WWE on Netflix: The Best of Raw 2024

As the calendar flips over to 2025, we’re in one of the most interesting times in wrestling history. Both major companies are now airing their premier show on a streaming service. AEW, while still broadcasting on cable, is simulcasting on Max. WWE, however, is taking an even bigger jump.

For the first time since its birth in 1993, WWE’s flagship show – Monday Night Raw – is no longer airing on traditional television. With this Monday’s episode, the show moves solely to streaming giant Netflix. It’s a brand new game for both WWE and Netflix and one that is hoping to get a lot of eyes.

With the move of new episodes of Raw to Netflix, the rights to Raw’s archives also move to Netflix and off of Peacock, which suffers its largest loss of WWE content yet by losing 32 seasons and thousands of hours of Raw to its competition in the U.S. For those outside of the wacky states, you’re probably facing the closure of WWE Network with the move of everything (or a good chunk of everything) to Netflix.

As Raw becomes Netflix, several specials have been uploaded on Netflix as well to hype up WWE and its shows. Today I’m covering one of those, the Best of Raw 2024. Debuting on January 1, 2025, Netflix describes it as so: “Raw plays host to in-ring classics, jaw-dropping confrontations and shocking twists in this best of 2024 recap.” Well my jaw better be dropping! Let’s see what WWE and Netflix have to offer.

We start with a 2:30 intro which shows many things that happened not only on Raw but on various PLEs, from Cody finishing the story to Chelsea Green being pushed off the ladder.

Big E walks out on a Raw-style set, doing his usual intro and welcoming us to the Netflix era. He says we are revisiting the past, and while he won’t break out the New Day time machine, he is personally taking us on a tour of the year.

Big E says we’re starting this episode at the end, particularly the end of the story – Cody’s story. E guides us through Cody’s journey, especially a battle against Roman Reigns, The Rock and the Bloodline as he leads us into a video package recapping Cody’s Bloodline story. As we recall, Solo spikes Cody and Roman defeats him at WrestleMania. That’s not where the story has to end though, as Cody tells us the story is unfinished and some books have a lot of pages.

I’m pretty sure we’ve seen this video package before, and I’m sure you could narrow it down to the first few shows after WrestleMania XL. The Final Boss stacks the odds against Cody and we go into WrestleMania, Bloodline Rules. We all know the epic we got from there, complete with the heroes and villains of WWE interfering before Cody indeed finishes the story and Samantha Irvin does my favorite announcement ever with all the emotion of what we witnessed in her voice. Cody tells the crowd that we are standing on top of the mountain.

Still to come! An epic tale goes to hell and back – CM Punk and Drew McIntyre. Up next though, one superstar breaks out and another prepares to say farewell.

Here’s a commercial for Raw on Netflix. Boy, I better get Netflix!

We come back to another package we’ve seen, focusing on Bron Breakker. We start with his journey through NXT, watching him spear men through walls and winning the NXT Championship. He comes to Raw and spears a bunch of guys, slams Ricochet through a car and challenges Sami Zayn at SummerSlam. Bron wins the Intercontinental Title from Sami and tells us the title was born for him. He says he is “that dawg” and the worst is yet to come because he’s going to be champion for a long time.

Big E says Bron has that dog in him and is making his name on Monday nights. He says we might talk about him one day like we do our next superstar, John Cena. E tells us he’s also a Hollywood star and has made the most Make a Wishes of all time, which is why many in WWE consider him the GOAT.

To the video! John Cena surprises the world by appearing at Money in the Bank, holding up a “The Last Time is Now” towel. He announces his retirement from WWE, saying he’s done this for two decades and seen waves of prosperity like right now. Cena says the farewell does not end tonight, and the 2025 Royal Rumble will be his last… 2025 Elimination Chamber will be his last… and WrestleMania 2025 will be his last as a competitor. He thanks us for letting him entertain us and says to hurry up and come get some.

Big E says Cena’s farewell tour begins with the start of Raw on Netflix and will last all year. He says it’ll be as popcorn worthy as the New Day’s ten year anniversary with a large smile, which I’m guessing means he hadn’t experienced it yet.

