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120-649: To coincide with the brand extension , the event was made exclusive to the SmackDown brand from 2004 to 2006. Following WrestleMania 23 in April 2007, brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued. Judgment Day was first held as an In Your House pay-per-view (PPV) event. In Your House was a series of monthly PPVs first produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in May 1995. They aired when

240-553: A 2003 episode of WWE Confidential , the show utilized 13 cameras at the time at a cost of $ 85,000. On October 3, 2005, as Raw returned to USA Network, the 2002 set was retained but the beams and lighting on the sides were modified. The Spike TV logo was removed from the bottom side of the TitanTron. On October 9, 2006, the show debuted a new logo and opening intro featuring " ...To Be Loved " by Papa Roach as its theme song. This logo and intro were retained until November 9, 2009,

360-557: A 27-hour tape delay, but has started airing live as of February 4, 2014. Syfy in the United States started airing a 2-hour replay of Raw on May 20, 2016. On June 26, 2018, WWE and USA Network announced a five-year contract extension for Raw . The new agreement for the live, weekly three-hour block commenced in October 2019. Clips from some WWE shows have also been shown on Fox Sports.com. On September 24, 2012, Hulu signed

480-499: A Spanish Raw on Telemundo . On the same week as Raw ' s return to USA Network, Spike TV scheduled Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)'s live Ultimate Fight Night in Raw 's old timeslot in an attempt to go head-to-head with Raw . Since the return to USA Network, Raw has been pre-empted during the U.S. Open , which aired on USA , resulting in Raw to be moved to SciFi , a sister channel to USA, for three years. Since 2016,

600-709: A United Kingdom-based brand that would be produced exclusively in the country. In June 2018, the brand was officially established as NXT UK , a sub-brand of the American-based NXT. In September 2021, NXT was rebranded as NXT 2.0 and then in February 2022, the 205 Live brand was dissolved. In 2024, NXT UK will be relaunched as NXT Europe and feature wrestlers from all of Europe. According to Shawn Michaels , two additional NXT sub-brands will be launched that same year: NXT Mexico and NXT Japan which will also feature wrestlers from Mexico and Japan respectively. NXT Europe

720-404: A brand extension between WCW and the popular New World Order (nWo) stable, which would have seen the group expand in scope and the production of nWo-branded programming; this concept was scrapped due to budgetary concerns. However, in 1997, an nWo-exclusive pay-per-view , Souled Out , was held. A year later in 1998, WCW began co-branding all of its pay-per-view events under the "WCW/nWo" banner,

840-423: A brand via the annual WWE Draft and exclusively perform on that brand's weekly television show, with some exceptions. Throughout its history, WWE has utilized the brand extension twice. The first brand split occurred from 2002 to 2011, while the ongoing second began in 2016. WWE currently promotes three brands. The two main brands, referred to as the main roster, are Raw and SmackDown . NXT , WWE's third brand,

960-470: A draft on Raw and went into effect one week later on April 1. On May 6, 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE, which became an orphaned initialism in 2011). On June 13, 2006, after an Extreme Championship Wrestling reunion pay-per-view and video releases, WWE announced an addition to its prime time programming with ECW on Sci-Fi . The new ECW brand launched in May 2006 and served as

1080-555: A full 16:9 letterbox widescreen presentation, with a down-scaled version of the native HD feed on a 4:3 SD feed. In conjunction with this, Raw updated its graphics package, with the new WWE logo (first used with the WWE Network's launch in February) now on the lower-right corner of the screen, right next to the word, "Live". At this time, the new WWE logo began appearing on the ring's turnbuckle covers, and USA Network logo moved to

1200-399: A larger scale). With the acquisition of new talent, the WWF's already large roster doubled in size. In order to allow equal opportunity to all wrestlers, the company endorsed a brand extension to have the WWF represented and promoted with two brands, Raw and SmackDown! , named after the promotion's two primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown! , respectively. In early 2002,

1320-531: A lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund over the "WWF" initialism. Judgment Day 2002 was in turn the very first PPV produced by the promotion to be held under the WWE name. In March 2002, the promotion held a draft that split its roster into two distinctive brands of wrestling, Raw and SmackDown! , where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform—a third brand, ECW , was added in 2006. Both

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1440-504: A major competitor in the professional wrestling industry. The brand extension was enacted to alleviate the issues of an overcrowded roster and to imitate competition the company no longer had from the former promotions. The first two brands established were Raw and SmackDown, named after the respective weekly shows, Raw and SmackDown . ECW —a revival of the former promotion—served as the third brand from 2006 to 2010. The first brand extension then ended on August 29, 2011. A relaunch of

1560-532: A multi-year deal with WWE to stream all of the company's TV shows and some of its web series which includes Raw . Episodes of Raw are available for viewing the following day as a condensed 90-minute version is available, not the full version as shown the previous night on USA Network. As of December 9, 2016, all episodes of Raw are available on demand on the WWE Network. Recent episodes are available for on-demand viewing 30 days after their original air date. After WrestleMania 32 in 2016, WWE began with airing

1680-874: A new brand extension was introduced on July 19, 2016. Raw drafted the WWE Women's Champion, the United States Champion, and the WWE Tag Team Champions, while SmackDown drafted the WWE Champion and the Intercontinental Champion; NXT champions were ineligible to be drafted. This distribution of championships remained unchanged at the Battleground pay-per-view, which took place the Sunday immediately following

