Consequently, Time Warner sold selected assets such as the WCW name, tapes, and contracts to the WWF in March 2001 for $3 million. WWF's ever-rising popularity then soon received another boost as their rival WCW witnessed a sharp decline. The new television contract with Viacom, TNN/Spike TV's parent company, and the subsequent purchase of competitor WCW led to many changes in WWF's programming content. On September 25, 2000, RAW Is War moved from the USA Network to TNN (which later became Spike TV). RAW finally regained the supremacy in the Monday Night Wars after airing WrestleMania XIV in March 1998. On February 3, 1997, Raw went to a two-hour format to compete with the extra hour on Nitro, and by March 10, it was renamed to RAW Is War. It started a ratings win-streak that lasted for 84 consecutive weeks, ending on April 13, 1998. It was a close contest as neither of the two shows could earn the bragging rights in the rating wars.īut from mid-1996, Nitro left RAW behind due to the nWo angle. RAW and Nitro went head-to-head for the first time on September 11, 1995. The launch of the show from WCW kickstarted the Monday Night Wars. On September 4, 1995, the WWF's chief competitor World Championship Wrestling (WCW) began airing its new wrestling show, Monday Nitro, live each week on TNT. RAW then left the Manhattan Center permanently as the show would be taken on the road throughout the United States and was held in smaller venues.
The first episode produced outside of New York was taped in Bushkill, Pennsylvania in November 1993. At the same time, WWF had to suffer financial drain due to the weekly live schedule. The venue and live action played a crucial role in making the show a hit. RAW started at the Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center. Instead of matches taped weeks in advance with studio voice overs and taped discussion, RAW was a show shot and aired to a live audience. The RAW formula was considerably different from the taped weekend shows that aired at the time such as Superstars and Wrestling Challenge. Traditionally, wrestling shows were taped on sound stages with small audiences or at large arena shows. In addition, its broadcast also started a watershed moment in wrestling. Initially, the show was sixty minute long. It replaced Prime Time Wrestling, which aired on USA Network for eight years. The programme first aired on Januas WWF's Monday Night RAW. Ever since its inception in 1993, the show has broadcast live from 208 different areas in 171 cities and towns in eleven different nations (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 20, South Africa, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Mexico). However, a couple of years, RAW returned to the USA Network and is still being aired on the same network.
The show moved from the USA Network to TNN in September 2000 which was rebranded to Spike TV in August 2003. Currently, RAW airs live on Monday evenings at 8 pm ET on the USA Network in the United States. Ever since its debut, it has been considered as the flagship program of WWE. Also called RAW Live or just RAW, it made its debut on January 11, 1993.
A branch of WWE, WWE RAW is a professional wrestling television program.