Back in January, WWE and Netflix announced a long-term partnership that will bring WWE's flagship weekly program, RAW, to the world's leading streaming service. It marks a major programming shift for the show as it leaves linear television for the first time since its inception 31 years ago.
Beginning next January, Netflix will be the exclusive new home RAW in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Latin America, among other territories. As part of the agreement, Netflix will also become the home for all WWE shows and specials outside the U.S. as available, inclusive of RAW and WWE’s other weekly shows - SmackDown and NXT - as well as the company's Premium Live Events.
Now, a first look at the new RAW logo appears to have leaked online.
It's a cool design and one that pays homage to previous versions; remember, SmackDown has also been given an overhaul since moving to the USA Network from FOX (NXT's look similarly underwent some changes for its shift to The CW so this is the norm for WWE).
Back in September, Roman Reigns - who is expected to move to the RAW brand for its Netflix premiere - shared his take on what the Netflix deal means for the show.
"I think this is the biggest deal of all time, to be honest," the OTC said. "The thing that changes the whole landscape for us is that we’ve been on linear television for decades and we’ve been the leader of that, episodically.:
He added, "To take our program and put it on a streaming network like Netflix, it’s unheard of. To go through our history and see where we’re at now and the growth that we’ve had since 2020, when the world was upside down, is amazing. It’s a big opportunity for us to not only showcase our product, but what we’ve mastered with live television."
With 1600 episodes to date, RAW is the most iconic show in sports entertainment. Since its debut in 1993, RAW has delivered action, compelling drama and unmatched athleticism – 52 weeks a year.
Blending the best of scripted content with unpredictable live entertainment, the three-hour show has helped launch the careers of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Triple H, John Cena, Roman Reigns, Bianca Belair and Charlotte Flair.
The show is currently the No. 1 show on USA Network, where it brings in 17.5 million unique viewers over the course of the year. One of television’s best performing shows in the 18-49 advertising demographic, RAW trends on X 52 weeks a year while each new episode is airing.
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.