History Wrestling / WWERAW

''WWE Raw'' (full title: ''WWE Monday Night Raw') is a [[ProfessionalWrestling professional wrestling]] TV series that currently showcases the superstars of Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s ''Raw'' brand. Airing new episodes year-round (for the most part) since its debut in 1993 - with over 1,000 episodes (and counting) under its belt so far - ''Raw'' is the [[LongRunners longest running series in the company's history, and one of the longest in television history]].

''WWE Raw'' (full title: ''WWE Monday Night War'') is a [[ProfessionalWrestling professional wrestling]] TV series that currently showcases the superstars of Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s ''Raw'' brand. Airing new episodes year-round (for the most part) since its debut in 1993 - with over 1,000 episodes (and counting) under its belt so far - ''Raw'' is the [[LongRunners longest running series in the company's history, and one of the longest in television history]].

A ProfessionalWrestling {{series}} that currently showcases the superstars of Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s ''Raw'' brand (the full name of the program is ''WWE Monday Night Raw''). Airing new episodes year-round (for the most part) since its debut in 1993 - with over 1,000 episodes (and counting) under its belt so far - ''Raw'' is the [[LongRunners longest running series in the company's history, and one of the longest in television history]].

During [[TheNineties the '90s]], ''Raw'' had fierce competition in the form of ''{{WCW}} Monday Nitro'', which led to the legendary period known as The Monday Night Wars, a source of the industry's biggest success (and some of its most famous [[TakeThat Take Thats]]). Because ''Raw'' was generally pre-taped in its early years, WCW's Eric Bischoff would often spoil the results of the program on ''Nitro'', which was aired live every week. It also helped that WCW had a hot faction in the form of the Wrestling/NewWorldOrder. For 84 consecutive weeks, ''Nitro'' beat ''Raw'' in {{ratings}}, and WCW nearly sent WWE into bankruptcy during this period.

In reflection of the company's shift into the DarkerAndEdgier Wrestling/AttitudeEra, the show was re-christened ''Raw is War'' - apporpriate, considering the series was at war with ''Nitro''. In a TakeThat that went [[EpicFail horribly, horribly, wrong]] for WCW, the January 4, 1999 episode of ''Nitro'' featured Tony Schiavone spoiling the results of that same night's (pre-taped) episode of ''Raw'' by saying Wrestling/MickFoley (who wrestled for a time in WCW under the name Cactus Jack) would win the WWE Championship, [[SarcasmMode sarcastically following up]] with "That's gonna put some butts in the seats." The jab backfired as a half-million viewers switched the channel to ''Raw'' to see Foley win the title. It also didn't help that ''Nitro'' provided those who stuck by ''Nitro'' with a WCW Championship match that infamously ended in under a minute with the FingerpokeOfDoom. Following that night, people would bring signs to WWE events that read "Foley put my butt in this seat!" This marked the beginning of the tides turning between the two programs, with ''Raw'' starting to beat ''Nitro'' in ratings, and when ''Raw'' permanently switched to a live format starting in September 1999 (thanks to healthy pay-per-view buyrates), ''Nitro'' had no more spoilers of the competition to fall back on.

In September 2001 (a few months after WWE bought out WCW), ''Raw is War'' was renamed to simply ''Raw'' in light of the 9/11 attacks, although a few years later the name would be reverted to ''Monday Night Raw'', with ''Raw'' back to a convenient short-name. (It should be noted that starting in 1997, the second hour of ''Raw'' was called ''War Zone''; this was - and still is - done for reasons relating to measuring television ratings. When the ''Raw is War'' name was dropped, the second hour became ''Raw Zone''.)

With the brand extension of 2002, WWE was split into two brands: the ''Raw'' brand and the ''[=SmackDown=]'' brand (a third brand, ''Wrestling/{{ECW}}'', was around from mid-2006 to early 2010). Since then, ''Raw'' has developed a reputation for housing established veterans and high-level main eventers.

From 2009 to late 2010, [[ExecutiveMeddling thanks to a mandate by network overlords NBC-Universal]], ''Raw'' was given a special "guest host" gimmick where a celebrity / group of celebrities of varying levels of fame hosted an episode each week, and - up until the appointment of a General Manager - they were also allowed to book matches, having been given "unlimited power" by [[Wrestling/VinceMcMahon Vince [=McMahon=]]]. While quite a few were [[Horrible/ProfessionalWrestling undoubtedly stinkers]] (Creator/DennisMiller, Music/ZZTop), there were some gems as well (Creator/SethGreen, [[Series/ThePriceIsRight Bob Barker]], Creator/WilliamShatner, Mike Tyson), and it was thanks to this gimmick that Wrestling/BretHart returned to ''Raw'' for the first time since the {{Kayfabe}} Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob. The guest host gimmick eventually started losing steam after Bret Hart was named Raw's General Manager (a role he served for a couple of months before being "taken out" by Wrestling/TheNexus); eventually, guest hosts were called "guest stars" to reflect their loss of booking power, and showed up mainly to shill their latest stuff. By the end of 2010, the "guest stars" gimmick was dropped almost entirely.

