Raw (WWE brand): Difference between revisions

 

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|align=center | [[WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship]]

|align=center | [[WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship]]

|align=center | [[File:Victoria González 2016 (cropped) (cropped).jpg|100px]]
[[File:Liv Morgan January 2023 (cropped).jpg|100px]]

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|style=”background-color: #FBB;”r align=“center“|[[Raquel Rodriguez (wrestler)|Raquel Rodriguez]] and [[Liv Morgan]]{{dagger}}

|align=center|[[ ]] and [[ ]]{{dagger}}

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(3, 2)

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|align=center | July 1, 2023

|align=center | July , 2023

|align=center | {{age in days|July 1, 2023}}

|align=center | {{age in days|July , 2023}}

|align=center | [[London, England]]

|align=center | [[ ]]

|align=”left” | Defeated [[Ronda Rousey]] and [[Shayna Baszler]] at [[Money in the Bank (2023)|Money in the Bank]].

|align=”left” | Defeated [[ ]] and [[ ]] [[ |]].

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|{{cite web|last=Powell|first=Jason|title=WWE Money in the Bank results: Powell’s review of Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa vs. The Usos, two MITB ladder matches, Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor for the World Heavyweight Championship, Cody Rhodes vs. Dominik Mysterio|url=https://prowrestling.net/site/2023/07/01/wwe-money-in-the-bank-results-powells-review-of-roman-reigns-and-solo-sikoa-vs-the-usos-two-mitb-ladder-matches-seth-rollins-vs-finn-balor-for-the-world-heavyweight-championship-cody-rhodes-vs/|date=July 1, 2023|work=Pro Wrestling Dot Net|access-date=July 1, 2023}}

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Professional wrestling roster division, referred to as brands, in WWE

Raw is a brand of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE 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, also referred to simply as Raw. It is one of WWE’s two main brands, along with SmackDown, collectively referred to as WWE’s main roster. The brand 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-branded pay-per-view and livestreaming events. During the first brand split (2002–2011), Raw wrestlers also competed on the former supplementary show, Heat, and on ECW under a talent exchange program with the former ECW brand, while during the second brand split (2016–present), the brand’s wrestlers have appeared in the interbrand Worlds Collide, Mixed Match Challenge, and annual Tribute to the Troops events. Additionally during the second split, Raw’s cruiserweight wrestlers competed on 205 Live when WWE’s revived cruiserweight division was exclusive to Raw from 2016 to 2018 before 205 Live became its own brand.

History[edit]

First split (2002–2011)[edit]

In early-to-mid-2002, then World Wrestling Federation (WWF) underwent a process they called the “brand extension“.^[2] The WWF divided itself into two de facto wrestling promotions with separate rosters, storylines and authority figures.^[2] Raw and SmackDown! 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) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW); and the subsequent doubling of its roster and championships. The brand extension was publicly announced by Linda McMahon during a telecast of Raw on March 25 and became official the next day.

At the time, this excluded the WWE Undisputed Championship and the original WWE Women’s Championship as those WWE titles would be defended on both shows. In September 2002, then WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar refused to defend the title on Raw, in effect causing his title to become exclusive to SmackDown. The following week on Raw, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff awarded a newly instated World Heavyweight Championship to Raw’s designated number one contender Triple 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.

Raw was the home brand for many top WWE stars including Triple H, Ric Flair, Batista, Randy Orton, Chris Benoit, Goldberg, Booker T, Chris Jericho, Christian, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Kane, Trish Stratus, Lita and Stacy…