WWE officials are gearing up for a special episode of Monday Night Raw.
In January 2018, WWE will celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the launch of Monday Night Raw. The sports entertainment company will hold a special edition of the show on January 12th, 2018 and it will be held in Brooklyn, NY at the Barclays Center (close to the Manhattan Center, which hosted the first Raw).
Also, WWE will release the 25th Anniversary of Raw DVD set. The made its debut back January 11, 1993 on the USA Network and since then, it has been considered as the flagship program of WWE.
Raw moved from the USA Network to The Nashville Network in September 2000, which was rebranded to Spike TV in August 2003. The 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.
WWE is planning to bring in several legends from the past to make an appearance. John Cena and Brock Lesnar are now advertised to appear on the show.
Raw has broadcast live from 208 different arenas in 171 cities and towns in eleven different nations (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Afghanistan in 2005, Iraq in 2006 and 2007, South Africa, Germany, Japan, Italy,and Mexico).
If you recall, after 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. This decision has been something that fans dislike due to the show being too long.
Back in 2009, it was reported that USA had regularly asked for three-hour episodes of Raw to boost TV ratings to help the cable channel in quarterly races against the likes of TNT, TBS, and ESPN.
McMahon has said before that he thinks the ideal length of a weekly wrestling show should be ninety minutes.
Here is a list of confirmed names that will be appearing on the episode:
John Cena
Brock Lesnar
Jim Ross
Jerry Lawler
The Undertaker
Shawn Michaels
Kevin Nash
Bret Hart
Mick Foley
Ric Flair
Asuka
AJ Styles
Alexa Bliss
Braun Strowman
Roman Reigns
Randy Orton
Seth Rollins
Dean Ambrose
Jinder Mahal