We go to the celebration as Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston talk about how they could have never dreamed of how far they’ve made it. Xavier gives us the “we’re about to talk about divorce” talk, and Big E in a suit appears to interrupt their depressing talk. E says he’ll be here every week to serve as their manager and Xavier drops the “NOW you want to come back.” Kofi tells E that he chose himself over New Day and Woods tells him he will never be medically cleared and to return to his desk where he belongs. You know, E is the face and voice of all of these new specials on Netflix. Woods and Kofi deny Big E a hug and immediately find themselves in the magical space known as Dominik Mysterio Heat.

Did you know Raw is coming to Netflix? Now you do!

We flash back to WrestleMania where Seth Rollins loses his title to Drew McIntyre and then takes the chairshot from Roman Reigns. Seth flashes us back to his childhood, saying this is what he has always dreamed of and gives him a life beyond his wildest dreams. He takes the many splashes from Bronson Reed before taking time off, returning to curbstomp Bronson into the stairs. He tells the crowd he is back for one reason – to be the best of all time. He welcomes us to Monday Night Rollins as we go through a montage of curbstomps and his outfits. I know the popular thing on Blog of Doom is to dislike Seth, but there’s a very large disconnect between reaction here and the reactions of the fans in the arenas.

Big E tells us Seth will be burning it down on Raw, but the next subjects will bring the horror – the Wyatt Sicks.

We watch some of the various Wyatt teaser videos before we flash back to June, with Bray Wyatt’s theme song ringing and his door reopening. Nikki Cross crawls out to the lantern and points to the back, where the camera person takes us back to find what appears to be about six people including Chad Gable murdered. Chad was later upgraded back to alive, but I’m not sure we ever learned if the others survived. Uncle Howdy walks through the chaos and immediately seems cooler than he ever did during his first stint, walking the newly formed Wyatt Sicks out to reclaim the lantern and the fireflies. “We’re here.”

We watch some of the backstage interview sessions, like Howdy talking to Bo Dallas and Dallas saying he is “nobody.” Erick Rowan says he needed help and Nikki Cross makes some faces. This leads us into the Miz and Chad Gable being stalked by and attacked by the Sicks. This does a good job of giving the creepy vibe about the team to those who might not have watched before.

Are… you… ready? Raw is coming to Netflix apparently. First I’ve heard.

Next up is a video on Main Event Jey Uso, saying he’s proven why he is called Main Event. We watch some of his wild entrances with a large amount of yeeting. He says he’s creating his own legacy on his own as we watch him win singles gold for the first time in fourteen years. We keep watching his entrances, all the lights going crazy and the fans responding to every move he makes.

Big E says he can’t think of anyone who had a bigger year in 2024 than Jey Uso and I’m not arguing that. Then E yeets. Meanwhile, two men were looking to burn each other to the ground – Drew McIntyre and CM Punk. E says they took the words “blood feud” to a whole new level.

CM Punk says he didn’t come back to make friends, but also came back and made a mortal enemy out of Drew. Drew tells CM Punk he prayed for his injury and it happened. We go through Punk screwing Drew over a few times and then Drew stealing the friendship bracelet as we see plenty of blood in full color in this video. This leads to the strap match and Punk winning, only to have Drew attack him on Raw and destroy the friendship bracelet. I know a lot have made jokes about the bracelet, but it’s a story that got very over without a championship belt and that’s a big deal.

The attacks continue as they make it to Hell in a Cell at Bad Blood. Michael Cole says it won’t be a five star wrestling classic, which is funny because it got a lot of five star ratings. They beat each other with tables, toolboxes and stairs before Punk finally wins. I’m not usually one for bloody matches, but when used sparingly and it feels important like this match, it did magic for me.

Still to come! “The meatiest man slapping meat there is!” Plus, the Ring General marches to glory but first – a look at Sheamus and Pete Dunne.

