in
Inglewood, California.
Background WWE Raw is a
professional wrestling television program produced by the American promotion
WWE. It first aired on January 11, 1993, on the
USA Network and since became the longest-running weekly episodic program in television history with no reruns, airing almost exclusively on USA, apart from a brief run on TNN (renamed to Spike TV in 2003 and now known as the
Paramount Network) from 2000 to 2005. It is one of WWE's two flagship television programs, alongside
Friday Night SmackDown, and is also the namesake program for the company's
Raw brand, a subdivision of WWE's main roster where wrestlers are exclusively assigned to perform on a weekly basis, albeit with some exceptions. On January 23, 2024, WWE's parent company
TKO Group Holdings announced that
Netflix would acquire the rights to
Monday Night Raw beginning in January 2025, in what was reported to be a 10-year deal worth $500 million per-year (roughly double the value of WWE's agreement with
NBCUniversal). The agreement initially covered the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Latin America, with other territories to be added in the future. The agreement also includes international rights to WWE content outside of the United States, including
SmackDown and
NXT, live events, and other shoulder content. While USA Network's contract for
Raw was to expire in October 2024, WWE reached a short-term extension of its agreement with NBCUniversal to keep
Raw on the network through the end of the year. In preparation for the move to Netflix,
Raw was shortened from three to two hours from October 7 through December 30; wrestling reporter
Dave Meltzer stated that this was a request made by USA Network. It was then reported that
Intuit Dome, which opened in August 2024 to host the
Los Angeles Clippers in
Inglewood, California, was set to host the debut episode of
Raw on Netflix. WWE confirmed the location on November 18, 2024; tickets went on sale to the general public on November 22. That same day, it was announced that
Travis Scott would be making an appearance at the Netflix premiere to perform the program's new theme song. '' logo that was unveiled on December 16, 2024, by WWE Chief Content Officer
Paul "Triple H" Levesque. During a June 2024 episode of
The Pat McAfee Show, WWE chief content officer
Paul "Triple H" Levesque noted that Netflix would offer greater flexibility than WWE's previous partners in regards to
standards and practices that had sometimes resulted in portions of WWE programming being
censored on U.S. television. Although a placeholder listing for
Raw with a
TV-14 rating appeared on Netflix in the months leading up to the move, WWE president
Nick Khan subsequently clarified that
Raw would remain a "family friendly [...] advertiser friendly" program, and that episodes on Netflix would have the same TV-PG content rating used
since 2008. On December 16, 2024, Levesque officially unveiled the new
Raw logo. On the January 4, 2025, edition of the
SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast, Levesque said that the length of the show on Netflix would be flexible and would not have a fixed runtime, though aiming for an average runtime of 2.5 hours.
Storylines The event included matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows,
Monday Night Raw and
Friday Night SmackDown. On July 6, 2024, at
Money in the Bank, 16-time WWE world champion
John Cena officially announced that he would retire from professional wrestling at the end of 2025, having wrestled for WWE since 2002 (though part-time since 2018). It was then announced that Cena would be appearing on the debut episode of
Raw on Netflix. On January 5, 2025,
The Rock confirmed that he would be appearing on the debut episode of
Raw on Netflix. On Night 2 of
WrestleMania XL in April,
Cody Rhodes defeated
Roman Reigns to win the
Undisputed WWE Championship in a
Bloodline Rules match, ending Reigns' historic title reign at 1,316 days. After the event, Reigns took an extended hiatus while
Solo Sikoa appointed himself as the new leader of
The Bloodline, removing
Jimmy Uso and manager
Paul Heyman from the group while adding
Tama Tonga,
Tonga Loa, and
Jacob Fatu. Sikoa would also begin referring to himself as the new Tribal Chief of the group, stealing Reigns' Ula Fala, a neckpiece symbolizing leadership of a Samoan tribe. Reigns would eventually return at
SummerSlam to cost Sikoa his title match against Rhodes, turning
