WWE has finally made its long-awaited transition to Netflix, giving you three hours of soapy wrestling goodness if that’s your thing.
While it’s light on depictions of actual wrestling, it’s heavy on nostalgia and even heavier on fun. It decided to move away from the typical RAW product and offer something more akin to a lower level pay-per-view event than a weekly show.
How you feel about this may depend on your fan base. Regardless, the first Netflix RAW was a success by all accounts, but can it continue to live up to expectations?
WWE RAW has long been a staple on the USA Network, but as audience viewing habits change, it’s only a matter of time before wrestling begins to overtake broadcast and network television.
You see this more and more in professional sports.
It used to be that you could watch your favorite team’s games on your local station or on cable TV like ESPN, and you still can, but at least a few times during the season you had to have a streaming app to watch between games. one.
That’s the way the tide is turning right now, so it wasn’t a shock when the news broke that WWE would be taking their talents to the biggest streaming service.
Netflix has been branching out into live sports, with the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight being one of the first that comes to mind.
If you’re like me and decide to stay up late, you know it’s a rough night. Not only was the combat lackluster, but there were a lot of buffering issues throughout the night, making for a very unpleasant viewing experience.
The good news for WWE is that there were no widespread complaints about buffering and the show ran smoothly.
If you’ve ever been to a WWE event, then you know they run a tight ship. The first RAW of the new year is no exception.
The show moves along smoothly from start to finish, even if you really start to feel it by the last three hours of running time.
The show wisely kicked off with Chief Content Officer Triple H and then kicked off with The Rock, who essentially acts as the face of the company and thanked the beloved Netflix for allowing their show to make its famous debut The program adds luster.
Both wrestlers are famous in the company’s history. If you asked a random person on the street if they could name three professional wrestlers, chances are The Rock would be among them and Triple H would get some love.
But the thing is, Triple H’s wrestling days are long gone and he only comes out now when he’s making official announcements or on highly anticipated shows. And rocks.
Well, The Rock does whatever he wants, but if you tuned in to the first episode thinking you were going to see him every week like it was 1999, you’re going to be disappointed.
They’re treating the first episode like it’s the most important day of the year, a way to get casual viewers who might not check the product every week as well as those who do, to buy this new edition of RAW .
That’s all well and good, especially considering this episode’s departure from the norm, but it’s important to remember that they pulled out all the stops for this episode, and probably won’t do that every week.
The average episode of RAW has at least 5 matches, if not more, and this episode had 4 matches. Having four wrestling matches in a three-hour wrestling show isn’t exactly sustainable.
In addition to cameos from The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker, and John Cena that were nostalgic for days gone by, there was also the bizarre decision to bring in Hulk Hogan, which resulted in a loud boo, in my opinion Life sounds loud.
Appealing to the past isn’t a bad idea, but Hulk Hogan will never be the poster child for anything you want to be in the present.
The actual wrestling on the night ranged from fun to forgettable, but it was also a good showcase of what this version of WWE has to offer, albeit a small sample size.
Roman Reigns vs. Solo Sikoa was a match between two powerhouses from an influential and historic wrestling family.
Meanwhile, Rhea Ripley vs. Liv Morgan is a way to pit two of the most famous women’s wrestlers against each other for the title.
Things dropped off a bit when Jey Uso and Drew McIntyre took center stage, simply because the stakes were low and the wrestling was slow.
But it was performances by Seth Rollins and CM Punk that brought energy to the entire night, bringing energy to the crowd and the show.
They treat the night like a grand event.
Whether you’re watching WWE for the first time, have been watching for years, or are spending your hard-earned money to watch the shows and product every week, you’re likely to find something you like.
So, was it successful? In a broader sense, it is. It got people talking, which is exactly what an event like this should do.
But where do they go from here?
Well, for starters, they probably shouldn’t try to replicate this particular episode any time soon because they won’t be able to, although for new viewers tuning in next week to see a completely different spectacle than what came before Things may feel uncomfortable.
But they’d be better off taking some extra time to introduce all the players in the various storylines, and perhaps an additional video package detailing who they are and their current feud.
They better actually put some decent games on the card.
Now, I don’t think they’re actively trying not to do that.
But they have this opportunity to grow WWE through this global platform, and they have to rely on current wrestlers, not The Rock and John Cena of the past, to do that.
Put your babyface and heels on full display in episode two and give them a chance to win over a new audience.
In many ways, the company has never been hotter, and they now have the opportunity to showcase their products to people around the world.
WWE RAW on Netflix is here to stay.
While it started off as a hit, it was important to keep it that way and give audiences a glimpse of what it had to offer beyond throwbacks, celebrity appearances and flashy sets.
This won’t be the last time audiences watch a massive WWE production, but in the meantime, it’s time to understand why they’re so successful now and believe they’ve done enough to keep people interested in their work. .
What do you think of the first RAW of the new year?
Is it too stuffed?
Or is it stuffed just right?
Let us know in the comments!
You can watch WWE RAW every Monday at 8/7c on Netflix.
