IWE Raw

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Revision as of 08:53, 13 March 2017

IWE Raw, known as Monday Night Raw, is a professional wrestling and sports entertainment television program that currently airs live on Monday evenings at 8 pm EST on the USA Network in the United States.

The show debuted on January 11, 1993 and has since been considered as the flagship program of IWE.

Raw moved from the USA Network to TNN in September 2000, which was rebranded to Spike in August 2003. On October 3, 2005, Raw returned to the USA Network, where it remains today. Archived episodes of the show air on the IWE Network, with select episodes available on-demand.

Since its first episode, Raw has broadcast live from 208 different arenas in 171 cities and towns in eleven different nations (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 2006 and 2007, 2015, South Africa, Germany, Japan, Italy, India and Mexico).

As of the show's 1,000th episode that aired on July 23, 2012, Raw has become a three-hour broadcast from two hours, a format that had previously been reserved for special episodes.

History

USA Network

Raw is War and The Monday Night Wars

Main article: Monday Night Wars

The Nashville Network/The National Network/Spike TV

WCW purchase (2000–2002)

Brand extension (2002–2005)

Main article: IWE Brand Extension

Return to USA Network

Brand extension continues (2005–2011)

End of brand extension (2011–2016)

Main article: Anonymous Raw General Manager

Permanent three-hour format

Second Brand Split (2016–present)

Production

Theme music

Naming controversy

Special episodes

Main article: List of IWE Raw special episodes

Throughout its broadcast history, the show has aired editions that have different themes. Some of them are yearly events such as the Slammy Awards. Others include tributes to various professional wrestlers who have recently died or retired from actively performing, as well as episodes commemorating various show milestones or anniversaries.

On-air personalities

Main article: List of IWE Raw on-air personalities

The show features various on-air personalities including the wrestlers themselves, ring announcers, commentators and on-screen authority figures. Raw also has had various recurring on-air segments hosted by members of the roster.

Champions

See also: List of current champions in IWE

During the first brand extension introduced in 2002, only those championships exclusive to Raw were seen on Raw. On the special live August 30, 2011, episode of Raw, it was announced that wrestlers from the Raw brand could now appear every week on SmackDown. This mirrored the proclamation made on Raw the previous day that SmackDown brand wrestlers could now appear every week on Raw. These moves made both programs full-roster "supershows", effectively ending the brand extension.

On July 19, 2016, the brand extension was brought back and for the first time ever, the draft was held on SmackDown. With the second brand extension, the champions exclusive to Raw are listed below:

Broadcast

Online streaming

Canada

The Middle East

Europe

Asia and Pacific

Latin America

South Africa

See also

• List of IWE personnel

References

External links