WWE Feeling 'Handcuffed' By Netflix Censorship

Monday Night Raw and other WWE programming airing on Netflix has ultimately been censored by the streaming service, and people within WWE aren't exactly thrilled about the situation.

Censorship by Netflix on Monday Night Raw over the past several weeks has included a line from Becky Lynch about Liv Morgan sleeping with Dominik Mysterio being edited out of the show, the broadcast cutting away when Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar flipped each other off ahead of SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar's shirt being pixelated despite it already featuring "Sh*t" as opposed to the full curse word, and Royce Keys' bloody mouth being blurred out following his Street Fight with Jacob Fatu on August 3.

Those edits were made to the replay version of Monday Night Raw after the show had already aired live without such censorship, but that wasn't the case for the August 31 edition of Raw due to the show being taped in advance. This meant the only version of WWE Raw available to watch on Netflix featured heavy censorship, most notably during the opening backstage attack by Royce Keys and OTM against The Usos, with Jey Uso's whole face being blurred out due to blood. Solo Sikoa's bloody face was then blurred out later in the show, while Jacob Fatu's expletive-laden promo was full of bleeps to disguise the curse words.

WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select has reported that WWE's post-production department feel "handcuffed" at times by Netflix's restrictions, particularly the streaming platform's censorship. Some in WWE didn't expect the restrictions on Netflix to be so intensive.

An uncensored version of the backstage attack from Royce Keys and OTM was posted on social media by WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque. The feeling within WWE about uploading an uncensored version was unanimous as some believed it was necessary for the angle to be seen as originally intended. Another individual, however, questioned if the angle should have been saved for a week when Raw was airing live.

WWE Raw has aired on Netflix since January 2025, while Netflix also airs SmackDown, NXT, and WWE pay-per-views in many countries around the world with the exception of the United States. The two sides agreed to a 10-year deal worth $5 billion, although Netflix have an opt-out after five years.