The big day is finally here for WWE fans around the world.
At 8 am on January 1st UK time, the WWE Netflix era officially began for fans outside the United States as hundreds of hours of content went live on the platform and in the process brought to an end the WWE Network after more than 10 years.
Following the original announcement back in January 2024 that fans in international markets would be getting WWE Raw, SmackDown, NXT and Premium Live Events as part of their Netflix subscription, fans were equally excited and nervous as to how the streaming service would differ and ultimately what would and wouldn’t make the cut. With the Netflix era now live, fans have gotten their first taste of what to expect in the new era.
WWE On Netflix Sees Reduced Library Added
Kicking off the day 1 line-up strong, all of the big 5 [WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, SummerSlam and Money in the Bank] shows are all available to stream. Additionally, long-standing B-shows such as Elimination Chamber and Backlash also have every show available to watch.
Unfortunately, as many had suspected there is no WCW or ECW content on Netflix, with the closest thing to ECW being available to watch being the highly popular One Night Stand shows and the disaster that was December to Dismember.
Arguably one of the biggest concerns was what the fate would be of the weekly TV back catalogue in the new era, especially with the listings of WWE Raw, SmackDown and NXT Vault on the app. Unlike PLEs that have the entire history of the event, things are not as straightforward for the 3 brands. Although all 3 shows have the full line-up from 2022-2024, there are only select episodes of Raw, SmackDown and NXT from the past and entire years missing from the line-ups. However, for fans of Black and Gold era NXT, all the TakeOver events have made it over. The limited content from all 3 brands is as follows:
- Raw: Select episodes from 1993-2000
- SmackDown: Select episodes from 1999-2008
- NXT: TakeOvers from TakeOvers and PLEs from 2014-2021
Documentaries and original shows such as Steve Austin’sBroken Skull Sessions have also not made it over, but these are being periodically added to the WWE Vault channel.
In among the listings are a number of new shows such as a best of Raw from 2024 and the WWE Raw Classics show hosted by Big E which highlights the biggest moments of stars from the past and present.
The WWE Viewing Experience On Netflix
When it comes to finding content, Netflix has made it very straightforward. Searched shows show up instantly in the app and a drop-down menu of each year makes the shows easy to find.
In terms of the viewing experience, the shows are presented in high quality on Netflix and those who watch shows with subtitles will see a massive improvement as commentary keeps up with the action as opposed to the delay seen on the WWE Network shows. However, one drawback is that at the time of writing there are no chapter selections for matches and segments on shows, meaning that fans who want to see the main event will have to manually scroll to the final portion of the show.
In another welcome addition that was not present during the Network era, shows can also be downloaded and viewed offline.
While some fans may find this frustrating, it should be noted that scrolling through shows has not generated any buffering or crashing issues that were seen with the Network based on user experience.
Although the initial line-up is strong and gives casual and lapsed fans a lot to sink their teeth into over the next few days, some will be disappointed that key moments from wrestling history have now been put back into the archives with no guarantee that they will resurface. Netflix has more shows arriving later in the year, so it remains to be seen how much archived content will eventually make its way to the platform.
With no buffering issues, an easy interface and clear viewing experience, the on-demand launch appears to be free of any technical issues. WWE and Netflix will be hoping for the same when Raw goes live on January 6th.