Reigns and Heyman chime in on the Netflix move.
Starting January 6th, 2025, WWE’s Monday Night Raw program will begin airing on Netflix. That subject was delved into as Paul Heyman and Roman Reigns took to the stage at Bloomberg Power Players New York.
Reigns expressed his thought that Raw airing on Netflix is the biggest deal of all-time.
Reigns: I think this (Netflix-WWE move) is the biggest deal of all-time to be honest. But the thing that changes the whole landscape for us is that we’ve been on linear television for decades now and we’ve been the leader of that, episodically. So to take our program and to put it on a streaming network like Netflix, it’s just unheard of. I mean, to go all the way back through our history to see where we are now and the growth that we’ve had, really since 2020? When the world was upside down has just really been amazing so, it’s a big opportunity for us to not only showcase our product but just what we mastered with live television.
Further speaking about the move, they were asked if they think the product will shift to a more edgier presentation. Reigns said he’s always enjoyed the challenge of a P.G. product.
He feels there’s a fine limit that can be crossed before people start being pushed away from the product. He thinks WWE should stick to the morals and values they’ve set in place. Heyman added that it’s all storyline-dependent.
Reigns: If we allow Paul to do Hall of Fame speeches non-stop, we’ll definitely push that envelope but for me, I don’t know. I’ve always enjoyed the challenges of being P.G., and no offense to our predecessors and the people who came before us and the ratings that they revolved around. But to me, it’s more challenging to be able to tell these stories and then it also allows you a broader audience to connect to, which I just really feel like is always the goal. We wanna reach as many people as possible and I think there’s a fine limit to when you can kind of cross that threshold to where you push people off from the product. So, I think there’s gonna be a nice little range there that we can play with and push the envelope in certain senses but I think we need to stick to our values and kind of the morals we’ve set in place and the culture that we have now.
Heyman: It’s all storyline-dependent also. You know, what does the story call for? There are stories on our show that call for a kiss at the end. There are stories on our show that calls for a punch at the end. There are stories on our show that calls for a level of aggression that transcends into violence. So, it really is storyline-dependent. What is the intensity? What is the purpose? What is the theme of this story that we’re trying to tell?
Reigns made his return to WWE at SummerSlam and took aim at Solo Sikoa. He was last on television when he was beaten down by Jacob Fatu on SmackDown. Heyman has yet to appear on-screen with Reigns since his comeback.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Bloomberg Power Players New York with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
