This week’s episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown was the first episode of 2025 and a new all blue ring mat debuted on the show. With WWE debuting a new ring mat for SmackDown fans couldn’t but wonder if the company might be switching things up for Raw as well, and that appears to be the case.
Rate SmackDown's blue ring mat on a scale of 1 to 10 #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/nrKEoFoWbS
— Still Real To Us (@stillreal2us) January 4, 2025
Prior to SmackDown this week a new black ring mat was set up in the ring showing numerous logos for brands including Fortnite, Riyadh Season, Real American Beer, Cricket, Netflix and Snickers. WWE has been embracing sponsorship opportunities in a major way over the last few years, but this is obviously a big change for the red brand.
Ahead of SmackDown there was a black ring mat out in the ring which had the following logos on it, presumably will be used for RAW on Netflix:
• Fortnite (in the middle)
• Riyadh Season
• Hulk Hogan’s ‘Real American Beer’
• Cricket
• Netflix
• Snickers(: @gbates5533) pic.twitter.com/0wioFhVbQw
— Wrestle Ops (@WrestleOps) January 4, 2025
The WWE Raw premiere on Netflix is set to usher in a new era for WWE and the company has stacked the card for the show. It will be interesting to see if any other big changes are made to Raw when the show finally arrives on Netflix on Monday, January 6.
How do you feel about WWE adding sponsors to the ring mat for Raw? Sound off in the comments below.
