Netflix exec: ‘WWE Raw’ has been ‘everything we could have hoped for and more’

Over the course of the past few weeks, much has been made about the performance of WWE Raw and Netflix.

But regardless of how some have interpreted the numbers, the streamer is making it clear that it’s more than satisfied with WWE’s flagship show.

In a story for Variety, both Netflix and WWE celebrated the first six months of their partnership, which has included WWE Raw in the United States and the bulk of the pro wrestling giant’s content — including Raw, SmackDown and Premium Live Events — worldwide.  The story noted that Raw has remained in Netflix’s global top 10 for the entirety of its first 27 weeks on the platform while averaging approximately 6.3 million hours viewed per week and just over 3 million views per week (Netflix defines views as total hours viewed divided by total run time).

“It’s everything we could have hoped for and more,” Netflix vice president of sports Gabe Spitzer told the outlet. “We knew going in that we’re not going to change WWE. It was more, how can we add to it in small ways, and that’s what we’ve seen so far.”

Spitzer added of WWE’s worldwide success: “[WWE’s] distribution has been pretty fragmented up to this point, and the hope was ‘Let’s combine the power of what you guys do with the power of what we do with our global distribution, and get our marketing teams together … and try to lift this.”

WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque also celebrated the first half-year of his company’s Netflix run.

“Netflix has been amazing, in every sense of the word. They are phenomenal partners,” Levesque said. “And we can’t say enough about WWE fans. They’ve shown up in full force, as passionate and engaged as ever.”

Yet despite WWE’s run on Netflix having been a recent success, prominent pro wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer has recently raised concerns regarding Raw‘s performance on the streamer and the numbers that have been made public. In his report regarding the July 14 episode of Raw, Meltzer referred to the methodology presented as “preposterous,” while his own calculations determined that the June 30 episode — which began at 6 p.m. ET as opposed to its regular 8 p.m. start time — resulted in “the lowest numbers that a regular episode of Raw has ever done since its inception in 1993.”

Other calculations, including from Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston, however, have been more optimistic, and it’s worth noting that these numbers shouldn’t be considered a true 1:1 comparison to traditional TV ratings. But regardless of how you add it up, both WWE and Netflix insist that their partnership has exceeded expectations. And taken at face value, that’s ultimately what matters for both entities midway through the first year of their deal.