10 Big Changes Coming To WWE On Netflix
2. Wednesday Night Raw?
Here’s a riddle that might confuse some fans: Who says that Raw must continue airing on Monday nights?
USA Network airs Raw live on Monday nights because that is where they have a block of time in the primetime schedule carved out for the popular wrestling show. They can’t bump it to Tuesday or Wednesday at 8pm ET because other shows are scheduled to air then. That's how it's been for 30-plus years.
However, Netflix doesn’t operate the same way. In theory, there aren’t any of those restrictions limiting Raw to only go live at 8pm ET on Monday nights. There’s no slot on a channel that must be filled at that exact day and time.
If WWE was on the west coast and didn’t want to start Raw at 5pm local time, they could wait an hour without worrying about upsetting network executives. Along those lines, what about moving Raw to a different night of the week for strategic purposes? Maybe a desirable arena isn’t available, or some emergency (like the hurricanes that have battered the United States recently) forced a cancellation of Raw on a Monday but they can hold it on Wednesday elsewhere.
Chances are, WWE is not going to get cute with this sort of thing. Their viewers are creatures of habit, and suddenly moving Raw to Wednesday night or even pushing it back to 9pm ET runs the risk of confusing viewers. But there’s always that possibility that WWE and Netflix could experiment with the formula.