Monday Night Raw: "Biggest" Match of All-Time

[Steamboat Ricky]

What's the "biggest" match in the history of Monday Night Raw? Criteria can be whatever you feel like is important: most hype, best technical performance, etc. etc. etc. But what match are you choosing...and what are the reasons behind it?


I'm going to throw out an often overlooked big-time match that could have headlined any number of PPV events: Stone Cold/The Rock v. NWO.

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Here, you have the three biggest superstars in the modern era of professional wrestling in the ring at the same time, and the two biggest babyfaces of an era going up against arguably the number one heel faction of all-time.

It wasn't necessarily anything to write home about other than the hype and the nostalgia (I mean...you actually get Austin/Hogan fighting one another)...but wow...what a huge match.


What you got?

 

[OutsiderDX]

Mankind vs Rock had a pretty big feel to it as i remember. Obviously in retrospect, it was an important match. Mick Foley's first world title. And the last time WCW would win the rating wars.

Big names involved : Foley, Rock, DX, Kane, Vince, Shane, and of course Stone Cold.

 

[CrissSpades]

My choice would be The Two Man Power Trip (HHH & Stone Cold) vs Benoit & Jericho. The match where Trips tore his quad. Before HHH tore his quad, that was a REALLY good tag team, one of the best tag matches ever witnessed. The crowd was hot the whole way through, you really couldn't ask for much more. And also the balls Triple H had to continue until the end, was admirable and inspiring. Just my choice. The Rock & Stone Cold vs nWo was a good choice as well. I'm sure almost every choice in this thread will have Stone Cold involved somehow. Another good one that comes to mind was The Rock vs Mankind for the WWF Championship. But anyway, that's my choice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itgKwkp9dv4

 

[donfryeismyhero]

I agree with the OP. The 2 top superstars of the WWE vs the 3 top superstars of WCW during the Monday Night Wars going head to head. During the mid to late 90's, the nWo, Stone Cold & Rock were the most over wrestlers that there were. The only other wrestler who was on par with them during that time frame that wasn't involved in that match was Goldberg.

 

[obamartins]

I automatically thought when thinking of biggest Monday Night Raw match of all time the one you mentioned.

Stone Cold Steve Austin & The Rock vs. Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall.

This period was the last time WWE got a 5.0 rating.

Top 3 draws of all time in same match. 5 guys who changed & revolutionized the business.

 

[HBKperfect23]

Ill go as recent as RAW 1000. CM Punk vs John Cena had a big match ppv like feel to it. I had no idea who was going to win. The Rock got involved and we saw a CM Punk heel turn that no one saw coming.

Shawn Michaels vs John Cena Wrestlemania rematch was pretty big and is probably the best match in RAW history.

 

[RJJ]

Here you go:

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Highest rated Raw Main-Event ever. You've got all the top superstars of the AE going against each other, with shane and vince in the mix and HBK as the special guest ref. Can't get any better than that.






Another one that I can think of is Rock-Austin the night after Survivor Series 1998. CRAZY ATMOSPHERE!

[YOUTUBE]MvaTtFR_xG8[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

Here you go:

[YOUTUBE]LOfWwXXY7q4[/YOUTUBE]



Highest rated Raw Main-Event ever. You've got all the top superstars of the AE going against each other, with shane and vince in the mix and HBK as the special guest ref. Can't get any better than that.






Another one that I can think of is Rock-Austin the night after Survivor Series 1998. CRAZY ATMOSPHERE!

[YOUTUBE]MvaTtFR_xG8[/YOUTUBE]

Oh God, yes. This match had SO much heat. I started watching just around this time, and it took me a really long time to understand why Stone Cold didn't win the title after Taker hit him with the shovel.

People can say what they want about Attitude, but they had been planning this for weeks and it was done PERFECTLY.

 

[justinept]

Austin vs McMahon. April 13, 1998.

The MOST important match in Monday Night Raw history. After losing the ratings for 83 consecutive weeks, this main event finally put the WWE over the top. It is the most important feud in WWE history and featured the most important match in Raw history.

 

[theBec2101]

So basically everyone saying Austin and whomever was the best match in the History of Raw. As long as it was Austin.(4 the most part anyway) I do agree with the one person that the night Mankind won the WWE Championship is the day WCW f***ed up and started to change the tide so that is pretty big in itself.
But honestly as soon as you said Raw and history I thought of Razor vs Lighting kid. May not have been the best match but that just always sticks out to me. Then it involved winner gets money. It also created good storylines and careers at one time.

 

[xavyer]

That one is a tough question to answer, i don't know if it was the biggest Monday Night Raw match of all time, but to me it was very memorable, not only the match itself but the promo leading up to the match, Austin just lost the title to Kane in a first blood match, and the next night on Raw, there was a celebration for Kane, but all of a sudden Stone Cold made his way to the ring, and started talking about how the Undertaker won the match for him, and how can he live with himself for that and suckered Kane to give him a rematch, and the match itself was great, and Austin got his belt back, to me that was awesome........

 

[rge2010]

The night after Wrestlemania 17. Rock vs Austin for the Title in a Steel Cage. Triple H came down and joined forces with Austin and Vince. Is there a bigger match than Rock vs Austin?

Epic turn of events.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Tough to pick especially since all the best answers have been said and I wanted to go with one that hasn't. My pick isn't bigger than the ones already mentioned in terms of draw but I'd say it's one of the top 5 in performance and probably my favourite Raw match of all time, it's one that's overlooked, Mick Foley vs. Terry Funk.

