Japanese streaming service ABEMA has announced that WWE content will no longer be available on their platform starting September 30. The final WWE broadcast on ABEMA will be an episode of Monday Night RAW on Tuesday, September 29.
The announcement reads (via Google Translate), “Regarding the WWE content (RAW / SMACKDOWN / each PLE event) that has been streamed on ABEMA, the streaming will end as of September 30, 2026 (Wednesday). The final broadcast will be RAW on September 29 (Tuesday). We sincerely thank everyone who has watched WWE on ABEMA so far. We appreciate your continued support for ABEMA.”
WWE recently announced a partnership with ABEMA to air SmackDown, RAW, and WWE premium live events beginning in September 2023. Although WWE content is available internationally on Netflix, it is currently not accessible on Netflix in Japan.
In May, Gabe Spitzer, the Netflix executive and VP of Sports, mentioned that there are plans to launch WWE programming in Japan later this year. During an interview with Andrew Marchand, he stated, “We have all WWE content outside of the U.S., so that’s WrestleMania, it’s RAW, it’s SmackDown, and we’ve just launched in Italy, in Germany. We’re launching in Japan later this year.”
As of now, neither Netflix nor WWE has confirmed the exact date for this programming launch.
