| WWE RAW is the Monday night professional
wrestling show for World Wrestling
Entertainment. It currently airs live on Spike TV every Monday night at 9:00 PM
to 11:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST). However, the show is a live broadcasting so it sometimes runs a few minutes past 11:00
PM EST. It also airs live in Canada on TSN, and
live in the United Kingdom on SKY TV at 2:00 AM UTC.
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 current deal expires in September, 2005. [1] (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050311/tv_nm/television_wwe_dc_1) It is
rumored that WWE has agreed to a deal with NBC Universal to move the show
back to its original home on the USA Network, however this has not yet been
confirmed by NBC Universal or WWE.
Name history
WWE RAW has been known by many names, including:
- "WWF Monday Night RAW" (1993)
- "WWF RAW Is War" (1997) (Hour one)
- "WWF War Zone" (1997) (Hour two)
- "WWF RAW" (2001)
- "WWE RAW" (2002) (Hour one current)
- "WWE RAW Zone" (2002) (Hour two current)
- It is currently also known as WWE Monday Night RAW (2003) (Current)
The name "WWF War Zone" ("WWE RAW Zone") was used for the second hour of "WWF Raw Is War" ("WWE RAW") as a way to split the
show into two separate shows and charge a higher advertisement rate in the second hour. This process was eventually dropped. The
title was simplified again in 2001 when WWE dropped the words "Is War" in response to the
September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks
and the resulting war on terror. The name was again changed in 2002 when
WWE lost its court case with the World Wildlife Fund. The
initials "WWF" were no longer allowed to be used and were changed to WWE.
Show history
RAW has previously been 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.
There is also a sister show titled WWE Sunday Night HEAT which
airs on Spike TV at 7:00 PM EST on Sundays.
The current RAW is the successor to "WWF Monday Night RAW", which first aired in 1993 on
USA Network. 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 a small New York City theater, the Manhattan Center, 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.
WCW, with the deep pockets of Ted Turner
backing the promotion, then began Monday Nitro, which aired live each week.
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 millions of
viewers to switch to RAW to see it). Under this pressure, the WWE started presenting RAW live every week, and has
continued with live shows ever since, even after the demise of WCW. Although RAW 's sister show, SmackDown!, has had a few live shows, it has never continually been aired live. WWE
normally tapes a Tuesday night SmackDown! show for airing on Thursday night of the same week.
Brand extension
In early to mid-2002, the WWE underwent a process they called the Brand Extension.
In a nutshell, this meant that the two WWE television shows (RAW and SmackDown!) would become competition for each other. This came about when the WWE (then known as WWF) purchased
their two biggest competitors, WCW and ECW.
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. This at the time excluded the WWE Undisputed Champion and Women's
Champion, as originally, those WWF/WWE titles would be defended on both shows. However, in later 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!. (It has since been referred to as the WWE Championship, dropping the word "Undisputed"). 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 RAW's designated #1 contender, Triple H.
The WWE Women's Championship is now generally
accepted to be RAW-exclusive, even though nothing happened to officially make it an exclusive title.
The current RAW championships are listed below.
Current RAW championships
1: This was originally the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Reintroduced by Eric Bischoff when the original WWE Championship became SmackDown! exclusive.
2: This is the original WWE Tag-Team Championship.
3: This is the original WWE Women's Championship.
4: The original WWE Intercontinental Championship; was discontinued from 10/20/2002 to 5/18/2003 but was reintroduced
by Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Recent happenings
- 1: Triple H (Paul Levesque) defeated Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho (Chris Irvine),
Randy Orton, Batista
(David Bautista) and Edge (Adam Copeland) in an Elimination
Chamber match at New Year's Revolution
- 2: William Regal (Darrin Matthews) and Tajiri (Yoshihiro Tajiri) defeated La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier and Robert Conway) on February
7th (taped February 4th) on RAW in Tokyo, Japan
- 3: Trish Stratus (Patricia Stratigias) defeated Lita (Amy Dumas) at New Year's Revolution.
- 4: Shelton Benjamin defeated Chris Jericho (Chris Irvine) at Taboo Tuesday.
RAW roster
Current RAW general manager(s)
Current RAW wrestlers
Inactive list
Current RAW non-wrestlers/managers
Referees
- Chad Patton
- Chris Kay
- Jack Doan
- Mike Chioda
- Earl Hebner
Other on-air talent
- Jim "J.R." Ross (RAW play-by-play commentator)
- Jerry "The King" Lawler(RAW color commentator/occasional
wrestler)
- Jonathan Coachman (Heat play-by-play
commentator/wrestler)
- Todd Grisham (WWE
Experience co-host, backstage interviewer)
- Ivory (Lisa Moretti) (WWE Experience co-host/HEAT
commentator)
- Hugo Savinovich
(Spanish-language color commentator)
- Carlos Cabrera
(Spanish-language play-by-play commentator)
- Lilian Garcia (Ring
announcer)
- Howard Finkel (Ring
announcer)
Previous general managers/"owners"
Former RAW Superstars
(Brand Extension-wise only)
External links
|
