Bronco

This show has gone through three minor name changes, first "Monday Night Raw" followed by "Raw Is War" and, lastly, following the terrorist attacks on the USA on 11 September 2001, simply "Raw" to move the reference to war.


The "Austin/McMahon" saga that entered the WWF into its new era began on the December 08, 1997 episode of "Raw", when Stone Cold knocked WWF owner Vince McMahon from the ring apron.


The highest rating to date that "Raw" has ever had was on September 27, 1999, in an episode that featured a 25-minute-long "This Is Your Life" segment with Mankind and The Rock. The segment received an 8.4 rating.


In many of the skits involving Mick Foley as WWF commissioner, a cactus sat on his desk. The cactus was a reference to Foley's famous character "Cactus Jack."


In 2000, many of the skits involving Mick Foley as WWF commissioner featured a stuffed dog somewhere in the background. The stuffed dog was named "Sarge," a reference to former WWF commissioner Sgt. Slaugher.


The World Wrestling Federation became known as World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, in April 2002. The move came after years of litigation between the wrestling promotion and World Wildlife Fund over the use of the WWF initials. All WWE programming, including "Raw Is War" (1997) began using the initials in their titles.


Whenever archived footage is shown, the old WWF logo is blurred out. This is because the World Wrestling Federation was sued by the World Wildlife Fund, which is also known as the WWF. Part of the settlement was that the World Wrestling Federation had to change their name to World Wrestling Entertainment.


Steve Austin was the first person to enter the WWE arena when RAW debuted on TNN.


When the show first premiered, it was broadcast from the Manhattan Center in New York. After a few years, the show was taken out on the road and broadcast from major arenas throughout the United States and Canada.


The show was originally taped a few nights in advance and then broadcast on Monday night. In later years it would be shown live on the Eastern and Central time zones and shown on a tape delayed basis in the Mountain and Pacific time zones.


In one of his "rants", comedian Dennis Miller comments that the best way to become a professional wrestler is to go to Harvard. In 2003, Harvard graduate and "Tough Enough" (2001) runner-up Chris Nowinski made his WWE debut.


1995-2001, WWF (now WWE) Raw almost always had at least half of its program shown opposite WCW Nitro every Monday. WWF and WCW competed for ratings so severely, especially during 1996, the competition was called the "Monday Night Wars". WCW was owned by Ted Turner and run by Eric Bischoff. This turned into a legitimate rating feud between Bischoff and WWF owner Vince McMahon. WCW fell into financial peril and was up for sale 2000-2001 by Turner. McMahon beat Bischoff to purchase WCW and Bischoff was out of a job. In 2003, McMahon hired Bischoff, who was scripted to become Raw's general manager. McMahon had introduced Bischoff live on Raw and the two embraced in a hug.


Early in the "Monday Night Wars" WWF (Now WWE) started to run parodies and skits of WCW and their Ted Turner. WCW threatened legal action and WWF stopped running the skits. Their final skit was a "Geriatric Match" with The Huckster vs. The Nacho Man. In that skit the Turner look alike said that he can just buy more talent. Ironically in 2001 Vince McMahon bought WCW and their talent.


In an attempt to steal ratings from RAW onto Nitro, Eric Bischoff would reveal the results of the previously recorded RAW episodes. However this backfired when the episode of Raw in which Mick Foley won the heavyweight title for the first time aired. Unlike previous times Eric did this, it caused a lot of people to tune to RAW instead of people staying and watching Nitro.


The 24 May 1999 telecast was mostly rewritten last minute and turned into a tribute to Owen Hart. Hart died the previous night at the Over The Edge pay per view when he fell from the air during a stunt where he was going to be lowered into the ring.