WWE’s biggest weekend of the year starts tonight and, with it coinciding with the bank holiday weekend and the brand’s move to Netflix, fans in the UK will find it easier than ever to watch all the action live than ever before.
Whereas in previous years fans have had to pay to view WWE’s equivalent of The Super Bowl, the wrestling firm’s multi-billion dollar deal with Netflix means all subscribers – either directly through the streaming giant or watching free as part of their Sky TV bundles – can watch all the high flying action this year without actually paying an extra penny for it.
The move means WrestleMania 41 looks set to reach record audiences as well as changing how a generation of children watch the iconic event. For two of WWE’s up and coming tag team stars who, like many older fans, had to beg parents to pay for the individual events it’s a big moment.
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Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.
This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like The Last of Us and Black Mirror.
Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, A-Town Down Under’s Grayson Waller explained: “Watching Wrestlemania as a kid was tough. The first WrestleMania I remember is 17 but my mum was cheap, she wouldn’t pay for the pay-per-view – thanks a lot Chez! I watched the Limp Bizkit music video they released with it after, I watched that over and over again cause I couldn’t see the whole show.”
Austin Theory added: “As a kid, it was very expensive to get the pay-per-views. I think the first one I saw was WrestleMania 25, with the ladder match,h and I loved it, the spectacle. But now it’s all there and easy for everyone to watch.”
Fans watching the event as it makes its Netflix debut will get two action packed nights of huge matches – including Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and CM Punk in a triple threat match and Cody Rhodes versus a newly villainous John Cena – who has one eye on winning a record-breaking 17th world title reign.
The glittering two night event is a new high for the partnership between Netflix and WWE, which has gone from strength to strength since WWE debuted on the streaming service earlier this year.
Waller explains: “WWE was cool 18 months or two years ago, more and more people were slowly getting invested and then finally Netflix happens and people realise it’s mainstream and cool again. Not just the wrestling, although obviously that – I think this is the best roster we’ve ever had and it’s not even close. But then you have Travis Scott, Logan Paul coming in, celebrities coming to the shows. Whatever you’re into now, there’s someone you like who is coming to a show and into watching wrestling. We even had Matthew McConaughey. I mean that’s just cool.”
The Aussie added: “Now it doesn’t matter what country you’re in, everyone has Netflix, turn it on and all of a sudden you’ve got Raw, Smackdown, all the live events. So now you’re building this new audience who want to come and see what they saw on Netflix live. And you can’t do that with anything else, you can’t go to Squid Games live can you? You can’t.” He paused: “It’d be sick if you could though.”
For fans who prefer action that creates excitement rather than anxiety, there’s lots to look forward to this summer. Hot on the heels of Wrestlemania, WWE has announced a high-profile pay-per-view event in Paris in late August, with a host of ‘Road to Clash in Paris’ events around Europe in the run-up. As well as house shows in Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds and Cardiff, Dublin’s 3Arena will host the city’s first ever Friday Night SmackDown, while Birmingham will host their first Monday Night Raw in almost a decade. Fans can sign up for pre-sale information here.
The lengthy tour is the latest in a series of international events which has led to speculation that the first Wrestlemania outside of North America may happen sooner rather than later. Wrestling stars including John Cena, Drew McIntyre and Kofi Kingston have joined London Mayor Sadiq Khan in lobbying for London to get hosting duties and, while Waller doesn’t go that far, he is uncharacteristically complimentary about British fans.
“The UK crowds understand chants. You know, they go to soccer games, they have fun chants, they say hilarious things. American crowds are just like [he claps awkwardly] ‘let’s go, go, go!’ They don’t understand the chanting, they don’t understand the banter side of it. So I think there’s something about the UK and international crowds where it’s fun. The crowd is fun. The American crowd sometimes take themselves way too seriously. You see the difference in performances of the wrestlers on the show, they enjoy it a little bit more. It’s a whole different experience.”
Night 1: Saturday 19th April – starts at 00:00 BST and runs into Sunday morning
Night 2: Sunday 20th April – starts at 00:00 BST and runs into Monday morning
* All WWE programming in the UK is available via Netflix, including RAW, SmackDown, NXT, Premium Live Events and WWE Archives. Viewers can buy a standalone membership direct or currently get it free as part of Sky TV deals in their Easter sale here.
Meanwhile, WWE will be hosting a huge Clash at Paris pay per view event in August and a host of UK dates on the Road to Clash at Paris Tour in the run up to the event. Sign up for exclusive presale information here or see Ticketmaster to buy tickets for forthcoming WWE shows here.
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