Not much of WWE’s older content will make it across to Netflix, according to reports.
On January 6, Monday Night RAW’s premieres on Netflix as part of WWE’s 10-year deal worth $5 billion. For those in the United States, only the flagship show will make its way to the streaming platform while international fans will be able to access all of WWE’s weekly content in the same place, and, with the WWE Network shutting down on December 31, many are wondering whether the full archive will be moved over to Netflix from January. Now, it appears as if those wanting to watch historic shows, including those from older companies, may be initially disappointed with the lineup available to them next year.
Per Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, it’s believed that very little of the current WWE Network archive is being moved over to Netflix, particularly not from day one. It’s specified that, along with live programming, there will be 40 pay-per-views available with a portion more added in the following weeks and months. Disappearing, however, is content from companies like WCW and Mid-South wrestling, with only WWE being focused on upon transition.
“The answer is not much. There’ll be all the current shows, obviously, will be on every single week. This is international, not United States, which will only be Raw. All the pay-per-views, everything is going to be on Netflix. As far as your archives, there will be some, but very little. When everything starts on January 1st, they’re going to have roughly 40 pay-per-views, will be the only thing up. Just intermittent, some recent, some from years ago. There’ll be no WCW, it’s all WWE. No Mid-Atlantic, no Mid-South Wrestling, no World Class. None of that tape library stuff. People didn’t really watch a lot of it [on the WWE Network] so that’s what happened. There will be old episodes, some old episodes, of NXT, Raw, and SmackDown.”
-Dave Meltzer
This may result in some classic shows and documentaries becoming inaccessible to fans for a period, although many fans are hoping WWE turn to their ‘WWE Vault’ YouTube channel as a place to put some of their archives, particularly as some old matches and unseen moments have been uploaded there in recent times. For now, whether the channel will begin to distribute more the WWE Network’s content from January onwards remains to be seen.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on WWE’s transition to Netflix as soon as we hear more.
H/T to Cultaholic for the transcription.
