WWE is playing with a new rulebook in 2025. For the first time in its three-decade history, WWE Monday Night Raw is leaving cable television, as the sports-entertainment giant migrates its flagship show to Netflix. WWE Monday Night Raw airing on Netflix is the latest live sport to make the move to streaming, following in the footsteps of Thursday Night Football migrating to Prime Video and Friday Night Baseball pivoting to Apple TV+. Along with the fact that WWE Monday Night Raw will be available in more homes worldwide than ever before, the red brand will not be limited to the often-criticized TV-PG rating, as the livestream will be free to be relatively uncensored.
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CM Punk Shares Concern With WWE Raw’s Netflix Rulebook
One top WWE Monday Night Raw star wants to avoid over saturation in the Netflix sandbox.
Speaking to the SI Media podcast, CM Punk emphasized that the WWE roster needs to use its new freedoms on Netflix sparingly in order for them to mean something.
“I feel like we’re pushing the envelope now, and I don’t want people to use Netflix as a crutch to say the f-word,” Punk said. “I feel that’s immediately where everybody goes, ‘We’re going to get to swear.’ No. If everybody swears, it doesn’t mean anything. If everybody is throwing the bird, it doesn’t mean anything. If every show, someone is bleeding and they fall off a building, it doesn’t mean anything.”
Even before this Netflix move, WWE has pushed the boundaries of its TV-PG ratings on USA Network and FOX. Leading up to WWE WrestleMania 40, Cody Rhodes was bludgeoned by The Rock in a backstage attack. In the same segment, The Rock dropped an f-bomb, which was censored for the home broadcast. Both of those NSFW moments, blood and cursing, have only happened a couple of times on WWE TV since.
“I think a lot of people need a filter. A lot of people need somebody to produce them and say, ‘No, we’re not going to do that,’” Punk added. “Netflix doesn’t mean you’re going to get all these wild lesbian angles or something like that, as wrestling fans seem to think. Maybe we can be a little more edgy. Maybe. I already feel like, since Vince (McMahon) is gone, a lot of what people thought were kind of strange, like not calling a hospital a hospital, calling it a medical facility, all that is in the past. I’m looking forward to the reach Netflix has.”
WWE Monday Night Raw premieres on Netflix in January 2025.
