When news broke that RAW, WWE's flagship television show of 30 years and counting, was, for the first time in its history, leaving cable for Netflix in January of 2025, it instantly drew incredible reactions from fans around the world.

Some blasted the move, questioning why WWE would take such an important television show off of television and instead paywall it behind a streaming service that has had its longevity question on multiple occasions over the past few years. And others, well, they celebrated the deal, as it makes the promotion richer and could produce a show that no longer features commercials and thus can be crafted to Paul “Triple H” Levesque's vision without the traditional restraints of network television.

Discussing the deal on his Strictly Business podcast, Eric Bischoff revealed that he was initially surprised by the move, as he didn't expect Netflix to be the party that won the deal. Then again, considering they are one of the leaders in the streaming service, he also wasn't surprised to see the deal, as it makes sense for what WWE is trying to accomplish.

“It's a monster deal, and I haven't had a lot of time to think about it. It was two big pieces of news,” Eric Bischoff told Strictly Business listeners via Fightful. “One, Rock joining the Board of Directors of TKO, which is fantastic. The other of course being Netflix. The Netflix deal, it's funny, with all the conversations that we've had about where RAW may go, we've talked about Amazon, [that] made a lot of sense because of the ancillary opportunities that came with it. But Netflix has been a real 800-pound gorilla in the streaming space for quite some time. While we didn't see it coming, it makes a ton of sense for a lot of reasons. What a great day.”

Asked about how the deal will impact WWE not just in the United States but globally, Bischoff noted that it's an incredibly big deal, as it should allow the promotion to grow even bigger now that fans in other markets will be able to watch the entire WWE market with ease.

“Obviously, that's a big benefit, right. Look at the picture here. I've talked about patterns, right, little dots here, little dots there, and you start connecting those dots to come up with a pattern. If you look at what Nick Khan has done over the past year or year and a half, when a lot of these things have been in play or they've been developing before they're announced, but it is clear to me that the growth opportunities for WWE, much like the NFL, are international. Now, what does that mean with Netflix? I don't know, how about 240 million subscribers in 190 different countries? That's a big opportunity to grow your international live events, your PLEs, and just establish a broader footprint internationally, beyond the UK and Europe, which has traditionally been a good market,” Eric Bischoff explained.

“But by going to streaming and not having to rely on cable terrestrial broadcast in countries, for example in Europe, each market within that country has different broadcast standards. This allows WWE, assuming that some of those challenges are still in place, to just circumvent it all. Now, their content is going to be as easily accessed in the UK, France, Germany, I mean, look at the UK. $1.5 billion revenue market for Netflix. It's the second-largest behind the US for Netflix. That is a massive growth opportunity because there will probably be more people that have access to the product, or it will be easier to watch the product. So it's just all of about international growth. To me, I think that was probably a reason behind this move, and it's going to be fascinating to watch.”

Could this deal really unlock WWE's global drawing power, making the “worldwide leader” part of their moniker truer than ever before? Or will it draw away more fans than it brings in, as WWE fans already have to pay for Peacock to watch PLEs and may not want to add another bill to their budget if they don't have to? In less than a year, fans will get their answer.

Ari Emanuel provides some insight into WWE's big RAW move.

Appearing on CNBC to discuss all of the changes in WWE, from RAW‘s landing place to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson's new role, Ari Emanuel explained what makes Netflix a natural home for the Red Brand, especially on such a long-term deal.

“All I can say is that we are in line with the market expectations and where our step up would be. The only other thing I would say is it’s Netflix. They’re the global leader. They’re the best company with regard to sports entertainment whether they’ve done it with Formula One or Tour De France, this is the next iteration as they go to live and moving into live. This is an important step for them in their SVOD and subscription service, and live is important for them. The word Netflix is important for this. Ten-year deal, with RAW, it’s a big deal,” Ari Emanuel explained via Wrestling Headlines.

“We just saw, two weekends ago on Peacock, how big football played. 27 million people. I don’t think linear is going away, I don’t think cable is going away, but there is a push to streaming. On this deal, we did that early on with the UFC on ESPN and ESPN Plus. From our perspective, this is the next iteration of where this goes. We have a linear play with SmackDown and NXT. This is the streaming play. For us, it was the next step. It’s a great deal for Netflix, in our opinion. They get 150 hours of programming over $5 billion dollars. It’s like two and a half movies for 150. For us, it’s the global player in streaming. It’s a great deal.”

Financially speaking, WWE hit a home run in their deal with Netflix, as SmackDown‘s deal with USA Network is only worth $1.4 Billion – as crazy as that sounds. Still, it's worth wondering how the situation will work out, as the Peacock football game wasn't exactly popular, and some fans are already displeased with this deal even though it won't go into effect until next year.