 7, 2025, the episode of “Monday Night Raw”, Dave Meltzer of the Newsling Newsletter (You will not be able to see this without subscription, sorry) reported that he seemed that Netflix “had reached his second highest numbers in the United States” at the same time, the show was in 10th place on their list of television in English most watched for the week, which should still be a good thing, right? Well, because people like Meltzer are meticulous in the documentation of audience numbers and even better to maintain historical recordings of said data, he examined the statistics of the public equivalent from last year when “Monday Night Raw” was always played on USA Network, and the comparison is not great:
Advertisement
“Given that the American number based on the percentages we know on the basis of the first weeks seems to be 1,277,000 viewers as a +7 and 1,021,000 number as the same day number, which would be equivalent to the number of gross’ on the American network. Percentage of fall.
“Wrestlemania” is broadcast later this year that before, which is why Meltzer compares the audience numbers on two different dates. This means that “Monday Night Raw” still appears in the top 10 of the most watched programs on Netflix, although potentially having more than 40% less viewers than the previous year. It is a terrifying reality, which essentially proves that being one of the most popular broadcasts on the streaming of shows like “Yellowstone”.
Advertisement
There is no price to win streaming wars
The specific Netflix numbers are difficult to find, so if these are the facts with the wrestling experts, it is even more terrifying to think that the audience numbers are In fact lower that current estimates. Streaming has really become a cable but somehow worse, and I would like to have an answer on the way we do not make an entire industry.
Advertisement
Not to simplify companies of a billion dollars here, but I like professional struggle, and I like the accessibility of streaming platforms. The struggle saved my life When I was ready to abandon the fighting in the middle of cancer treatment, and streaming platforms like Netflix kept me alive during the quarantine era of the pandemic when my immunocompromised self could not leave my apartment for weeks at once. I have a lot of scruples with the way these two entertainment landscapes are currently working, but acting as if my life had not been enriched by the existence of the two would be at best anhistoric and a daring lie at worst.
It is a question of saying that the criticism of WWE performance on Netflix is not rooted in blind hatred or immature animosity has put pressure on the social networks of “fans” which celebrate the failure of a company as “victory” for rival societies that they love better.
Advertisement
We said that “to be the man, you have to beat the man”. But winning wars in streaming does not mean much if the viewers’ numbers indicate that Netflix is a champion of the intermediate card who always fights for a place in the photo of the main event. What is the value of winning an auction war in Sundance for a new horror film if no one sees it? Nothing means Nothing, And the cream will always rise at the top – but being the cream of the harvest does not matter if people buy their cultures elsewhere.
