John Pollock &Wai Ting review WWE Raw with the go-home episode for the Royal Rumble featuring Edge’s announcement. Plus, a big discussion of the WWE deal with Peacock.
NBCU’s Peacock streaming service obtain the U.S. distribution rights for the WWE Network
Roderick McMahon passes away
AEW Revolution scheduled for 3/7
Friday Night SmackDown does a strong number
It was the Royal Rumble go-home edition of RAW featuring a face-to-face meeting between Drew McIntyre and Bill Goldberg, Riddle runs the Hurt Business Gauntlet for a shot at Lashley, Edge makes a big announcement about this Sunday, a rematch between Asuka and Alexa Bliss for the RAW Women’s Championship, and a visual update on Randy Orton’s first degree burns.
During this podcast, Wai pondered if there would be ads inserted during live PPVs. I really don’t think they’d go that far (aside from the ads that are already sprinkled throughout the show by WWE and their usual advertisers), and last night I asked a friend what Peacock does when they air live English Premier League:
"No ad breaks during matches besides halftime. I haven’t watched sitcoms or shows like that on Peacock.
If there’s a live game on, it’s not front and center on the app like it would be on every other streaming service. You have to search for it under sports. Yet if you want to watch a Jimmy Fallon show sketch from last night, it’s right there."