WWE RAW

WWE RAW is the Monday night professional wrestling show for World Wrestling Entertainment. It airs live on USA Network in the United States every Monday night, as well as being shown live in Canada on TSN, in the United Kingdom on Sky Sports. RAW is generally seen as WWE's primary show over its sister show SmackDown!.

Show history

RAW was originally aired on the USA Network. The only networks to have aired RAW in the United States are the USA Network and TNN, which is now Spike TV. It returned to USA Network on October 3, 2005.

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The current RAW is the successor to WWF Monday Night RAW, which first aired on January 11, 1993 on USA Network for 1 hour and then later moved to 2 hours. The original RAW broke new ground in televised professional wrestling. Traditionally, wrestling shows were taped on sound stages with small audiences or at large arena shows. RAW originated from the Manhattan Center, a small New York City theater and aired live each week. The combination of an intimate venue and live action proved highly successful. However, the weekly live schedule proved to be a financial drain on WWE, and taped shows began airing every other week. Eventually, RAW aired live shows only about once per month, with the other shows being taped.

Related Topics:
January 11 - 1993 - New York City

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WCW then began airing its new wrestling show, Monday Nitro, live each week. RAW and WCW Monday Nitro went head-to-head for the first time on September 11, 1995. On several occasions, World Championship Wrestling head Eric Bischoff, who was also an on-air personality, gave away the results of WWF's taped RAW shows on the live WCW show (a tactic that backfired when they announced Mick Foley's first WWF title victory, causing half a million viewers to switch to RAW to see it). Under this pressure, WWF started presenting RAW live each week, even after the demise of WCW. Although RAW 's sister show, SmackDown!, has had a few live shows, it has never been continually aired live.

Related Topics:
WCW - Monday Nitro - September 11 - 1995 - Eric Bischoff - Mick Foley - SmackDown!

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Brand extension

In early to mid-2002, WWE underwent a process they called the Brand Extension. This meant that the two WWE television shows, RAW and SmackDown! would become competition for each other. This came about when WWE (then known as WWF) purchased their two biggest competitors, WCW and ECW.

Related Topics:
SmackDown! - ECW

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The Brand Extension would bring about a change like nothing the WWF/WWE had seen before. Wrestlers would become show-exclusive, wrestling for their specific show only. At the time this excluded the WWE Undisputed Champion and Women's Champion, as those WWF/WWE titles would be defended on both shows. In late 2002, Brock Lesnar, at that time the WWE Undisputed Champion, refused to defend the title on RAW, causing the title to become exclusive to SmackDown!. The following week on RAW, General Manager Eric Bischoff awarded the World Heavyweight Title, in the form of the old WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt, to RAWs designated #1 contender, Triple H.

Related Topics:
WWE Undisputed Champion - Brock Lesnar - SmackDown! - World Heavyweight Title - WCW World Heavyweight Championship - Triple H

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The WWE Women's Championship is now generally accepted to be RAW-exclusive, after being mentioned in a backstage scene with then SmackDown! GM Stephanie McMahon on a 2002 edition of SmackDown!.

Related Topics:
WWE Women's Championship - Stephanie McMahon - SmackDown!

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The 2005 WWE Draft Lottery made a huge impact on the show. RAW drafted several major SmackDown! stars, including WWE Champion John Cena, Kurt Angle, Carlito, who won the Intercontinental Title in his first match on RAW, the Big Show, and Rob Van Dam. But they lost Chris Benoit, Randy Orton, Muhammad Hassan (w/ Khosrow Daivari), Christian and World Heavyweight Champion Batista to the draft.

Related Topics:
WWE Draft Lottery - WWE Champion - John Cena - Kurt Angle - Carlito - Intercontinental Title - Big Show - Rob Van Dam - Chris Benoit - Randy Orton - Muhammad Hassan - Khosrow Daivari - Christian - Batista

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Return to USA Network

On March 10, 2005, Viacom, the parent company of Spike TV, announced that they would not seek to extend their agreement to air RAW and other WWE programming on the network when their deal expired in September 2005. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050311/tv_nm/television_wwe_dc_1 On April 4, 2005, WWE announced a 3-year deal with NBC Universal to bring RAW back to its former home, the USA Network, with two yearly specials on NBC and a Spanish-language RAW on Telemundo. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7380373/ On the same week as RAW's redebut on USA, Spike TV scheduled UFC's live Ultimate Fight Night in RAW's old timeslot in an attempt to go head-to-head with RAW.

Related Topics:
March 10 - 2005 - Viacom - September - April 4 - NBC Universal - NBC - Telemundo - UFC's

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The show's first night back on USA was billed as the "WWE Homecoming" and featured the return of former WWE Champions such as Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Triple H and Vince McMahon along with cameos from legends such as Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, The Iron Sheik and Harley Race. The "WWE Homecoming" was three hours long - the longest an episode of RAW has ever run in its 12-year history. USA also showed RAW Exposed, an hour of the best moments of RAW during its previous run on USA.

Related Topics:
WWE Homecoming - WWE Champions - Hulk Hogan - Stone Cold Steve Austin - Mick Foley - Triple H - Vince McMahon - Roddy Piper - Jimmy Snuka - The Iron Sheik - Harley Race

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The WWE announced that RAW received its highest ratings in three years, gaining close to six million viewers.

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