WWE: New TV Deal Announced for Japan, LA Knight Health Update, Becky Lynch on Women’s Division Booking Issues

Sep 29, 2023

WWE Announces New TV Deal with ABEMA for Japan

WWE announced that they have recently signed a new television contract with Japanese television network ABEMA for the broadcast of their programming in Japan starting this October.

Official press release:

ABEMA TO BECOME HOME OF WWE® IN JAPAN
Raw® And SmackDown® Will Be Broadcast Free-To-Air with Japanese Commentary for First Time
Premium Live Events Including WrestleMania®, SummerSlam® And Fastlane® To Broadcast Live In Japan
STAMFORD, Conn., September 28, 2023 – WWE®, part of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO), and ABEMA have agreed to a new media rights partnership in Japan that will see WWE’s flagship programming broadcast exclusively on ABEMA platforms in Japan beginning October 2023.
Raw and SmackDown will both broadcast free-to-air in Japan every week with Japanese commentary immediately following first broadcast in the U.S., for the first time ever. Starting with Raw on Tuesday, October 3 (and every Tuesday night at 8pm local time) and SmackDown on Saturday, October 7 (and every Saturday night at 8pm local time), both weekly shows will also be available to watch on-demand. The new agreement will also see NXT® available to watch on-demand in Japan via ABEMA Video.
Additionally, all WWE Premium Live Events will air exclusively live on ABEMA, with all past editions of WrestleMania® available to view on-demand via ABEMA Video beginning October 1.

／#SmackDown & #WWERaw
ABEMA オリジナルKV公開！
＼

世界最高峰の
スポーツエンターテインメント
『RAW』&『SMACKDOWN』を#ABEMA で無料放送決定📡

📅10.3(火) RAWよる8時〜https://t.co/x7ZDOJKDeA

📅10.7(土) SMACKDOWN よる8時〜https://t.co/4gzHacGB53 #WWE #wwe_jp #アベマでWWE https://t.co/fRGJoEK6MZ pic.twitter.com/GTX8MrgYFG
— ABEMA格闘 (@Abema_Fight) September 28, 2023

LA Knight Health Status Update

As noted before, LA Knight was pulled from this past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show due to him testing positive for COVID-19. This caused WWE’s original plans involving Knight for the show to be changed as a result.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials currently expect Knight to return for tonight’s SmackDown show in Sacramento, California.

Becky Lynch Comments on Her Issues with WWE’s Booking of Their Women’s Division

The New York Post held a recent interview with Becky Lynch. One of the topics discussed included Lynch’s thoughts about her issues with WWE’s booking and handling of their Women’s division in recent times.

“Currently, we are a little light on women with credibility on Raw. So anyway I can give these women, who are great, credibility, give them a match, give them an outing and showcase them in a championship match, I think that only benefits everybody. It benefits the audience because we have more women that we care about and more women that I can beat. I need people to come up. I need people on this level. But if nobody’s getting any TV time. If nobody’s getting any storytime then they can’t rise up because nobody knows who the hell they are.”