face for the first time since 2020. Rhodes and Reigns would then team up to defeat Fatu and Sikoa at
Bad Blood with the help of a returning Jimmy. Reigns and Jimmy would subsequently be joined by Jimmy's twin brother and former Bloodline member
Jey Uso, who had left the group on his own terms a year ago and was moved over to Raw; they ended up losing to Sikoa, Fatu, and Tama at
Crown Jewel. Former honorary member
Sami Zayn would join Reigns' group, reuniting the original iteration of The Bloodline (Reigns,
The Usos, and Zayn). They, alongside
CM Punk, would defeat Sikoa's Bloodline and
Bronson Reed in a
WarGames match at
Survivor Series: WarGames. On the December 13 episode of
SmackDown, Reigns challenged Sikoa to face him in
Tribal Combat for the Ula Fala and title of Tribal Chief on the debut episode of
Raw on Netflix, which was later made official. On the January 3 episode, Sikoa stated that if Reigns won, Heyman himself could put the Ula Fala on Reigns, and that Sikoa would recognize Reigns as Tribal Chief, but if Sikoa won, Heyman would have to put the Ula Fala on him, and become Sikoa's wiseman. At
Survivor Series WarGames on November 25, 2023, immediately following the men's
WarGames match that
Seth "Freakin" Rollins participated in,
CM Punk made a surprise return to WWE after a nearly 10-year absence, much to the chagrin of Rollins. The two would continue feuding throughout 2024 during Punk's feud with
Drew McIntyre. Rollins, who had also feuded with McIntyre over the
World Heavyweight Championship, served as the
special guest referee for the match between Punk and McIntyre at SummerSlam, which Punk lost after he attacked Rollins, believing he was trying to sabotage him. After
Judgment Day's
Rhea Ripley cost
Liv Morgan and
Raquel Rodriguez the
WWE Women's Tag Team Championship in mid-2023, Ripley and Morgan were scheduled for a match. However, the match never began as Ripley viciously attacked Morgan with a steel chair, injuring Morgan's shoulder and taking her out for several months. Morgan made her return at the
2024 Royal Rumble in January, and embarked on a "revenge tour", with her goal to take the
Women's World Championship from Ripley due to Ripley taking months of her career. At
Elimination Chamber: Perth, Morgan was unsuccessful in the eponymous match for a Women's World Championship match at WrestleMania XL, becoming the last participant to be eliminated by the eventual winner
Becky Lynch. Ripley would retain her title against Lynch on Night 1 of WrestleMania. On the post-WrestleMania episode of
Raw on April 8, Ripley was attacked by Morgan backstage, legitimately injuring her right arm and forced her to vacate the championship after a 380 day reign. Over the next few weeks, Morgan began to display more
villainous traits. At
King and Queen of the Ring, Morgan won the Women's World Championship after accidental interference from Ripley's onscreen love interest and Judgment Day stablemate,
"Dirty" Dominik Mysterio. Morgan would subsequently interfere in the Judgment Day's matches to their advantage. Following Ripley's return on the July 8 episode of
Raw, a title match between Ripley and Morgan was scheduled for SummerSlam, where Morgan defeated Ripley to retain the Women's World Championship following seemingly accidental interference from Mysterio. After the match, however, Mysterio betrayed Ripley and kissed Morgan, ending their partnership. Ripley was subsequently kicked out of the group, with Morgan taking her place. a rematch for the championship took place at Bad Blood, where Ripley won by disqualification after being attacked by the returning Rodriguez. Since championships do not change hands via disqualification or countout unless stipulated, Morgan remained champion. Rodriguez also became the newest member of The Judgment Day. On the December 2 episode of
Raw, Jey Uso was found attacked backstage by an unknown assailant, later revealed to be Drew McIntyre, who made his return from a short hiatus that night and revealed himself as Uso's attacker the following week. McIntyre subsequently vowed to destroy the original iteration of The Bloodline, who cost him the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at
Clash at the Castle in September 2022. Three weeks later, McIntyre attacked Uso again as a brawl ensued between the two men. Later that night, Uso requested a match against McIntyre for that night, but Raw General Manager Adam Pearce instead scheduled the match for the debut episode of
Raw on Netflix. == Event ==