WWE still keeping it ‘Raw’ after all these years

PHILADELPHIA - Let's put this just how "Stone Cold" Steve Austin would quiz all his fans on Monday nights.

If you think World Wrestling Entertainment's "Raw" is the original wild and live sports entertainment show where anything can happen and any personality from The Rock to Bob Barker can show up on any given Monday night, then give me a "Hell yeah!"

(This is the part where thousands of fans at the arena and millions more watching at home repeat back his catchphrase.)

Then it's agreed: There's nothing on TV quite like the promotion's flagship show, the one that rocketed Austin and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson into stardom, shook the wresting industry out of its staid Saturday morning ways and filled highlight reels for 20 years with over-the-top personalities, eye-popping feats, total silliness, outrageous storylines and memorable matches.

From its birth on Jan. 11, 1993, "Raw" set out to be a special kind of wrestling show, from the name, to the locale and the live action.

"Welcome everyone, to Monday Night Raw!" WWE head Vince McMahon bellowed. "We are live from New York City!"

Since that greeting, "Raw" has become as much a fixture on Monday nights as the NFL and remains one of the highest-rated weekly shows on cable television. The 20th anniversary show is Monday on USA, and the promotion has long outlasted its closest competitor.

Heck, it even changed its name from the World Wrestling Federation over that span. In the anything-goes reality landscape of Honey Boo Boo and Snooki, the WWE has proved there's still room on the dial for Hornswoggle and The Funkasaurus.

"It's successful because it changes with the times," said C.M. Punk, the longest-reigning WWE champ of the "Raw" era. "It's not just a wrestling show, it's a complete spectacle."

The bulk of pro wrestling television before the 1990s was mostly one-hour weekend shows filled with noncompetitive matches in which a superstar would squash some overmatched opponent. WWE, though, had been a staple on Monday nights since "Prime Time Wrestling" debuted on USA on Jan. 1, 1985. The show featured taped matches from arenas around the country before the format for the weekly wrestling show was revolutionized with "Raw."

The show expanded to two hours a couple of years after its 1993 debut, then jumped to three hours for the 1,000th episode in July 2012. "Raw" also left USA for TNN in 2000 before returning to its original cable network home in 2005.

Fans still tune in: Last week's show averaged 4.42 million viewers, a stout number against the Bowl Championship Series title game. The third hour, highlighted by a confrontation between Punk and The Rock, averaged 4.65 million viewers. "Raw" was the highest-rated, nonsports programming cable show of the night.