** A far worse example would be the "GM-less" era; after Eric Bischoff was fired from the position in December 05, the central story Raw was who would replace him. [[Wrestling/ShaneMcMahon Shane [=McMahon=]]], Wrestling/DustyRhodes, and various other big names were teased, along with a running gag of the most unlikely people approaching Vince and asking for the job only to be blown off. After about a month or two, the whole thing was dropped, with one glaring problem; ''there was still no general manager''. The position would not be filled until June of 07, a year and a half later, and would receive no mention up until that point. That is, until the July 9, 2012 episode of RAW when the mystery RAW GM was finally revealed (more on that later).

* CanonDiscontinuity: The promos for the March 4, 2013 show, billed as "Old School Raw," started with a scene from the beginning of the very first episode before jumping ahead to [[Wrestling/{{DGenerationX}} the New Age Outlaws]], [[Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin "Stone Cold" Steve Austin]], [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson the Rock]] and the Wrestling/AttitudeEra in general, as if nothing had happened during the ''four years'' in-between.

* DemotedToExtra: Since the early 2010s, full-time mid-carders such as Wrestling/WadeBarrett, Wrestling/TheMiz, Wrestling/KofiKingston, Wrestling/CodyRhodes, and Wrestling/ZackRyder as well as the [[Characters/WWEDivas Divas]] have been demoted storyline-wise in order to make room for part-time (but very marketable) talent such as [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson the Rock]] and Wrestling/BrockLesnar (usually in the weeks heading into ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}}'' and ''Wrestling/{{SummerSlam}}'') in an effort to give RAW a boost in the ratings.

* JobberEntrance: This was the standard in the mid-nineties when Raw was only an hour long, which made sense because there was only so much time to do the matches. Ironic though, ever since Monday Night RAW went to three hours beginning with the 1000th episode on July 23, 2012, many wrestlers (even some main eventers) had their entrances cut out in order to make room for more commercials, in-ring promos, backstage segments, recaps, and social media segments. Only John Cena and CM Punk seemed to be immune from this since they're the top two full-time Superstars on the show. Other Superstars who are spared from a jobber entrance are The Rock, Triple H, Brock Lesnar, and The Undertaker.

* MilestoneCelebration: Whenever they've celebrates an anniversary, with the latest being the 20th Anniversary of Raw on January 14 2013.

* PunkInTheTrunk: At one point, Wrestling/{{Kane}} and Wrestling/TripleH were in a feud; and at the end of the episode Kane tossed Trip into a car's trunk and drove off - but then we saw the car trunk pop open just as they were going to black! Oops. Dealt with at the top of the next episode:

** RealSongThemeTune: During the show's run the show has used "The Beautiful People" by Music/MarilynManson ([[OlderThanTheyThink better known later as a theme song for]] ''SmackDown''), "... To Be Loved" by Papa Roach and "Burn It To The Ground" by Music/{{Nickelback}}. "The Energy" by Music/{{Shinedown}} is currently sometimes used as bumper music.

From 2009 to late 2010, [[ExecutiveMeddling thanks to a mandate by network overlords NBC-Universal]], ''Raw'' was given a special "guest host" gimmick where a celebrity / group of celebrities of varying levels of fame hosted an episode each week, and - up until the appointment of a General Manager - they were also allowed to book matches, having been given "unlimited power" by [[Wrestling/VinceMcMahon Vince [=McMahon=]]]. While quite a few were [[Horrible/ProfessionalWrestling undoubtedly stinkers]] (Creator/DennisMiller, Music/ZZTop), there were some gems as well (SethGreen, [[Series/ThePriceIsRight Bob Barker]], Creator/WilliamShatner, Mike Tyson), and it was thanks to this gimmick that Wrestling/BretHart returned to ''Raw'' for the first time since the {{Kayfabe}} Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob. The guest host gimmick eventually started losing steam after Bret Hart was named Raw's General Manager (a role he served for a couple of months before being "taken out" by Wrestling/TheNexus); eventually, guest hosts were called "guest stars" to reflect their loss of booking power, and showed up mainly to shill their latest stuff. By the end of 2010, the "guest stars" gimmick was dropped almost entirely.

