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WWE’s January 3, 2025 preview correctly picked the winners of three announced matches and predicted The Rock would return. Its clearest miss was Drew McIntyre over Jey Uso: Uso won instead. Here are the forecasts alongside the January 6 results, plus why Raw’s first Netflix show was a milestone for the program.
What was announced for the Netflix premiere?
WWE announced that Monday Night Raw would debut live on Netflix from Los Angeles’s Intuit Dome on January 6, 2025, at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET. The advertised talent included John Cena, Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, CM Punk and Bianca Belair; Travis Scott was also announced as attending and providing the show’s new theme music. WWE’s premiere announcement also listed Logan Paul and set out the four-match card.
| Announced match | Stakes |
|---|---|
| Roman Reigns vs. Solo Sikoa | Tribal Combat for the Ula Fala |
| Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley | Last Woman Standing match and the Women’s World Championship |
| CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins | A singles match between two long-running rivals |
| Drew McIntyre vs. Jey Uso | A singles match |
WWE also said Cena would begin his farewell tour. These were the advertised matches and appearances before the show, not a guarantee that no other developments would occur.
How did the predictions compare with the results?
WWE’s Mark Kaboly published his preview and picks on January 3. They were editorial predictions, not confirmed plans. WWE’s official results show that three of his four match-winner picks landed.
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| Match or angle | Pre-show prediction | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| Reigns vs. Sikoa | Kaboly picked Reigns to pin Sikoa and predicted The Rock would return afterward. | Reigns defeated Sikoa. The Rock appeared after the match and presented Reigns with the Ula Fala. |
| Morgan vs. Ripley | Kaboly picked Ripley to win back the Women’s World Championship. | Ripley defeated Morgan and reclaimed the title. |
| Punk vs. Rollins | Kaboly picked Punk to pin Rollins. | Punk defeated Rollins in the main event. |
| Uso vs. McIntyre | Kaboly picked McIntyre to pin Uso after a distraction. | Uso defeated McIntyre, making this the clearest incorrect winner pick. |
| Cena and Rhodes | Kaboly speculated that their exchange might set up a match for after the Royal Rumble. | Cena announced he would enter the 2025 Royal Rumble. WWE’s cited results do not report the proposed Cena–Rhodes setup. |
The preview also speculated that The Rock might want the Ula Fala or be directing Sikoa’s faction. The Rock’s appearance matched Kaboly’s explicit return prediction, but the result does not establish that the forecast came from inside knowledge. WWE’s official results record the outcomes and post-match developments.
Why the move to Netflix mattered
WWE and Netflix announced their long-term partnership on January 23, 2024. Under the original announcement, Raw would be exclusive to Netflix in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Latin America and other territories, with additional markets expected over time. WWE described the move as Raw’s first departure from linear television since its 1993 debut. The initial market list is not a claim that Netflix carried WWE in every country on premiere day; availability later expanded. WWE’s partnership announcement gives the original scope and timing.
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The broadcast was framed as a major live event and a shift in distribution, not just another weekly episode. Before the premiere, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque told the Associated Press: “It’s not pushing anybody away of what they want. It’s a safe place for families and everybody to be able to view. That will not change, but you don’t have to change that to expand and improve what you do.” That is Levesque’s stated positioning, not an independent assessment of the program.
Reigns, who was part of a main-event match, also told AP before the show: “There’s no hiding that this is Netflix and this is huge and this is going to be on a global platform with a lot of people watching. I’m not sure exactly what that audience is going to look like. It’s going to be crazy, I know that.” The Associated Press’s contemporaneous report captures the expectations around the debut.
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What audience and performance figures were reported?
The premiere drew several widely cited figures, but they measure different things and should not be treated as interchangeable.
| Figure | What it measures and who reported it |
|---|---|
| 4.9 million global Live+1 views | Netflix and WWE reported the figure in 2025. Netflix defines views as total viewing hours divided by runtime. The count excluded 92 countries and territories where Netflix did not yet distribute WWE at the time; it is not a count of unique viewers or households. |
| 2.6 million U.S. households, Live+SD | VideoAmp estimate reported by Netflix and WWE in 2025. Their announcement compared it with Raw’s 2024 U.S. average of 1.2 million households, describing the premiere estimate as 116% higher. |
| 223 million social views on premiere day | WWE figure reported by Netflix in 2025; it refers to views across social platforms, not the Netflix audience metric. |
| Highest-grossing WWE arena event and non-Premium Live Event merchandise-sales record | Company claims reported by Netflix in 2025, rather than independently audited measures. |
| More than 3 million average views per episode across 52 shows | Netflix’s 2026 figure for Raw’s first year on the service. Netflix also said the program made the Global English TV Top 10 in 47 of a possible 52 weeks. |
The January 2025 global Live+1 figure and the U.S. Live+SD household estimate describe different populations and measurement systems: one is a runtime-normalized viewing metric and the other a household estimate. The 2026 season-average figure covers a full year on Netflix, so it is not another measurement of the premiere alone. Netflix’s premiere announcement explains the early figures and the excluded territories; Netflix’s first-year update provides the later season figures.
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