WWE Raw is 25 years old, so here’s 25 facts you (probably) didn’t know about the show…
1.
Basil DeVito suggested calling the show "Raw"
At one point the working name for Raw was "Down, Dirty, Gritty, Raw", but former XFL
president Basil DeVito suggested simply “Raw” instead.
2.
Vince initially wanted Raw to look "classy"
Vince’s original vision for Raw included audience members being served elegant dinners
at ringside tables at ringside - giving the show a high-class dinner theater feel.
Because nothing says ‘high class dinner’ more than Repo Man wrestling Max Moon.
3.
Raw replaced Prime Time due to Prime Time's difficulty
One reason for Vince McMahon replacing Prime Time Wrestling with the weekly arena show
Raw was so he could feature interviews with his stars - who would otherwise be working
house shows.
4.
Wrestlers reportedly earned $25 per appearance
WWE reportedly paid wrestlers just $25 a show in Raw’s early days.
5.
Raw aired a taped show after WrestleMania 9
It’s hard to imagine now we have The Raw After Mania, but in 1993, WWE aired a telecast
of matches taped two weeks earlier with a commentary track from Vince McMahon and Randy
Savage recorded on the day so they could reference events from WrestleMania 9.
And people say wrestling is predetermined.
6.
The first title to change on the show was the Intercontinental Championship
The first title to ever change hands on Raw came on May 17, 1993, where Marty Jannetty
defeated Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels.
7.
The show used to go on hiatus in August/September
Raw didn’t just war with WCW Nitro, it also feuded with the US Open tennis tournament
for TV time slots.
In 1993, there were four straight weeks where no episodes of Raw aired because of the tennis
coverage.
8.
Raw didn't leave New York until September 1993
Raw’s first 32 episodes were filmed in New York, with most of the shows taking place
at The Manhattan Center.
The first non-New York episode came from nearby New Haven, Connecticut on the 27th September,
1993.
9.
Raw used to tape up to 4 episodes at a time
With their In Your House shows filling the remainder of the PPV calendar year in 1995,
WWE ‘did a TNA Impact’, taping four episodes of Raw in a single night to be aired in the
four weeks between pay-per-views.
10.
Brian Pillman gun incident almost got Raw cancelled
The sight of Brian Pillman pointing a gun at the invading Steve Austin was remarkable,
but it almost got Raw thrown off the air.
USA Network's Vice President of Sports Wayne Becker called for its cancellation, but all
McMahon got was a sternly worded letter of concern.
11.
WWE almost aired the 1997 Royal Rumble for free on Raw
In one of WWE’s attempts to battle WCW’s Nitro, they planned to air the entire 1997
Royal Rumble match for free on TV - even running adverts for the show.
The PPV companies didn’t like WWE giving the match away for free while repeats were
still available, though, so they just showed clips instead.
12.
The WWF Championship didn't change on Raw until 1997
Raw was on the air for more than four years before the first WWF Championship change,
when Bret Hart lost the title to Psycho Sid on the show's 197th broadcast.
13.
"The Beautiful People" was used for three weeks as the theme
In 1997, for just 3 weeks, WWE used Marilyn Manson’s The Beautiful People as Raw is
War’s theme song.
It would later become the theme song for Smackdown.
Clearly Vince is a big Manson fan.
14.
Raw gave itself two names for ratings purposes
There was a period when WWE would call the first hour of Raw “War Zone” [19], and
the second half “Raw is War”.
This was so the better rated hour could get premium advertisers.
15.
Mike Tyson helped close the Monday Night War gap
Though Raw failed to beat Nitro in the ratings before WrestleMania 14, Mike Tyson helped
the show get its first ever 4.0 rating.
16.
Raw last lost to Nitro in October 1998
WCW Nitro's final head-to-head ratings win over Raw took place October 26, 1998, by a
score of 5.1 to 4.5.
17.
Highest rated episode ever was May 10, 1999
The highest ever rated Raw was on May 10th 1999, which pulled an 8.1 rating, which is
roughly 9 million viewers.
It probably had everything to do with the Corporate Ministry vs Vince McMahon, The Rock
and Stone Cold Steve Austin main event.
Not because the NBA Playoffs forced Nitro off the air.
18.
Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker was highest rated segment ever
The highest ever rated segment, however, isn’t Mick Foley’s This Is Your Life segment - which
drew an 8.4 quarter; it was Austin defeating The Undertaker for the WWF Championship on
June 28th 1999 show, which drew a 9.5 - equating to about 10.7 million viewers.
19.
Raw managed to beat Nitro in late time-slots in 2000
To give you an idea of just how bad things had gotten for WCW in the summer of 2000,
the August 28 and September 4 Raws were taped and aired two hours later because of the tennis
coverage, and they *still* beat Nitro with ease.
20.
Raw was off USA Network for five years
WWE is so intertwined with the USA Network that it’s easy to forget they weren’t
with them for five whole years - with the show airing on Spike TV instead from 2000
until 2005.
21.
Raw dropped "is War" in 2001 due to 9/11
The name Raw is War was used for four years, but WWE dropped the “is War” three weeks
after the terror attacks of 9/11.
That wasn't the only name change in 2001 - with the December pay-per-view Armageddon was rebranded
as "Vengeance".
22.
WWE stock dropped when Donald Trump "bought" Raw
As a publicity stunt in 2009 it was announced that Trump had purchased Raw from Vince McMahon.
Despite it being a wrestling storyline, less-savvy stockholders took the story at face value
and WWE’s stock price fell seven percent in the course of a day.
23.
Raw has had eleven different lead announcers
Over the last 25 years, the main play-by-play commentators for Monday Night Raw have been
Vince McMahon from 93-97, Jim Ross from 97-2008 and Michael Cole ever since.
In between all that we’ve also seen Kevin Kelly, Joey Styles, Gorilla Monsoon, Shane
McMahon, Jonathan Coachman, Todd Grisham, Byron Saxton and Tom Phillips donn the headsets.
24.
The WWE Championship changed hands in-ring 14 times
The WWE Championship changed hands 14 times in matches on Raw between 1997 and 2015.
Austin won three of his six WWE Championships on Raw as well.
25.
John Cena has wrestled the most matches in Raw history
Big Match John holds the record for the most Raw matches with 449, two more than Kane who’s
wrestled 447.
Chris Jericho holds third place with 429 and Randy Orton is fourth with 407.
What are some of the biggest Royal Rumble botches of all-time?
Click the videos in the centre for more awesome wrestling content.