INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- "Are you ready?" WWE CCO Paul Levesque asked 17,514 fans who filled the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
Fans cheered as they knew history was being made.
"Then welcome to Monday Night Raw. Welcome to the Netflix era," Levesque said.
For the first time since January 11, 1993, Monday Night Raw was not on the USA Network, but it made its official debut on Netflix.
It was a move that was bound to happen.
WWE has always been ahead of the curve, whether it was moving away from Pay-Per-View to starting its own streaming service, Peacock, or the five billion dollar Netflix deal.
Both Netflix and WWE will be doing things differently.
For WWE, there are no more time constraints on weekly television with a hardout at the top of the hour. They have more freedom to push the line or use different tools, like flying a drone around the arena during matches. Levesque said he was excited about the different things they could do with the show.
For Netflix, they have dabbled in live events like the Tom Brady roast, Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson and even NFL games on Christmas Day. Doing Monday Night Raw is the first step in a weekly live show.
Before Levesque's promo, there was a video presentation explaining who WWE is and who they currently are— a bridge for everyone tuning in. Especially with WWE being live in over 190 different countries.
After his promo, the iconic "If ya smell what The Rock is cooking" hit, and the stadium erupted as WWE brought out arguably the biggest superstar in the world Dw,ayne "The Rock" Johnson.
He cut a promo to do three things: one, electrify the crowd and people at home; two, shout out the sponsors; and three, open the Tribal Combat match between his family members Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa for the title of Tribal Chief.
Reigns and Sikoa deliver
That opening match brought intensity and tables, which WWE fans love. It was a version of the Wrestlemania 40 match between Reigns and Cody Rhodes, with many outside guests making an appearance.
Toward the end of the match, Reigns was in the turnbuckle with Sikoa standing over him with a Kendo Stick over his face, yelling, "I loved you, but you didn't love me. You never loved me, no matter what I did to prove to you my love. Dammit Roman."
Reigns powered out and was able to powerbomb Sikoa through a table. When he covered him, it was "1, 2." Suddenly, Tama Tonga, a part of Sikoa's Bloodline, pulled the referee out of the ring. Then another follower, the vicious Jacob Fatu, showed up, hit some moves, and finished with a moonsault on Reigns. Sikoa hit his finishing "Samoan spike," with the crowd going silent as the referee counted "1, 2," and as his hand was coming down for the three, Reigns kicked out, which brought thunderous cheers.
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Fellow teammates of Reigns, Sami Zayn and Jimmy Iso came to his aid by taking Fatu and Tonga out.
Reigns steps up to finish the match with a spear when Kevin Owens suddenly emerges from underneath the ring and hit a stunner on his former foe. He yells for Sikoa to finish Reigns off, but again, he kicks out. Owens becomes angry and tries to put Reigns in a package piledriver, which is a frowned-upon move in wrestling. Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes' music hits, and he tries to save Reigns from the move that has injured him in the past.
The match ended with Reigns hitting two spears on Sikoa and pinning him to reclaim his Ula Fala. After the match, The Rock came out to put it around his neck as Reigns celebrated reclaiming his title as Tribal Chief as his cousin and his Wiseman Paul Heyman looked on.
Reigns was asked about The Rock putting the Ula Fala around his neck during the post-Raw press conference. He sat at the podium, pondering the question and thinking about the moment.
"It was a great honor," Reigns said. "To be able to represent our family. To be able to represent all the way from the very beginning to High Chief Peter Maivia to my father Sika (Anoa'i) to my uncle Afa. To be able to showcase our legacy. Put on our craft for the whole world. On Netflix, in front of the whole world, we say that, but this time, it was 100% true."
Cena shows his hand for 2025
The big storyline of 2025 is the end of the in-ring career of John Cena, who many deem the goat of WWE.
The 16-time Champion came out to reminisce with Los Angeles as he won his first WWE Championship against John Bradshaw Layfield at Wrestlemania 21.
It would be his final time in the City of Angels, but he will be wrestling at numerous events and live shows this year.
The question on everyone's mind is whether he will be chasing the record-breaking 17th championship, breaking the tie he has with Ric Flair.
When he mentioned it, fans started chanting, "You deserve it."
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Cena was honest with the crowd, saying he didn't see it happening because of his streak. It has been 2,446 since he won his last singles match— in 2018.
The crowd booed, and Cena, as he usually does, got the crowd riled up when he said that maybe if he won the Royal Rumble, their next PLE, he would secure a main event match at Wrestlemania 41 to try and capture that championship.
During the post-event press conference, Cena was asked if he saw this "Farewell Tour" as a Kobe Bryant-esque finale.
