Exciting changes are on the horizon for WWE as new TV deals take effect. Raw is set to make its debut on Netflix in January, while SmackDown will be returning from FOX to the USA Network. Additionally, NXT is making a move from USA to the CW Network next month. Stay tuned for all the action!
Alongside the SmackDown agreement that USA holds, NBCU continues to maintain its streaming partnership with WWE, allowing the WWE Network to be available in the United States on Peacock. The latest agreement brings the entire past-season library of WWE SmackDown to Peacock, with new episodes set to debut 30 days after their airing on USA Network.
New episodes of WWE Raw are also available on Peacock 30 days after they premiere on USA Network. The transition of NXT to the CW Network and Raw to Netflix means that Peacock will no longer host the libraries for these programs after September 19 and October 1. A representative from Peacock stated that viewers will see countdown clocks for NXT and Raw programming, signaling that they are about to expire. Only episodes following the specified dates will be included.
During a discussion on WrestleVotes Radio, it was highlighted that NXT Level Up is set to conclude shortly after its run on Fridays on Peacock, which began in February 2022.
WrestleVotes’ co-host highlighted, “While we’re talking about NXT, with the WWE Hulu contract coming up next week, the NXT secondary show Level Up will be discontinued. That’s what we’re hearing. They will no longer continue filming the Level Up show that airs on Peacock, that features a lot of the younger NXT talent. And you know, it is what it is. It’s just a lot of moving parts right now, but we will say goodbye to Level Up.”
It was also said that while it’s unclear whether the entire library of NXT will be gone from Peacock once the CW deal kicks in, “It’s likely everything from NXT 2.0 up until today will disappear and move over to the CW app. With that said, we don’t know if Takeovers are included here. Again, it could be just 2.0 stuff, which would include Deadlines and No Mercy and things like that, could disappear from Peacock, but a lot of the more recent NXT stuff will be gone off of the WWE Network/Peacock.”
WrestleVotes added, “I think it just comes down to the rights of that now that CW is in charge of having the NXT rights. I think that because they were formally in the hands of Peacock and USA Network. How those agreements all are written is definitely playing into why those past episodes will no longer be available moving forward.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
