WWE’s Netflix Move May Change Process of International Broadcasts

WWE has a lot of things going on, and their global reach is unbeatable at this point. The company also knows all the logistics that goes into putting on live shows, and they also realize that their bread and butter is with United States television rights and those massive deals that they have protected to a great degree.

During a recent Fightful Select Q&A, Sean Ross Sapp was asked, “Do you think the European Raw tapings have a chance to air live worldwide?” After all, those European shows are often accompanied by tons of spoilers.

It was reiterated that the primary thing working against this idea are the areas in the world that they want to make happy. Since Netflix is part of the equation, then it could change everything.

“In certain areas where it matches up appropriately with when and where it is broadcasted. If I were Netflix, I’d air it live in the United States, too. Why not? Netflix has infinite flexibility in that regard and could make it happen very easily.”

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WWE has always taped the broadcast whenever they are overseas, and it is simply aired later. Since Netflix is known to drop an entire season of a show at 3:00 AM, then only time will tell what they are capable of with WWE.

The new ten-year deal with Netflix will bring RAW and other WWE programming to the streaming giant, along with international broadcast rights for SmackDown, WrestleMania, and additional events. That contract is valued at $5 billion. Meanwhile, WWE’s SmackDown is worth around $1.4 billion for the USA Network.

We will have to see if this Netflix situation changes any live RAW broadcasts overseas. The fact remains that USA Network will still cause SmackDown to tape their shows if they air anything from overseas. It should also be noted that SmackDown and RAW will also both be three-hour shows in 2025.