"If your perspective is me winning championships, well, gosh, I hope I can deliver that, but I also want to take a realistic look at what's going on," Cena said. "I'm going to be 48 if you go to the stats, the math isn't actually in my favor."
Ripley recaptures her championship
There has been a lot of drama between Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley, who went from a tag team to enemies.
Each has injured the other. However, the last straw for Ripley was when she was forced to drop the Women's World Championship last year after Wrestlemania 40. She suffered a shoulder injury that made her relinquish it.
Morgan won it over Becky Lynch at WWE's King and Queen of the Ring in Saudi Arabia— that wasn't enough for Morgan. Before her exit, Ripley had Judgement Day as her family, but when she returned, they turned on her and jumped to Morgan's side, excluding Damian Priest, who stayed loyal to Ripley.
So it was personal.
Dominik Mysterio and Raquel Rodriguez interfered heavily in the match to help Morgan win, but none of it mattered in the end.
When Morgan tried her oblivion finisher, Ripley was against the ropes, but she was caught. The Australian wrestler looked at her foe, laughed, and blew her a kiss as she hit her riptide finisher twice and pinned Morgan to reclaim her championship.
After the match, Mysterio tried to hug her and come back to her. She smiled, kicked him in the groin, and hit a riptide on him.
As Ripley was walking toward the back, a gong hit, and she smiled as the stadium went pitch black. Then the "American Badass" theme song from Kid Rock played as the Undertaker came out in his chopper, rode around the ring, and came back to Ripley. They raised their fists with Ripley's championship over her shoulder in a symbol of showing respect from the veteran wrestler.
"Honestly, I thought that kicking Dom in the nuts was going to be the highlight, and then taker came out," Ripley said. "It's such a special moment I've been able to be in the ring with people that I watched growing up, the greats."
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Uso and Scott steal the show
"Main Event" Jey Uso's entrance, is a sight to behold, but at the Intuit Dome and with rapper Travis Scott— it was next level.
They both emerged from the crowd, with Scott having a cigar that has had the tobacco replaced with cannabis.
After his victory over Drew McIntyre, he joined the "post-show" and spoke about the entrance with Scott and the cigar with cannabis incident.
"I smelled it," Uso said, laughing. "He didn't let me inhale it. I couldn't. I was about to. But I couldn't because I had to go to work. Yeet, though, yeet."
His boss appreciated his effort.
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"I would like to personally thank Jey Uso for just saying no on the entrance," Levesque said with a smirk. "That could have gone very different, but I am thankful that it didn't."
The entrance was talked about all over social media, especially with announcers Pat McAfee and Michael Cole jumping on the announce table dancing to Uso's song.
Levesque said after the event that they would be doing more with Scott in the future. He even compared his level of fandom to Bad Bunny, who has wrestled in two matches for the company. Maybe Scott and Uso will tag team in the future.
Punk beats Rollins…in their first bout
If Ripley and Morgan's feud last year had a lot of pent-up aggression, imagine CM Punk and Seth Rollins letting ten years of hate finally be exposed.
Rollins hates that Punk is back in the company and feels like a hypocrite, while Punk feels that Rollins is whiny and jealous.
They put on a good showing with Rollins hitting two "Go To Sleeps" finishers that belong to Punk and Punk hitting one "curb stomp" that belongs to Rollins.
Ultimately, it took two GTSs for Punk to pin Rollins for the victory. Punk is 1-0 against Rollins, which could be a lengthy feud.
"I would love to say that was the one and only time I am going to have to deal with Seth Rollins, but we all know that isn't going to be the truth," Punk said.
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After the match, Punk cut a promo stating his intentions to enter the Royal Rumble, like Cena, and calling out both champions.
"46 is just a number," Punk said after the match. "1-30 are just numbers. Royal Rumble, you are next on the list. Gunther I am coming for you. Cody (Rhodes): I am coming for you. I am Mr. October. I am game 7. I am clutch. I am the best in the world."
Beginning of a beautiful partnership
It was a great first showing for WWE on Netflix.
Levesque was asked after the event if it met expectations:
"There is a part of me that is watching it like a fan and I really enjoyed the show," Levesque said. "I thought it delivered a lot of things. I thought it was a bit of nostalgia. You had The Rock, Cena, Taker, Hulk Hogan. You had all these things that whether you liked or didn't like nostalgia past or present. You had a lot of fresh and new. A lot of big storylines and a lot of matches that delivered."
After a great showing, Levesque was asked right away how he was going to follow up. That is the beauty of it: Every week, they will have a chance to put on great shows.
For the first showing, WWE again proved that it is ahead of all other combat sports and even pro leagues with this deal with Netflix.
"I look forward to doing it again next week and the week after that and the week after that," Levesque said. "Netflix is going to be wonderful partners for us and it will be fun to learn along the way."