** NoThemeTune: The opening credits were seemingly dropped in late-2012 in favor of an opening recap (though it recently seems to be making a comeback lately: the last two Raws before the WWEMoneyInTheBank 2013 pay per view reinstated the intro).

-->--MichaelCole

A ProfessionalWrestling {{series}} that currently showcases the superstars of the Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s ''Raw'' brand (the full name of the program is ''WWE Monday Night Raw''). Airing new episodes year-round (for the most part) since its debut in 1993 - with over 1,000 episodes (and counting) under its belt so far - ''Raw'' is the [[LongRunners longest running series in the company's history, and one of the longest in television history]].

It originally aired on the USANetwork, [[ChannelHop switched]] to the National Network (TNN) - now known as SpikeTV - in 2000, and went back to USA in 2005, with its first night back on the Network dubbed the "WWE Homecoming" (which isn't far off, considering that the 'E has since formed a trusty partnership with USA's parent company, Creator/{{NBC}}-{{Universal}}).

During [[TheNineties the '90s]], ''Raw'' had fierce competition in the form of ''{{WCW}} Monday Nitro'', which led to the legendary period known as The Monday Night Wars, a source of the industry's biggest success (and some of its most famous [[TakeThat Take Thats]]). Because ''Raw'' was generally pre-taped in its early years, WCW's Eric Bischoff would often spoil the results of the program on ''Nitro'', which was aired live every week. It also helped that WCW had a hot faction in the form of the NewWorldOrder. For 84 consecutive weeks, ''Nitro'' beat ''Raw'' in {{ratings}}, and WCW nearly sent WWE into bankruptcy during this period.

In reflection of the company's shift into the DarkerAndEdgier AttitudeEra, the show was re-christened ''Raw is War'' - apporpriate, considering the series was at war with ''Nitro''. In a TakeThat that went [[EpicFail horribly, horribly, wrong]] for WCW, the January 4, 1999 episode of ''Nitro'' featured Tony Schiavone spoiling the results of that same night's (pre-taped) episode of ''Raw'' by saying MickFoley (who wrestled for a time in WCW under the name Cactus Jack) would win the WWE Championship, [[SarcasmMode sarcastically following up]] with "That's gonna put some butts in the seats." The jab backfired as a half-million viewers switched the channel to ''Raw'' to see Foley win the title. It also didn't help that ''Nitro'' provided those who stuck by ''Nitro'' with a WCW Championship match that infamously ended in under a minute with the FingerpokeOfDoom. Following that night, people would bring signs to WWE events that read "Foley put my butt in this seat!" This marked the beginning of the tides turning between the two programs, with ''Raw'' starting to beat ''Nitro'' in ratings, and when ''Raw'' permanently switched to a live format starting in September 1999 (thanks to healthy pay-per-view buyrates), ''Nitro'' had no more spoilers of the competition to fall back on.

With the brand extension of 2002, WWE was split into two brands: the ''Raw'' brand and the ''[=SmackDown=]'' brand (a third brand, ''{{ECW}}'', was around from mid-2006 to early 2010). Since then, ''Raw'' has developed a reputation for housing established veterans and high-level main eventers.

From 2009 to late 2010, [[ExecutiveMeddling thanks to a mandate by network overlords NBC-Universal]], ''Raw'' was given a special "guest host" gimmick where a celebrity / group of celebrities of varying levels of fame hosted an episode each week, and - up until the appointment of a General Manager - they were also allowed to book matches, having been given "unlimited power" by VinceMcMahon. While quite a few were [[Horrible/ProfessionalWrestling undoubtedly stinkers]] (Dennis Miller, ZZ Top), there were some gems as well (SethGreen, [[ThePriceIsRight Bob Barker]], WilliamShatner, Mike Tyson), and it was thanks to this gimmick that BretHart returned to ''Raw'' for the first time since the MontrealScrewjob. The guest host gimmick eventually started losing steam after Bret Hart was named Raw's General Manager (a role he served for a couple of months before being "taken out" by TheNexus); eventually, guest hosts were called "guest stars" to reflect their loss of booking power, and showed up mainly to shill their latest stuff. By the end of 2010, the "guest stars" gimmick was dropped almost entirely.

