The June 23 episode of Raw which aired at 6PM ET drew 2,300,000 global viewers on Netflix, the same number it did the prior week.
It was a tough day for TV on Monday, as the USA vs Belgium game in the FIFA World Cup drew a massive 42 million viewers across FOX, Telemundo, and Peacock.
Raw had 4,500,000 global viewing hours, up 200,000 from the previous week and was good enough for #7 on the top 10 global chart.
The show only cracked the top 10 chart in seven different countries for the week, the lowest since it started on Netflix. These countries were Bahamas, Bolivia, Canada, Nicaragua, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, and United States.
Variety is reporting that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has signed on to lead and produce a new action drama movie titled Free Byrd.
The movie will see Johnson taking the role of a Las Vegas motorcycle stuntman who hides his dementia diagnosis from everyone in hopes of doing one last jump.
Greg Kwedar will direct the movie which comes from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity.
“’Free Byrd’ is a gift in many ways,” said Johnson. “Emblematic of life’s sacred beauty, as well as life’s harsh and callous reality. The subject matter of ‘Free Byrd’ has become deeply personal to Greg Kwedar and myself as we’ve started to unpack this fateful journey together. Artists Equity have been incredible filmmaking and artistic partners, who not only share Greg’s vision for the film, but who are all connected to our story in their own unique and personal ways. When the mind of a loved one begins to slip away, life sure takes on a whole new meaning.”
“This is a project that all of us at the company have connected with personally,” said Affleck and Damon, Artists Equity’s CEO and Chief Content Officer, respectively. “Greg is one of the most exciting writer-directors working today, and Dwayne is an extraordinary talent and person. We are extremely excited that they have chosen to make this with us and very much look forward to sharing the finished film with audiences.”
Minutes after losing the WWE title to CM Punk on Raw last night, an angry Sami Zayn cut a promo backstage where he was absolutely livid.
“How is it that after 24 years of crawling and inching for every little inch to get the WWE Championship, after I finally get it, 9 days after I get it, that piece of shit can walk back in here after not being here for months, for months and waltz right in and get it?” Zayn said.
“That motherf*cker, he has no business! No business,” he continued.
Zayn then went down on his knees and cried as WWE cameras continued filming.
The Canadian won the WWE title from Cody Rhodes at Night of Champions in a triple threat match also involving Gunther.
The popular Dark Side of the Ring series will start its seventh season tonight on VICE at 9PM ET with a two-hour episode titled Jeff Jarrett & The Battle for TNA.
This is a three-part episode, with the first two parts airing tonight as the season premiere.
VICE is having a Dark Side of the Ring marathon today, airing previous episodes throughout the whole day.
The rest of the season includes:
July 14 – Jeff Jarrett & The Battle for TNA part 3
July 21 – Samoa Joe vs Necro Butcher
July 28 – The Big Boss Man
August 4 – “Renegade” Rick Wilson
August 11 – “Mr Wonderful”
August 18 – Missy Hyatt
August 25 – Zack Gowen
Vice released a teaser trailer for the season earlier last month.
Warner Bros. Discovery, All Elite Wrestling, and Twitch today announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration that will bring some of Twitch’s most popular creators directly into the AEW experience, delivering exclusive live content surrounding tomorrow’s AEW Dynamite: Beach Break.
The multi-platform initiative connects AEW with Twitch’s highly engaged communities through creator-led livestreams, exclusive access and real-time fan engagement before and during the live broadcast on TBS and HBO Max.
Two of Twitch’s biggest creators will play unique roles throughout the event:
Ahead of AEW Dynamite: Beach Break, Agent00 will host a live pre-show on Twitch, previewing the night’s biggest storylines, breaking down matchups, interacting with AEW talent and encouraging fans to tune into the live broadcast.
During the event, CashNastyGaming will stream live from inside the arena, sharing real-time reactions, exclusive access and behind-the-scenes moments that give Twitch viewers a unique perspective from inside AEW Dynamite: Beach Break.
