Raw (WWE brand)

Eric Bischoff was the first Raw General Manager

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, Chris Jericho, Christian, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Kane, Trish Stratus, Lita and Stacy Keibler.

The 2005 draft was held on the June 6 episode of Raw. The first draft lottery pick was then WWE Champion John 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 on Raw. In the 2008 draft lottery, CM Punk got drafted to Raw and then won the World Heavyweight Championship from Edge, who was a SmackDown wrestler. Triple H, who was the WWE Champion at the time, got drafted to SmackDown while Kane, who was the then ECW Champion, got drafted to Raw. After the draft 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 at Backlash.

On the August 29, 2011, episode of Raw, it was announced that performers from Raw and SmackDown were no longer exclusive to their respective brand.[3] 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.[4] In a 2013 interview with Advertising 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.[5]

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.[6] On the July 11 episode of Raw, Vince McMahon named Stephanie McMahon the Commissioner of Raw.[7] The draft took place on the live premiere of SmackDown on July 19, with the General Managers of the respective brands hand-picking the wrestlers for their brands.[8] Raw's Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and General Manager Mick Foley created a new championship—the WWE Universal Championship. This championship would be exclusive to the Raw brand, as the WWE World Championship had become exclusive to the SmackDown brand.[9] Clash of Champions was scheduled as the reintroduction of the cruiserweight division and the first Raw-exclusive pay-per-view since January 2007, whereas Elimination Chamber was scheduled as the final Raw-exclusive pay-per-view two years later. Subsequently, this saw all upcoming pay-per-views interbranded after WrestleMania 34. And recently, they put another segment, Raw Underground (with a cage fight theme).

Raw
Championship	Current champion(s)		Reign	Date won	Days held	Location	Notes
WWE Championship		Drew McIntyre	2	November 16, 2020	82	Orlando, Florida	Defeated Randy Orton in a No Disqualification No Countout match on Raw.
United States Championship		Bobby Lashley	2	August 30, 2020	160	Orlando, Florida	Defeated Apollo Crews at Payback.
Raw Tag Team Championship		The Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin)	1 (1, 3)	December 20, 2020	48	St. Petersburg, Florida	Defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs.
Raw Women's Championship		Asuka	2	August 23, 2020	167	Orlando, Florida	Defeated Sasha Banks at SummerSlam.

• Note – The WWE Women's Tag Team Championship and the WWE 24/7 Championship can also be defended on Raw as they are shared among the brands[20][21]