WWE Raw is heading to Netflix in January, and TKO COO Mark Shapiro recently discussed how the deal came about. Shapiro appeared on The Main Event with Andrew Marchand and spoke about how the deal sprung from initially approaching Netflix about NXT. You can see highlights below (per Wrestling Inc):
On the origins of the deal: “It started with Ari [Emanuel] and I trying to pitch Bela Bajaria [Netflix CCO] on NXT. That’s all it was, and that graduated — to our liking of course — and matured into a conversation of going bigger and going global, and ultimately, that turned out to be Raw and, by the way, all the other properties internationally. So they’re in it in a big way.”
On putting the deal together: “This wasn’t an easy deal… It took them a lot of convincing by Bela, Ari, and me to Ted [Sarandos] directly and Spencer Neumann, the CFO, to get them all in on WWE and then they took a shot. They drove a hard bargain, they were terrific negotiators. The devil’s in the details and there are a lot of details, and they held their ground, and I think they got a great deal for themselves as well.”