Fans can also expect cross-platform promotion across AEW, as well as on Twitch and participating creators’ social channels, along with custom Twitch integrations, creator-driven content and in-arena branding throughout Beach Break.
By bringing popular Twitch creators into the heart of the action, the effort gives existing AEW fans a fresh perspective while introducing the excitement of live wrestling to new audiences on Twitch.
In addition to the creator livestreams, promotional content will roll out across AEW and Twitch social channels, creator-owned platforms and Twitch digital experiences leading up to Beach Break.
The Great Khali sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Houston, Texas to discuss being one of the most famous people in India, how he got signed by WWE, debuting with The Undertaker, transitioning from a giant into a comedy character, starring in movies “The Longest Yard” and “Get Smart”, the origin of The Punjabi Prison match, winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, getting inducted into the Hall of Fame, whether he has retired, and more!
How was the plan for you to debut against The Undertaker? Because what a shot! Undertaker is huge, and then you come out and you’re bigger than him, so how did that plan come together for you to work with the Undertaker in your debut?
“This was the idea of Vince McMahon. I want to say thank you to Vince McMahon. So many guys say bad things about Vince, I say he is a real man. He’s a very hardcore businessman; he never lied to me. He made me a star. I never forget that. Very excited and I’m so happy when I debuted. So Mark Henry had the Undertaker match, then I go out. So first face to face, he started giving two or three chops, I give you this big chop, Great Khali chop, then he’s down. This moment was an emotional moment because when I start wrestling, that’s my dream come true to work for WWE. Undertaker is a huge name, so I chop him, so that’s a very big thing for me.”
Who was your favorite opponent to work with?
“I think John Cena and Triple H. I’m very excited. They never complain, never say, ‘You hit hard. Why do you do this? Why do you this?’ John Cena never complained, Triple H never complained, other guys, some small complaints.”
You went from being serious to being a comedy wrestler. When did that change happen?
“After WWE finds out Khali wants to leave, so then he made me a comedy wrestler, because he wants to kill my character. When I start wrestling in WWE, all of India watches wrestling. Everyone, kids, women, men, young and old. Everyone watched wrestling. So he’s thinking he wants to leave, so he made me a comedy wrestler.”
Vince McMahon thought you wanted to leave?
“I think so, because I wanted to work on my own thing.”
Can you tell me about the Punjabi prison match? How did this become a thing?
“Punjabi prison match. First, when I had the Punjabi prison match set up for me and Undertaker. They called me. ‘You can’t work this one.’ I said, man, come on, man. I think 2 days before [he called me]. ‘Oh, you can’t work Undertaker in the prison match.’ I said, come on, why? ‘You have something wrong with your blood.’ I’m so sad. I don’t know what happened. So I was there. So Undertaker and Big Show in that ring are practising. You can’t work, Big Show and Undertaker work in this Prison match. I said this is a bad decision. All the things build, then 2 days before they say you can’t work. Some health issue.”
It looked so real when you crushed Rey Mysterio’s head!
“That match, I remember it was in San Antonio. Khali and Rey went face to face. They are booing me, cheering Rey Mysterio. I squeeze him, he goes down. After, I go in the parking lot and people are throwing rocks, ‘You motherf*cker! You killed Rey Mysterio!’ So many people. All the guys, ‘You motherf*cker! You suck!’ I remember one time Dominik was backstage, I said, ‘You like me?’ He nodded. Somebody then said, ‘He doesn’t.’ That was funny.”
AEW is running a 50% off promotion for All In at London’s Wembley Stadiums as tickets continue to sell at a much slower pace compared to prior years.
The offer will run through Tuesday, July 14 and is accessible by using the code SUMMER26 at Ticketmaster.co.uk.
The cheapest seats available with the offer is £32.95, which is around $44. These are in the 500 section, which is at the very top of the massive Wembley Stadium.
The majority of the stadium is closed off, with sections having alternate rows opened.
AEW has moved around 27,000 tickets so far for All In.
