On September 25, 2000, Raw Is War moved from the USA Network to TNN (which later became Spike TV).[23] The new television contract with Viacom, TNN/Spike TV's parent company, and the subsequent purchase of competitor WCW led to many changes in WWF's programming content.
WCW's sharp decline in revenue and ratings led to Time Warner selling selected assets such as the WCW name, tapes, and contracts to the WWF in March 2001. The final episode of Nitro aired on March 26, 2001. The show began with Vince McMahon making a short statement about his recent purchase of WCW and ended with a simulcast with Raw on TNN and Nitro on TNT including an appearance by Vince's son Shane.[24] The younger McMahon interrupted his father's gloating over the WCW purchase to explain that Shane was the one who actually owned WCW, setting up what became the WWF's "Invasion" storyline. Following the purchase of WCW and the September 11 attacks, Raw quietly replaced the Raw Is War program on October 1, 2001.Just before the final night of Monday Night Wars, Jim Ross was joined in commentary by the owner of ECWPaul Heyman, who replacing Jerry "The King" Lawler on March 5, 2001, until July 9, 2001. Heyman made a return on Raw Is War as a commentator on July 30, 2001, until November 12, 2001.
In early-to-mid-2002, the WWF underwent a process they called the "brand extension".[24] The WWF divided itself into two de facto wrestling promotions with separate rosters, storylines and authority figures.[24]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, WCW and ECW, and the WWF having an abundance of talent on the roster. The brand extension was publicly announced by Linda McMahon during a telecast of Raw on March 25, 2002 and became official the next day. Shortly thereafter, the WWF was legally required to change the name of the company to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Wrestlers became show-exclusive, wrestling for their specific show only. At the time, this excluded the WWE Undisputed Championship and Women's Championship, as those WWE titles would be defended on both shows. In August 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, 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, it was no longer referred to as "undisputed". Following this, the Women's Championship soon became a Raw exclusive 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.
On September 4, 1995, the WWF's chief competitor World Championship Wrestling (WCW) began airing its new wrestling show, Monday Nitro, live each week on TNT.[12]Raw and Nitro went head-to-head for the first time on September 11, 1995. Due to Raw still being pre-recorded on certain weeks, Nitro play-by-play voice Eric Bischoff, who also was WCW's Vice President at the time, would frequently give away the results of WWF's taped Raw shows on the live WCW show. Some fans also looked at Raw taping results on the steadily growing Internet; this caused the ratings of the taped Raw episodes to decrease.
Controversy erupted on the November 4, 1996 episode when Brian Pillman, engaged in a feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin, pulled a gun on Austin during a home-invasion segment. Pillman was also heard shouting the word "fucking" during the segment, which, due to the live nature of Raw, went uncensored. Executives at USA Network were not pleased with the episode, and forced the WWF and Pillman to apologize for the incident. Pillman was sent to a mental hospital a few days after the incident.[13][14] The November 4, 1996 episode is also the first appearance of The Rock, as Rocky Maivia.[15]At the start of the ratings war in 1995 through to mid-1996, Raw and Nitro exchanged victories over each other in a closely contested rivalry. Beginning in mid-1996, however, thanks primarily to the nWoangle, Nitro started a ratings win-streak that lasted for 84 consecutive weeks, ending on April 13, 1998.[12]
The poor rating (2.2) for the January 20, 1997 episode of Raw, the night after the Royal Rumble, caused the WWF and USA Network to increase Raw to two hours and prevent TNT's Nitro from having an unopposed hour. The WWF also decided to run Raw as a live show more often to combat Nitro, with the normal schedule being one live Raw followed by a taped episode.