1800-901: A one-hour version airs on MBC Action at 8 PM Egypt Standard Time . It also airs on FM1 in Iran and on Sport 1 and Sport 1 HD in Israel. Raw further began airing on S Sport and S Sport Plus in Turkey. In Germany, Raw airs live and is on-demand on the Website of Bild , only for Bild+ Subscribers and with German commentary on ProSieben MAXX every Wednesday at 10pm. In Belgium, Raw airs on ABXplore (in French) and on Play6 . In Czech Republic, Raw airs on Nova Sport . In France, Raw airs on AB1 every Wednesday with French commentary. In Italy, Raw airs live on Discovery Plus and with

1920-476: A period that also saw the changeover to broadcasting Raw in high-definition , which occurred on January 21, 2008. From November 16, 2009, to July 16, 2012, the theme song for the Raw brand was " Burn It to the Ground " by Nickelback . Prior to this, the theme song for Raw was " ...To Be Loved " by Papa Roach , which had been used since October 9, 2006 and "Across The Nation" by The Union Underground which

2040-469: A practice that continued into 1999. In the mid-2000s, New Japan Pro-Wrestling introduced a brand extension which divided their roster into two sub-brands: Wrestle Land and Lock Up; around the same period fellow Japanese promotion Kaientai Dojo promoted two sub-brands for their roster, Get and Rave. In 2013, AAA launched a brand extension that split their roster into two sub-brands, Evolución and Fusión . A similar concept to WWE's brand extension

2160-649: A second draft of 2019 occurring in October, the Wild Card Rule was abolished. In May 2020, select and limited interbrand matches returned with the introduction of the Brand to Brand Invitational, though under stricter guidelines than the previous Wild Card Rule. This happened largely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic , in which several wrestlers have opted to not perform during the outbreak, thus resulting in fewer available talent on each show. The separation of

2280-521: A short statement about his recent purchase of WCW and ended with a simulcast with Raw on TNN and Nitro on TNT including an appearance by Vince's son Shane . The younger McMahon interrupted his father's gloating over the WCW purchase to explain that Shane was the one who actually owned WCW, setting up what became the WWF's " Invasion " storyline. Following the purchase of WCW and the September 11 attacks ,

2400-450: A soft brand extension between its Dynamite and Collision programs, which saw select wrestlers featured exclusively on one of the two shows for a select period of time; this was mostly abolished after CM Punk (who almost exclusively was on Collision ) was fired for his legitimate backstage incident with Jack Perry at that year's All In event. WWE Raw WWE Raw , also known as Monday Night Raw or simply Raw ,

2520-607: A successful improvement. However, the weekly live schedule proved to be a financial drain on the WWF. From spring 1993 until spring 1997, Raw would tape several week's worth of episodes after a live episode had aired. The WWF taped several weeks worth of Raw from the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie , New York in April 1993, and again in June and October. The first episode produced outside of New York

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2640-733: A talent exchange agreement, which meant that SmackDown! wrestlers could appear on ECW and vice versa. This allowed the United States Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship to be shared between the two brands. In July 2008, the WWE Divas Championship was created for SmackDown, allowing SmackDown's women wrestlers to compete for a title. A talent exchange between ECW and Raw then began in September 2008. After John Morrison and The Miz of ECW became World Tag Team Champions, they appeared more frequently on

2760-434: A third brand, and a revival of the original ECW promotion. Both instances of the brand extensions required that representatives of each brand draft "superstars" (terminology used by the company to refer to its contracted personnel) onto each brand in a draft lottery . After WWE bought all the assets of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 2003, the company began releasing DVDs promoting the original ECW. Soon afterwards,

2880-403: A three-hour show and SmackDown being a two-hour show, Raw received three picks each round and SmackDown received two. Six draft picks had to be made amongst the non-title holders from WWE's developmental brand , NXT . Seth Rollins was picked first by Raw, with WWE Champion Dean Ambrose being SmackDown's first pick. Two other brands would also be established during the second split. After

3000-671: Is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE . It currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on USA Network . The show features characters from the Raw brand , to which WWE employees are assigned to work and perform. It debuted on January 11, 1993, and is considered to be one of WWE's two flagship programs, along with Friday Night SmackDown . In September 2000, Raw moved from USA Network to TNN, which rebranded to Spike TV in August 2003. On October 3, 2005, Raw returned to USA Network, where it will remain until January 2025 when it moves to

3120-828: Is broadcast live on ESPN 4 for Central America and on Fox Sports 2 in South America, in Mexico it is broadcast on Fox Sports, in Argentina on Fox Sports 3, in Chile on Fox Sports 1 and in Brazil on Fox Sports 2 and ESPN Extra, (also available on Star+ for Central and South America). The show also airs live on Supersport in South Africa on Tuesdays at 02:00 am CAT. Raw had aired in Australia on Fox8 since 2003, usually on

3240-520: Is currently utilized by the Japanese promotions CyberFight , which promotes four distinct sub-brands, and Gleat , which promotes three sub-brands. Following the acquisition of Ring of Honor (ROH) by All Elite Wrestling (AEW) founder Tony Khan in March 2022, ROH and AEW are operated independently with separate rosters and championships while both are under Khan's ownership. In 2023, AEW launched

3360-531: The 2022 Winter Olympics . A similar arrangement occurred in August 2024 for the 2024 Summer Olympics . The name for Raw was disputed in June 2009 when Muscle Flex Inc., a Los Angeles -based fitness company, had taken legal action against the WWE after a court ruled that some of WWE's trademarks related to Raw were similar enough to the In the Raw trademark that they caused confusion among Canadians . On June 18, 2008,

3480-424: The 3-Minute Warning assaulting Kitana Baker). These actions are supposed to be in order to meet Canadian broadcast standards, with repeat broadcasts often more heavily edited . This move had disappointed many wrestling fans over the years, and is unusual since the violence of wrestling scenes are not significantly different from other television programs aired on regular Canadian networks. Due to Rogers holding

