Travis Scott to perform at WWE Raw’s debut on Netflix
Netflix is stoking excitement for the debut episode of WWE’s Monday Night Raw on January 6th, 2025, with the announcement that hip-hop artist Travis Scott will perform live at the event. The show will kick off a new era for Raw, which will now be streamed weekly on the platform instead of on a traditional broadcasting network as it has been for more than two decades.
Monday Night Raw has been on the air since 1993 and is the longest-running weekly episodic program in television history. As Netflix branches out into live events, the WWE show will be another proof of concept for the platform, which has struggled to find its footing in the new venture. Last year, it streamed a live reunion of season four of the dating reality show Love is Blind, and faced backlash when the event was delayed for more than an hour due to technical issues.
More recently, Netflix has aired smaller live sports events, talk shows, and awards ceremonies, though its biggest live programmes have continued to be plagued with glitches. This week, the platform is facing a barrage of complaints after the much-hyped live-streamed fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fell victim to extensive freezing and buffering due to the number of viewers.
Still, Netflix is hoping that live events will be its next big money-maker, and it’s putting its faith in WWE’s fandom.
In January, Variety reported that the streaming platform had signed a ten-year deal with the wrestling promotion for a whopping $500 million per year. That price tag is double the amount that WWE was earning from its broadcasting deal with NBCUniversal.
As for Scott’s involvement, this will not be the first time the rapper will dip a toe into the sphere of live-streaming events. In 2020, he was one of the first artists to perform live in the video game Fortnite Battle Royale, an event that netted 27 million viewers.
During that show, he debuted a new song with Kid Cudi, ‘The Scotts’, which has fueled speculation that he may do the same and debut a new single during the Raw Netflix premiere.
In a post on X today announcing Scott’s involvement, WWE also announced that the debut episode of Raw on Netflix would stream from the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, home of the basketball team The Clippers. Tickets for the event go live on November 23rd.