It looks like “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry is taking his time to sign a new AEW contract, with Bryan Alvarez reporting that Perry, as of today, has not signed and his contract is up very, very soon.
Despite this, Perry has been appearing regularly on AEW television, with his last match coming on the June 24 episode of Dynamite in a defeat against Zack Sabre Jr. Typically, AEW stars who are either leaving or not signed to a new deal are kept off television until they do so.
The 29-year-old former TNT champion has been with the company since its inception in 2019. He is expected to stay with the promotion despite the delay in signing, with AEW President Tony Khan expressing hope recently that Perry would be with AEW for years to come.
TMZ.COM is reporting that Jey Uso’s wife, Takecia Fatu, has filed for divorce after 12 years of marriage.
In court documents obtained by TMZ, Fatu wrote that her marriage was “irretrievably broken.” The two share two sons together, one of whom is a minor.
She is asking for primary physical custody of their youngest son as well as use of their Georgia home, child and spousal support as well as coverage of all attorney fees.
It’s unclear how long the two have been separated but Jey was publicly seen with NXT star Jaida Parker for quite a few months, claiming that she’s “his.”
Dynamite last Wednesday drew 634,000 viewers, up 18,000 viewers from the prior week’s broadcast. The show had a 0.09 rating in 18-49, down 0.01 from the previous episode and was #7 on the top 50 cable chart for the night. Dynamite went head-to-head with the FIFA World Cup game involving the United States. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
Wrestling used to mean one channel, one night, one remote fight over who gets to hold it. That world is gone. Now the same three-hour show lives on five different apps, gets chopped into a hundred clips before the main event even ends, and somehow still finds an audience that never watched cable in its life.
The Netflix Gamble Actually Paid Off
WWE handed its flagship show to Netflix in January 2025, and plenty of longtime fans assumed it would flop outside the US. It did not. Raw pulled in roughly 340 million views over its first year, with premium live events adding another 185 million on top of that, according to Netflix’s own year end numbers. Not bad for a wrestling show competing against Bridgerton for a spot in the weekly top ten. Somewhere between matches, a chunk of that same audience is doing exactly what streaming built them to do: half watching, half scrolling, half looking for something else to click. Between commercials plenty of viewers check group chats, order food, or grab nine casino free spins before the bell rings again. Nobody plans it. It just happens because the phone is already in hand.
The bigger surprise sits in the international numbers. Raw landed in the top ten in 34 countries during its debut year, hitting the charts in Bolivia and Saudi Arabia almost as consistently as in the US and Canada. Cable never managed that. Hard to argue with that kind of reach.
Chasing Fans Where They Already Live
Netflix solved one problem for WWE. It did nothing for AEW, which never had a Netflix seat at the table and had to build its own audience the slower way. So Tony Khan’s company leaned hard into TikTok instead, treating it less like a marketing channel and more like a second broadcast. In May 2026, AEW partnered with Warner Bros Discovery and TikTok to run a live pre-show called AEW Advance, a full hour of backstage access before Dynamite even aired. The account behind it has racked up over 41 million likes, a number that means little on its own but starts to look like strategy once paired with AEW’s famously young viewership.
A few tactics keep showing up across every promotion trying to win over viewers who grew up scrolling instead of channel surfing.
Short vertical clips posted within minutes of a big moment, timed to beat the recap accounts to the punch.
Live pre-shows and after-shows that turn a two hour broadcast into a five hour hangout.
Subscription tiers priced closer to a coffee than a cable bill, aimed at people who will never sign a twelve month contract.
The Cord-Cutting Reality Nobody Could Avoid
TNA took the messiest path of the three big names. Thursday nights on AMC, simulcast on AMC+, and a dedicated TNA+ app carrying more than 4,000 hours of archive footage for anyone willing to dig. That is a lot of infrastructure for a promotion that spent years being an afterthought. Reward loops are everywhere in this space now. TNA+ tosses in bonus footage for subscribers, streaming apps hand out free trial weeks, and ninecasino-sl.com runs a similar loyalty mechanic to keep people opening the app out of habit rather than intention. Habit beats loyalty most days. Say what you want about the tactic, it works on almost everyone eventually.
