The owner of one of the biggest wrestling promotions in Liverpool believes the sport’s community in the city can benefit from WWE’s move to Netflix.

The US sports entertainment giant has moved its flagship show, Monday Night Raw to the popular streaming service this year with the first episode hitting new viewership records.

It is hoped that the move can bring a new audience to grassroots wrestling, much in the way Drive to Survive brought Formula One to more viewers.

Chris Welsh, owner of Atomic Pro Wrestling, said: “I think and hope it’ll make it a little easier to appeal to a bigger audience.

“If people are watching WWE at home, they’ll already have a decent idea of what ‘wrestling’ is, so if they see an Atomic poster, it might be more likely to grab their interest.”

Lewis Johnson, a wrestler who fights across Liverpool, agrees.

He said: “You will have a wider array of fans wanting to consume local wrestling. But the problem has always been advertising for the smaller promotions.

“People say ‘I never even knew x-place did wrestling’ or ‘I never even knew the wrestling was on’. It’s a line I’ve heard so many times before.”

Welsh added: “It’s still on us to sell tickets and appeal to our audience, but wrestling moving into the mainstream can only make that easier.

“The scene has been growing nicely over the last couple of years anyway, I’d expect this will boost that momentum a little.”

Johnson added: “Netflix will be great for increasing the amount of wrestling fans on a commercial scale. But it’s down to the local wrestling community to be able to capitalise on this.”

The first Episode of RAW on Netflix set new records on the platform. The new season of squid Games was in the top spot but after RAW aired it replaced the Korean show.

RAW on Netflix had over 4.9 million views globally which makes it the most view episode of the flagship show.

RAW AFTER wresltemania
RAW AFTER wresltemania

The RAW after WrestleMaina are known as the biggest episodes in WWE.

And the last five shows after the big event hasn’t seen near the number the Netflix episode did.

The most viewed was in 2024 after that was labelled ‘the best WrestleMaina in a long time’. It had the likes of The Rock, John Cena and The Undertaker.

RAW BEFORE NETFLIX
RAW BEFORE NETFLIX

 

The last five Monday Night Raws before the move averaged only 1.4 million views with the final one being the second-most watched in the last five shows.

But again was nowhere near the number the Netflix episode reached.

Many fans took to X to say they were not happy with the Netflix show due to in not being made for the hardcore wrestling fans and it was more to showcase what WWE is about.