WWE announced a blockbuster deal with Netflix, one that will start in January 2025. Since their deal with the USA Network is ending in October this year, that leaves two months of action for WWE’s flagship show unaccounted for.
WWE RAW’s Three Month Issue
After concluding an agreement with the USA Network, RAW’s future has sparked even more speculation. Now it’s confirmed that the USA Network won’t be renewing its deal with RAW beyond September 2024.
WWE and Netflix officially announced the move, revealing a staggering 10-year deal exceeding $5 billion starting in January 2025. Dave Meltzer discussed RAW’s fate post-September this year on Wrestling Observer Radio. The big question is what will happen with the show after October this year, but WWE seemingly has a plan.
“I talked to WWE pretty extensively about this, and I guess the biggest unanswered question is what happens to RAW at the end of September this year. In January, RAW is going to Netflix. At the end of September, their contract is up. USA Network has told Brandon Thurston that they’re not airing it after the end of September.”
“So, it’s not like they’re gonna go three more months on USA. WWE told me that they will make an announcement relatively soon about that. I guess they have something, what it is, I don’t know.”
WWE RAW’s Overrun On Netflix
Dave Meltzer also noted that WWE RAW may get more of a flexible overrun with their new Netflix deal. It was stated that they may get an overrun deal like Tony Khan has with Warner Brothers Discovery, where WWE can get more time if they need it.
”The other one is that if they run long, I don’t think they’re gonna panic, I think it will be the deal AEW has with, you know, TNT and TBS now. I think that there won’t be this ‘You’ve got to finish this exactly at 3!’ If you wanna go five minutes over because things are going long, I think that 3 will be the target, but it will be like a pay-per-view. A pay-per-view has a target time, but they go over it constantly. They don’t have that hard-out at 3 hours, so that will change.”
It was also noted that WWE may not want to extend RAW too many times, because they have other television deals for the show in different countries.
WWE’s Other Television Deals
WWE already agreed to deals for SmackDown and NXT. The USA Network will begin airing SmackDown in October this year. The CW will pick up NXT, but it’s unclear where RAW will go during that time.
The company has options, and it appears that they have an announcement planned about this three-month limbo period of time at the end of this year. Odds are, they won’t miss an episode, so they may remain the longest running weekly episodic television show in history without skipping any shows.