!!Tropes featured include:

* AbortedArc: For example the Anonymous Raw GM storyline. In June 2010, VinceMcMahon appointed a new Raw General Manager "who [preferred] to stay anonymous" and thus relayed all his orders through a laptop computer seated next to the announcer table. Despite some teasing hints that went nowhere, some mildly heelish decisions and a couple of feuds (including one where Edge actually beat up the laptop), his identity was never revealed and the whole thing was quietly swept under the rug in October 2011 when Triple H took over. It was eventually resolved in July 2012 when Hornswoggle was revealed as the GM.

* BadBoss: Whoever is in charge of the show tends to be one of these (i.e. Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Wrestling/EricBischoff, Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis, Wrestling/VickieGuerrero), as opposed to Smackdown's typically more benevolent GM's.

* ButtMonkey: VinceMcMahon, during the later half of 2012.

* DemotedToExtra: Since the early 2010s, full-time mid-carders such as WadeBarrett, TheMiz, KofiKingston, CodyRhodes, and ZackRyder as well as the Divas have been demoted storyline-wise in order to make room for part-time (but very marketable) talent such as TheRock and BrockLesnar (usually in the weeks heading into WrestleMania and SummerSlam) in an effort to give RAW a boost in the ratings.
* DuelingShows: With Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro, causing the WWF to push the envelope more. The ratings for Raw have never been as high since then.
** During the early days of the Brand Extension era (i.e. back when WWE was actually taking the idea seriously and wrestlers stayed on their own shows), Raw had a {{kayfabe}} rivalry with WWESmackdown.
* EnemyMine: The 2010 rise of the Nexus PowerStable on ''{{WWE Raw}}'' saw the [[RivalsTeamUp teaming up of former rivals]] like JohnCena, {{Edge}}, and ChrisJericho after each getting ambushed by the Nexus.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: The NXT season one rookies were just some wet-behind-the-ears, fresh-out-of-training nobodies -- maybe something someday, but for now not worth much. Then they banded together to form The Nexus, and completely tore apart MondayNightRaw. For a few months after that, they were "the biggest threat WWE has ever faced" -- bigger than The Alliance, bigger than the NWo, bigger than the [=McMahon-Helmsley Regime=], you name it. Ironically, their undoing came when [[BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], the only rookie who actually had a good amount of experience before coming on NXT, and who had been expelled from the group for showing remorse, joined the WWE wrestlers in the fight against The Nexus.

* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: In the Dec 6, 2010 edition, circumstances had led to CMPunk subbing for MichaelCole in reading the e-mail from the Raw General Manager, a role that Punk played up for all its worth.
--> '''CMPunk:''' I've always really wanted to do this. [[BorrowedCatchphrase I HAVE RECEIVED AN EMAIL]]!
* JobberEntrance: This was the standard in the mid-nineties when Raw was only an hour long, which made sense because there was only so much time to do the matches. Ironic though, ever since Monday Night RAW went to three hours beginning with the 1000th episode on July 23, 2012, many wrestlers (even some main eventers) had their entrances cut out in order to make room for more commercials, in-ring promos, backstage segments, recaps, and social media segments. Only JohnCena and CMPunk seemed to be immune from this since they're the top two full-time Superstars on the show. Other Superstars who are spared from a jobber entrance are TheRock, TripleH, BrockLesnar, and TheUndertaker.

* MuppetCameo: Yes, the Muppets did show up on ''Raw'' during the HalloweenEpisode. Notable highlights include Sheamus meeting up with Beaker and StatlerAndWaldorf snarking on the main event as only they could.

* PunkInTheTrunk: At one point, Wrestling/{{Kane}} and TripleH were in a feud; and at the end of the episode Kane tossed Trip into a car's trunk and drove off - but then we saw the car trunk pop open just as they were going to black! Oops. Dealt with at the top of the next episode:
-->'''TripleH''': I've got a special guest gonna come out here later - but before we come to that, I'd like to give a little personal message to Kane. Kane, this is just advice, but next time you try to accost somebody by sticking them into the trunk of a car, you should try to make sure that the trunk does not have one of those child safety latches on the roof - I mean, you can just pull it and jump OUT of the trunk before the person even drives off. Just a bit of advice.

** RealSongThemeTune: During the show's run the show has used "The Beautiful People" by MarilynManson ([[OlderThanTheyThink better known later as a theme song for]] ''SmackDown''), "... To Be Loved" by Papa Roach and "Burn It To The Ground" by {{Nickelback}}. "The Energy" by Music/{{Shinedown}} is currently sometimes used as bumper music.