3600-565: The Amway Center in Orlando. On May 21, 2021, WWE announced that they will return in front of live fans with a 25 city tour, therefore the July 12, 2021 edition of Raw would be the final WWE ThunderDome show. In September 2023, USA Network announced that SmackDown would return to the network in October 2024 after the expiration of its contract with Fox ; it was concurrently reported that

3720-678: The Canadian Intellectual Property Office then issued a final decision that found certain wares listed in the trademark application from WWE (No. 1,153,018) were confusingly similar and thus lacked distinctiveness from the Muscle Flex trademark, which Muscle Flex is in the process of acquiring. The WWE appealed the CIPO's ruling to the Federal Court of Canada , but failed to file the required documents by

WWE Judgment Day - Misplaced Pages Continue

3840-802: The NXT UK Women's Championship and NXT UK Tag Team Championship ; the WWE United Kingdom Championship was renamed to NXT United Kingdom Championship in January 2020. A secondary title of the NXT brand was also introduced in mid-2018, the NXT North American Championship . In early 2019, the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship was established to be shared between Raw, SmackDown, and NXT. In May 2019,

3960-504: The Netflix streaming platform, which is scheduled to broadcast the program for a period of at least 10 years. The WWE Network ceased operations in the United States on April 5, 2021, with all content being moved to Peacock , which currently has most previous Raw episodes, excluding content that was censored or removed by Peacock's standards and practices department. Recent episodes are still available for on-demand viewing 30 days after

4080-548: The September 11 attacks , the first hour was referred to as Raw instead of Raw Is War , and the second hour was rebranded from the War Zone to the Raw Zone within the show's on-screen graphics. The Monday Night War had ended months earlier with the WWF's purchase of the competing WCW brand. Monday Nitro , which had once gone head-to-head with Raw , aired its final show in March. WWF announcers began generally referring to

4200-743: The Spike TV logo on August 11, 2003, upon network relaunch. During the July 25, 2005 broadcast of Raw in Cleveland , Ohio , a special stage design was built for the John Cena - Chris Jericho Battle of the Bands concert. The 2002 set was designed by Production Designer Jason Robinson. It featured a larger TitanTron with dimensions of 55 feet wide by 25 feet tall. The expanded structure weighed about 4,000 pounds and requiring three 18,000-watt projector screens to power itself. According to Eric Bischoff on

4320-666: The TakeOver banner), while NXT UK had this similar practice. Initially, the Undisputed WWE Championship and the original WWE Women's Championship were available to both brands. The other championships were exclusive to the brand the champion was a part of. When the brand extension began, Raw received the Intercontinental Championship and European Championship when their respective holders were drafted, while SmackDown! became

4440-472: The USA Network as a replacement for Prime Time Wrestling , which aired on the network for eight years. The original Raw was sixty minutes in length and broke new ground in televised professional wrestling. Traditionally, wrestling shows were pre-taped on sound stages with small audiences or at large arena shows. The Raw formula was considerably different from the pre-taped weekend shows that aired at

4560-563: The WCW World Heavyweight Championship , which Booker T had won on the final Nitro . The match was met with negative reactions from the fans and viewers at home, when the WWF wrestlers interfered at the end of the match. With WWF focused on splitting its roster, the Invasion storyline was used as a second resort. Following the end of the angle at Survivor Series , the WWF executed their alternate plan, which

4680-553: The WWE 24/7 Championship was established. Defended across all five of WWE's brands, it was open to anyone, regardless of gender or WWE employment status. In October 2019, after NXT's creative team took over 205 Live, the WWE Cruiserweight Championship was renamed to NXT Cruiserweight Championship, with the title shared between 205 Live and NXT, and was later extended to NXT UK in January 2020. A secondary title

4800-643: The WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida without an audience until further notice beginning with the following day's episode of SmackDown due to the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in the suspension of many professional sports leagues. On the May 25 episode of Raw, NXT trainees were added into live crowds at the Performance Center. In August, all programming was moved to the new, state-of-the-art WWE ThunderDome inside of

4920-501: The WWE Tag Team Championship and World Tag Team Championship respectively and both received new belt designs one week later. Meanwhile, a new World Heavyweight Championship was introduced for the brand that did not draft Roman Reigns in the 2023 draft , with Reigns keeping his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship (it is currently unclear if one of Reigns' titles will be retired). SmackDown drafted Reigns, thus

WWE Judgment Day - Misplaced Pages Continue

5040-905: The World Heavyweight Championship for Raw. Shortly thereafter, Raw became the exclusive brand for the World Tag Team Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, and the Women's Championship. Meanwhile, SmackDown! created the WWE Tag Team Championship and revived the United States Championship . The result was each brand having four championships: World Heavyweight, Intercontinental, World Tag Team, and Women's titles for Raw; WWE, United States, Tag Team, and Cruiserweight titles for SmackDown!. When ECW

5160-528: The "WWF Attitude" banner on the sides. By 1999, the WWF placed a "WWF.com: 'Download This!'" logo on the bottom of the TitanTron and added two vertical sides on the stage. Raw moved to TNN from USA beginning with the September 25, 2000 episode. The TNN network logo was added atop the TitanTron on the December 11, 2000 episode. Chyron graphics were added to the bottom beginning with the July 2, 2001 episode. Beginning October 1, 2001, in direct response to

