Triple H confirms WWE Raw runtime on Netflix will be ‘flexible’

Triple H recently confirmed to Jimmy Traina on the SI Media podcast recently that WWE Raw on Netflix’s runtime will be flexible.

Raw has only been a two-hour show for the last three months while airing on the USA Network. It is expected to return to a three-hour format beginning with tomorrow’s premiere on Netflix. However, Levesque says they can be flexible about exactly how long each episode goes. 

Levesque said:

“It’ll be flexible in that I don’t think necessarily the the time constraints of network television or cable television apply. It’s a slightly different form, it’s a slightly different platform. I think much like many shows, whether dramas, whetherwhatever, but episodic shows, they have the ability to do whatever the show needs to have done. So if this episode needs to be an hour, great, it’s an hour. This next episode needs to be 42 minutes, it’s 42 minutes. It’s what makes for the best product. Now I’m not saying that we’re going to be 42 minutes, but clearly we’ll deliver the product in a way that is is best for Netflix and and for their business model and and what is best for our storytelling.”

Levesque believes that the “sweet spot” for wrestling is between two and three hours.

“Sometimes you get into the two hour show and you just don’t have the real estate on that program to get everything in there you want to get in and all the stories that you want to get in and all the characters that you want to get in and there are people that are getting left off.”

One of the benefits of having a flexible run time, Levesque says, is that it allows WWE to let segments run long without taking away from other stories on the show. 

“Sometimes 3 hours can feel long; sometimes two hours is not enough. Somewhere in the middle to me is the sweet spot,” he continued.