** NoThemeTune: The opening credits were seemingly dropped in late-2012 in favor of an opening recap.

* DemotedToExtra: Since the early 2010s, full-time mid-carders such as WadeBarrett, TheMiz, KofiKingston, CodyRhodes, and ZackRyder have been demoted storyline-wise in order to make room for part-time (but very marketable) talent such as TheRock and BrockLesnar (usually in the weeks heading into WrestleMania and SummerSlam in an effort to give RAW a boost in the ratings.

* ButtMonkey: Vince McMahon, during the later half of 2012.

* JobberEntrance: This was the standard in the mid-nineties when Raw was only an hour long, which made sense because there was only so much time to do the matches. Ironic though, ever since Monday Night RAW went to three hours beginning with the 1000th episode on July 23, 2012, many wrestlers (even some main eventers) had their entrances cut out in order to make room for more commercials, in-ring promos, backstage segments, recaps, and social media segments. Only JohnCena and CMPunk seemed to be immune from this.

* DuelingShows: With WCW Nitro, causing the WWF to push the envelope more. The ratings for Raw have never been as high since then.
** During the early days of the Brand Extension era (i.e. back when WWE was actually taking the idea seriously and wrestlers stayed on their own shows), Raw had a {{kayfabe}} rivalry with Smackdown.

* JobberEntrance: Since Monday Night RAW went to three hours beginning with the 1000th episode on July 23, 2012, many wrestlers (even some main eventers) had their entrances cut out in order to make room for more commercials, in-ring promos, backstage segments, recaps, and social media segments. Only JohnCena and CMPunk seemed to be immune from this.
** This was also standard in the mid-nineties when Raw was only an hour long, which made sense because there was only so much time to do the matches. It's ironic that, though now three times as long, it's returning to this standard.

* {{Retraux}}: The Monday Night Raw "Old School" special in 2010.

** RealSongThemeTune: During the show's run the show has used "The Beautiful People" by MarilynManson ([[OlderThanTheyThink better known later as a theme song for]] ''SmackDown''), "... To Be Loved" by Papa Roach and "Burn It To The Ground" by {{Nickelback}}. "The Energy" by {{Shinedown}} is currently sometimes used as bumper music.

* BadBoss: Whoever is in charge of the show tends to be one of these (i.e. Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Wrestling/EricBischoff, Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis, Wrestling/VickleGuerrero), as opposed to Smackdown's typically more benevolent GM's.

* BadBoss: Whoever is in charge of the show tends to be one of these (i.e. Wrestling/VinceMcMahon, Wrestling/EricBischoff, Wrestling/John Laurinaitis ), as opposed to Smackdown's typically more benevolent GM's.

** A far worse example would be the "GM-less" era; after Eric Bischoff was fired from the position in December 05, the central story Raw was who would replace him. ShaneMcMahon, Dusty Rhodes, and various other big names were teased, along with a running gag of the most unlikely people approaching Vince and asking for the job only to be blown off. After about a month or two, the whole thing was dropped, with one glaring problem; ''there was still no general manager''. The position would not be filled until June of 07, a year and a half later, and would receive no mention up until that point. That is, until the July 9, 2012 episode of RAW when the mystery RAW GM was finally revealed (more on that later).
* BadBoss: Whoever is in charge of the show tends to be one of these (i.e. VinceMcMahon, Eric Bischoff, John Laurinaitis ), as opposed to Smackdown's typically more benevolent GM's.

* CueTheFlyingPigs: When BretHart appeared in 2010 after the MontrealScrewjob he said that he guessed hell just froze over.

* ManipulativeEditing: Ever since RAW went to three hours beginning with the 1000th episode on July 23, 2013, more and more wrestlers got JobberEntrance treatment (the only exceptions are JohnCena and CMPunk) to make room for more recaps, social media, commercials, and backstage segments.

* MilestoneCelebration: Whenever they've celebrates an anniversary, with the latest being the 1000th episode.

Also has its own [[Awesome/WWERaw Crowning Moments of Awesome]], [[Heartwarming/WWERaw Crowning Moments of Heartwarming]], and [[Funny/WWERaw Crowning Moments of Funny]] pages.

!!'''Tropes featured include:'''

* AbortedArc: For example the Anonymous Raw GM storyline. In June 2010, Vince [=McMahon=] appointed a new Raw General Manager "who [preferred] to stay anonymous" and thus relayed all his orders through a laptop computer seated next to the announcer table. Despite some teasing hints that went nowhere, some mildly heelish decisions and a couple of feuds (including one where Edge actually beat up the laptop), his identity was never revealed and the whole thing was quietly swept under the rug in October 2011 when Triple H took over. It was eventually resolved in July 2012 when Hornswoggle was revealed as the GM.