Raw is abrand of the Americanprofessional wrestling promotionWWE that was established on March 25, 2002. Brands are divisions of WWE's roster where wrestlers are assigned to perform on a weekly basis when a brand extension is in effect. Wrestlers assigned to Raw primarily appear on the brand's weekly television program,Monday Night Raw, which began in 1993, also referred to simply asRaw. It is one of WWE's two main brands, along withSmackDown, which was made in 2002 after absorbing theWCW. They are collectively referred to as WWE's main roster. The brand extension was discontinued between August 2011 and July 2016.
In addition to Raw's main television program, less-utilized wrestlers also appear on the brand's supplementary show,Main Event. Raw's wrestlers also perform on the branded and co-brandedpay-per-view andlivestreamingevents and the quarterlySaturday Night's Main Event special. During the first brand split (2002–2011), Raw wrestlers also competed on the former supplementary show,Heat, and onECW under a talent exchange program with the formerECW brand, while during the second brand split (2016–present), the brand's wrestlers have appeared in the interbrandWorlds Collide,Mixed Match Challenge, and annualTribute to the Troops events. Additionally during the second split, Raw'scruiserweight wrestlers competed on205 Live when WWE's revived cruiserweight division was exclusive to Raw from 2016 to 2018 before205 Live became its own brand.
In early-to-mid-2002, then World Wrestling Federation (WWF) underwent a process they called the "brand extension".[1] The WWF divided itself into twode facto wrestlingpromotions with separate rosters, storylines andauthority figures.[1]Raw andSmackDown! would host each division, give its name to the division and essentially compete against each other. The split came about as a result of the WWF purchasing their two biggest competitors,World Championship Wrestling (WCW) andExtreme Championship Wrestling (ECW); and the subsequent doubling of its roster andchampionships. The brand extension was publicly announced byLinda McMahon during a telecast ofRaw on March 25 and became official the next day.
At the time, this excluded theWWE Undisputed Championship and theoriginal WWE Women's Championship as those WWE titles would be defended on both shows. In September 2002, then WWE Undisputed ChampionBrock Lesnar refused to defend the title onRaw, in effect causing his title to become exclusive toSmackDown!. The following week onRaw, Raw General ManagerEric Bischoff awarded a newly instatedWorld Heavyweight Championship to Raw's designated number one contenderTriple H. Because the WWE Undisputed Championship was now a SmackDown! exclusive title, it was no longer referred to as "undisputed". Following this, the original WWE Women's Championship soon became a Raw exclusive title as well. As a result of the brand extension, an annual "draft lottery" was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.
The2005 draft was held on the June 6 episode ofRaw. The first draft lottery pick was then WWE ChampionJohn Cena, thus moving the WWE Championship to Raw and having two titles on the brand. Eventually, then World Heavyweight Champion Batista was drafted to SmackDown! as the last draft pick, leaving only the WWE Championship onRaw. In the2008 draft lottery,CM Punk got drafted to Raw and then won the World Heavyweight Championship fromEdge, who was a SmackDown wrestler. Triple H, who was the WWE Champion at the time, got drafted to SmackDown while Kane, who was the thenECW Champion, got drafted to Raw. After thedraft lottery in 2009, the WWE Championship was brought back to Raw when Triple H was drafted from SmackDown while the World Heavyweight Championship was brought back to SmackDown when Edge defeated John Cena to win the title atBacklash.
On the August 29, 2011, episode ofRaw, it was announced that performers from Raw and SmackDown were no longer exclusive to their respective brand.[2] Subsequently, championships previously exclusive to one show or the other were available for wrestlers from any show to compete for—this would mark the end of the brand extension as all programming and live events featured the full WWE roster.[3] In a 2013 interview withAdvertising Age,Stephanie McMahon explained that WWE's decision to end the brand extension was due to wanting their content to flow across television and online platforms.[4]
On May 25, 2016, it was announced that WWE would be reintroducing the brand split in July, with distinctive rosters for both Raw and SmackDown.[5] On the July 11 episode ofRaw,Vince McMahon named Stephanie McMahon the Commissioner ofRaw.[6] The draft took place on the live premiere ofSmackDown on July 19, with the General Managers of the respective brands hand-picking the wrestlers for their brands.[7] Raw's Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and General ManagerMick Foley created a new championship—theWWE Universal Championship. This championship would be exclusive to the Raw brand, as the WWE World Championship had become exclusive to the SmackDown brand.[8]Clash of Champions was scheduled as the reintroduction of the cruiserweight division and the first Raw-exclusive pay-per-view sinceJanuary 2007, whereasElimination Chamber was scheduled as the final Raw-exclusive pay-per-viewtwo years later. Subsequently, this saw all upcoming pay-per-views interbranded afterWrestleMania 34.
Beginning in December 2021, talents from Raw begin to appear onNXT.Dave Meltzer of theWrestling Observer Radio reported that a Raw-NXT crossover between their talents as a way to help boost NXT 2.0 ratings as both shows air on the USA Network.[9]
AfterSmackDown moved to Fox in October 2019, Raw lost its status as the main "A" Show.[10] WhenRaw moved to Netflix in January 2025, this brand regained its "A" Show status and Raw became the home of WWE's top stars such asRoman Reigns,CM Punk,Seth Rollins,The Usos (Jimmy andJey),Rhea Ripley andGunther.[11]
Initially, the WWE Undisputed Championship and the original WWE Women's Championship were available to both brands.[12][13][14] The other championships were exclusive to the brand the champion was a part of.[12][13][15] When the brand extension began, Raw received theIntercontinental Championship and theEuropean Championship when their respective holders were drafted.[16] In September 2002, the WWE Undisputed Championship became the WWE Championship again and was moved to SmackDown, prompting Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff to create the World Heavyweight Championship for Raw.[17] Shortly thereafter, Raw became the exclusive brand for theWorld Tag Team Championship, the Intercontinental Championship and the original WWE Women's Championship.[18][19]
On July 19, 2016, the brand extension was brought back and for the first time ever the draft was held onSmackDown Live. Raw drafted theWWE Women's Championship, theUnited States Championship, and theWWE Tag Team Championship.[20] With the WWE Championship being defended exclusively on SmackDown, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley introduced the WWE Universal Championship to be Raw'sworld title.[21] AtCrown Jewel on October 31, 2019, SmackDown wrestler"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt won the WWE Universal Championship, thus taking the title to SmackDown.[22] On the next night's episode ofSmackDown, WWE Champion Brock Lesnar quit SmackDown and moved to Raw, bringing the title with him.[23] A new World Heavyweight Championship was created for Raw after Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns was drafted to SmackDown in 2023.
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