The Best & Worst of Raw

[Callum1993]

Best

 

One of my personal favourites has to be Brock Lesnar's return earlier this year. Everyone knew it was coming but still it was an amazing moment. The crowd was perfect...everything was just perfect. I'd been waiting 8 years for Brock to returns and this was awesome.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDYxsRWenFU

 

Kane's unmasking was also a pretty entertaining moment. As a 10 year old seeing him unmask was a huge moment after watching him with the mask for 5 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqUZ6-jD2KU

 

Worst

 

The whole Heath Slater/Wendi Richter/ Cyndi Lauper segment a few weeks ago.

 

 

Another segment I hated was the whole "Mr Mcmahon's son" angle. When it was eventually revealed as Hornswoggle it was a huge disappointment(Just like the Anonymous Raw Gm being Hornswoggle....shit seems to follow him around)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wixxyXqQzNg

[Tommy!]

THE BEST

 

The New Age Outlaws Dumpster angle:

This angle was intense. Don't know if it comes off well today, but at the time it was insane. When the Outlaws (who were massive dicks at the time) showed remorse and the agents, follow wrestlers and Vince himself came out looking distraught, everyone in our house believed something had gone wrong. The whole episode was great in truth. Hardly any clean finishes on the show and every match set up for some kind of angle. But it didn't seem like over kill for this cast of characters. Well it wouldn't with DX, the Outlaws, Funk, Cactus, Owen and Austin. They were all awesome at the time.

 

What made that so good was what they did seemed so shocking at the time and every one played it as though Foley and Funk were seriously fucked up.

Even the outlaws were some what apologetic, if I remember right, later on the night before HBK and HHH wandered up and told them to stop being fannys and man up as it all about ratings and business so fuck them.

 

Was it that night or another similar angle in the following weeks where they some what blew it at the shows end by having Foley and Funk run out in hospital gowns with a IV?

[Kaz Hayashi]

One of the best and IMO, the most shocking, especially at the time...

 

11/4/96

 

 

PILLMAN LOOSES THE PLOT.

 

This was actually intense to watch. The general plot was that Austin and Pillman were pals due to their old friendship together in WCW. Pillman then ended up becoming 'better' pals with Bret Hart who was feuding with Austin at the time. This then led to Austin beating the piss out of Pillman of an episode of Raw or Superstars.

They started a feud and the Austin visited Pillmans house... this is where the crazy shit went down.

Pillmans wife was in the house, Kevin Kelly (not Nailz) also decided that it was a good idea to be present. Lots of shouting took place whilst Austin kicked the shit out of Pillmans mates in the garden, whilst inside, Pillman pulls out a gun.

Austin makes it in to the house and pillman points the gun at him, the camera then dies and blacks out.

 

Pillman also said fuck on live tv and Vince and co basically had to apologise for the entire angle.. mental.

 

How it aired:

 

Pillmans got a gun

 

 

 

There is also the 'behind the scenes video' showing the editing of the entire head fuck.

 

youtube pillman gun 'behind the scenes'

[ItsClobberingTime]

Best

 

One of my personal favourites has to be Brock Lesnar's return earlier this year. Everyone knew it was coming but still it was an amazing moment. The crowd was perfect...everything was just perfect. I'd been waiting 8 years for Brock to returns and this was awesome.

I love that so fucking much it's ridiculous.

 

You thought you knew it was coming but nothing's ever certain. It was one of those things that was still surprising that it ACTUALLY happened.

 

The pop from the crowd at his music is incredible, and then when he walks out it gets even louder.

 

The 'holy shit!' from the crowd at a return is rare.

 

It was genuinely awesome, and his coming back was worth it for that moment alone, as well as the match with Cena. The long term booking might be fucked but hell, I'm glad they got him in.

[Baz Windham]

Best for me is and always will be this...

 

 

The whole show is very good and this segment in particular is like the attitude era in a bottle. The higher power comes down to the ring in a lovely maroon velvet cloak shrouded in mystery, but the one person the higher power definitely shouldn't have been was Vince, which at the time means it definitely bloody was going to be Vince. But wait! Vince is on the screen in the back calling the higher power all sorts of names so who the fuck is it going to be!?! Your heart races as the hood starts to be drawn back and then we hear those immortal words......IT'S ME AUSTIN! (JR: AW SON OF A BITCH!), IT'S ME AUSTIN, IT WAS ME ALLLL ALONG AUSTIN! and then Vince launches into his usual excellent heel promo re-igniting the best feud there's ever been. "There's no depth I won't sink to Austin"

 

BUT THERE'S MORE! Here's wooden Linda and pre-big breasts Steph and Linda drops some not too subtle hints that the new CEO is Stone Cold which leads to Vince's usual excellent facial reactions. The place erupts as Austin comes out in his t-shirt with a red tie and proceeds to book the Corporate Ministry in some unfair matches for the rest of Raw which is very entertaining and culminates in another excellent moment of Show chokeslamming Taker through the ring ON THE SAME SHOW!

 

So yeah, it's just the ultimate attitude story for me. Completely out there, but massively entertaining, 100mph never knowing what's next TV made even better by excellent performances. Within a month or two Austin wasn't CEO, Vince was gone, Corporate Ministry was gone and Show and Taker were teaming. That shit doesn't matter in the attitude era though because this segment stands alone as a brilliant moment.

[The King Of Swing]

McMahon being revealed as the Higher Power was one of the low points of 1999 for me and it killed my interest in the Corporate Ministry.

[wandshogun09]

Most of the best ones have been covered already. I absolutely loved the Pillman gun angle and the Hart Foundation reunion in particular.

 

I'll throw these in aswell;

 

BEST

 

Bret Hart vs Sycho Sid Steel Cage Match, 1997

 

I loved everything about this. That build up to that Wrestlemania was all up in the air for so long. The headliner seemed to be changing almost on a week to week basis. You had Sid, Bret, HBK, Undertaker and Austin all there getting involved in each others shit every week. The title went from Sid to Michaels, then forfeited, then to Bret, then back to Sid all in about a month.

 

But what I loved about this cage match is it was the go home Raw before Wrestlemania and this was a massively important match. You had to keep watching because if Bret beat Sid then his match with Austin would become the title match at Mania and if Sid won then Taker would keep his chance at the belt intact.

 

Having Austin and Taker trying to have their opponent win gave the match a nice twist and I genuinely didn't know what the fuck was going to happen. It was proper intense stuff at the time.

 

The post match stuff made it even more memorable with Bret going mental, shoving Vince on his arse and shouting 'Bullshit' on the mic.

 

 

The scene after the match was crazy. You had Bret spazzing out, Vince fuming, half a cage still up with all the crew still pulling it down. Sid, Taker and Austin were all around the ring adding to the chaos and then Shawn Michaels appeared on the ramp as the show went off air.

 

I loved that episode.

 

The Michaels/Austin Tag Team, 1997

 

Short lived but this was great fun. The 'tag partners that don't get on' stuff has been done a bunch of times but with these two involved it felt like a big deal. And with their mutual hatred of the Hart Foundation it made sense. HBK coming back from a layoff and then them having that belter against the Bulldog and Owen, then the match with LOD which I thought was decent aswell. And of course it all led to their 'Special Olympian' match at KOTR.

 

Austin as WWF CEO, 1999

 

This was goofy as fuck like a lot of stuff on Raw in that time period but it was entertaining for a one off episode of Raw. