Sad End Revealed For WWE Network

WWE is heading to Netflix in 2025 and that means bad news for fans around the globe who still enjoy the WWE Network.

WWE changed the wrestling industry in 2014 when the company launched its very own subscription-based network. The WWE Network became the home for all major events including WrestleMania and for many, even more importantly, it became a library of historic shows encompassing all the tape libraries WWE had amassed over the years. And so a thousand watch-along wrestling podcasts were born.

Things changed massively in 2021 when WWE signed a billion dollar deal with NBC Universal to move the Network in the United States to the Peacock streaming service. Now WWE has signed a massive deal with Netflix for Raw as well as all WWE content in several countries and territories around the world.

WWE Network Will Be No More

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer has said that the WWE Network which still exists around the world will be folding as part of this deal which means Netflix will become the home of not only old WWE content but the company’s library of shows from the territory days, WCW, and ECW:

In March 2026 when the Peacock deal ends and then the US aspect of it which one would think Netflix would want given that Netflix is going to take over everywhere else in the world but pretty much the United States and I think wherever else they’ve already signed, I think the Middle East might be the other one. India might be that also. But for most of the world, they’re going to be taking over the WWE Network, the WWE Network itself, which does exist outside the United States, that will be folding at the end of the year and Netflix will pick up the content.

So a lot of people have asked, will they pick up all the content? All the archives? I don’t know. But they will be the sole source of that archival content of all the old territories and all the old stuff that was on the old WWE Network. That will move to Netflix outside the United States in January. And when the Peacock deal is up, if Netflix were to get that, that’d be interesting to see how much more they would pay. It’s a $20 million deal per year deal right now. So that’s the next deal. That’s coming up.

Dave Meltzer also suggested Netflix played WWE with the $5 billion deal as it may not be the increase in rights fees as it first seems.

It was recently confirmed that WWE has ended its own home video DVD and Blu-Ray releases as technology takes more people away from physical media. This means that WWE content as well as decades’ worth of wrestling content from elsewhere could be left to the whims of streaming giants to upload – or not – as they see fit.

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