On February 3, 1997, Raw went to a two-hour format,[12] to compete with the extra hour on Nitro, as an edgier, more hostile attitude was starting to come in full stream in the WWF. In an attempt to break the momentum of what had turned into ratings domination by Nitro, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was brought in as Jerry Lawler challenged ECW on February 17, 1997. In an episode where Raw returned to the Manhattan Center, the challenge was answered with Taz, Mikey Whipwreck, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, D-Von Dudley, and The Sandman and "ECW representative" Paul Heyman appearing and performing ECW-style matches for the WWF audience.[16]
On March 3, 1997, a house show from Berlin, Germany, which was filmed with few cameras and poor lighting and featured an array of cold matches with no storyline builds to them, aired as that week's episode of Raw. The show was very poorly received by fans (earning only a 1.9 rating, one of the lowest the show has ever recorded) and WWF executives, alike.[17][18] The following week, Raw was completely revamped with a new set, new theme music (originally "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson, later a WWF-created song), and was renamed Raw Is War. The March 17, 1997 episode featured a heated Bret Hart/Vince McMahon altercation where Hart shoved McMahon to the mat and engaged in a profanity-laden tirade, much of which went uncensored.[19]
After WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, which featured Mike Tyson as a ring enforcer, and Shawn Michaels' final match up until 2002, the WWF regained the lead in the Monday Night Wars with its new "WWF Attitude" brand, led in particular by rising stars Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Mankind and an established star The Undertaker. The classic feud between the villainous WWF Chairman Mr. McMahon and fan favorite Stone Cold Steve Austin caught the interest of fans. The April 13, 1998 episode of Raw Is War, which was headlined by a match between Austin and McMahon, marked the first time that WCW had lost the head-to-head Monday night ratings battle in the 84 weeks since 1996.[20]Throughout 1997, further controversial elements emerged with Raw Is War and WWF programming. Notable angles included Bret Hart and his Hart Foundation declaring war on the United States lifestyle, Paul Bearer delivering an intense promo on June 30 claiming that The Undertaker's brother Kane was still alive after surviving a house fire twenty years prior and claiming that The Undertaker had started it, gang warfare between the Nation of Domination, The Disciples of Apocalypse and Los Boricuas erupting in the summer, Stone Cold Steve Austin's building feud with WWF executives, and primarily Vince McMahon (who was now known as the legit owner of the WWF), and the emergence of D-Generation X (DX) as an anti-establishment group. On November 17, Vince McMahon was interviewed by Jim Ross about the infamous Montreal Screwjob at the Survivor Series, and said to the world that "Bret screwed Bret" and claimed that Hart was a tragic figure on that night, thus starting the Mr. McMahon gimmick. Hart had then left for WCW immediately following the Survivor Series event.
On Raw Is War, fans were immersed in the feud between Mr. McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin, while superstars like Triple H, Mankind and The Rock were gradually elevated to main event status in the WWF. Other superstars such as Kane, Val Venis, The New Age Outlaws and Edge were coming through the ranks and exposing the WWF as territory where new talent could ascend, as opposed to WCW. Matters were so heated between the two programs that, when both shows were in the Hampton Roads area on the same night (Raw Is War in Hampton, Virginia, Nitro in Norfolk, Virginia), DX was sent to film a "war" segment at the Norfolk Scope where they berated WCW and interviewed fans on camera who stated that they received their Nitro tickets for free (presumably in an attempt by WCW to pack the arena to capacity due to low ticket sales).[21]
On January 4, 1999, Mick Foley, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Championship as Mankind on Raw Is War. On orders from Bischoff, Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone gave away this previously taped result on a live Nitro and then sarcastically added, "That's gonna put some butts in the seats", consequently resulting in over 600,000 viewers switching channels to Raw Is War to see the underdog capture the WWF Championship. This was also the night that Nitro aired a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match in which Kevin Nash blatantly laid down for Hollywood Hogan after Hogan poked him in the chest.
Tragedy befell the WWF at the Over the Edge pay-per-view on May 23, 1999 when Owen Hartdied in an in-ring stunt gone wrong. The following night on Raw (which was named Raw Is Owen), the entire episode was dedicated to the memory of Hart with various WWF personalities delivering out-of-character comments on the accident. While the episode was the second highest rated episode of Raw up to that point,[17] it was regarded by several critics, including Hart's brother, Bret, as being in bad taste.[22]
On September 27, 1999, Mick Foley helped Raw Is War achieve some of its highest ratings ever with a segment featuring himself (as Mankind) and The Rock. In a send-up of the TV series This Is Your Life, Mankind presented people from The Rock's past, such as a home economics teacher, gym teacher and old high school girlfriend, all of whom were hilariously rejected by The Rock. The This is Your Life segment remains one of the highest rated segments in Raw viewership history, with an 8.4 rating.
Beginning as WWF's Monday Night Raw, the program first aired on January 11, 1993 on the USA Network as a replacement for Prime Time Wrestling, which aired on the network for eight years. The original Raw, which was sixty minutes in length, broke new ground in televised professional wrestling. Traditionally, wrestling shows were taped on sound stages with small audiences or at large arena shows. The Raw formula was considerably different from the taped weekend shows that aired at the time such as Superstars and Wrestling Challenge. Instead of matches taped weeks in advance with studio voice overs and taped discussion, Raw was a show shot and aired to a live audience, with angles playing out as they happened.
