Professional wrestling fans were shocked when WWE announced that they would be moving Monday Night Raw from the USA Network to Netflix.
WWE will start airing on Netflix in January 2025. The $5 billion, ten-year deal will be available for subscribers in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the United Kingdom.
While most fans were excited for the news, the recent boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson raised concerns.
More WWE: Former WWE Champion Returns To Ring After Injury
The highly-anticipated bout was one of the most-watched live events of the year. However, it was plagued with a ton of buffering and connectivity issues.
“I’m in the classic torture chamber where I can’t tell if my internet keeps going out or whether Netflix is just constantly buffering and unwatchable for everybody,” Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports said.
This had WWE fans worried that Netflix wouldn’t be able to handle the large amount of viewers that comes with Raw and a potential Premium Live Event (PLE).
However, WWE doesn’t seem to be worried at all.
According to a report from Fightful Select, WWE has already spoken with people at Netflix and they were reassured that these issues would be “kept to a minimum” with Raw.
“When Fightful Select immediately inquired with those in WWE, they said that they’d been assured that these issues would be kept at a minimum,” Fightful Select said.
“One higher up said that if they were ever doing the type of traffic Mike Tyson and Jake Paul were doing, that would be a good problem to have. Netflix’s live Love is Blind finale also had significant issues.”
More WWE: Fan Favorite WWE Superstar Makes Surprising Return on SmackDown
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time that Netflix has had this problem.
When Netflix aired the “Love Is Blind: Live Reunion,” viewers were instead greeted with a message: “Pardon the interruption. We’re having trouble playing Netflix. Please check your internet and try again.”
According to Tony Maglio of IndieWire, some fans wound up having to wait over an hour to view the reunion to finally become watchable.
More WWE: Becky Lynch to Return for Massive WWE Milestone: Report
Netflix swiftly issued an apology for the “Love is Blind” streaming issues.
“To everyone who stayed up late, woke up early, gave up their Sunday afternoon… we are incredibly sorry that the ‘Love is Blind Live Reunion’ did not turn out as we had planned,” Netflix said to viewers on social media.
Hopefully, they won’t have to make an apology for when they air Raw in January.
For more WWE and professional wrestling news, head on over to Newsweek Sports.
Read the full article here
