10 Reasons WWE Raw Is Lucky To Still Be On The Air
4. Pushing The Envelope
Did WWE win the biggest war of all by fooling USA Network into thinking they had to 'go there' in order to keep pace with Monday Nitro?
Pioneered by Vince Russo and heartily endorsed (and occasionally filtered) by Vince McMahon, 'Crash TV' booking of matches with gaps filled in by degeneracy and depravity made Monday Night Raw less of a wrestling show than it had ever been as the 'New' Generation took a backseat to a completely twisted updated one.
Success is hard to argue with as it's happening, and it was a argument McMahon didn't really have to have with Network chiefs until certain advertisers took their funding elsewhere. Even then, Raw wasn't in real trouble at it's height - the numbers were huge and WWE's stock as a brand in general was red hot.
WCW was in safe hands until Ted Turner lost controlling interest in his own company, but Vince McMahon wasn't beholden to anybody but himself until his organisation was successful enough to float on the New York Stock Exchange. By then he was rich enough to stop taking risks with his product so not to damage relations with shareholders. The chaos of the Attitude Era subsequently disappeared, but so too did the zeal.