Here is what actually changed for fans trying to keep up in 2026.
Raw only exists on Netflix now, no cable option left in the US.
SmackDown is migrating fully from Peacock over to Netflix’s back catalog.
Premium live events moved to the ESPN app, splitting the big matches away from the weekly shows.
AEW pay per views still route through TrillerTV and Amazon before eventually landing on Max.
Untangling that lineup takes a spreadsheet. Somehow the audience keeps growing anyway.
What the Numbers Actually Say About Viewing Habits
Weekly Raw viewership on Netflix has drifted down slightly since the honeymoon year, from around 3.9 million to closer to 2.85 million by early 2026, depending on which tracking report gets cited. That dip sounds worse than it is. A show that used to live on one cable box now competes across a dozen apps for the same eyeballs, and losing a slice of that fight while still ranking in 34 countries is not exactly a crisis.
Sound familiar? Anyone juggling five streaming logins to watch one sport already knows the feeling. Wrestling just got there first, dragged its whole audience along, and figured out the app economy faster than most traditional sports leagues managed to.
Former NXT Women’s champion Mandy Rose revealed yesterday that she is pregnant.
Rose, real name Mandy Saccomanno, posted a video on Instagram showing the positive test result, and then surprising her husband, former NXT star Tino Sabatelli, with the result.
“God’s timing is always greater than our plans,” she wrote in the caption. “The biggest blessing has been quietly growing behind the scenes.”
The two got married in 2024. Rose was fired from WWE in 2022 after risqué photos from a subscription service were leaked.
CM Punk’s hiatus from WWE is officially over after he returned to Raw last night and surprisingly – or not – won the WWE Championship from Sami Zayn.
The advertised match between Zayn and Cody Rhodes never took place, with WWE pulling the classic bait-and-switch by having Gunther attacking Rhodes in the opening segment of the show, causing an injury and making him ineligible for the match as doctors wouldn’t clear him.
Both the Raw and Smackdown General Managers confirmed that a title match will happen regardless, with the challenger not revealed until it was time for the main event.
With Zayn in the ring and loud chants of “CM Punk” ringing inside the Allstate Arena, the cameras cut to backstage where a shutter door started rising, revealing Punk in his ring gear ready to go.
Punk won the match with the Helluva Kick and a GTS, and then exited the ring, sat on the security wall, blew a kiss to the camera, and vanished through the crowd, the same thing he did when he beat John Cena at Money In The Bank in 2011.
Zayn’s title reign lasted a whopping nine days, with zero successful title defenses.
This is Punk’s first run with the WWE title since 2013.
WWE Raw heads to the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, one of WWE’s hottest locations as far as crowd goes as the road to SummerSlam continues.
Three huge title matches have been announced for the show so far:
Sami Zayn vs Cody Rhodes for the WWE title
Sol Ruca vs Raquel Rodriguez for the WWE Women’s Intercontinental title
The Street Profits vs The Vision for the WWE World Tag Team titles
Plus, the number one contender for the WWE World Heavyweight title, Seth Rollins, will be kicking off the broadcast, Oba Femi will be in the house, and who knows, maybe CM Punk as well!
Netflix has released a two-minute trailer of the new season of WWE: Unreal.
The trailer centers mostly around John Cena, whose final few months in WWE are documented in this series, as well as the rise of WWE’s newest Superstars such as Bron Breakker, Oba Femi, and Trick Williams.
Scheduled to be part of the series apart from the above-mentioned names are Cody Rhodes, Liv Morgan, CM Punk, AJ Lee, Lash Legend, Stephanie Vaquer, Chelsea Green, Matt Cardona, Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch.
