Five Modern Moments That Changed Pro Wrestling
From the WWE Network launch to Raw on Netflix, five dates since 2014 that changed how wrestling is broadcast and who owns its biggest company.
Between February 2014 and January 2025, five events changed the way professional wrestling reaches its audience and who owns its biggest company. They were the launch of the WWE Network, the end of the Undertaker's WrestleMania winning streak, the arrival of All Elite Wrestling, the merger of WWE and the UFC into TKO Group Holdings, and the move of Monday Night Raw to Netflix. Here is what happened in each case, with the dates, and why we think each one still shapes the business in October 2026.
Plenty of other moments have a claim to a list like this. We left out single matches and title changes, however memorable, unless they changed something beyond the storyline. The Streak is the one exception, and the reason is explained below.
1. The WWE Network goes live (February 24, 2014)
Vince McMahon announced the WWE Network at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 8, 2014, and it launched in the United States on February 24, 2014. The price was $9.99 a month with a six-month commitment. That subscription included every live WWE pay-per-view, WrestleMania among them, along with a back catalog of past WWE, WCW and ECW events. WWE billed it as the first 24/7 streaming network.
Until then, the big shows were the most expensive thing a WWE fan could buy, sold one at a time through cable and satellite pay-per-view. The Network turned them into part of a monthly subscription. Growth was slower than WWE had hoped at first. In April 2014 the company reported 667,000 subscribers, short of the one million it had described as a break-even target, and in October 2014 it dropped the six-month commitment to attract more sign-ups. The Network reached one million subscribers on January 27, 2015.
The service then rolled out abroad, reaching Canada in July 2014, the UK and Ireland in January 2015 and India in November 2015. In the US it was folded into NBCUniversal's Peacock on March 18, 2021, in a deal reported to be worth about $1 billion over five years, and since September 2025 the American rights to WWE's premium live events have sat with ESPN under an agreement reportedly worth $1.6 billion over five years. Outside the US, the events moved to Netflix from January 1, 2025. The standalone Network closed for good on April 1, 2026, when its last four markets (Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland) switched to Netflix.
The model the Network introduced has outlasted the brand. WWE stopped depending on how many people would pay for one show and started selling its events as rights packages to the largest streaming and sports broadcasters in the world. The deals with Peacock, ESPN and Netflix were built on that change.
2. Brock Lesnar ends the Streak (April 6, 2014)
Six weeks after the Network launched, WrestleMania XXX took place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans on April 6, 2014. It was the first WWE pay-per-view streamed live on the Network. The Undertaker came in with a WrestleMania record of 21 wins and no defeats, a run that began against Jimmy Snuka at WrestleMania VII on March 24, 1991. Brock Lesnar beat him with an F-5 for the pin.
The Superdome went quiet after the pin, and WWE did not play Lesnar's music straight away, and he was booed as he left, while the crowd gave the Undertaker a standing ovation and chanted "thank you Taker". The Undertaker was reportedly taken from the Superdome by ambulance with a severe concussion and was discharged the following day.
This is the only in-ring result on our list, and we included it because of what it did to Lesnar. In our view, few single wins have done more for a wrestler's standing than beating the Undertaker on that night. It also showed fans that WWE would end even its most protected record. The Undertaker kept wrestling, and retired at Survivor Series on November 22, 2020. He entered the WWE Hall of Fame in 2022.
3. All Elite Wrestling arrives (2019)
All Elite Wrestling was announced on January 1, 2019 through the YouTube series Being The Elite. Tony Khan was the founder and president, with his father Shahid Khan, owner of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, as lead investor. Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and Matt and Nick Jackson joined as executive vice presidents. At a rally in Jacksonville on January 8, 2019, the company revealed its first show and signed Chris Jericho, who told the crowd: "I'm here because I believe in doing something different, I believe in doing something new."
That first show, Double or Nothing, took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 25, 2019. Jon Moxley debuted there, weeks after leaving WWE, and the AEW World Championship was unveiled. Ten days earlier, on May 15, AEW and WarnerMedia had announced a weekly prime-time show for TNT.
That show was AEW Dynamite, which premiered on October 2, 2019 at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, and averaged 1.409 million viewers. WWE's NXT was airing in the same Wednesday slot on USA Network, and the head-to-head became known as the Wednesday Night Wars. Dynamite won in viewers and by more than double among adults aged 18 to 49 on its first night. NXT later moved to Tuesdays.
