WWE’s $5 Bn partnership deal with Netflix bring exclusive shows

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) said its $5 billion partnership deal with Netflix, giving exclusive streaming rights for its shows on the platform, helps with global growth in a major way.

Speaking to media before the launch of WWE content from April 1, Chris Legentil, Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Head of Communications at WWE said, “When you take a platform like Netflix, it has a massive subscriber base and a market like India is the largest populated market in the world. We see that as great synergy because we want to create content that makes sense for everyone. Working with Netflix, we see some of this great data from different markets around the world. That’s going to help us inform the strategy of where we lay things out as we’re deciding where we go in our 2026-2027 calendar.”

The Netflix-WWE partnership allows Netflix to offer WWE’s weekly flagship shows — Raw, NXT, and SmackDown — as well as WWE’s Premium Live Events including Summer Slam, Money in the Bank, Royal Rumble and the upcoming WrestleMania to its Indian audience. India is WWE’s biggest audience in terms of viewership.

Nick Khan President of WWE estimated that 34 million of WWE’s 110 million subscribers are from India, which makes such partnerships “a great way” to reach fans.

When asked about sub-licensing the linear TV rights to a local broadcaster, Brandon Riegg, Vice President, Nonfiction Series & Sports at Netflix, said the platform will have full exclusivity. He said that doing so allows Netflix to serve as a one-stop shop.

“With the wide variety of programming that WWE offers, it feels like what’s best for the fan, what’s best for the viewer, is that they can go to the one place and have access to all of that,’ said Riegg.

WWE mentioned that it is also considering bringing flagship shows like Raw and SmackDown to India and looking for talent internationally as well.