Netflix is getting the hang of this sports thing with Monday Night Raw

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. Appreciate you giving us your time.

It’s been a long time coming, but Netflix seems to be getting the hang of this live sports thing.

The company purchased the rights to Raw for $5 billion last January as a foray into live sports. Raw had its first showing go off without a hitch on Monday, as Triple H introduced what they call the company’s “Netflix Era.”

WWE pulled out all the stops for this one. Travis Scott did the new theme song. The Rock showed up. Roman Reigns got his throne back.  CM Punk fought Seth Rollins. John Cena declared for the Royal Rumble. Hulk Hogan got booed to no end (deservedly so). A whole lot happened on Monday night in the wrestling world.

But this is less about that and more about the fact that it went off without any hitches.

Netflix hosting live sports felt like a pipe dream just a few years ago. The streaming platform used to struggle to broadcast reality show reunions. Now, in the last two months, it’s hosted three major broadcast events: The Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul boxing match, the NFL’s Christmas Day games and, now, WWE’s Monday Night Raw.

Has it gone perfectly? No, not at all. The Tyson-Paul fight, in particular, was a fiasco. There was constant buffering. You basically had to watch the fight in 480p. It was a disaster. And, yet, 60 million households tuned in, according to Netflix.

Are those numbers real? Probably not completely. Netflix has a history of fudging numbers to make itself look good. But the numbers were huge. That fight was a Super Bowl-level event for us here at For The Win. So, even if the numbers weren’t exactly what Netflix says they were, the event was still a massive undertaking.

Since then, things have only gotten better. The Beyoncé Christmas Day games were broadcast with no problem. And, obviously, Monday Night Raw went smoothly. We’ll have see if things go well again next week, but regardless of what buffering problems the future may hold, one major thing has become increasingly clear.

Netflix can do this.

The one thing missing from the company’s massive IP portfolio through the years was live sports. It’s the thing its competitors held over its head. Amazon Prime had the NFL. TNT and Max broadcast live NBA games. Hulu had every sport that Disney and ESPN had available.

Live wasn’t Netflix’s thing. Not until now. And, now that it’s doing it, it’s doing it big.

That’s great news for sports leagues and entertainment properties as they venture into the next frontier of broadcast television where streamers are the worldwide leaders. That’s terrible news for cable network providers, who are slowly, but surely, losing every property that means anything to the viewers they covet.

Tweakin’ on Tweaker

LiAngelo Ball’s new song “Tweaker” is stuck in my head. My wife is going to kick me out of the house if I enter another room screaming “MIGHT SWERVE AND BEND THAT CORNER, WOAAAAHOOH.”

The funny thing about it is that I don’t even like the song. It’s just a catchy tune. Hit play at your own risk.

WARNING: There’s a whole lot of NSFW language in this video

This song is everywhere in the sports world. Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky with more:

“Already played in NBA locker rooms (including the Bulls and Cavs) as well as NFL locker rooms (including the Lions), this song has garnered more than 2.7 million listens on YouTube since it debuted on WorldStarHipHop.

It is the number one trending song on YouTube music (ahead of artists such as Tyler, The Creator as well as Lil Baby, Bad Bunny, and Drake).”

There’s a late-90’s early 2000’s No Limit Records vibe to this thing. It’s not exactly it. It’s definitely not as good as some of that stuff used to be. But the vibe is there. And I guess that’s kind of fun.

But, please, y’all. Play something else for a sec so I can get this earworm out.

Drama on the Banks

There’s a lot of drama swirling around Rutgers star freshman Kiyomi McMiller these days.

She was mysteriously benched by head coach Coquese Washington ahead of a marquee matchup against USC and Juju Watkins on Sunday, which prompted her to actually call her coach out on Instagram.

The situation has continued to devolve since. Meg Hall has a quick synopsis of everything here.

The brass tacks:

“The DMV native has quickly made a name for herself, and as her stardom has ascended, so have the number of eyes on her game. More people want in on the McMiller experience, including when the Scarlet Knights play ranked matchups. As expected, fans were excited to see the young guard in action when Rutgers played USC on January 5. But hours before tipoff, McMiller revealed she wouldn’t be suiting up, creating so many questions.”

We don’t know what’s going on here. Washington, herself, has been mum on things.

But, regardless of the details, what a great shame this is. McMiller is a huge talent. Her being benched is a bummer.

Hopefully cooler heads can prevail between McMiller and Washington and we can see her back on the court soon.

Quick hits: Fox Sports drama … Tyreek Hill is out … and more

— Charles Curtis put together every detail we know so far about the Fox Sports lawsuit involving Skip Bayless and Joy Taylor.

— Tyreek Hill is channeling Antonio Brown on social media to let everyone know he’s done with the Dolphins. Andrew Joseph has more.

— There’s a chance the Cotton Bowl might see a weather delay. Here’s Charles with more detail on that.

— Robert Zeglinski and Christian D’Andrea have their latest NFL Power Rankings for you heading into the playoffs.

— Jerry Jones …vcan act???? Tyler Nettuno has more on that.

— Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky on why Blake Griffin is a perfect pick for Peacock’s NBA crew.

That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. Peace.

-Sykes