April 1, 2025, will indeed mark the commencement of a new era for Indian WWE fans, as Netflix becomes the exclusive new home for WWE content in the country from this date. This officially severs WWE’s ties with SonyLIV, which has been streaming content from the popular professional wrestling promotion for so long.
This gigantic shift will allow Indian viewers to stream all of WWE’s weekly flagship shows—Friday Night SmackDown, Monday Night Raw, and NXT—along with WWE’s PLEs (Premium Live Events), including Money in the Bank, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and the upcoming WrestleMania.
A new era of @wwe officially begins 🔥
— Netflix India (@NetflixIndia) March 8, 2025
Watch WWE, 1 April onwards, Live on Netflix India!#WWEOnNetflix pic.twitter.com/L4NeFErqL3
This means that Netflix will be the home for Indian viewers to watch WrestleMania 41, scheduled to air as a two-night event on April 19-20, according to U.S. time. This PLE will feature major stars such as Cody Rhodes, John Cena, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Jey Uso, and more.
Indian fans will get to enjoy a complete and immersive WWE experience through this new partnership. Netflix will host all current programming, along with exclusive older content, available both live and on-demand. This move aims to further connect with India’s large and passionate professional wrestling fanbase.
To be honest, this shift couldn’t have come at a better time, considering the heavy criticism SonyLIV has been facing from Indian WWE fans for showing excessive ads while streaming the promotion’s PLEs and weekly flagship shows like Raw and SmackDown.
In recent months, the number of ads on WWE content on SonyLIV has increased significantly. These include advertisements promoted by the platform, along with additional unskippable ads that Indian viewers are forced to watch. Even premium subscribers haven’t been spared from this issue.
Here are some tweets (X posts) to support our story.
Such a big W, I have been using SonyLiv for WWE for the past few months and it is soo asss. So many ads even after paying for the paid membership.
— Sachin Joshi (@shivaamjoshi) March 8, 2025
@SonyLIV @SonyLIVIntl I’m paying 1500 INR for premium subscription Just to have ads in between? Why nobody is talking about this we’re paying RS 1,500 JUS to have ADS 🤡 of 2 mins in 8 mins highlights remove this @SonyLIV I also bought wwe membership on Liv same thing is there pic.twitter.com/CcS3T0zfQo
— Shikhar Singh (@whosshik) March 5, 2025
Cannot wait for @WWE to move to @NetflixIndia in April. @SonyLIV has ruined the experience with ads even on replay. It has become ridiculous to watch it there.
— MJ (@itsmjoseph7) March 4, 2025
The worst app. Ruined watching WWE with those ads.
— Manak S (@Manak_sss) March 4, 2025
April WWE leaves Sony LIV n goes to Netflix.
The ad-filled live stream of WWE’s latest PLE, Elimination Chamber: Toronto (which premiered in India on March 2), also faced heavy criticism from Indian WWE fans.
In replays ads are playing after every 5 mins. It's unwatchable and will be forced to unsubscribe. Take note @WWE @WWEIndia. A 4 hour event can't be played with ads every 5mins on its own when it's a replay that I am watching. @SonyLIVHelps
— Munawwar (@GunnerArchitect) March 2, 2025
However, keep in mind that live events on Netflix, including WWE’s shows, will also feature some commercial breaks across all of the streamer’s plans. So, will Netflix India truly offer an ad-free WWE streaming experience? Well, the odds are pretty low on that one. That said, even if Netflix includes fewer ads, it will still be a major improvement for Indian WWE fans. Stay tuned for more updates.