History of Raw
Monday Night RAW started out as Prime Time Wrestling in 1985, it was a weekly show on the USA network that featured highlights from the various syndicated shows the WWE had at the time. Due to the growth in the cable industry, WWE decided that the flagship program was going to move to cable from syndication. The new flagship program of Monday Night RAW debuted on January 11, 1993. RAW was different from previous WWE programming in that the show was live and featured competitive matches. Most of the early shows took place at the Manhattan Center. The WWE followed a schedule of two tapings a night. One show was broadcast live, and the other was shown the next week. Due to the logistics of having to make sure all superstars were back in New York every two weeks, the show started to go on the road toward the end of 1993.
Monday Night War
The Monday Night War started on September 4, 1995, when WCW broadcasted their new show, Monday Nitro, on the TBS network in the same timeslot as RAW, but on a night when was preempted. WCW was owned by Ted Turner, who was also the owner of TBS. Unlike Monday Night RAW, Monday Nitro was broadcast live every week. When RAW was not live, WCW would give the results of the show to lure viewers to WCW programming. After bad executives running WCW, Eric Bischoff took over and decided to use Ted Turner's money to lure wrestlers away from WWF. Bischoff was also able to sign the retired Hulk Hogan. In 1996, the company got even worse when the WWF lost two of their biggest stars, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. After Nash and Hall signed to WCW, the NWO (New World Order) was formed with Hulk Hogan. To change the tide of the Monday Night War, WWE changed the format of their show. The new format featured an additional hour, a new set, and an edgier format which later evolved into what will be known as the "Attitude Era". This new material featured the WWE pushing the boundaries of vulgarity and sexuality with characters like D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels), and Sable.
Attitude Era
The WWF went to a more edgy and adult content to counteract WCW. As part of the Time Warner Family, WCW had to keep the programming family oriented after several bad publicity events for the company promoted things such as the song by Ice-T, Cop Killer. Vince McMahon did several things to get the edge over WCW like introducing the concept of divas wrestling, and hired a former WCW star, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Steve Austin changed the line between a good guy anda a bad guy. When Steve Austin acted like a bad guy, people appreciated Austin's blue collar resolve. When Austin feuded with McMahon, the rivalry became the biggest angle in wrestling history. The WWF did not rest on the laurels with Steve Austin; The WWF also developed "The Rock" in a household name and allowed the young stars an opportunity to shine. In WCW, the old stars had guaranteed contracts and creative control of their characters, which led to stifling of new talent. In a major turn, superstars were leaving WCW and joining WWF. To stop this, WCW decided to spend heavily on famous people. After the WWF got a new show on UPN, called SmackDown, Vince Russo left the WWF to become the new booker of WCW in 2000. The magic Russo had with WWF failed to follow him to WCW, and the company wound up losing almost $100 million dollars. Due to the money losses and Ted Turner's losing control of the company in the AOL-Time Warner merger, this led to the sale of the company to Vince McMahon in 2001. On March 26, 2001, the WWF officially won the Monday Night War. Vince became a billionaire when the WWF becamea publicly traded company. His dream of controlling the wrestling world had come true, but that Monday Night RAW on March 26 featured a split screen when Vince McMahon was bragging about buying WCW while Shane McMahon was purchasing WCW Nitro.