5280-628: The 1000th broadcast. Raw also celebrated its thirtieth anniversary on RAW IS XXX on January 23, 2023. The wrestlers featured on WWE take part in scripted feuds and storylines . Wrestlers are portrayed as heroes , villains , or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match. The primary commentators for Raw are Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett . Additional commentary has been provided by Jim Ross , Michael Cole , Joey Styles , Tom Phillips , Kevin Patrick and others since its creation. In

5400-472: The 2002 and 2003 Judgment Day events featured wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown! brands. The 2003 event was also the final event to not be brand-exclusive until Backlash 2007 . Judgment Day from 2004 to 2006 exclusively featured wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand. Following WrestleMania 23 in April 2007, WWE discontinued brand-exclusive PPVs, thus the events from 2007 to 2009 featured wrestlers from

5520-599: The Cruiserweight Championship was defended on the cruiserweight-exclusive show, 205 Live . 205 Live would become its own brand in 2018, making the title exclusive to the brand. The WWE United Kingdom Championship was unveiled in December 2016 with its inaugural holder determined in January 2017. The title later became the top championship for the United Kingdom-based NXT spinoff, NXT UK, which debuted in mid-2018 and also introduced

5640-569: The Edge PPV, which was held in May, the Over the Edge PPV chronology was canceled and Judgment Day was reinstated as its own PPV the following year, being held on May 21, 2000, at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky . This second Judgment Day event established Judgment Day as the promotion's annual May PPV. In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a result of

5760-416: The Intercontinental Championship in July and August 2002, respectively, deactivating both championships. The issue of specialty championships being exclusive to one brand was partially corrected in September 2002. When SmackDown! general manager Stephanie McMahon announced that Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar signed a deal to exclusively appear on SmackDown! , Raw general manager Eric Bischoff introduced

5880-680: The Manhattan Center. On the February 19 episode of Raw , six days before Elimination Chamber , seven participants of the men's Elimination Chamber match, Braun Strowman , Elias , Finn Bálor , John Cena , Roman Reigns , Seth Rollins and The Miz , were involved in a Gauntlet match that began with Reigns and Rollins. Strowman won the Gauntlet match by pinning The Miz in what was the longest match in WWE history, lasting nearly two hours. From March 12, 2020, to August 18, 2020, WWE announced that all of its live programs would air from

6000-772: The NXT United Kingdom Championship, the NXT UK Women's Championship, and the NXT UK Tag Team Championship were retired and unified into their respective NXT counterparts after the NXT UK brand went on hiatus (which will relaunch in 2023 as NXT Europe). The NXT UK Heritage Cup was not retired and after months of inactivity, it was transferred to NXT in April 2023 and renamed the NXT Heritage Cup. The 24/7 Championship

6120-450: The November 16, 2015, episode of Raw , WWE had a moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist attack in Paris , France, on November 13, 2015. Another moment of silence was held months later in June for the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting . On July 25, 2016, the ropes returned to red, the announce table moved back to the top of the stage for the first time since 2005, and a new HD set and graphics were debuted. The new set

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6240-508: The Raw brand, moving to a feud with reigning WWE Tag Team Champions of SmackDown, brothers Carlito and Primo Colon . The teams fought several non-title and title bouts for their respective brands' tag team championships before the two fought in a winner-take-all title unification lumberjack match at WrestleMania 25 . Carlito and Primo would go on to win the contest, forming the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship. The tag team championships remained separate titles, but were defended collectively as

6360-544: The Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. The 2009 event was the final Judgment Day PPV held, as the event was discontinued and replaced by Over the Limit in 2010. In 2022, WWE reused the name for a stable called The Judgment Day . WWE brand extension The brand extension , also referred to as the brand split , is the separation of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE 's roster of wrestlers (and, at various times, creative staff) into distinct divisions, or "brands". The promotion's wrestlers are assigned to

6480-479: The Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, although both titles retained their individual lineages; Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn would then win the tag titles at WrestleMania 39 ; One year later, the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship would finally split at WrestleMania XL in a Six-Pack Ladder Match with A-Town Down Under winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championships and Awesome Truth winning the Raw Tag Team Championships, both of these titles would eventually renamed as

6600-406: The Unified WWE Tag Team Championship until the then-anonymous general manager of Raw announced that the World Tag Team Championship would be retired in favor of continuing the WWE Tag Team Championship, which received a new, single set of belts. On February 16, 2010, the ECW Championship was deactivated along with the ECW brand. On September 19, 2010, at Night of Champions , the Women's Championship

6720-402: The United States at the time), through separate buyouts that included the employees (on and off-air talent) from both companies. The sales had left the WWF as the only major professional wrestling promotion in the world with international television distribution (until the national expansion of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 2004 and much later, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in 2019 on

6840-445: The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Latin America, with other territories to be added in the future. The agreement also includes international rights to WWE content outside of the United States, including SmackDown and NXT , live events, and other shoulder content. While USA Network's contract for Raw was to expire in October 2024, WWE reached a short-term extension of its agreement with NBCUniversal to keep Raw on

6960-474: The United States, the show airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on USA Network. Occasionally, Raw is aired on same-day tape delay when WWE is on an overseas tour. Raw is also shown live on TNT Sports in the United Kingdom and Ireland , in a deal which began January 2020. Raw airs live in India at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesdays on Sony Ten 1. Since October 6, 2014, Raw has been airing live throughout Latin America on Fox Sports . Currently, Raw

7080-482: The WWE Women's Championship and the WWE Tag Team Championship were renamed as the Raw Women's Championship and the Raw Tag Team Championship, respectively. With this, each brand had a world championship , a secondary championship , a tag team championship , and a women's championship . Since Raw became the exclusive home of WWE's revived cruiserweight division, they also created a new WWE Cruiserweight Championship . Beginning November 29, 2016, in addition to Raw ,