And that leads us into Sheamus saying he stills calls him “Butch” and they brawl backstage. We go to the donnybrook match and watch the two men beat each other around with various weapons and other things you’d apparently see in a donnybrook. Sheamus ends up defeating Dunne with his hands zip tied behind his back.

Raw is Netflix. 1.6.25. Got it.

Raw Physics – here’s Bronson Reed. 6’0”, 350 lbs. Reed can leap 9’ in the air, destroying many with the Tsunami. Corey Graves runs us through some other numbers such as force and telling us he has 10x higher grip strength than his average opponent. We run through Reed destroying all kinds of people in all kinds of awesome ways.

Big E calls him destruction incarnate and says he’ll be bringing the Tsunami to Netflix in January. While Reed was busy smashing things, another man was busy smashing records – the Ring General, Gunther.

Ludwig Kaiser introduces Gunther as we look back at Gunther destroying the world. Gunther tells us he is greatness personified, chops the soul out of people and wins the big title. Gunther tells us he is prepared for everything as we watch him easily dominate most of his opponents. Michael Cole runs us through his extensive title reigns, Rumble and King of the Ring wins. Gunther promises the legacy of the sport belongs to him. Wade Barrett tells us that Raw is Gunther’s show.

Still to come – the epic rise and fall of the group that runs Monday nights, the Judgment Day. Hey, they acknowledged there are female competitors on the show for the first time since the intro video 44 minutes ago! It’s just like watching the real show!

But first, the moment that left the world in awe says E. We go to War Games and run through clips of OG Bloodline vs Bloodline 2024. The OG crew and CM Punk get the win and Roman shakes hands with Punk while Paul Heyman owes CM Punk a favor.

Live on Netflix – Raw! Are you ready? I wonder if this Triple H guy will be on the show. Probably not, he hates being on TV even though his voice and face has been in every promo during this show.

The future of Raw: we see Damage CTRL and meet all four members, including Asuka. I miss her. “No one is ready for Damage CTRL.” Then we move to Pure Fusion Collective. They’re just like me! Then we go to American Made, with the Ctreeds, Gable and Ivy Nile. Chad Gable says he’ll put the term on his back and show the world what it means to be American Made.

The bird wooos and we meet Lyra Valkyria, who says she travels as the crow flies – right to the top. Ilja Dragonov promises suffering and Corey Graves calls him “the best kind of crazy.” This was a good little run through some of the talents.

E says you can’t talk about Raw without talking about Judgment Day. He goes through the members and changing roster, then says he has a video presentation to enlighten us on the rise, fall and reinvention of Judgment Day.

We cut to Judgment Day with all the gold, including Rhea and Damian with the top gold. I would’ve started this whole show with Rhea, but that’s just me trying to help Netflix gain 30 million viewers. And then Liv Morgan appears and throws a chair at Rhea’s head, leading to Rhea vacating her title and telling the other members to keep Judgment Day on top.

Liv wins the title and promises to take everything away from Rhea, including Dom Dom. Y’all know where this leads, there’s the near kiss before “This is my brutality” and Rhea returns. Meanwhile, the menfolk in Judgment Day fall apart and Rhea questions why Carlito is even there. This leads us to SummerSlam, where Dom helps Liv win and then kisses that mustache all over Olivia’s mouth. Finn screws Damian in his title match against Gunther and concludes “the implosion of Judgment Day as we know it.” The Terror Twins beat Dom & Liv at Bash in Berlin, Priest defeats Finn at Bad Blood and Raquel appears to attack Rhea. And this leads us to where we are today.

One last time, Big E says our guided tour has reached its grand conclusion. He welcomes generous tips for his hosting and tells us we do not want to miss the debut of Raw on Netflix. We’ve got the John Cena farewell tour and so much more – be there!

Well, this was a good “Intro to WWE” show and less of a “The Best of Raw” as a lot of what we saw didn’t happen on Raw. That’s okay though, because this is exactly the kind of show needed to hook those new people not familiar to Raw. It ran through all the major stories, introduced a lot of the key players and even a few less than key players. For us hardcores, you probably don’t NEED to watch this unless you want a quick refresher. For the newbies though, this is a solid watch.