Reviewing the First-Ever Edition of "Raw Is Netflix"

A heavily anticipated moment in World Wrestling Entertainment's history has finally come and passed. After I watched the end of the NFL's regular season, I was all ready for the first Monday Night Raw to hit Netflix on the following day! Netflix had been doing some experimenting with live events lately; airing the Mike Tyson/Jake Paul fight live, and also airing a pair of NFL games on Christmas Day--all to prepare for this moment.

So without further ado, let's talk about the first-ever "Raw Is Netflix."

After seeing Triple H and The Rock open the show, the first match on Netflix took place, and surprisingly, it was the Tribal Combat battle between Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa. So much for the "Roman hogs the main event" talk. A lot of fans, myself included, theorized that we would see Paul Heyman turn on Roman, because we've seen that type of behavior from him before. We saw both sides' cohorts get involved, we saw Kevin Owens go after Roman before being chased away by Cody Rhodes. The most important thing we saw: Roman Reigns won, and the Ula Fala was presented to him by The Rock, without any shenanigans.

And now, get your tissues out.

2025 also meant that we would start to see the end of John Cena's storied career. How fitting. Raw took place at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, the new home of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers that opened this season. So basically, Cena was in LA. LA is very special to Cena, as he stated in a long and emotional promo. In LA, Cena won the first of his 16 World Titles, doing so at WrestleMania 21, which was special to me because that was the very first WM I watched. Of course, the elephant in the room was brought up: #17. Will Cena go out winning #17? Cena himself said that there's very little chance of that happening, because he hasn't won a match in forever. He said the only way he could ever get a shot at #17 is to do, among other possibilities, win the Royal Rumble. So that's it. He's entering the Rumble, and he'll have a chance to do what only one other legend has done: win the Rumble three times.

#17 would be epic, but somehow, I also hope that during this final year, he wins #1. Fans know what I'm talking about. The one title he hasn't captured: the Intercontinental Championship--putting him in the Grand Slam club.

Unsurprisingly, Rhea Ripley regained the Women's World Championship from Liv Morgan. I saw this coming. This was the night for Rhea to get the ultimate payback on Liv after everything she's done to Rhea since a few weeks after WrestleMania. Liv took Rhea's health on more than one occasion. She took Dom from her, she took Judgement Day from her, and even enlisted Raquel Rodriguez against Rhea. This was nine months in the making for Rhea, and it ended up with "Mami" getting the title back that she never actually lost, and giving Dom a swift kick between the uprights for good measure.

We would later see The Undertaker appear, motorcycle and all, and give Rhea that nod, but here's the interesting report about that. According to many stories I've read, this was supposed to be the moment that Becky Lynch returned and engaged in an apparent face to face with Rhea. Becky was actually there, but for some reason, they decided on bringing Taker out instead.

Speaking of legends appearing when they shouldn't, let's talk about Hulk Hogan. One of my favorite moments of the Netflix premiere was Hulk getting booed like he was a member of the San Francisco 49ers. They booed the shit out of him and it was beautiful. People are trying to say it's political. Taker didn't get booed. That kills that theory. It's because Hulk is a major racist and an asswipe whose flaws could fill up Intuit Dome five times over. Here's hoping WWE finally learns from this and stops promoting Hulk.

Jey Uso defeated Drew McIntyre in what I consider the one "minor" match on the evening, which was also expected. Jey needed a singles win after having the IC Title ripped from him. The main event spot went to Punk and Rollins, and honestly, I'm surprised this match didn't have a gimmick attached. I'm also a little bit surprised that Punk was the winner, and I say that despite not knowing what to expect in that match other than a lot of mayhem. One has to sense that this isn't over. WrestleMania's just over three months away. Who's to say we won't see a rematch in Sin City in mid-April.

What I loved was that the show was treated like half big sports event/half awards show. They showed a lot of celebrities at Raw that night, including Vanessa Hudgens, who was actually shown at Raw about a few months ago. It's fitting, since Hudgens is no stranger to Netflix, having starred in the Christmas Switch films. Danielle Fishel (aka Topanga Lawrence from Boy Meets World and its sequel series, Girl Meets World) was shown, and I swear that sitting next to her was her former BMW co-star Will Friedle. Macaulay Culkin was there! He got huge cheers, because we all love Home Alone big time! As for WWE representation, we saw current stars in attendance, we saw NXT stars in attendance, and we saw our share of alums. Michelle McCool, Undertaker's better half, was one of them, and another one was Nikki Garcia (aka Nikki Bella), which was quite a surprise appearance for sure.

Entering the evening, I was a bit perturbed that the first Raw on Netflix did not include the Finals of the Women's Intercontinental Championship Tournament between Dakota Kai and Lyra Valkyria. I figured that since the first Women's United States Champion was crowned at Saturday Night's Main Event, we would see the title get some pomp and circumstance on the first "Raw Is Netflix." Instead, that's saved for the next show. I guess it does make some sense, considering everything that was on the card on this special show, the new title would be seen as a small footnote compared to what took place. At least it was promoted, with Dakota and Lyra being shown in attendance.

Finally, there's Netflix itself. It was a great telecast, though I read a lot of people were stunned that there were actually commercials during this thing. I didn't know what to expect, but I did think that Raw would be commercial-free. I did learn that it's only the international users who would get Raw commercial-free, while those of us in the states would see some ads. The ads weren't excessive, but still, they were there, in some cases, they were there during matches.

In any event, this was an epic moment in what is now the 32-year history of Monday Night Raw. Everyone getting to watch Raw at the same time finally. I see a lot of big things coming from this.