EDITOR’S NOTE: Postmedia today re-introduces a regular column by Calgary native and World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Nattie Neidhart, a.k.a. Natalya. The two-time women’s world champion and longtime WWE star will pen a regular column, which she did previously for Postmedia, giving readers an inside glance into her world and the massively popular world of professional wrestling. Welcome back, Nattie!
Raw is on Netflix!
There was so much excitement surrounding the Raw on Netflix premiere this past Monday, live from Los Angeles.
I’ve had the pleasure of growing up in the business of professional wrestling and I’ve seen several important eras come and go: From the days of the territories to the iconic, cartoon-like world of WWE in the ’80s to the Attitude Era to the PG Era of WWE.
But one thing is for certain: There’s never been a dull moment!
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The premiere of Rawon Netflix was a transcending moment for our industry and it opens up a whole new world of viewership, a world that invites nearly 283 million Netflix subscribers to watch WWE programming every single week. Canadian fans are among the luckiest in the world: They don’t just get Raw on Netflix, they get live SmackDown, NXT, all premium live events, and the WWE’s archive. It’s honestly just the start of an incredible journey and partnership with Netflix.
I had the opportunity to attend the Netflix premiere and the excitement backstage was amazing. It had a WrestleMania feel … but maybe even bigger because it was so new and so much effort and hype had been put into the debut broadcast.
Everyone was dressed in their best clothing, wearing huge smiles, walking with excitement and an energy that was all about us coming together to usher in the Netflix Era.
Backstage, everyone from our talent to producers to film crews, makeup artists, commentators, announcers, referees, talent relations, even catering, was feeling the energy shift of something amazing about to happen. It’s a shift from WWE being a big company to WWE growing exponentially.
Everyone was on board. Especially our fans, the WWE Universe.
Enough cannot be said about the fans, who have been a passenger on this ride week in and week out, year in and year out, decade in and decade out, throughout time. The fans truly are the heartbeat of WWE.
While walking the red carpet at the Intuit Dome, where the event took place, I was asked which match I was most excited to watch during the premiere. Naturally, it was a women’s match.
The women of WWE work so hard on their craft, from building their stories on air to cultivating them through social media. There’s so much that goes into what we do, most of which people don’t always see.
Take Liv Morgan, for example. I loved watching her women’s championship showdown with Rhea Ripley at the premiere — not as a colleague or fellow WWE star, but simply as a fan.
A bunch of us fellow women’s talent sat at a monitor backstage and watched both women pour their hearts and souls out onto the mat.
When Liv first won the women’s championship, I remember telling her how proud I was of her because she’s not an overnight-success story. She is someone who has been working for more than a decade to get where she is.
I have an even more personal relationship with Liv because I get to witness her training with me at The Dungeon on her days off, working on her craft, giving back and trying to always grow and learn and really be her very best.
I get to see a lot of WWE talent at our ring on their days off because it’s my day off, too. And we’re in my ring working, working, working. And I know who could hit the moon in the right circumstances.
Oh, did I mention, I’ve got my own wrestling ring at a place I’ve named The Dungeon?! More on that in a future column.
But I digress. Liv was one of those. I loved watching her get a chance to shine on the big stage of Netflix. She so deserved it, along with Rhea.
Immediately following the Netflix premiere, during which we saw celebrities, legends of wrestling, the superstars of today and tomorrow come together, we debuted as the No. 1 television show on Netflix, proving that the world is intrigued and fascinated by WWE and all we do.
Personally, I couldn’t be more proud of the people I work with to make all of this come together, everybody rowing on the same boat in the same direction with every teammate on board for success.
I guess what they say about teamwork making the dream work is true, and Raw on Netflix proved just that.