WWE Raw

WWE Raw, also known as Monday Night Raw or simply Raw, is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE. It 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. The show debuted on January 11, 1993 and is considered to be one of two flagship shows, along with Friday Night SmackDown. In September 2000, Raw moved from the USA Network to TNN, which rebranded to Spike TV in August 2003. On October 3, 2005, Raw returned to the USA Network, where it remains to this day. The WWE Network has ceased operations in the United States as of April 5, 2021, with all content being moved to Peacock, which currently has most 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 the original air date. Since its first episode, Raw has been broadcast live from 208 different arenas, 171 cities and towns, and ten different nations: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 2006 and 2007, South Africa, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Mexico. History Beginning as WWF's Monday Night Raw, the program first aired on January 11, 1993 on 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 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.