7200-421: The WWE roster between two brands also intended to split the pay-per-view (also known as premium live event from 2022) offerings, which began with Bad Blood in June 2003. The original idea had the "major" pay-per-view events at the time (Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and WrestleMania) would contain the only instances where wrestlers from different brands would interact with each other, and even among

7320-421: The WWE's most recent reported financial quarter in 2009, combined sales of WWE's consumer products and digital media business segments produced $ 40 million in global revenues. In previous quarters, these numbers were even higher. Similarly, in June 2017, the WWE issued a legal order to Raw Motors, an automobile repair company in Colwick , UK, over a logo that it claims infringes on one of its logos for Raw that

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7440-443: The WWF changed the color of the ring-ropes to red and began printing Raw Is War along the ring in reference to their rivalry with WCW . The stages was updated to feature a 70-foot tall large screen video wall known as the " TitanTron ", which consisted of a projection screen with several metal stage trusses and a video projector . The set also initially featured curtains on each side with truss beams and lighting later bearing

7560-489: The WWF was legally required to change the name of the company to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). On March 10, 2005, Viacom and WWE decided not to go on with the agreement with Spike TV (formerly TNN), effectively ending Raw and other WWE programs ' tenure on the network when their deal expired in September 2005. On April 4, 2005, WWE announced a three-year deal with NBCUniversal to bring Raw back to its former home, USA Network, with two yearly specials on NBC and

7680-487: The World Heavyweight Championship became exclusive to Raw. In June 2023, Reigns received a new belt design that represent the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, he would then finally drop the title to Cody Rhodes at Night 2 of WrestleMania XL on April 7, 2024. Although mostly regarded as a WWE concept, brand extensions have also occurred in other professional wrestling promotions. In the 1990s, then-President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Eric Bischoff proposed

7800-449: The World Heavyweight Championship was unified with the WWE Championship to become the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The title retained the lineage of the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship was retired. The name was reverted to WWE Championship on June 27, 2016. At WrestleMania 32 on April 3, 2016, the Divas Championship was retired and then replaced with a brand-new WWE Women's Championship . After five years,

7920-406: The air. On May 25, 2016, WWE reintroduced the brand split , and a new set with red ring ropes, a brand new stage, used at SummerSlam . Furthermore, the broadcast table was moved to the entrance ramp similar to how it was in 2002–2005. On January 22, 2018, WWE celebrated the 25th anniversary of Raw with a simulcast show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the home of the first Monday Night Raw,

8040-507: The brand extension as part " The New Era " went into effect on July 19, 2016. As before, Raw and SmackDown were the two primary brands, with NXT serving as a developmental brand and briefly as part of the main roster. Other brands during the second brand extension included NXT UK , a United Kingdom -based subsidiary of NXT which was active from 2016 to 2022 (scheduled to be relaunched as NXT Europe in 2024), and 205 Live —a brand that specialized in cruiserweight wrestlers (with all wrestlers for

8160-499: The brand having a billed weight of 205 pounds and under) and was active from 2016 to 2022 (first as a Raw subsidiary, then as a standalone brand, and finally as an NXT subsidiary). In 2001, the Monday Night War , the rivalry between the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) ended with the WWF emerging victorious. The WWF would acquire the majority of assets of WCW, and later Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) (the third largest promotion in

8280-421: The company promoted two ECW reunion shows for ECW alumni , entitled ECW One Night Stand in 2005 and in 2006 . On May 25, 2006, WWE announced a launch of a new brand, ECW, a revival of the former 1990s promotion. The new brand debuted on Sci Fi on June 13, 2006, with its final episode on February 16, 2010, on the rebranded Syfy. The ECW brand was dissolved and its show was replaced the following week with

8400-430: The deadline. In August 2009, the court ruled in favor of Muscle Flex, Inc. that it was successful in defending its In the Raw trademark against the WWE. In a press release date issued on July 20, 2009, Muscle Flex Inc. disclosed that it was in possession of WWE Raw -labeled items that it believes directly infringe on its In the Raw trademark such as various CDs, VHS tapes , and a number of apparel items. According to

8520-465: The draft. With the WWE Championship being defended exclusively on SmackDown, Raw commissioner Stephanie McMahon and general manager Mick Foley introduced the WWE Universal Championship to be Raw's world title. As SmackDown was lacking a tag team championship and a women's championship, SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon and general manager Daniel Bryan introduced the SmackDown Tag Team Championship and SmackDown Women's Championship . Subsequently,

8640-472: The entire two-hour block as Raw on-air. Raw updated to a new, industrial-inspired, parallelogram -shaped TitanTron in 2002. Ring apron lettering that had once born Raw Is War slogan was replaced with an advertisement for the WWF website. Around this time, black ring-ropes were occasionally used. Like the previous set, the TNN logo was relocated to the bottom side of the TitanTron. It was subsequently replaced by

8760-404: The entrance ramp along with LED ring posts. On the January 29, 2018 episode of Raw, new graphics and an updated logo were introduced, which lasted until September 23, 2019. In September 2021, the ring-ropes changed color from red to white, which was also reflected on SmackDown . On November 22 of that year, an updated version of the 2019 logo was introduced, alongside new graphics. The theme song

8880-650: The exclusive home for the Tag Team Championship and the original Cruiserweight Championship . With several specialty championships being exclusive to one brand, numerous wrestlers were left with no title to fight for except for the Hardcore Championship , which although a property of SmackDown! after the draft, it was contested under different rules than the other championships—the European and Hardcore championships were later unified with

