Former WWE Announcer Kevin Kelly Recalls Push For Edgier Content, Birth Of Raw Is War

Veteran wrestling announcer Kevin Kelly was on the ground floor with WWE just as they began experimenting with an edgier product to compete with what WCW was doing. 

While talking with Eric Bischoff on "Wise Choices," Kelly revealed that it was not an overnight decision to switch gears, but rather a collaborative effort that unfolded more organically.

"There was a lot of rally from within the TV studio from Kevin Dunn's crew that they wanted a new vision," Kelly said. "They wanted something fresh, they were watching what Nitro was doing, and imploring Vince through Kevin Dunn to try to take a more aggressive approach. And they started to do it with the Billionaire Ted skits. At least that was their first attempt."

The "Billionaire Ted" skits were widely panned by fans and critics alike and failed to achieve whatever Vince McMahon intended. Bischoff mentioned that Ted Turner found them amusing, while Bruce Prichard said he wished WWE never acknowledged WCW's product at all.

Kelly said one particular 1996 episode of "Raw" highlighting the company's recent Kuwaiti tour produced particularly dismal ratings, which forced McMahon to rally his brain trust into action. 

"Vince pulled JR [Jim Ross], Bruce [Prichard], Pat Patterson, Vince Russo, all into a room, and said, 'Okay, boys, we've gotta do something different,'" Kelly recalled. "And Russo had a copy of 'Raw' magazine with him and said, 'This is what we're doing on the publication's end. It's edgy, we're shooting with the audience, we're not pulling any punches ... So I think all of that combined with what [the] TV studios were talking about led to the birth of 'Raw is War.'"

Kelly held various commentating and interviewer roles in WWE during the Attitude Era, with his run with the promotion ending in 2003.