By: John Pollock & Brandon Thurston
WWE and Netflix are set to release the first batch of episodes for their ‘WWE: Unreal’ series next month, and we have learned exclusive details related to the series.
The five-episode series, officially announced by Netflix for release on July 29, is a co-production involving Omaha Productions, NFL Films, Skydance Sports, and WWE under director Chris Weaver and showrunner Erik Powers, who are both with NFL Films. Executive Producers include Ross Ketover, Jessica Boddy, and Ken Rodgers, also from NFL Films.
A source close to the production compared the series to HBO’s popular Hard Knocks series and provided us with the following descriptions for each of the episodes:
Episode 1
– A focus on the WWE Raw premiere on Netflix at the Intuit Dome from this past January and the main event between CM Punk and Seth Rollins, with a spotlight on Punk, Cody Rhodes, and Rhea Ripley.
Episode 2
– Focusing on the men’s Royal Rumble match and the feud between Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens from Saturday Night’s Main Event and their ladder match at the Rumble. There is also a spotlight on Jey Uso and his Rumble win.
Episode 3
– This is an episode heavily featuring the female talent, including Chelsea Green winning the U.S. title this past December, Charlotte Flair returning from her injury, the women’s Royal Rumble & Elimination Chamber matches, and a portion dedicated to Bianca Belair. Both episodes focusing on the Royal Rumble matches include a visual feature following a wrestler throughout the match in a continuous sequence, and are said to be visually compelling.
Episode 4
– This episode covers John Cena’s heel turn at Elimination Chamber in March and the lengths they went to keep it a secret, as well as focusing on the men’s Elimination Chamber match and New Day’s heel turn. We are told this is the only episode where Nick Khan will speak, as well as appearances by Dwayne Johnson and Brian Gewirtz for the portion covering Cena’s heel turn.
Episode 5
– This is the WrestleMania 41 episode spotlighting the match involving Gunther and Jey Uso, CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns, IYO SKY vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair, and Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena. The fifth episode includes a scene of Levesque being handed notes for the next night’s episode of Raw to emphasize the ongoing nature of WWE’s creative process. There is no mention about The Rock’s absence at WrestleMania, although Johnson appeared on The Pat McAfee Show in April and said he was never scheduled to appear at the event.
We were informed that Johnson’s team did provide notes regarding the episodes in which he appears.
Paul Levesque is said to be a central figure of the series, providing an introduction at the beginning of the first episode and serving as a narrator with an emphasis in episodes one and five.
The episodes include an explanation of several wrestling terms for less-familiar viewers.
In terms of the structure of the shows, we are told that there will be footage of writers’ meetings at WWE HQ and moments in the Gorilla position, but a large amount will be dedicated to profiles on wrestlers and matches. The production included hours of recordings from meetings and writing sessions, but it’s unknown how much will be used in the final cut.
The series began filming around WrestleMania 40 last year, but we are informed that it picked up last November with crews on hand for all the premium live events and several of the major episodes of Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
We are told that they plan to release another five episodes of ‘Unreal’ in early 2026, and filming is ongoing for those episodes.
POST Wrestling has reached out to representatives at Netflix, NFL Films, and WWE, who have yet to respond to confirm these details.