The season three synopsis reads, “John Cena says goodbye, a fan favorite returns, and the next generation of Superstars rise to the occasion. WWE: Unreal takes viewers inside the writers’ room as injuries, last-minute pivots, and career-defining decisions reshape WWE’s biggest season yet heading into WrestleMania 42.”
WWE: Unreal season three premieres globally on Netflix on July 21.
On the latest episode of The Nikki & Brie Show on the SiriusXM app, Brie Bella expressed her frustration with her three-minute match on Smackdown last week.
Brie said that she had been pitching for a singles match for a while and was super excited when she was told she’s finally getting one.
“When I heard the times, I was bummed, but also I understand, you know, Smackdown is back to two hours,” Brie said, noting that everyone is now fighting for TV time and they’re condensing a lot of stuff.
“I mean, obviously, I won’t lie. I was bummed, so for me, this is how I look at it is that, you know, they tried to get a bunch of stuff in and obviously, I’m always grateful to be on the card,” she continued. “I mean, did I make jokes when I went back? Paige and I were like, ‘How did I lose my time? How did I lose my time?’ You know, of course I’m gonna make jokes and like, ‘If there’s anyone we can give three minutes to, it’s Brie Bella, because she’s from the diva era,’ and I did.”
She admitted that when she heard her time before she got to the building, she was pissed, but quickly got over it when she reflected on what she gets to do for a living.
AEW is returning to the Chicago area for All Out this year, with the pay-per-view to be held on Saturday, September 26 live from the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
AEW President Tony Khan made the announcement while appearing on Q101 Chicago in an interview with Case Lowe.
This will be the eighth All Out pay-per-view and four of them have been held at the NOW Arena, while a fifth was also in Chicago but at the much bigger United Center.
The show is typically held during Labor Day weekend but last year was done later in the month and this year it will follow last year’s model.
Sheamus has already been moved to the alumni section on WWE.COM, effectively confirming that the Irish star has exited the company.
Dave Meltzer of the Observer is reporting that Sheamus was offered a pay cut as part of a new contract offer, one which he turned down. This is the same situation which led to the shock exit of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods of The New Day.
The former multi-time WWE champion brings down the curtain on a 20-year career with WWE without making a final appearance since getting injured. Sheamus was last seen on WWE television in November at Madison Square Garden on Raw and subsequently underwent shoulder surgery.
He leaves WWE after winning the WWE title three times, the WWE World Heavyweight title once, the United States title three times, the Raw Tag Team titles four times, the Smackdown Tag Team titles once, as well as winning the King of the Ring, Money In The Bank, and the Royal Rumble.
Nixon Newell, the artist formerly known as Tegan Nox in WWE, and Miranda Alize have announced their engagement.
Alize posted that she’s now engaged along with a photo of her engagement ring taken at the Venice Beach skatepark.
Apart from being a real-life couple, Newell, 31, and Alize, 32, teamed up in indie promotions and briefly wrestled for AEW as well. That stint was cut short when the two decided to bail after being told they were losing in a tag match on Collision.
There are big rumors, although unconfirmed, that CM Punk will be making his return to WWE television tonight on Raw live from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.
It’s an arena that Punk knows too well, an arena he has headlined many times throughout his career and the same place where he made his sensational return to WWE after a decade at the Survivor Series a few years ago.
The former WWE World Heavyweight champion has not been seen on WWE television since the Raw after WrestleMania, where he said he would not be going on hiatus following his title loss. But that’s exactly what he did, perhaps due to some reported issues creatively with the company which have been rumored for a while.
Punk is said to be taking on Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam and Rhodes will have a chance to claim back the WWE Championship tonight in a one-on-one mach against new champion Sami Zayn. Perhaps, tonight will be the perfect night to kick start this feud
Upon his return, he will be moving to the Smackdown roster, leaving the Raw brand for a little bit in a bid to balance the heavyweights on the two rosters.
Ticket sales for tonight’s Raw picked up quite a bit since the rumors of his return came out, with the show now closing in on 12,000 tickets distributed. The cheapest standard ticket is $110.20 and tickets are available on Ticketmaster.com.
