During the post-WWE Survivor Series: WarGames 2024 media scrum, WWE Chief Creative Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque commented on what fans can expect from WWE’s upcoming move to Netflix for Monday Night RAW, what the WWE ID program entails, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the media scrum below:
On what can be expected from the WWE Netflix move: You know, I think it’s more of the same in the sense of what resonates in our business is great storytelling. It’s having phenomenal athletes. The men, the women, that do what we do, it’s having great characters for those athletes and then delivering stories, the best that we can, that keep people captivated that go from week to week. You know, if you really break down what WWE does, I don’t think there’s an entertainment source on the planet that is like it. You know, when you look at the amount of content we put out between Raw, NXT, and and SmackDown, the amount of content we put out plus monthly PLEs, plus Saturday Night’s Main Events, as we go through this, right? The amount of live content, the amount of live storytelling that we do, there’s nothing else like it. So it all stems from that.”
On the Netflix programming having the same current level of storytelling and athletics: “What should people expect? Hopefully, if we do our jobs well, they’ll get that same level of storytelling and athletics that make WWE, you know, as big as it is. You know, there’s a lot of speculation about what we’re going to go to and how it’s going to be at Netflix, and the truth is we’ll all just have to wait and see.”
On aspects of their Netflix programming being up in the air: “Even now, it’s a little bit of some of that stuff is up in the air. You know live programming going to Netflix. You saw the [Mike] Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight, and it did incredible numbers. You know, things that they’ll work through there. The platform is so big for us, I believe that as long as we continue to deliver the way we’ve delivered in 2024, that it’s a game changer for us.”
On how the WWE ID program works: “WWE ID so there’s a lot made about our NIL programs, our college athlete recruiting and where we do that, right? But there’s also a group of men, and women that are out there that for whatever reason found their way to professional wrestling, whether that was after college, before college, whatever that is, right? They went a different route than college athletes did. We don’t want to negate any of them. So we’re keeping our eye on all of them. But the independent scene is very difficult. That’s a long, hard road. And we’re trying to make that easier.”
On how they want to financially help the careers of indie wrestlers: “So we’re trying to pay attention to the people that are at the top of those lists of the people that have the most potential within that grouping. We’re going to support them in their careers financially. We’re going to support them in their careers from an education standpoint. So as they’re going through their journey and as long as they’re continuing to progress, we stay with them. They send us their matches and we’re helping to guide them what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong, and how they can progress. How we can make them pros. They can make their way to the Performance Center.”
On their plans for the program in terms of content: “There will be some other announcements about content and some things that we will to with them. But it’s all geared toward helping those kids as these college athletes get their opportunities to try to make it in this business that they get their opportunities to make it in this business. If somebody is working really hard and they’re busting their ass every week and they’re progressing and they’re continuing to grow, they stay in our system. And, you know, until it’s time for them to outgrow that system.”
On what they will do if someone is not ready to make the move to the WWE PC: “And if they’re not, we’ll make moves and change some people around and we’ll get to the people that we feel like that long-term investment can pay off. Not just for us but for the industry itself, right? The strength of our business is built on the strength of the athletes across all things. So while we’re extremely excited about NIL and our college recruiting and everything that we’re doing there, and I think when you look at NXT, you can see a system that is churning out — I mentioned Bron Breakker earlier, right? And churning out athletes, incredible athletes at this is another way for us to amplify that. It’s to strengthen that independency.”
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