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There has been a major announcement today concerning the future of WWE RAW. The promotion inked a massive deal earlier this year to bring the red brand to Netflix at the start of 2025.
WWE's deal with NBCUniversal for RAW was set to expire in October, leaving a few months that the company's flagship show would not have a home. However, TKO Group Holdings revealed in its First Quarter Earnings report released today that the company has struck a $25 million media rights deal to keep RAW on the USA Network until the end of the year.
SmackDown will be moving from Fox to the USA Network later this year as well.
WWE and Netflix agreed to a 10-year deal to bring RAW to the popular streaming service next year. NXT will also be moving from the USA Network to The CW Network this year.
Bill Apter comments on WWE's ratings dip since WrestleMania XL
Wrestling journalist Bill Apter recently shared his thoughts on WWE's ratings going down following WrestleMania XL last month in Philadelphia.
The promotion followed WrestleMania XL with a successful Backlash 2024 event in France. However, the ratings for RAW and SmackDown have started to slip following The Show of Shows. Speaking on Sportskeeda's The Wrestling Time Machine podcast, Apter discussed the dip in ratings and said that the product may be oversaturated at the moment:
"There are some people, no matter what you're watching, unless it's like a weekly serial type of show, that after the whole build-up to WrestleMania, might have just been [thinking], 'That's enough already, just for another week or two, and then we'll go back to watching it.' Could have been oversaturation with everything that was going on," said Apter. [From 11:03 - 11:26]
You can check out Apter's comments in the video below:
The King and Queen of the Ring tournaments officially began this past Monday night on RAW. The winners of the tournaments will be crowned at the King and Queen of the Ring Premium Live Event in Saudi Arabia on May 25. Only time will tell which superstars will emerge victorious in this year's tournaments.
