WWE Expecting One Of The Most Buzzworthy Raws Ever For Netflix Debut (Patreon)

WWE is going to have a longer gap than usual between PLEs with the Royal Rumble 2025 happening in February, but they’re not concerned.

WWE Raw debuts on Netflix in January, with the debut episode taking place on January 6. John Cena has already confirmed that he’ll be a part of that show, which Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp is told is expected to be a big one.

“The show is likely to be one of the biggest episodes of Raw in history, from the standpoint of buzz,” a longtime employee of WWE tells Sean Ross Sapp. They cited that Netflix could end up being one of the biggest deals in the history of the company. The way that sources within WWE described to Fightful was that it was being talked about early on as being of the quality of a PLE.

WWE views the move to Netflix as their next leap in popularity, we’re told. While we haven’t been told of specific plans, WWE sources had indicated to expect a major show. It was said to expect talent from Smackdown booked for the show as well, though that hasn’t been factored in yet.

WWE also will be bridging the “special event” gap buzz with Saturday Night’s main event. We’re told that one of the strategies was to have major events across all of their platforms in consecutive months, with Smackdown’s premiere on USA in September, NXT on CW debut in October, Saturday Night’s Main Event in December on Peacock, and Netflix’s debut with Raw in January. 

WrestleVotes Radio had reported that Los Angeles at the Intuit Dome was the likely location for the show. It was confirmed to us this week that is the plan.