A big reason why Monday Night Raw is the "longest running weekly episodic program in television history" is partly because it's a live broadcast. At least it's usually live. If you go back over the last 21 years, there were times throughout the 1990s where it wasn't live, but once they started doing Smackdown in August 1999, Raw has been a live show nearly every week in the year. The fact that Raw is usually live is appealing to viewers. They can go into it not knowing what's going to happen over the course of three hours (or less in previous years) and hopefully they will like what they see enough to keep watching the next week. Taped shows don't have that same appeal to them. It's not like most fans are reading spoilers, but there's a different atmosphere when it's taped. It's not easy to perform on a live wrestling show. WWE makes it look that way because they're so used to doing it and the talent they have on the roster is trained so well...at least most of them are. Have you seen an Eva Marie or Cameron match? Anyway, the talents in WWE deserve credit for performing at a consistently high level because it really isn't easy. If you mess up you'll hear a "you f**ked up" chant or worse almost immediately. That might throw you off and if you make another mistake, maybe your push is over. Then somebody else takes your spot. Then you may never recover. This feature is about looking back at some of the crazier moments in WWE history that took place on television during a broadcast. They're things that happened on television because if they took place at a house show or a pay-per-view they might not have been as effective.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
