WWE fans have caught another change on Netflix—and this one is a lot harder to miss. Less than two weeks after viewers realized Brock Lesnar’s T-shirt had been digitally censored on Raw, eagle-eyed fans noticed WWE has gone back and changed another Lesnar moment. This time, it’s his staredown with Oba Femi, with Netflix cutting away just before the two rivals flip each other off during the July 27 episode of Monday Night Raw.
If you watched the show live, you saw the exchange exactly as it happened. Lesnar and Femi stood nose-to-nose, tensions boiled over and both men threw up the middle finger in a moment that perfectly sold the hatred between them heading into SummerSlam.
Watch the replay on Netflix, though, and it’s a different story. Right before the gesture happens, the broadcast suddenly jumps to another camera. By the time it cuts back, the moment is over. Nothing is blurred. Nothing is beeped. It’s simply… gone.
It’s also becoming a familiar routine for WWE’s Netflix replays. Fans recently noticed the replay of Night of Champions had been cleaned up, with Bron Breakker’s blood blurred out, camera shots swapped to avoid showing the blood and even the arena’s “holy sh*t” chant replaced with “This is awesome!” audio. Then came the July 13 episode of Raw, where the profanity on Brock Lesnar’s shirt mysteriously disappeared through digital editing.
Now another Lesnar moment has joined the list. At this point, it’s becoming clear that what airs live isn’t always the version that sticks around on Netflix. Blood, profanity and now obscene gestures all appear to be fair game once WWE starts polishing episodes for replay.
Have WWE’s Netflix edits gone too far, or do you think cleaning up the replay versions makes sense? Sound off in the comments.
