WWE allegedly faced difficulties in completing recent $5 billion deal

WWE is slowly turning its wheels and putting an end to its both loved and hated PG era. However, the Stamford-based promotion isn’t able to fully move away from the TV-friendly image due to the regulations of its broadcasters. These problems, however, will vanish in 2025 because of a recent $5 billion deal secured by the company.

Monday Night RAW will be moving to Netflix in 2025 after signing a 10-year contract. However, this deal wasn’t easy to come by. TKO/Endeavor Group’s President Mark Shapiro recently unveiled that they faced several difficulties before they could finalize a deal with the streaming giant.

Notably, Shapiro revealed that Netflix wasn’t really keen on bringing live sports to its platform. Moreover, it took a lot of effort by Shapiro and TKO/Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel who worked alongside Netflix’s Chief Content Officer for the deal to get finalized. After several negotiations, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and CFO Spencer Neumann agreed to ink a contract.

Shapiro remarked that the company is taking a chance with WWE as its first live sports program. He said that this would enable the platform to attract new subscribers and also increase its prices to secure greater profits. Shapiro praised the company for identifying the growth opportunity and moving forward with the deal.

While a move to Netflix will allow WWE more creative freedom, it will solve another major issue it faces with the USA Network.

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WWE RAW saw an abrupt end while Randy Orton and Gunther were still in the ring

The August 19, 2024 episode of RAW saw Randy Orton take on Ludwig Kaiser in the main event. The Imperium member had attacked Orton during the show’s kickoff to give Gunther a chance to outnumber and attack The Viper. While this was a smooth development to the final match of the night, things took a weird turn when the match ended.

Notably, Gunther was watching the match from the timekeeper’s area and attacked Randy Orton after he defeated Kaiser. Both superstars came to blows and a brawl just broke out between them. However, the broadcast abruptly ended since RAW had exhausted its runtime.

USA Network is very strict with its runtime policy and doesn’t allow a show to overlap the time slot of another. When RAW moves to Netflix, however, such barriers will cease to exist for the red brand. It would be interesting to see the fruits of the labor of Shapiro and all the stakeholders involved in finalizing the massive deal.