Eric Bischoff Outlines Why WWE's Move To Netflix Is Such An Important Step

One individual who was instrumental in pro wrestling's expansion into network television and beyond was Eric Bischoff. The former WCW Senior Vice President has told the tale several times of proposing "WCW Nitro" be placed into a primetime slot Mondays on TNT, a proposal which was granted. Bischoff spoke on "83 Weeks" about "WWE Raw" moving to Netflix and its evolution to a streaming platform after 32 years of being on cable television.

"The biggest markets for professional wrestling, WWE in particular, they're the ones who have the international footprint for all intents and purposes for this discussion at least, but a lot of that footprint is overseas. It's midnight, it's two in the morning, it's six in the morning, so I think over the course of 24 hours without question this will probably be the most watched episode of professional wrestling ever," Bischoff projected. "In terms of live, I'm not really sure how big of a footprint we will get internationally from the live broadcast.

Fans have been mostly happy with WWE's transition to Netflix with immediately notable improvements over the WWE Network, such as a stronger playback engine for live and on-demand content, as well as subtitles. Netflix reported that the "Raw" premiere had 4.9 million global views with 2.6 million coming from the United States, overtaking "Squid Game" season 2 at the top of the charts.

"This is such an important next step for the industry that I think referring it to anything other than the Netflix Era would be underselling it or understating it," Bischoff continued. "Giant leaps forward from a production perspective. The camerawork was really fascinating... [The premiere] really was all about the spectacle.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "83 Weeks" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.