On Monday, January 6th 2025. WWE finally officially made the big move to Netflix with the first episode of Monday Night Raw this year. Though while it was a regular episode of Raw, from the outside I wouldn’t blame anyone assuming this was a Premium Live Event as WWE really threw everything they had into this show to make as big of an arrival as possible (while still having some big tricks in their sleeve that could have easily been part of the show).
The show opened with a brief recap montage of the history of WWE and everything that has led us to where we are today, and then Triple H added a formal welcome to the “Netflix Era”. Following this almost immediately was the return of the ‘Final Boss’ as the Rock appeared for the first time since his ominous appearance at the end of the Bad Blood PLE a few months ago. Among other things, The Rock has seemingly calmed down a lot since Wrestlemania 40 as he praised Cody Rhodes’ work in carrying the WWE over the last year before setting the stage for Tribal Combat which would determine which of his cousin’s would once and for all cement themselves as the true Tribal Chief, Roman Reigns or Solo Sikoa.
As you would come to expect with The Bloodline, there were several interferences in the match, Tama Tonga, Jacob Fatu & Kevin Owens all came out to attack Roman during the match, Kevin of course doing so with no love for Solo’s Bloodline, purely out of hatred for Roman. Roman also had aid with Sami Zayn, Jimmy Uso and Cody Rhodes to drive off Owens/The New Bloodline. Ultimately, Roman Reigns was the one to get the decisive pinfall and formally reinstate his status as not only the Original Tribal Chief, but now Undeniably the ONLY Tribal Chief. And the Rock also came back out to put the Ula Fala around Reigns’ neck and to once again Acknowledge him.
Of course, John Cena also formally kicked off his Farewell Tour which will last all of 2025. During the promo, Cena initially was rather blunt stating that due to his long losing streak (in Singles matches), that he would not be winning “Number 17” referring to a 17th World Championship which would break Ric Flair’s record. However by the end of the promo, Cena had gone from thinking it was impossible to believing it would take a miracle. And announced that the first chance at getting to this miracle will be his entry into the upcoming Royal Rumble match.
Rhea Ripley also had a great night as she has seemingly finally been able to once and for all put Liv Morgan & The Judgement Day behind her as she defeated Liv to reclaim the Women’s World Championship that she never truly lost. Not only that, but she also got some sweet revenge on Dominik Mysterio who received a strong kick to a man’s greatest weak spot & also received a Riptide. And as if that wasn’t enough to cement this as one of the greatest nights of her career, Rhea then also got to celebrate alongside none other than The Undertaker and getting a nod like that from such a legend no doubt made the moment even sweeter.
In the Main Event of the show, after over a year of anticipation, we finally got the long awaited match between CM Punk and Seth Rollins. Both men have a long history of disdain for each other, particularly Seth Rollins despising CM Punk, regularly calling Punk a “cancer” to the business. So one wonders just how frustrated/furious he will be considering Punk was the one to eventually get the massive win over Rollins, and after the match make clear his intentions for 2025, Joining Cena in declaring for the Royal Rumble and sending a warning to both Gunther & Cody Rhodes that he is coming for them.
Aside from these most noteworthy moments, also on the show we saw Jey Uso score a narrow victory over Drew Mcintyre which on top of Roman’s victory earlier in the night made this a brilliant night for the OG Bloodline. Also Bloodline related, Roman Reigns stated that his “Acknowledgement Ceremony” will be January 27th, before entering a locker room with the logo for WWE 2K25, all but confirming that Reigns will be the cover star for the game.
Chad Gable, later in the show also announced his goals for 2025 to win a Singles Championship at some point in the year, and also to show he has no problem with defeating Luchadors, asking Adam Pearce to get the best luchador he can find to have a match with. And earlier in the show, a perfect candidate came to light as it was officially revealed that Penta will be coming to Raw in the near future. Dedicated wrestling fans will recognise him from his most recent stint in AEW as part of the Lucha Bros alongside Rey Fenix (who many expect will also eventually make his way to WWE).
In summary, the new era is well & truly underway with Netflix & Monday Night Raw was a great start to 2025 and the new era as a whole. It seems like a broken record to repeat how WWE is going through arguably the best times of the company’s history, but moving to Netflix is one of the biggest indicators of this yet. And if WWE can continue to ride this wave of momentum into the rest of 2025, who knows how good things can get for the company.
