‘You’ve got to hit the lottery’ – WWE legend fumes at ticket prices as Raw posts massive Netflix figures

Jan 16, 2026 - 10:00

WWE is doing big, big business – and fans are watching.

Just a year after the company’s mega-millions Netflix deal kickstarted with The Rock on show, the viewing figures from the first twelve months have been revealed.

WWE has called Netflix its home since January 2025

The deal, said to be worth $5.5bn overall, took Monday Night Raw away from linear television for the first time since its 1993 launch and gave worldwide viewers all-new access to epic events like WrestleMania and Royal Rumble.

A year on, WWE’s first year on Netflix has underlined just how strong its modern position has become, with wrestling once again proving to be one of the most widely consumed forms of weekly entertainment in the world.

New viewing figures reveal huge WWE boom

Across 2025, WWE content generated more than 525 million hours of viewing on the platform.

The bulk of that came from Monday Night Raw, which pulled in 340 million hours alone.

Since Raw debuted on Netflix in January 2025, it has appeared in the Global Top 10 English-language TV chart in 47 of the 52 weeks it has aired, averaging more than three million viewers per week.

Premium Live Events broadcast internationally on Netflix, including WrestleMania and the Royal Rumble, along with weekly episodes of SmackDown, accounted for the remaining 185 million hours.

The Netflix deal isn’t even the only blockbuster rights deal they’ve brokered in recent years – hot on the heels of its streaming debut came a new partnership with ESPN that reportedly pocketed them another $1.6bn.

Even away from broadcast revenues, WWE have continued to hit it big. Constant sell-outs not only in the US but also across the world have further bolstered the position.

Naturally, then, a good chunk of WWE’s financial boom and grown under the TKO banner in recent years has come from the pockets of fans not only watching on Netflix and ESPN but those attending the events that are seen around the world in person.

The tickets are hot property, as evidenced by the vast number of sell-outs, but it seems not everyone is finding it easy to afford them.

Cody Rhodes, recently unseated as WWE Champ, has been at the forefront of WWE’s streaming charge

TKO are the parent company of both the UFC and WWE, having merged in September 2023

WWE Hall of Fame icon Rikishi – father to tag team legends The Usos – went as far as to reveal that complimentary tickets for talent have all-but become a thing of the past.

If many fans are feeling the pinch, they aren’t alone.

WWE star speaks out on ticket price controversy

Rikishi, speaking on his podcast, feels prices have skyrocketed since the Attitude Era, to the point you now need to “hit the lottery” to go big at a WWE show.

“I don’t know about the ticket prices with TKO because even my family members now, we can’t even… they will usually call me for tickets, but it’s too difficult now. There’s a lot of loopholes you have to go through,” he said.

“Even though I’m not with the company, I’m still in the legends contract with the WWE.

“You would think that family members and friends, close friends, you still have those comp tickets, but there is no comp tickets. I can probably try to get discounted, but I don’t know what’s discount nowadays. Like, $1,000 ticket?”

Rikishi (left) was a singles star and tag team champion across multiple WWE eras[/caption]

Triple H continues to book a very popular WWE product, but Rikishi finds the pricing tough

That price point, Rikishi explained, is simply out of reach for many families.

“That’s still, you know, for a family of five and a man working nine to five through the whole week, and the whole family loves wrestling, it’s very difficult to be able to take a family to events,” he added.

Historically, WWE had been an affordable commodity for families. Though the Attitude Era was a far edgier product, the cost of taking a family to a live event now seems to have risen far beyond the natural passage of time.

The multi-time former champ highlighted as much and pointed to how dramatically things have changed since his own in-ring run.

“I know back in the day for us, you had tickets like $25, $50, front row seat was $75 or something like that. But now, boy, you really got to hit the lottery to even sit up in the nose.”

Only time will tell if the ever-changing financial landscape will make attending live wrestling events unsustainable in future but, if the Netflix figures are anything to go by, it’s clear WWE is reaching more people than ever before.