With the Khan family's money and a TNT slot behind it, AEW became the strongest competitor WWE had faced in years. Wrestlers had a second major employer to negotiate with, and WWE had a rival whose ratings it had to watch. Dynamite moved to TBS on January 5, 2022, and in October 2024 AEW extended its deal with Warner Bros. Discovery for several more years, adding simulcasts on the Max streaming service.
4. WWE and the UFC become TKO (2023)
On April 3, 2023, the day after WrestleMania 39, Endeavor announced it would combine WWE with the UFC in a new publicly listed company. The deal valued WWE at $9.3 billion, and the combined business was put at about $21.4 billion. It closed on September 12, 2023, and TKO Group Holdings began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker TKO.
Endeavor took 51 per cent and WWE shareholders kept 49 per cent. For the first time, WWE was not majority-controlled by a member of the McMahon family. Ari Emanuel became chief executive of TKO, Mark Shapiro its president and chief operating officer, Nick Khan stayed in charge of WWE as president and Dana White kept running the UFC. Vince McMahon became executive chairman of TKO, but resigned on January 26, 2024 after a former WWE employee, Janel Grant, filed a lawsuit that accused him of sexual assault and trafficking.
The merger put WWE inside a larger sports and entertainment group whose executives negotiated its next round of media deals. TKO has kept expanding since then. In February 2025 it completed a $3.25 billion purchase of IMG, Professional Bull Riders and On Location from Endeavor, and it launched Zuffa Boxing, a joint venture with Saudi Arabia's Sela, which held its first event in September 2025 with Canelo Álvarez against Terence Crawford.
5. Raw leaves cable for Netflix (2024 and 2025)
WWE and Netflix announced on January 23, 2024 that Raw would stream on Netflix from January 2025. The deal runs for ten years and was widely reported to be worth $5 billion. Raw's previous agreement with USA Network had reportedly been worth about $1.3 billion over five years. In the US, UK, Canada and Latin America, Netflix gained the weekly Raw at the start. Outside the US, it also took SmackDown, NXT and the premium live events, WrestleMania included. TKO shares rose more than 20 per cent in early trading on the day of the announcement. WWE president Nick Khan said:
"In its relatively short history, Netflix has engineered a phenomenal track record for storytelling. We believe Netflix, as one of the world's leading entertainment brands, is the ideal long-term home for Raw's live, loyal, and ever-growing fan base."
Raw had been on linear television since its first episode on January 11, 1993. Its last USA Network episode aired on December 30, 2024. The first Netflix episode came from the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, on January 6, 2025. Roman Reigns beat Solo Sikoa in a Tribal Combat match, Rhea Ripley took the Women's World Championship from Liv Morgan, Jey Uso beat Drew McIntyre and CM Punk beat Seth Rollins in the main event. The Rock opened the show, John Cena started his farewell tour by saying he would win the Royal Rumble, and Hulk Hogan was booed.
Netflix said the episode drew 4.9 million views worldwide and averaged 2.6 million US households, 116 per cent more than Raw's 2024 average and the biggest Raw audience in five years. Wrestling's longest-running weekly show now sits on a global streaming service alongside its scripted series, and the size of the deal set a new price for wrestling television rights.
The five moments at a glance
| Moment | Key date | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| WWE Network launches | February 24, 2014 | Big events moved from pay-per-view into a $9.99 monthly subscription |
| The Streak ends at WrestleMania XXX | April 6, 2014 | The Undertaker's 21-0 record fell to Brock Lesnar |
| AEW Dynamite premieres on TNT | October 2, 2019 | WWE faced a well-funded rival on national US television |
| TKO Group Holdings formed | September 12, 2023 | WWE and the UFC came under one listed company, ending McMahon family control |
| Raw debuts on Netflix | January 6, 2025 | Raw left linear television after 32 years for a ten-year streaming deal |
The five are linked. The Network taught WWE to think of its shows as streaming content, WrestleMania XXX was the first big test of that, and AEW gave wrestlers and broadcasters an alternative. Under TKO, WWE signed the Netflix and ESPN agreements, which between them now carry Raw and every WWE premium live event.
