WWE’s run on ABEMA in Japan officially has an expiration date. After months of talk about WWE eventually moving over to Netflix, ABEMA has now confirmed its programming will disappear from the service at the end of September.
ABEMA took to Twitter and announced that its WWE content—including Monday Night RAW, Friday Night SmackDown and premium live events—will stop streaming on September 30, 2026. There’s even a final show already locked in. According to ABEMA, the September 29 episode of RAW will mark WWE’s last broadcast on the platform.
“【Notice】 Regarding the WWE content (RAW / SMACKDOWN / each PLE event) that has been streamed on ABEMA, the streaming will end as of September 30, 2026 (Wednesday). The final broadcast will be RAW on September 29 (Tuesday). We sincerely thank everyone who has watched WWE on ABEMA up until now. We appreciate your continued support for ABEMA.”
That pretty much lines up with what had already been expected. Back in May, Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE’s ABEMA agreement appeared to be nearing its end and Netflix was expected to become the company’s new streaming home in Japan before the end of 2026.
“WWE was on ABEMA, which is a streaming service, not television station, but it’s a streaming service, sports entertainment and everything like that. And they are owned by CyberAgent. WWE was on that. Gabe Spitzer of Netflix had mentioned just the other day. Now he said that WWE would be going on Netflix before the end of the year in Japan.”
The timing also comes during a pretty major shakeup for wrestling streaming in the country. AEW is leaving NJPW World once its current agreement expires on August 31, with Japanese viewers instead being directed toward MyAEW for new weekly programming.
For WWE fans in Japan, September 29 will be the end of an era that started when ABEMA became WWE’s Japanese home in 2023. Three years later, RAW will get the final broadcast before WWE packs up its programming and prepares for its next streaming home.
What do you think about WWE moving from ABEMA to Netflix in Japan? Let us know in the comments.
