WWE RAW: The longest-running weekly episodic TV show
Just a couple of years ago, WWE RAW celebrated its twenty-five years. Also known as Monday Night Raw, it is the longest-running weekly show on the air. However, what makes people keep tuning in to this show? Let us find out!
The Simpson’s debuted earlier, but unlike Raw, it does take seasonal breaks. WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) RAW has become a global phenomenon with its shows taking place in different parts of the world. Since its first episode, RAW has been broadcasted 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. It has told the fictional story of wrestlers competing for the WWF/E in matches that take place in a ring. The story arcs are predetermined and intended to be told in an episodic (or serialised) manner, forcing the viewers to watch each day/week to get the entire overall story.
In the mid-90s, the initial years of RAW, it was overtaken in TV ratings by the rival company WCW’s flagship programme “Monday Night Nitro”. This rivalry was infamously known as “The Monday Night Wars” as both the shows were broadcast opposite each other in a battle for Nielsen ratings each week. The rating war lasted from September 4, 1995, to March 26, 2001. While WCW was the dominant promotion for much of the mid-1990s, a variety of factors coalesced to turn the tide in the WWE’s favour at the end of the decade, including a radical rebranding of their formerly family-friendly product to highly sexualised and violent shows geared towards older teens and adults. WCW ultimately ran into financial difficulties as a result of the amount of money they had promised to wrestlers during a hiring binge in the early and middle part of the decade, which been aimed at acquiring large portions of the WWE’s talent roster.
Despite efforts to salvage the company, it was ultimately sold to the owner of WWE, Vince McMahon, ending the Monday Night Wars. As a result of the Monday Night Wars, professional wrestling became a prime-time tradition globally. The Monday Night Wars resulted in the creation of millions of new wrestling viewers. Not only RAW is the company’s longest-running show, but it is also the hub for the promotion of top stars. Since its inception in January of 1993, World Wrestling Entertainment’s Raw has been home to some of the most renowned and worldwide famous professional wrestlers.
No superstar did more to make Monday Night Raw destination programming than Stone Cold Steve Austin, dubbed as “The Texas Rattlesnake.” Fans tuned in every week to see Austin spew his profanity-laced venom and open up the proverbial can on anyone that stood between him and the top spot in the industry. “The Heartbreak Kid” was an essential part of two completely different eras of Monday Night Raw. A competitor on the very first episode of Raw way back in 1993, Shawn Michaels was one of the top performers in Vince McMahon’s organisation during the mid-1990s. Dubbed as “The People’s Champion”, The Rock brings electricity to Monday Night Raw that no other superstar, past or present, has the ability to match. Love or hate the man millions of moviegoers know that it is Dwayne Johnson who is responsible for a number of Raw’s greatest moments.
The new generation of RAW stars, the likes of Aj Styles, Bobby Lashley, Drew Mcintyre, etc. are changing the whole scenario of this show. Of course, people know professional wrestling (WWE) is fake, but does that make it any less entertaining? No. It contains all aspects of almost every other entertainment medium. Action, drama, humour, infidelity, love stories, betrayal, overcoming adversity, facing tough obstacles, pain, both mental and physical, joy, happiness, and family issues are just some of the aspects of this show which make it wholesome and entertaining. It is not just people belting each other on the head with folding chairs. Have you ever watched an action movie with a cool fight scene? Now imagine that a fight scene is being performed right in front of you, live, by professional stunt fighters. It’s got storylines, mystery, and intrigue. They have writers who write storylines and clear-cut villains and heroes. No one believes it’s real anymore. The wrestlers are both actors and athletes, the only thing that is “fake” about it is the outcome.
The show goes by a script. But that doesn’t mean it is in the eyes of fans. The in-ring moves have to be extremely synchronised and performed without retakes or stuntmen. Due to a botch, one could face a career-threatening injury, get paralysed, or worse, die. Even though there is a storyline, despite all of the rumours on the internet, fans love surprises — no matter whether a wrestler is just back from injury. It is a huge draw to see what happens next.
Fans love RAW and WWE as a whole to this day for the rich, over-the-top characters, the experience of being able to go and sit within yards of their favourite superstars while they perform their craft, and most of all, the competitive spirit. Think of it as a big violent soap opera, with love interests, plot twists and betrayal. Everything that makes it fun and sometimes quite shocking. This is a show that has survived poor ratings and controversies and wars with competitors to remain a staple every Monday night.