9000-531: The extra hour on Nitro (which had been expanded to two hours in the spring of 1996), and by March 10, it was renamed to Raw Is War . It was also during the time Raw would be aired live more often. After WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, the WWF regained the lead in the Monday Night War with its new " WWF Attitude " brand. The April 13, 1998 episode of Raw Is War , which was headlined by a match between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon, marked

9120-415: The first time on September 11, 1995. At the start of the ratings war in 1995 through to mid-1996, Raw and Nitro exchanged victories over each other in a closely contested rivalry. Beginning in mid-1996, however, due to the nWo angle , Nitro started a ratings win-streak that lasted for 84 consecutive weeks, ending on April 13, 1998. On February 3, 1997, Raw went to a two-hour format, to compete with

9240-520: The first time that Nitro had lost the head-to-head Monday night ratings battle in the 84 weeks since 1996. On January 4, 1999, Mick Foley , who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Championship as Mankind on Raw Is War . On orders from Eric Bischoff , Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone gave away this previously taped result on a live Nitro and then sarcastically added, "That's gonna put some butts in

9360-639: The following year, the event became about brand supremacy; in addition to the traditional Survivor Series matches, each champion of the Raw brand faces their counterpart of the SmackDown brand in non-title matches (e.g., the Universal Champion against the WWE Champion). Following the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up , a Wild Card Rule was introduced. Interbrand competition became much more frequent, with interbrand matches occurring weekly on Raw and SmackDown Live , as well as at pay-per-views. With

9480-414: The four major pay-per-views, in which both brands were involved. The only exception to this were the two months leading up to WrestleMania 33 in order to build the feuds for that event, and the two months (including the month of WrestleMania) following WrestleMania to begin new feuds for each brand. For example, February 2017 only had a SmackDown pay-per-view while March only had one for Raw. WrestleMania 33

9600-585: The four shows only the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania would have wrestlers from different brands competing against each other. Wrestlers, as a result, appeared only in two-thirds of the shows in a given year, and thus appeared in fewer shows compared to before the brand extension. With single-brand PPVs in place, WWE was able to add more pay-per-view events to their offerings, such as Taboo Tuesday/Cyber Sunday , New Year's Revolution , December to Dismember , and The Great American Bash . Eventually, WWE abandoned

9720-404: The idea was put in motion to separate the WWF's two shows into distinct brands while both being under the WWF banner. One year prior, the original plan was to create a new WCW (which would be an independent entity in the storylines but would be under the WWF's auspices in reality), and for this new WCW to take over Raw and use the show to recreate its WCW counterpart, WCW Monday Nitro . (The WWF

9840-516: The launch of the WWE Network service in 2014 and its subsequent merger of the American service with Peacock in 2021, each brand have its own set of PPVs/PLEs each month with the main roster events (Raw and SmackDown) being dual-branded while NXT kept its brand-exclusive premium live events regardless the brand extension is in operation or not (from 2014 to 2021, NXT promoted its specials under

9960-507: The lawsuit action against WWF from USA Network. The new television contract and the subsequent purchase of competitor WCW led to many changes in WWF's programming content. Raw Is War premiered on TNN on September 25, 2000. WCW's sharp decline in revenue and ratings led to AOL Time Warner selling selected assets such as the WCW name, tape library, and contracts to the WWF in March 2001 for $ 3 million. The final episode of Nitro , which aired on March 26, 2001, began with Vince McMahon making

10080-433: The lower-left hand corner of the screen. Additionally, Raw ' s theme song ("The Night") was modified. On March 23, 2015, WWE added a small LED board to the left side of the ring on Raw . This LED board was also used at WrestleMania 31 . The LED board has since been featured on a sporadic basis, appearing in some weeks and being absent in others. On the 1,000th episode of Raw , "The Night" by Kromestatik debuted as

10200-594: The network through the end of the year. From October 7 through December 30, Raw will be shortened from three to two hours; wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer stated that this was a request made by USA Network. Raw ' s original set featured red, white, and blue ring-ropes, a blue ring-apron, blue steps, and a small stage made of neon light tubes. In 1995, the entrance way was changed to feature "Raw" in giant letters. Beginning on March 10, 1997, broadcasts of Raw were split into two hour-long blocks, each given its own name for television ratings purposes . The first hour

10320-496: The newest episodes of Raw and SmackDown on YouTube for countries that do not air WWE programming on traditional TV for free in less than 24 hours after the original broadcast (The links are blocked in countries where the shows are traditionally available). The 90-minute Hulu version gets put on YouTube for international audiences. From 1995 to 2006, Raw was shown on The Sports Network (TSN) until it moved to rival sports broadcaster The Score (now renamed Sportsnet 360 ) after it

10440-417: The on-screen copyright notice shown near the end of each hour). In 2010, WWE retired the red ropes for Raw after thirteen years for an all white scheme, which in 2012 became standard for all WWE programming. In 2012, Raw updated their HD set. Beginning in mid-2014, this set would also be featured in pay-per-views . From late September through the end of October 2012, the middle rope at all WWE programming

10560-406: The original air date. Since its first episode, Raw has been broadcast live from 209 different arenas, 172 cities and towns, and eleven different nations: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Afghanistan in 2005 , Iraq in 2006 and 2007 , South Africa, Germany, Japan, Italy, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. Beginning as WWF's Monday Night Raw, the program first aired on January 11, 1993, on

10680-406: The practice of single-brand pay-per-view events following WrestleMania 23 . December to Dismember and New Year's Revolution were cancelled following the announcement. With the reintroduction of the brand extension in 2016, single-branded pay-per-view events returned, and seven more pay-per-view events were added in 2017 so that each brand could have their own pay-per-view each month, in addition to

