Netflix has taken a big stumble on the road to “Wrestlemania.” The streaming service has been the exclusive host of live episodes of “WWE Raw” for around a month now and has not experienced any major issues until now. That changed on Monday night, when many WWE fans reported their streams of “Raw” were choppy, skipped continuously, or were simply unwatchable.

Key Details:

• Monday’s “Raw” episode was the first following Saturday’s “Royal Rumble” event.
• Fans took to social media to express their frustration with the stream.
• Netflix assured WWE that it had resolved its major live-streaming problems after November’s Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight.

Monday was an especially key episode of “Raw,” as it showed the aftermath of Saturday’s “Royal Rumble” premium live event. Sami Zayn took on CM Punk for the chance to wrestle at the upcoming “Elimination Chamber” event. Still, fans were consistently frustrated by the poor quality of the stream, especially in the final match.

Viewers took to social media to register their complaints, calling the stream “almost unwatchable.” Consistent glitches plagued viewers throughout the stream, and the problems worsened as the episode went along, making for a highly frustrating experience.

This is the first time since Netflix took over streaming duties of “Raw” that it has had widespread issues delivering episodes to audiences. After hundreds of thousands of global viewers reported problems while trying to stream the boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson in November, Netflix was forced to reassure WWE that it had the issues in hand.

Initial ratings for “WWE Raw” on Netflix suggested that fans were eager to follow the show to its new home. The streamer drew 4.9 million Live+1 views for its first episode of “Raw” in January, and while its viewership likely isn’t that big every week, “Raw” is essentially the crown jewel of Netflix’s live programming since it’s the only weekly live stream it presents at the moment.

Netflix’s reputation can absorb problems like this, but only for so long. The worldwide leader in streaming now has 300 million subscribers around the globe, but it has to get its live streaming issues under control if it expects to continue attracting sports and other live programming.

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