Raw (WWE brand)
Raw is a brand of the U.S. based professional wrestling promotion WWE. The brand was first established on March 25, 2002, with a draft on "Monday Night Raw" and went into effect one week later on April 1. The brand split was discontinued in August 2011, but was brought back in July 2016. Wrestlers assigned to the Raw brand wrestle predominantly on the "Raw" television program as well as "Main Event", the seasonal "Mixed Match Challenge", and Raw branded or co-branded pay-per-view events and WWE Network events. During the first brand split, they also competed on "Heat" and on "ECW" under a talent exchange program.
USA Network
USA Network has a longstanding history with sports, dating back to its existence as the Madison Square Garden Network. The network carried Major League Baseball games on Thursday nights from 1979 to 1983, and the "NHL on USA" ran from 1979 to 1985. "College Football on USA" ran from 1980 to 1986, and its telecast of the 1981 Liberty Bowl was the first college bowl game to be exclusively broadcast on cable television. The "NBA on USA" also aired from 1979 to 1984, the first time that the NBA had a cable television partner. Professional wrestling company WWE has had a longstanding relationship with the network; WWF Prime Time Wrestling broadcast on USA from 1985-1993 until it was superseded by "WWE Raw" from 1993-2000, and again since 2005. "WWE SmackDown" also started airing on the network in January 2016.