10800-588: The program was retitled as Raw on October 1, 2001, permanently retiring the Raw Is War moniker in prelude to the upcoming United States invasion of Afghanistan . In March 2002, as a result of the overabundance of talent left over from the Invasion storyline, WWF instituted a process known as the " brand extension ", under which Raw and SmackDown! would be treated as two distinct divisions, each with their own rosters and championships. Shortly thereafter,

10920-536: The promotion was not holding one of its major PPVs and were sold at a lower cost. Judgment Day: In Your House was the 25th In Your House event and took place on October 18, 1998, at the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois . The In Your House branding was retired following February 1999's St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House . As a result of the death of WWF wrestler Owen Hart at 1999's Over

11040-408: The reality series, WWE NXT . On May 25, 2016, it was announced that beginning July 19, SmackDown would broadcast live on Tuesday nights, as opposed to being taped on Tuesdays and airing on Thursdays as it was previously, receiving a unique roster and set of writers compared to Raw , thus restoring the brand extension. The draft took place on the live premiere episode of SmackDown to determine

11160-440: The reestablishment of the brand extension in 2016; the first interbrand match that occurred after the brand extension went into full effect was at SummerSlam on August 21, 2016, where Raw's Brock Lesnar defeated SmackDown's Randy Orton . The next large interbrand matches occurred at Survivor Series on November 20, 2016, featuring traditional Survivor Series elimination tag team matches between Raw and SmackDown, and beginning

11280-415: The rights to Raw and NXT were on the market with heavy interest among linear networks and digital properties. On January 23, 2024, TKO Group announced that Netflix would acquire the rights to Raw beginning in January 2025, in what was reported to be a 10-year deal worth $ 500 million per-year (roughly double the value of WWE's current agreement with NBCUniversal). The agreement will initially cover

11400-531: The rights to the National Hockey League broadcasts , Raw also airs on its OLN channel. All archived broadcasts of Raw are available on the WWE Network . Rogers Media secured the rights to Canadian WWE programming until 2024, after which in January 2025 the rights go to Netflix . Raw airs live in the MENA region on Shahid streaming platform Tuesday mornings, and later on the same day,

11520-595: The rosters between both brands. On the July 11 episode of Raw , Vince McMahon named Shane McMahon the (on-screen) commissioner for SmackDown and Stephanie McMahon the commissioner for Raw; both chose a General Manager for their respective shows. On the July 18 episode of Raw , Stephanie McMahon chose Mick Foley as the Raw General Manager, and Shane McMahon chose Daniel Bryan as the SmackDown General Manager. Due to Raw being

11640-552: The seats", consequently resulting in over 600,000 viewers switching channels to Raw Is War to see the underdog capture the WWF Championship . This was also the night that Nitro aired a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match in which Kevin Nash laid down for Hollywood Hogan after Hogan poked him in the chest . On June 28, 2000, Viacom won the landmark deal with the WWF to move all of its WWF programs stemming from

11760-480: The second brand extension began, WWE revived the cruiserweight division . The cruiserweight wrestlers were originally exclusive to Raw but had a supplementary show called 205 Live that premiered that November on the WWE Network . Following WrestleMania 34 in April 2018, the 205 Live brand was split from Raw, with the promotion's cruiserweight wrestlers becoming exclusive to the new brand. Additionally, in December 2016, WWE announced that they would be establishing

11880-456: The teammates being on separate brands. Bobby Lashley was also notable for his interbrand action, as he was involved in a storyline with Donald Trump against WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, which carried over from Raw through WrestleMania 23 to ECW. The brief return of Saturday Night's Main Event to NBC also led to more interaction between the brands. Interbrand competition returned with

12000-496: The theme for Raw . "Energy" by Shinedown served as the secondary theme-song until August 18, 2014, when it was replaced with "Denial" by We Are Harlot . On the September 14, 2015 season premiere of Raw , the middle rope was colored gold. Throughout the month of October 2015, the program once again partnered with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month , with various stage elements being made pink. On

12120-512: The time such as Superstars and Wrestling Challenge . 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, with angles and matches playing out as they happened. Raw originated from the Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center , a small New York City theater, and aired live each week. The combination of an intimate venue and live action proved to be

12240-571: The two-hour version of that week's Raw has aired on Syfy. In February 2022, Raw temporarily moved to Syfy for two episodes due to USA's coverage (as part of NBC Sports ) of the 2022 Winter Olympics . On the August 29, 2011 episode of Raw , it was announced that performers from Raw and SmackDown were no longer exclusive to their respective brand, thus effectively dissolving the brand extension. On July 23, 2012, Raw aired its 1,000th episode , which also began its permanent three-hour format. On January 14, 2013, Raw celebrated its 20th year on

12360-467: Was almost identical to the set used for SummerSlam 2012 and 2013 . After some fans responded negatively to the redesign, the set was revamped four weeks later with a more elaborate and distinctive arrangement. The new set featured the absence of a traditional TitanTron, which had been part of the Raw staging since 1997. In its place was a curved LED banner with several rows of rectangle LED lights behind it. The new set also introduced LED floor panels on

12480-618: Was also retired in November 2022. At WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to win both titles and become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, although both titles retained their individual lineages. Similarly in May 2022, SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro ( Randy Orton and Riddle ) to win both titles and become

