Once unthinkable, there’s now almost no risk in jumping to streaming—at least if it’s Netflix. For years there was some concern over how something like wrestling could attract new viewers if it became exclusive to streaming, where nobody could randomly discover it while changing the channel. Streaming eclipsed cable in total subscribers since the pandemic, though, as cord-cutting accelerated and tens of millions of households cancelled cable. In America streaming services collectively have a considerably larger audience at this point, with Netflix alone virtually matching cable for total subscribers. With cable’s continued collapse, Netflix should surpass it for total subscribers this year—if it hasn’t already.
WWE’s also mitigating its risk by not leaving traditional TV entirely. What is traditionally its main show, Raw, will be exclusive to Netflix, but its second weekly main roster show, Smackdown, will remain on the USA Network after moving there from Fox in 2024. Meanwhile a third weekly show, WWE NXT, which focuses on WWE’s developmental system, airs in primetime on the broadcast network the CW. WWE covers all the TV bases right now, with weekly shows on cable, broadcast, and, as of tonight, the world’s largest streaming service. And if any new fans do stumble upon Smackdown or NXT on TV, those shows will no doubt regularly remind them to tune in to Raw exclusively on Netflix.
AEW’s situation is very different from WWE’s. Their two biggest weekly shows, Wednesday’s Dynamite and Saturday’s Collision, will continue to air on cable through TBS and TNT, respectively. They’ll also both stream live on Max via simulcast, as part of a three-year, $500 million-plus deal that is believed to make AEW the second most profitable wrestling company of all time. Despite that renewal, the public perception of AEW has decreased greatly over the last few years, and its TV ratings, while still consistently strong against its weekly direct competition, have been dropping at a faster clip than overall TV ratings. The loss of high-profile stars Cody Rhodes and CM Punk to WWE has hurt AEW’s reputation among wrestling fans, and although its in-ring quality and pay-per-views remain the best in America, its creative direction has disappointed a number of fans and critics over the last two years. On top of that, between its decades of wrestling dominance and the power of its owners at the media agency Endeavor, WWE will always have significant advantages over AEW when dealing with the media, despite AEW’s big TV deal, the massive size of its media partner WBD, and owner Tony Khan’s own personal wealth. You can see that both in mainstream media appearances, where WWE absolutely crushes AEW, and also within the niche wrestling media, where AEW has been far more criticized and scrutinized than WWE since 2022. WWE is incalculably better at guiding the wrestling discourse, through both mainstream and wrestling media, and that has hurt AEW considerably. AEW launched hot in 2019 with a large amount of goodwill from wrestling fans, but at some point during the “he’s out, now he’s back, now he’s gone for good” drama of Vince McMahon’s departure, WWE remembered that it’s way too powerful and established to be threatened by a young startup. Creative adjustments made during McMahon’s turbulent last two years with the company, its acquisition by Endeavor and merger with UFC, and a reorganization of WWE’s internal communications and promotions team reaffirmed that WWE, when focused and committed, is too large to really have direct competition within the world of wrestling.
Streaming can only help both companies at this point. WWE’s dominance should continue to grow now that it’s on Netflix, the USA Network, and broadcast TV every week. If its viewership doesn’t continue to collapse, AEW should survive as a very well-funded but extremely distant second-place alternative, potentially growing its audience through its new streaming berth on Max. There’s more than enough room for both companies to exist, even with one being so much larger and more powerful than the other. Just as AEW’s existence is good for the wrestling business, no matter how many podcasters, YouTubers, and social media accounts openly yearn for its demise, the new streaming era is a positive for all involved, from WWE and AEW’s owners and execs, to all of the wrestlers, office staffers, and production crew who work for them. Sadly, it probably won’t kill the endless, insufferable weekly chatter about TV ratings that has helped ruin online wrestling discourse; we’ll have to wait for all wrestling to go streaming-only to be spared that pain.
Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, TV, travel, theme parks, wrestling, music, and more. You can also find him on Blue Sky.
