Why WWE Made Production Changes For Raw’s Netflix Debut
The runtime of WWE’s Raw debut on Netflix was shorter than what the company originally planned for a specific reason.
There was a lot of speculation about WWE’s Monday Night Raw debut on Netflix about how long the show would be. Since Netflix is not a traditional television channel, the length of the show doesn’t have to have a set time limit.
Going into that episode of Raw, WWE’s Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque said that the runtime would be flexible. There was no number set in stone even though fans have been used to Raw being either one hour (in the early days), two hours, or three hours over Raw’s 32-year history.
A report before Raw in Los Angeles claimed that Raw would be around 3 hours and 20 minutes in length, but it ended up being 3:03 after CM Punk beat Seth Rollins in the main event of the show.
Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that part of the reason WWE stayed around the three-hour mark for Raw is that in some of the countries where Raw airs without Netflix, the show is scheduled for three hours.
During the production meeting the day before they were going three hours and 20 minutes, but ended up cutting things and got it down to three hours and three minutes. However, when the show was later put up, it was edited down to two hours and 24 minutes.
It should be noted that in the countries where Raw still airs on television it is listed in a three hour weekly time slot.
Triple H Explained Why WWE Used Insider Terms On Raw’s Netflix Debut
During the opening video package of Raw’s Netflix debut, there was a video narrated by Triple H talking about the history of pro wrestling while also speaking about how the company is all about providing entertainment for the fans. The video also featured some insider wrestling terms like “work, shoot, face, heel” that are normally not mentioned by wrestling companies.
At the post-Raw press conference, Triple H explained why WWE felt comfortable putting those words in the video.
“The reaction seems like we did a good job with it. That was the intent, to capture the emotion and let people know, we’re not hiding what we do. I saw a lot of chatter today from people saying, ‘Oh my God, they said heel and face and shoot and work in one promo.’ We’re not hiding what we do. That’s what we do.
To be honest, I think most of the world understands those terms and they’ve almost transcended our business. It’s transcended our business. It’s what it is, people know what we are. We talk about it. We’re not insulting anybody’s intelligence. We’re an art form. Absolutely an art form that captures people’s emotions. We don’t take ourselves as seriously as most other people take us.
It was all part of trying to capture that and say, ‘If you’ve watched, watch this and hopefully we honor what you love. If you’ve never watched this, watch this, we’ll explain to you what we are.’ That was the attempt.”
The second episode of Raw on Netflix will take place on January 13th in San Jose with Damian Priest facing Finn Balor in a Street Fight as one of the big matches on the show.