12600-755: Was announced that TSN would be carrying Monday Night Football for the 2006 season. This meant that Canadian viewers would have to watch via tape-delay, as The Score did not broadcast Raw live at that time. Around that time, The Score aired Countdown to Raw until May 2013 when Raw is shown live to match the United States airtime. It was also shown on CKVR-TV in Barrie and CKMI-TV in Quebec until 2009. During its run on TSN, which aired live , Raw occasionally had been censored live for extremely violent scenes, or when female wrestlers or characters were assaulted by male wrestlers (particularly one segment that featured

12720-443: Was changed to "Greatness" by Vo Williams, which remained its theme song until November 20, 2023, when it was changed to "Born to Be" by def rebel, the artist behind WWE's music input for its programming, which is performed by Supreme Madness. Bumper themes included "Survival", "Eye of an Warrior" and "Legacy". In February 2022, Raw and NXT temporarily moved to Syfy in the United States due to USA Network broadcasting coverage of

12840-480: Was changed to pink due to WWE's alliance with the Susan G. Komen organization for Breast Cancer Awareness Month . This was repeated in 2013, from late September to early November, and it was repeated in 2014 from September 29. WWE is one of many organizations who provide financial contributions to the organization in addition to raising awareness among its employees and consumers. On August 18, 2014, Raw switched to

12960-499: Was initially kept to a minimum, with wrestlers from all brands competing together only at pay-per-view events. However, from 2003 to 2007, all pay-per-view events became brand exclusive, leaving the "big four" pay-per-views ( WrestleMania , SummerSlam , Survivor Series , and Royal Rumble ) as the only interbrand shows. Starting in late 2006, in an attempt to add more star power to the shows, interbrand matches became more common. Most notably, MNM and The Hardy Boyz reformed, despite

13080-708: Was later introduced for NXT UK called the NXT UK Heritage Cup with its own special stipulations. Subsequently, the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship was created for NXT with the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship becoming only shared between Raw and SmackDown. In January 2022, the NXT Cruiserweight Championship was retired after it was unified with the NXT North American Championship. In September 2022,

13200-399: Was launched in 2010 and has served as WWE's developmental territory since 2012. The first brand split began in March 2002, following the company's acquisition of talent from the former World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotions, and after the conclusion of The Invasion storyline. WWE's roster had doubled in size, and the company no longer had

13320-470: Was on April 2 and Raw had its first post-WrestleMania pay-per-view on April 30, while only SmackDown had a pay-per-view in May. This also happened in 2018, however, for 2018, WWE announced that following WrestleMania 34, brand-exclusive PPVs would be discontinued, abandoning the single-brand practice for a second time. The 2018 Elimination Chamber and Fastlane events were the last two brand-exclusive pay-per-views for Raw and SmackDown, respectively. Since

13440-454: Was originally planned for 2023 but was delayed due to WWE's acquisition by Endeavor , which also owns Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), with WWE and UFC merging to form TKO Group Holdings . The merger was finalized in September 2023. In September 2022 the brand dropped the 2.0 moniker, reverting to the NXT name, with a revised version of the logo featuring white lettering in the 2.0 font outlined in black and gold. Interbrand competition

13560-487: Was referred to as Raw Is War , and the second became known as War Zone . These changes were reflected in television listings and, beginning with the June 9, 1997 episode, by the show's on-screen graphics. War Zone initially opened with a repeat of the Raw intro, punctuated with the War Zone logo. On November 24, 1997, the hour received its own distinct opening video, a remixed version of the typical Raw opening. In 1997,

13680-576: Was revived in 2006 as a third brand, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship was reactivated as the brand's only championship. Over the course of the first brand extension, these championships switched between brands, usually due to the result of the annual draft. The Cruiserweight title, however, was the only championship to never switch brands, staying on SmackDown! from 2002 until the championship's retirement on September 28, 2007. In October 2007, SmackDown! and ECW began

13800-579: Was taped in Bushkill , Pennsylvania in November 1993 and Raw left the Manhattan Center permanently as the show would be taken on the road throughout the United States and had in smaller venues. 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 , which marked the start of the Monday Night War . Raw and Nitro went head-to-head for

13920-540: Was to separate the two shows themselves: previously, wrestlers appeared on both Raw and SmackDown , but with this extension, wrestlers would be exclusive to only one show. Only the Undisputed WWF Champion and the WWF Women's Champion were exempt and could appear on both shows. This would change as both championships were later assigned to a brand. The brand extension began on March 25, 2002, with

14040-407: Was unable to find a television time slot for WCW due to its exclusivity deal with Viacom .) This experiment was first made on July 2, 2001, when the final twenty minutes of Raw was given to WCW programming, in which the Raw crew was largely replaced (with Scott Hudson and Arn Anderson doing commentary, as well as a major stage overhaul) to present a match between Buff Bagwell and Booker T for

14160-750: Was unified with the Divas Championship, retiring the Women's Championship in the process; the Divas Championship was briefly referred to as the Unified WWE Divas Championship. The first brand extension would then end a year later and all champions could appear on both shows. In 2012, NXT became a developmental brand for WWE and they introduced the NXT Championship that year, followed by the NXT Women's Championship and NXT Tag Team Championship in 2013. On December 15, 2013, at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs ,

14280-473: Was used from 2006 to 2012. Throughout its broadcast history, the show has aired episodes 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 such as Raw 1000 , which celebrated

14400-522: Was used from April 1, 2002, to October 2, 2006. The rap outro of " Thorn In Your Eye " featuring Scott Ian of Anthrax was the theme song from March 31, 1997, to March 25, 2002. On May 17, 2012, WWE and USA Network announced that Raw would switch to a permanent three-hour format beginning with the 1,000th episode on July 23, 2012. Since then, all three hours of the broadcast have been known solely as Raw , though they are still considered three separate programs for Nielsen ratings purposes (as indicated by

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