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This was like one of the first real hardcore matches in the WWF, and in it you had the two hardcore gods destroying each other all over the arena. There were some memorable spots in this one for me like Foley piledriving Funk through the Table and Funk doing a moonsault off the rail onto Foley and some referees, both in the crowd. Austin on commentary also made this more enjoyable, it was hilarious when he was receiving technical issues with his headset then got up & knocked Lawler out, thinking he was fucking with his headset on purpose.

I give an honorable mention to DX & The Radicalz vs. Rock, Cactus, Rikishi & Too Cool. Things were pretty big leading into this and after it, it was the Radicalz first match in the WWF and Foley's first match back as Cactus, I believe, and the match was just one wild brawl. Kane also returning at the end of the match was epic.

 

[HBsam31]

That one is a tough question to answer, i don't know if it was the biggest Monday Night Raw match of all time, but to me it was very memorable, not only the match itself but the promo leading up to the match, Austin just lost the title to Kane in a first blood match, and the next night on Raw, there was a celebration for Kane, but all of a sudden Stone Cold made his way to the ring, and started talking about how the Undertaker won the match for him, and how can he live with himself for that and suckered Kane to give him a rematch, and the match itself was great, and Austin got his belt back, to me that was awesome........

I have to be honest, this was the first match that popped into my mind to. I remember watching the PPV and then the Raw the next night, and I hoped Austin would interrupt the Kane celebration. Well he did and the match was set. The crowd was super hot, and erupted when Austin won the title back. I don't know if it was the biggest of all time, but it is definitely up there.

 

[GrandSword]

The match that immediatley popped into mind.. so I'm going with that, is WWF Champion The Undertaker vs. Stone Cold, the night after Vince and Shane won back control of the company. Austin said before he lost his power he booked himself in a championship match on Raw. Austin wins the title from Taker! Taker bloodies him up post match.

Just epic stuff.

 

[mral82]

To me the idk "biggest" match but most shocking match was The Big Show vs Kane after WM 22 when the showed us the best technical wrestling for a couple of Big Guys.

But for the "Biggest" Match it would have to go to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson defending his title and losing it to Mick "Mankind" Foley. If it weren't for Eric Bischoff feeding Tony Schiavone "Well over on that other program Mick Foley our former employee will be winning the World Title. That'll put butts in the seats! (IDK exact words)" That night 600,000 viewers turned over to watch WWF Raw is War/ the War Zone. If not for that then WCW woulda stayed ahead in the Monday Night Wars during the Attitude Era where Attitude was all around in WCW, ECW, and WWF. That right there has to be then biggest match.

 

[FlairFan2003]

There's a difference between "Biggest Match" and "Best Match" - For example, at WrestleMania 3 the best match was Savage-Steamboat, but that match was no way bigger than Hogan-Andre.

There are a few "Big" matches that deserve some cred, some of them also were very good.

Austin/Rock vs NWO - Basically this is the kind of match we wanted when WWE bought up WCW, instead we got all the WCW mid carders with the only main evener being DDP. This match had two of WWE's biggest stars of the decade, long time rivals at that, together against the best heel group of the past decade.

Foley's Title Win: Emotional moment, a bit of a surprise booking wise, and the whole Bischoff lets the cat out of the bag and still loses viewers was an important monent in "The Monday Night Wars"

Flair/Henning: Loser Leaves Town Matches are always interesting, and these were probably two of the four biggest names in the company at the time (considering Savage wasnt wrestling at this point and HBK was still a mid carder, these two were right up there with Hart & a rising Scott Hall). The first true "Main Event" of RAW, great match, clean ending, Henning's biggest win after leaving the AWA.

Austin-Rock The WM 17 Re-Match: OK match, the real excitement was in the re match after Austin swerved everyone the night before, plus the next swerve (HHH joins Austin & Vince) made this one of the most anticipated bouts in RAW history.

 

[Wolf Pac]

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Can't believe I forgot about this one till now, this has got to be my second favourite Raw match of all time. Here you had Chris Benoit challenging Austin to a wrestling match and Austin is a brawler, has been ever since he broke his neck, and not many expected him to be able to go technical anymore, not with the neck injury limiting his moveset, but come match time he shows that he can still go technical and pulls off a solid wrestling match with Benoit while he's at it to the suprise of many including myself. He wasn't completely the same like when he wrestled as Stunning Steve Austin in WCW, he was a bit slow but that's due to his injuries, but he showed that he still had the skills & tools to pull off a good technical wrestling match whenever he wanted to.

 

[Nadeem Ahmad]

Man, you just reminded me of something I saw live in a year when I pretty much almost always tuned in to WWF Raw is War live, and recorded most of the shows. This match at the time was probably the best match Chris Benoit had wrestled in during the time he spent in the WWF, which was stating a lot, since he had also been involved in matches against Triple H before this point as well, if I was not mistaken.

It instantly blew away the wars he went through with Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle prior in the year, because of energy, adrenaline, intensity, minimal closed fists, minimal elbowing, minimal brawling, a caringly planted Crippler Crossface in which he made sure not to injure the neck suddenly, and technical wrestling, which was the focus of the match, making it seem like something out of nineteen ninety-five.

 

[P. Nut Butters]

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I was going to say some of the ones that have already been mentioned on this thread but then this one popped into my mind.

Jericho "wins" the WWF title on RAW.

To me, this had such intensity and stands out as one of the more notable moments of RAW from my childhood. The match is just so well executed in my opinion and the energy level from the crowd and remembering as a viewer watching the show, where you could feel that HHH's number was up and Jericho was going to win the title was something special.

Not to mention the pop after Jericho gets the pinfall... un-fucking-believable!

If I remember correctly, these two then eventually did have a re-match at Fully Loaded in one of the two main events of that card.