WWE Raw's 15 Year History

WWE Raw's 15th anniversary 3 hour special is just a week away. The show should include many highlights, matches and surprises from various personalities as a tribute to its longtime airing program. Raw debuted on January 11, 1993 from Madison Square Garden and was a 1 hour show. It was originally called "WWF Monday Night Raw". The show featured the Steiner Brothers, Shawn Michaels, Max Moon and The Undertaker all in action. Raw moved to its 2 hour format in February of 1997, which is what it currently uses. The show at one point was split into 2 halves, Raw is War and War Zone, but the war reference in the titles were dropped promptly after September 11, 2001.

Raw went through such periods as "the Attitude Era" and of course had its ratings battles with the WCW's Monday Nitro in 1995-1999 (see more about the Monday Night War DVD). Perhaps the biggest rivalry in Raw history belongs to Austin v. McMahon which has always been a popular storyline amongst the WWE brand in general. In 2002, WWE underwent the brand extension as it spun off the Smackdown show which featured a unique roster of wrestlers. Much of this was due to the purchase of WCW and ECW. Raw also left the USA network for a period of time and was shown exclusively on Spike TV. It returned to USA network on March 10, 2005. Over the years Raw has featured a who's who of wrestling talent on its roster as everyone from Hulk Hogan to Diesel, Undertaker, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Goldberg, Stone Cold, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Big Show and John Cena have been a part of the show.

In the past Raw used the theme music "Across the Nation" by Union Underground as its opening track. The current intro theme song for Raw is "...To Be Loved" by Papa Roach.

You can currently view Raw's 15 Intro Videos at WWE.com. Be sure to tune in on the USA Network on December 10th for the 3 hour anniversary show as Raw completes year 15 in early January.

Read WWE Raw 15th Anniversary Recap

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