WWE RAW is set to debut on Netflix in January 2025, marking the first time the program will not be available on cable television since its inaugural broadcast in 1993.
On a recent edition of the “SI Media Podcast,” CM Punk reacted to RAW moving to Netflix and how a Superstar can benefit from that exposure.
Punk said, “I feel like we’re pushing the envelope now, and I don’t want people to use Netflix as a crutch to say the F word. I feel that’s immediately where everybody goes, ‘We’re going to get to swear.’ No. If everybody swears, it doesn’t mean anything. If everybody is throwing the bird, it doesn’t mean anything. If every show, someone is bleeding and they fall off a building, it doesn’t mean anything. The only thing that excites me about Netflix is what should excite everybody about Netflix; we are going to be seen by billions more people. It’s unfathomable to a lot fo people what the Netflix deal means to a wrestler in WWE. USA Network has broadcasted professional wrestling for WWE for decades. Raw has always been on USA. For it to go to a streaming service. I don’t have the USA Network app on my phone, but I have the Netflix app on my phone. I guarantee it’s like that worldwide. We are going to have doors kicked in in a lot of different markets and countries all over the world. To me, that’s exciting. Yeah, but I think a lot of people need a filter. A lot of people need somebody to produce them and say, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’ Netflix doesn’t mean you’re going to get all these wild lesbian angles or something like that, as wrestling fans seem to think. Maybe we can be a little more edgy, maybe. I already feel like, since Vince (McMahon) is gone, a lot of what people thought were kind of strange, like not calling a hospital a hospital, calling it a medical facility, all that is in the past. I’m looking forward to the reach Netflix has.“
In addition to this, Friday Night SmackDown is scheduled to move to the USA Network in October, and NXT’s weekly TV show will transition to The CW Network later this year.
