WWE: CM Punk Declares for Men’s Royal Rumble, Triple H on RAW’s Cold Open Video Criticisms & Early Netflix Viewership Numbers, Hulk Hogan Gets Booed & More RAW Netflix Premiere Show News

Jan 7, 2025

CM Punk Comments on His Victory Over Seth Rollins & Declares for Men’s Royal Rumble

Monday’s WWE RAW premiere show on Netflix in Inglewood, California featured CM Punk defeating Seth Rollins in the first ever main event for RAW on Netflix. Following the show, Punk was interviewed by Jackie Redmond during WWE’s post-show and gave his thoughts about his victory and officially declared himself for this year’s Men’s Royal Rumble match.

“46 is just a number, and so is number one. That’s exactly what I am and exactly what I have been saying since I got here in 2005. Yeah, maybe I took a ten-year vacation, but I’m back and better than ever. Nobody is touching me. BITW. Best in the World, that’s what it means. Straight Edge, it means I’m better than you. I’m coming for all the gold in 2025. Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, WrestleMania. Netflix, biggest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. This match is for Chad Gilbert. This match is for Chris Bey. This match is for me and anybody who ever said that I wasn’t shit. Look at me now.
46 is just a number. One through 30, just numbers. Royal Rumble, you’re next on the list. Gunther, I’m coming for you. Cody, I’m coming for you. I’m Mr. October. I’m Game 7. I am clutch. I am the best in the world.”

Punk joins John Cena as those who have officially declared themselves for this year’s Men’s Royal Rumble match.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Triple H Comments on RAW’s Cold Open Video Criticisms & Early Netflix Viewership Numbers

Following Monday’s WWE RAW’s premiere show on Netflix, WWE held a post-show press conference featuring WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque among the speakers. One of the topics discussed included Levesque’s thoughts about the cold open video WWE aired for their RAW on Netflix premiere show and the online criticisms over some of the wrestling terms used in it.

“The reaction seems like we did a good job with it. That was the intent, to capture the emotion and let people know, we’re not hiding what we do. I saw a lot of chatter today from people saying, ‘Oh my God, they said heel and face and shoot and work in one promo.’ We’re not hiding what we do. That’s what we do. To be honest, I think most of the world understands those terms and they’ve almost transcended our business. It’s transcended our business. It’s what it is, people know what we are. We talk about it. We’re not insulting anybody’s intelligence. We’re an art form. Absolutely an art form that captures people’s emotions. We don’t take ourselves as seriously as most other people take us. It was all part of trying to capture that and say, ‘If you’ve watched, watch this and hopefully we honor what you love. If you’ve never watched this, watch this, we’ll explain to you what we are.’ That was the attempt.”

Levesque also gave his thoughts about the early viewership numbers for RAW’s premiere show were strong. Levesque also stated that both WWE President Nick Khan and Netflix executives were pleased and thrilled over the early numbers generated.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

WWE RAW Premiere Show on Netflix News & Notes

Monday’s WWE RAW premiere show on Netflix featured WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan making a surprise appearance. Hogan’s appearance was notable for him rambling on about a bunch of stuff and being heavily booed by the live crowd whenever he spoke.

WrestleTix reported that WWE had sold and distributed around 17,003 tickets for Monday’s RAW premiere show on Netflix.

Monday’s WWE RAW premiere show on Netflix also featured Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson announcing that the show broke the all-time record for largest live gate for a WWE show in company history. Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that this would mean that Monday’s show drew a live gate of over $3 million in order for that to be possible.

Monday’s WWE RAW premiere show on Netflix also featured WWE’s RAW brand referees sporting a new dark grey with a black color and stripes for their new official match uniforms.

Monday’s WWE RAW premiere show on Netflix also featured SmackDown brand talent Bayley making a backstage appearance. During the show, Bayley was seen chatting with RAW GM Adam Pearce over her potentially moving to the RAW brand as part of WWE’s current transfer period window.

Monday’s WWE RAW premiere show on Netflix also featured the official debut teaser announcement for this year’s WWE 2K25 video game and more details teased to be arriving on January 28th. Official debut screenshots featuring Liv Morgan, Cody Rhodes, Damian Priest, and CM Punk were released by Microsoft’s official Xbox account on Twitter.

Monday’s WWE RAW premiere show on Netflix also featured WWE debuting end credits for RAW featuring WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque and WWE Head of Media and Production Lee Fitting listed as the Executive Directors. Similar end credits have been shown on WWE SmackDown and NXT shows since this past October.

Following Monday’s WWE RAW show, WWE held a post-show press conference featuring John Cena as one of the guests. One of the topics discussed included Cena confirming that he has 36 dates scheduled for his Farewell Tour for his wrestling career. Cena also stated that he is not sure how many matches he will be wrestling for his retirement tour.