Get ready for the “Netflix Era.”
That’s what WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque has dubbed this new chapter with the streamer while speaking to the crowd of an intimate gathering in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning.
“I was in the Attitude Era,” he explained. “We didn’t realize what it was at the moment. Having seen that, I see this, and I see it way bigger. I see this as this different moment of time in the business, and it being something different… I think at the end of it, it’s going to be called the Netflix Era because that’s where the big change is.”
The Attitude Era within the WWE spanned from the late ’90s to the early ’00s when names like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Triple H ruled the ring. With those WWE superstars came very racy and edgy content.
While the WWE product currently has a PG rating, many have wondered if it will resort back to that era as ratings are non-existent on the streamer.
WWE President Nick Khan finally put the rumors to rest.
“We’re not changing the rating of our programming,” he revealed. “That’s definitely not happening. It’s family-friendly, multi-generational, advertiser-friendly programming. It’s going to stay that way.”
“Multi-generational” was a major phrase during the event.
Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, kicked off the panel by explaining how wrestling was a way to connect with her grandfather growing up. Khan also had a similar experience.
“It turns out that my experience in watching wrestling with my family isn’t that unusual,” she explained. “Raw has been a TV-PG show for more than 15 years, and they have a huge multigenerational fanbase.”
“TV-PG is where we’re going,” Brandon Riegg, Netflix’s Non-Fiction Series and Sports VP also solidified.
“For sure,” Levesque said. “I think it’s what you want and expect out of WWE. It’s not pushing anybody away from what they want, it’s a safe place for families, for kids, for everybody to be able to view the programming. That will not change.”
Starting in January, WWE’s flagship program, “Monday Night Raw,” will be on Netflix. This will be the first time in history that “Raw” will shift away from cable TV.
While it’s an exciting new journey for the two companies, it does come almost two months after the Jake Paul- Mike Tyson fight, where thousands of subscribers faced several issues.
Bajaria assured fans that they’ve learned from these past issues.
“To put it in perspective, it was 65 million concurrent streams, right? It was a very successful night. A lot of people, the scale was very big, which is great. There’s a lot of interest in it,” she said. “You don’t know, and you can’t learn these things until you do them so you take a big swing.”
Since 2023, Netflix has hosted live events like Chris Rock’s “Selective Outrage!” comedy special, the “Love is Blind: Reunion” and “The Roast of Tom Brady,”
“Our teams and our engineers are amazing, moved super quickly, and stabilized it, and many of the members had it back up and running pretty quickly,” she continued. “But we learn from those things. We’ve all obviously done a lot of stuff to learn and get ready for the NFL and Beyoncé at halftime and so we’re totally ready and excited for WWE.”
Levesque then joked that “if it (the show) blinks a couple of times and we do 60 million, I’m good with that.”
In addition to live events, Bajaria explained that the partnership will open the door to more projects.
“We’re looking forward to doing documentaries, taking that great history and those characters, that on the unscripted and the scripted sides,” she said. “There are so many great stars that come from WWE that we have a great relationship with.”
Bajaria revealed that John Cena and actor Eric Andre are set to star in a comedy together called “Little Brother.”
The new year is a big one for Cena. In 2025 he’s embarking on his farewell tour from the WWE.
The first “Raw” on Netflix will air on Jan. 6 and will be live from the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