Raw, uniquely in its day, featured some competitive matches between upper level talent such as The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect, Doink the Clown, Yokozuna, and The 1–2–3 Kid in its early years. Up until that point, unless it was part of an ongoing feud or a title match, most matches on nationally televised WWF programs were primarily "squash" matches (which were featured on Raw early on as well). Only Saturday Night's Main Event and The Main Event generally featured the type of matches Raw had, though unlike Raw, those two programs were run infrequently. Huge storyline-developing matches were regularly featured, such as Ric Flair vs. Mr. Perfect in January 1993; this would be Flair's last appearance in the company for almost 9 years. Also, The 1–2–3 Kid's upset victory over Razor Ramon in May 1993 would result in The Kid becoming an upper roster mainstay for years to come.Raw originated from the Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center Studios, a small New York City theater, and aired live each week. The combination of an intimate venue and live action proved to be a successful improvement. However, the weekly live schedule proved to be a financial drain on the WWF. From Spring 1993 up until Spring 1997, Raw would tape several week's worth of episodes after a live episode had aired. The WWF taped several weeks worth of Raw from the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York in April 1993, and again in June and October (from 1984–1986, the Civic Center was the home of another WWF TV show, Championship Wrestling). The first episode produced outside of New York was taped in Bushkill, Pennsylvania in November 1993 and Raw left the Manhattan Center permanently as the show would be taken on the road throughout the United States and had in smaller venues.
Vince McMahon, Randy Savage and Rob Bartlett were the original hosts of the show, as well as serving as traditional commentators. Bartlett, a comedian who previously had nothing to do with the wrestling industry, would be replaced by Bobby Heenan in April 1993. Heenan left the company in December and would leave McMahon and Savage to host the show alone, before Savage would leave in October 1994, leaving McMahon with several different co-hosts each week including Shawn Michaels and Jim Cornette. Jerry Lawler would become McMahon's permanent co-host on April 10, 1995 in a role he kept until December 29, 2014 when it was announced Booker T would be replacing Lawler on commentary for Raw following Lawler's hospitalization for diverticulitis. Lawler has since been named as a permanent co-host for SmackDown and later pre-shows. On June 8, 2015, Byron Saxton would be replacing Booker as a permanent co-host for Raw following Booker's filming Tough Enough, along with Michael Cole and John "Bradshaw" Layfield, who joined Raw as a color analyst on April 1, 2013, making Raw announce team consist of Cole, Layfield and Saxton, since one night live episode of Main Event on October 28, 2014. Corey Graves would later replace JBL.
WWE Raw, also known as Monday Night Raw or simply Raw, is a WWE's professional wrestlingtelevision program that currently airs live on Monday evenings at 8 pm EST on the USA Network in the United States. The show's name is also used to refer to the Raw brand, in which WWE employees are assigned to work and perform on that program; the other programs and brands currently being SmackDown and NXT. The show debuted on January 11, 1993 and has since been considered as the flagship program of WWE.[4]
Raw moved from the USA Network to TNN in September 2000,[5] which was rebranded to Spike in August 2003. On October 3, 2005, Raw returned to the USA Network, where it remains today. As of December 9, 2016, all episodes of the show are now available on demand on the WWE Network, with more to be added overtime.
Following the 1000th episode on July 23, 2012, Raw became a three-hour broadcast from two hours, a format that had previously been reserved for special episodes.[11]
The film is the coming of age story of a young boy (Vicky Kaushal) who loses his faith and develops a fear of music, and of his journey in fighting that fear and finding himself.
Nil Battey Sannata (English: Nil Divided by Silence; Uttar Pradesh slang for "Good For Nothing"), also sometimes known as The New Classmate, is a 2016 Indian comedy drama film directed by Ashwini Iyer Tiwari in her debut feature, and produced by Anand L. Rai, Ajay Rai, and Alan McAlex under the banners of Colour Yellow and JAR Pictures. Swara Bhaskar essays the lead role of Chanda Sahay, a high-school drop-out household maid and single mother of a sullen young girl named Apeksha played by Ria Shukla. The film sets to deliver the message that everyone has a right to dream and change their lives, irrespective of social status.
Released in India on 22 April 2016, the film was distributed by Eros International. It received critical acclaim and was positively received by the audiences as well. Reviewers praised most aspects of the production, with particular emphasis on its narrative, realism, and performances of the cast. Bhaskar garnered huge praise for her performance. The film was declared a "hit" after its second weekend. The film was remade into Tamil as Amma Kanakku, starring Amala Paul, Revathi, and Samuthirakani.
The film was released worldwide on 29 April 2016. Made on a budget of ₹350 million (US$5.2 million), Baaghi has earned over ₹1.20 billion (US$18 million) worldwide. The film has grossed 100 crores from India.[5]
Wikipedia Dhanak (English: The Rainbow) is a 2016 IndianHindi-language film written and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor.[2] Produced by Manish Mundra, Nagesh Kukunoor, and Elahe Hiptoola, the film features Hetal Gadda and Krrish Chhabria as the two children, playing brother and sister, in the leading roles, with supporting performances from Chet Dixon, Vipin Sharma, Gulfam Khan, Vibha Chibber, Flora Saini, and Vijay Maurya.[3] The film was released nationwide in India on 17 June 2016.
