RAW: A Romantic's View

[CyberPunk]

Monday night Raw: One of the longest running TV show and the flagship show of the WWF/E. First aired on January 11, 1993, it made wrestling a household name. It made what WWE is today. It changed the whole concept of wrestling on TV. Basically it made what wrestling is today.

During it's journey we had some great moments and some other not so great moments. Started as a one hour show and around 97, went to its current 2 hour format. I still remember when it used to air on Star Sports here in India. How Stone Cold would come out and whoop some ass almost every night (or morning before I went to school) or how Rock brought it each night. The Undertaker and his creepy ways. Kane, one of the scariest monster of all time showing up. Then suddenly it disappeared from Star Sports and reappeared on Ten Sports after a couple of years. I still remember while flipping channels, I caught up the match between HHH and HBK (they were in middle of a heated feud at that time).

Lot of things changed in Raw over time. Started live, went to alternate weekly tapings, back to live and who can forget, the Monday night Wars. WCW was winning hands down (even in India when it was aired on TNT movie channel and Cartoon Network here). Montreal Screwjob saw one of the most popular star leave the company in Bret Hart and left a sour taste in our mouth. Raw endured and then came the Attitude era. Ratings soared sky high and Raw was back on top. There was more skin on my TV during RAW late night and some great angles (yes, I am being nostalgic here).

Yes, everything was not rosy as we had some horrible stories as well (see Katie Vick). WCW and ECW were no more and Raw became the sole staple for wrestling on TV. Invasion happened but fizzled out. RAW is WAR retired and then there was Brand extension. Raw competed with it's own mirror image in Smackdown (though Smackdown would never catch up with Raw). Ruthless aggression era dawned upon us and John Cena became the biggest star and face of the company. Years passed and now is the time of what we call the "PG era."

Throughout this time, we had some great fueds, angles and some not so great ones, but the point is, it endured everything and made wrestling what it is today. Raw made wrestlers Superstars. It elevated careers and while WWE may go to making movies or social networking or youtube or anything else, but Raw would always be the "Showcase" for them.

This has become a long post and I must stop before I go on recalling more Raw moments. But here are my questions to you.

What is/was your favorite Raw moment/angle/storyline (of course there could be more than one)?

Which moment/angle/storyline on Raw did you absolutely hated?

Where do you see Raw after another 10 years?

 

[thebarber]

What is/was your favorite Raw moment/angle/storyline (of course there could be more than one)?
Many standout, but for mine, my favourite Raw moment was Mankind winning his 1st WWE Championship from The Rock. The emotion that night was off the chart, having DX and the Corporation ringside made the match that more special and Austin affecting the outcome, all of the Attitude main players were all involved in that match and the feel good moment of the year, if not in Raw history was made.

Which moment/angle/storyline on Raw did you absolutely hated? Katie Vick. Enough said, anything that was associated with that name sucked bulk cock.

Where do you see Raw after another 10 years? Interesting, depending if Vince is s till in contorl in hisd mid 70s or wether HHH or somebody else is running the show.

 

[rajasalshi]

Well my friend....I'm an Indian WWE loyalist as well but i started watching WWE in 2002...a bit late i know. Yet by far, the best WWE Raw moments for me were:
1) Matt Hardy returning to Raw and kicking Edge's ass and announcing "The WWE can kiss my a**."
2) 15th anniversary ending of Raw with Stone Cold and all other superstars.
3) Kane unmasking for the 1st time...hell that was scary.
4) The epic 1 hour match between Cena and HBK after Wrestlemania.
5) HBK super-kicking Benjamin of the ropes in the Gold Rush tournament.

Those were some moments on the top of my mind but all in all kudos to Vince for creating this awesome wrestling product.

 

[The HEEL JuiceLee]

I think the best storyline was when Paul Bearer was warning Undertaker that Kane was alive.Then he finally appeared looking like a masked murderer after the 1st Hell in a Cell match(it was on a ppv,but the story unfolded weekly on RAW)

I also love when HHH was suppose to have a match with DUDE LoVE,then the DUDE shows up on the titan tron & has a promo with ManKind,then they switch over to Cactus Jack.You had all 3 faces of Foley cutting a promo together.HHH added to the excietment with his reaction that he was going to be in a street fight with the HardCore Legend Cactus Jack. I loved it, considering i was always a mark for Foley ever since he fueded with Vader in WcW.As a kid i hated Vader,but now that im older i realize the reason i hated him so much is because he was doing a great job.

The RaW storyline that i hated is how creative fucked up the NeXuS.They never revealed there higher power.The storyline started off so good,a stable full of hungry unknowns who wanted to take over & have there time to shine.1st is they were always kicking some1 out of the faction.Strenth in numbers is what made them powerful.I know they started with 8 but after DB was "fired" 7 was a perfect amount..
You had Barrett-Main Eventer,Perfect leader & mouthpiece
Slater & Gabriel a good tag team
Skip or should i say Ryback is an enforcer if ive ever seen 1
David Otunga-the coal to be molded into a dimond like orton in eveloution & The RoCK in the N.O.D
Tarver & Young were perfect lakeys,and could be the guys that always gets thrown to the wolves.

The 2nd thing they did was they Jobbed them out why they had there most heat.They cooled them off way to soon to be able to bounce back & still have that we can destroy every1 mentality they had. Thay SummerSlam 5 on 5 match is where it all started to go down hill

The 3rd thing was recruiting CeNa.It was so stupid.If they wanted CeNa to be involved in NeXuS he should of been the higher power & went heel.

DAMN I WISH I was HEAD OF CREATIVE THAT SUMMER!!!
You could of got 2 years out of the NeXus with probably only 3-6 months of staleness.
All 7 would of gotten super over also.
Barrett would be top heel in WWE
SKiP-would be Batista 2.0 instead of Goldberg 2.0
David Otunga-long US Tilte run,just short of Lex Lugers record
Tarver-would still have a job.maybe could of got over a long run in a dominate stable
Justin Gabriel - would of been a mid card champ and viewed as future maineventer
Heath Slater-probably be in the exact spot he is in now,the annoying heel
Darren Young-see heath slater

question #3 is where will the WWE be in 10 years. I am pretty sure Hunter & Stef will be in full control.(god i hope shane o' mac comes back to follow in his dads footsteps)
during Hunters tenure I THINK HE WILL BRING BACK SOME ATTITUDE.I could easily see Nash as the color comentator.but actualy i think his HollyWood dreams are about to come true.Magic Mike & the tom cruise rock n roll musical in the same month.now about to do hunger games.If it isnt Nash it will be X-PAC or Road Dogg(remember it wont be PG) Sheamus will be a 12 time champ(1 less then HHH) & UnderTaker will be 29-1 at Mania after HHH beats him in there 7th WrestleMania match.
IT's TRUE,DAMN TRUE!!!

 

[HBsam31]

I picked Monday Night Raw. i was still young and it was like a whole new world for me having only known Saturday morning shows for so long. It was loud bright and big, and pretty amazing for a 12 year old. I think after weighing all the moments I can think of that my favorite Raw moment was either the Suck the Cook DX skit, or Jericho's debut. my least favorite thing that I ever saw on Raw was Mae Young giving birth to a hand that was conceived with Mark Henry. If you ask me that was even worse than Katie Vick. In 10 years I see Raw still going strong. There doesn't seem to be anything that would indicate it won't be around. I am sure by then it will be in super high def and 3d lol, but it will be there.