Triple H unconcerned about WWE buffering on Netflix
Paul Levesque, better known under his ring name Triple H, has revealed that he’s unconcerned about WWE potentially buffering when it moves to Netflix.
At the start of the year, WWE struck a deal that will see its weekly live pro-wrestling show, Monday Night Raw, air exclusively on the streamer starting January 2025. It’s estimated the deal is worth at least $400 million per year, effectively double what WWE’s current five-year deal with NBCUniversal is, at approximately $250-260 million per year.
While viewers in the United States will only be able to watch Monday Night Raw and pay-per-views from January, in the United Kingdom, Netflix subscribers will have full access to all of the WWE programming, including Smackdown alongside their premium live events such as the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania.
It’s assumed that once WWE’s television contracts finish with other companies, then it’ll move over to Netflix. However, to begin with, Monday Night Raw will be the torchbearer for this new chapter of WWE.
Netflix has only just begun to dip its toe into live streaming. It recently showcased the boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, which is believed to have been seen by other 60 million households across the globe.
As a result of the huge demand, many Netflix subscribers complained about their stream buffering which doesn’t bode well for WWE moving onto the platform.
However, Triple H isn’t worried, stating, “If our first-night buffers and they come and say it was 60-70 million households watching, I’ll be good with the buffering.”
Additionally, following WWE’s recent premium live event, Bad Blood, Triple H said at the post-show press conference of the Netflix deal: “Here’s the cool thing about what we do: slightly different from a lot of other sports, a lot of other sports somebody like Netflix picks them up and then somebody has to produce that content because the other sport doesn’t produce the content; we’re turnkey.”
Levesque also noted: “We do everything we do and then we just deliver the product; they turn on the signal, we deliver it out. I think it’s one of the key ‘wonderful’ things about WWE, that not everybody is in that place.”
Monday Night Raw will premiere on Netflix on January 6th, 2025, and will feature a special performance from rap superstar Travis Scott.