After three decades on terrestrial television, “Monday Night Raw,” WWE’s flagship weekly show, will debut today on Netflix for subscribers worldwide. This marks the start of a global, 10-year, $5 billion partnership between the streamer and the brand that will bring all sorts of new opportunities for fans, the brand and its Superstars.

In the U.S., the deal is limited to WWE’s weekly program “Raw,” but most international territories will get all three of the brand’s weekly shows — “Raw,” “SmackDown” and “NXT” — as well as the company’s premium live events Company (PLE) as well as numerous additional and catalog content.

This means that viewers in many countries will have timely access to all of WWE’s current offerings for the first time. This is particularly important for the company’s international talent, as their friends and families, as well as hometown fans, now have much greater access to their work.

Current NXT Tag Team Champion Axiom, a native of Madrid, is the first Spanish superstar to have a major impact on WWE. In 2024, he and his British tag partner Nathan Frazier, working together under the name Fraxiom, had an impressive (ongoing) winning streak and were voted the best tag team in the world across all promotions by Sports Illustrated. Despite his success, Axiom’s presence in the WWE is notable as professional wrestling in Spain still remains niche and difficult to find on television.

However, that wasn’t always the case. “Wrestling was very popular here in 2007-2008 when it came to television for a while,” Axiom says diversity ahead of WWE’s Netflix debut. “I knew a little about it from video games, action figures and videotapes, but when I saw WrestleMania for the first time I was really blown away. I’ve always loved superheroes and been a big fan of movies, and for me this was the perfect combination of those things.”

For Axiom and other Spanish fans, the arrival and availability of WWE on television, while exciting, was short-lived. For several years now, the only way to access WWE programming in Spain – and many other countries around the world – has been through the company’s own streaming platform, the WWE Network. However, shows like “Raw,” “SmackDown” and “NXT” were often delayed for weeks.

In Scotland, WWE and local independent wrestling have thrived for decades, with the country producing professional main event wrestling talent such as frequent headliner and former world champion Drew McIntyre, former women’s tag team champion Piper Niven and the Unholy Union -Tag team of Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre, who won the women’s tag team championship at the “Clash at the Castle” PLE in Glasgow last June and teamed up with the others The division’s top teams are locked in a heated feud.

Dawn remembers watching WWE programming as a child and the lengths her family went to get access to PLEs, which were pay-per-view at the time but are now available on Netflix in Scotland become.

“We didn’t have much when I was growing up, so we saved up for the pay-per-views: my sisters, my uncle and a few other family members,” she remembers. “Then we all watched together. But even then, it was difficult to maintain the path that fans can get now that it will be on Netflix.”

Stephanie Vaquer, NXT newcomer and one of the biggest free agent signings of 2024, says WWE was popular but often hard to find when she was growing up in Chile: “When I was young, WWE was in the public eye for a while Watching TV but then it switched to cable. When I was about 11 years old, I begged to get cable TV so we could watch wrestling on TV. My dad used it as motivation and told me that as long as I continued to do well in school and behave, we could get cable TV.”

Now she is thrilled that her friends, family and fans of all ages across Chile will have much easier access to professional wrestling when and where they want. “WWE is already popular in Chile, but I think people there are extremely excited and are patiently waiting to watch WWE on Netflix. It will be more accessible than ever,” she says.

Dawn agrees: “Fans can watch it whenever they want and all the shows, including ‘Raw’, ‘SmackDown’ and ‘NXT’, that was previously unheard of in Scotland,” she says, citing the up to nine hours -Time difference faced by European fans hoping to keep up with WWE’s weekly shows in the US

Back in Spain, Axiom sees the Netflix deal as a significant opportunity for WWE and professional wrestling to gain exposure, like the global Spanish hit series “Money Heist” did when it was acquired by Netflix. The crime drama played well on terrestrial television in Spain, but not particularly successfully, before Netflix acquired it, marketed it as an original, and turned it into a global phenomenon and one of the most successful non-English language shows of all time.

“That’s a real comparison,” the tag champion said. “When ‘Money Heist’ was on TV in Spain, I didn’t know much about it or watch it. But when it appeared on Netflix and was right there on the home screen, everyone took notice. I think that will happen with WWE in many countries.”

WWE’s Netflix debut comes at a time of increasing diversification of the company’s on-screen products. Over the last two decades, the WWE roster has become increasingly international, and each new artist that joins brings something unique that helps evolve the product and make it more appealing to a global audience.

“I feel like we have so many international stars across all three brands that everything has adapted to what we brought with us,” says Dawn.

WWE live shows have also been hosted abroad more and more frequently in recent years. In 2024, some of the highest-rated and best-received PLEs took place abroad – Backlash in Lyon, France; Elimination Chamber in Perth, Australia; and the aforementioned Clash at the Castle – and with the company trending in that direction, its international stars are relishing the prospect of performing in front of home crowds.

Starting in March, WWE will launch its “Road to WrestleMania” series of shows in Europe and host an episode of “SmackDown” in Barcelona, ​​where Spanish fans will certainly be hoping for Axiom’s appearance. Although nothing is planned in Chile yet, Vaquer says she is confident she will make her professional debut on the WWE roster in her hometown.

“That would be a dream come true for me,” says Vaquer. “The first time I saw wrestling live was when WWE went to Chile in 2009, but although I have been a professional for several years, I have never wrestled professionally in Chile. I have fought all over the world, but never in my home country. That’s why I would be so proud to be a WWE Superstar for the first time.”

Dawn says that in addition to the direct benefits of having WWE available in so many new territories, many of the company’s superstars are also excited about the other opportunities the Netflix deal could provide them. “Of course wrestling has a huge fan base, but it’s still in its own world. But if it’s on Netflix, it can create a whole new set of fans who want to turn on the TV or go to the homepage and watch something different. Many WWE stars already have a huge impact on the entertainment industry, such as John Cena and The Rock, and I think this will create more crossover opportunities as WWE stars become more well known around the world. It’s a truly exciting opportunity for everyone at WWE to become an even bigger part of the overall entertainment industry.”