Paul Heyman Addresses WWE’s Move To Netflix & The Start Of A New Era: “How We Present The Product Must Change”

As WWE‘s new era kicks off and Raw and 2025’s PLEs head to Netflix in a game-changing shift in the industry, one of the company’s most legendary creative figures has laid out a frank assessment of what wrestling fans can expect. Paul Heyman has seen his fair share of changes in wrestling, by his own admission, he’s survived “so many different firings, quittings, blow-ups, and continue[s] to come back“, driving not only industry-shaking disruption like the arrival of ECW but standing at the core of epoch-defining storylines like Brock Lesnar ending The Undertake’s WrestleMania streak, and more recently The Bloodline revitalizing the current product.

Heyman spoke to ScreenRant ahead of Raw‘s move to WWE for an in-depth interview and predicted not only that WWE will change with the advent of a new Era, but also why it must. ScreenRant’s Francesco Cacciatore put the question of how WWE will adapt its storytelling to Heyman in 2025 and beyond and his response was typically energetic:

I hope so. I hope the product is always evolving. Roman Reigns and I always like to say, if we can look back on things that we did 6 months ago, and we can even watch it anymore, then we haven’t improved that much, have we? Of course the product is gonna change when it goes on Netflix. How could it not? It’s the biggest streaming service in the world. It’s the distribution portal now for anyone who wants a level of prestige or placement in the culture. So, once we get on Netflix, the approach to how we present the product must change, must evolve, must upgrade, must be enhanced, must be elevated. If not, what are we doing? How are we not taking advantage of that opportunity?

Heyman went on to admit that even with his wealth of experience, he can’t predict the specifics of those changes, because – crucially – WWE’s evolution will be reactive:

So, yes, the product will change on Netflix. Yes, it will be intentional. Yes, it will be with the help and the interaction of the audience itself. And, no, I make no predictions about it because the culture will be different when we get on to Netflix. And the culture itself will dictate how far we go in terms of layers of stories. And at the same time, the accountability will be on us in terms of driving that culture. The same way music drives its culture, the same way sneaker fandom drives its culture, the same way music can drive fashion and sports and other cultures, we will drive the culture. We just have to get embedded into it first.

Back at the start of December 2024, WWE’s Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque spoke about how important the move to Netflix was for WWE, saying the current product is “way bigger” than even the Attitude Era. Crucially, he also went as far as to say 2025’s first major development for the company would see the adoption of a new name: “the Netflix Era“.

“…You said the Attitude Era was the biggest, most robust… I don’t think that is accurate anymore. I think it’s right now, and I think that the moment that we are going through right now, I was in the Attitude Era at the peak of it as you were. We didn’t realize what it was in the moment. Having seen that, I see this and I see it way bigger. I see this as this different moment in time in the business and it being something different. And you mentioned the Triple H Era, I don’t think it’s that. I think this at the end of it is going to be called the Netflix Era. That’s where the big change is.”

That’s an important development, and suggests Heyman’s comments about Netflix leading to change are – unsurprisingly – right on the mark. Nick Khan has already said WWE won’t change rating on Netflix, but the platform will open up major new audiences for the company, and viewing figures will likely inform what is seen on screen. Heyman went on to tell ScreenRant that he knows exactly why the change will happen, and how exciting it is to face the likelihood of change:

“…Knowing Paul Levesque, the way I know Paul Levesque, he’s gonna take advantage of that opportunity. Of course, he is. We’re all of this mindset. We’re in a creative environment right now. We’re exhilarated to come to work. There’s an old expression. And, I believe the first time I heard it – though, I’m sure it wasn’t the first time it was said – was by Vince McMahon senior, Vincent James McMahon.

And I heard it when I was 16 or 17 years old in the Madison Square Garden locker room. And he had a roll of quarters in his hand. And someone was complaining about something. And Vince said to this person, “Then you should quit working for me and find somewhere to work that makes you happy. But I don’t want you to be here if you’re not happy.” And someone said to Vince senior, “are you happy?” And he said, “You know, I hear people all the time say, I get up in the morning, and I have to go to work. I get up in the morning, and I say to myself, my god, I get to go to work!” And that’s the mindset here now. We all get to go to work. We all get up in the morning, and we hit the ground running because we’re in a creative environment in which we get to go to work. And we all understand what a fortunate life we get to live in doing so.

One relatively small change has already been confirmed, with advertising brands added to the ring mat for WWE Raw, in conflict with Vince McMahon’s commitment to preserving the sanctity of the ring. And another more significant change was revealed by Triple H in terms of Raw’s runtime, in an interview with Sports Illustrated:

It will be flexible. It will be flexible in I don’t necessarily know the time constraints of network television or cable television apply. It’s a slightly different platform. Much like many episodic shows, they have the ability to do whatever the show needs to have down. If this episode needs to be an hour, great, it’s an hour. If the next episode needs to be 42 minutes, it’s 42 minutes. It’s what makes for the best product. I’m not saying we’re going to be 42 minutes, but clearly we’ll deliver the product in a way that is best for Netflix and their business model and best for our storytelling.”

Our Take On WWE Potentially Changing On Netflix

The confirmed changes aside – and that’s without mentioning the changed archive strategy that has seen only some classic content added to the platform in international territories (including a complete lack of ECW and WCW for now) – it’s inevitable that Netflix changes WWE. As Paul Heyman says, it’s the responsibility of the company to adapt to the culture. People watch Netflix in a completely different way to linear television, and the potentially major uplift in viewing figures cannot be ignored.

The best thing to expect is less filler: linear TV schedules mean guaranteed run-times, and as Triple H has already foreshadowed, Netflix allows the luxury of not being beholden to those strict rules. Shorter Raw episodes when there’s less to say is not a bad thing, even if the inaugural Netflix Raw is expected to be a bumper edition. But there are deeper questions here: will talent change more frequently to ensure the biggest draws end up on Netflix more? Are we going to unwittingly see a civil war between the brands in a more tangible way? It’s exciting, as Heyman says.