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At some point in the very near future, WWE and Netflix will tout the viewership of last night’s Monday Night Raw premiere and it will most likely be the most viewed piece of live WWE content worldwide ever.
So, with very good reason, WWE took the best elements of their past and mixed them with an infomercial style setup that was designed not to give you a Wrestlemania experience, but a taste of one that would, in theory, tantalize first-time viewers and make them fall in love with the spectacle that WWE truly presents itself to be on their best days.
For all the criticism and surprise of inside jargon being used in the opening sequence where Paul Levesque told the history of wrestling as a Rob Schamberger knockoff painted portraits of the company’s past moments and stars, this was perfect for new viewers. It was, in essence, the crawl at the beginning of every Star Wars film, setting the stage, the plot and the characters for those walking into the theater for the first time. It was to put every viewer in the same place as the story began.
Equally important were the appearances of The Rock, John Cena and The Undertaker. The reality is that these legends were effectively the 21st century version of what the WWF utilized celebrities for in the 1980s and 1990s - the bright light meant to grab the attraction of those who weren’t indoctrinated into what pro wrestling was, in order to bring you inside the circus tent and hopefully, fall in love with the rest of the show once you were inside. Last night’s episode was the pilot episode, designed to set the stage for the future. It was not, despite the theatrics and the blow-off main event, the apex of the year - it was meant to be the starting line for the new era.
Therefore, The Rock was not meant to be The Final Boss and continue his wars. No, he was there to effectively be The Rock the movie star, using his star power to set the stage and introduce everyone to Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and Solo Sikoa as much as he was there to wave the banner for Netflix and WWE. If this was the 80s, he’d have been Mr. T, although Rock is much larger star than Mr. T ever became. Rock was there to give these characters the rub for new viewers who may not know who Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns are, much less their lineage and importance.
John Cena was there to set the stage for the fact that he’ll be around, for a finite amount of time, and to make everyone know how important the Royal Rumble is, so that new viewers knew this big event was coming - and John Cena, the movie star, Peacemaker himself, was going to be involved. He was meant to give everything a rub, to tell the world this WWE stuff is as important to me as any movie you’ve seen me in. For diehard fans, it’s easy to ignore how little those who aren’t watching everything don’t know or understand beyond “isn’t it all fake?” Cena was there to explain why those fans should care.
Then, The Undertaker shows up in the aftermath of Rhea Ripley winning the WWE World Women’s Championship. The idea here was that the legend of yesteryear was endorsing the bad-assery of Rhea Ripley, who looks, sounds, walks and wrestles like every bit of a star from any previous generation. To even the passing fan, The Undertaker was one of those generational talents who, like Andre the Giant before him, had this insanely mythical star power. To have the infinitely popular star who main evented the first episode endorsing one of the stars of today - one of the top women’s stars no less - was about putting eyeballs on Ripley as much as it was squeezing one last cameo out of The Dead Man.
In the 80s, it was using actors and musicians to get the WWE product over. In 2024, it was about using the legacy of the past stars who would have crossed over into international pop culture as the spotlight to shine down on the stars of today - and with the exception of the Hulk Hogan segment that quickly went to hell and will be mocked forever online brother, it pretty much worked.
WWE taking the NXT Takeover formula for the debut episode also worked. There were only several matches but all of them were important and treated as such. Having WWE stars seated and shown around the arena alongside Hollywood stars, actors, hip hop personalities, etc. was no different than NXT showcasing international wrestlers or main roster stars in the past, but this was done on a much grander scale because it was in the Hollywood realm - and given the importance of the night, in a world where presentation is as important as substance, WWE gave off the idea they were a hot property with countless celebrity fans from all realms - even if Kieran Culkin somehow avoided the camera!
The wrestling on the show was very good, with the audience only seeming to cool during Jey Uso vs. Drew McIntyre live. The production was off the charts and the presentation of the matches were at the level of a major WWE PPV. They won’t be able to do that every single week. At some point, they will have to slide back into the normal Raw storytelling, but for a show designed to be a destination for viewers that doubled as an entry point for stories, a big bang of where this all kicks off, it was meant to be the Netflix equivalent of the very-first Wrestlemania, and in that regard, WWE did very well in taking the best aspects of a Wrestlemania, a Saturday Night’s Main Event from the 80s and an NXT Takeover to present what we witnessed last night. You can’t produce that every single week, but they hit a home run with what they needed that show to be.
I’ve heard from some readers who didn’t like that Cody Rhodes wasn’t shown in a larger role or that Drew McIntyre lost clean or that CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins wasn’t longer/shorter/had a different finish or that Alexa Bliss or Charlotte or whoever didn’t return. To them, I point out that again, this was not a show designed for the regulars to watch every piece of programming. This was not meant to be Return of the Jedi, where all the storylines peak. This was meant to be A New Hope, where you learn about this world you find yourself in with the rest of the audience to begin with - except we don’t have to wait years for the stories to continue - there will be a new episode of Raw every week with those rematches and other stars and returning talents - but WWE will have to roll those stories out and explain who everyone else is, as well.
WWE took their first steps into a much larger world yesterday, one much larger than any of us who already cared about professional wrestling ever could have predicted would exist the first time we saw our first bit of professional wrestling
In WWE's first steps, they gave their new audience a hell of a CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins showdown, the coronation of Rhea Ripley, the insane pageantry of Jey Uso’s entrance, Tribal Warfare that also spotlighted the top stars of Smackdown and a few Hollywood stars who effectively opened the book for everyone to read.
There will be new, young fans who look upon Punk vs. Seth like kids looked at Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage when I was growing up in the 1980s - THAT match that crystallized everything they loved about the athletics of pro wrestling. There will be girls who idolize Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan for what they accomplished last night. There will be fans who love great storytelling who will discover Paul Heyman and The Bloodline and realize it's pro wrestling's version of Goodfellas.
That show last night was not for those who fly to Wrestlemania every year. WWE has you. That show was for the fans who have never really, truly experienced WWE for themselves in the moment - and WWE allowed every aspect of the spectacle, athletics, production and drama to shine through with the stars of today looking like stars and the stars of yesterday playing strong supporting roles as they held the door open and invited everyone in.
That’s what they call a hell of a day at the office.
Now, everyone who's new gets to explore this galaxy that isn’t so far away….and everyone who already deep dives into WWE gets to hopefully enjoy what this new chapter will evolve into as well...
Starship WWE took off last night. We will see where it lands beyond the planet of $5 Billion Bucks.
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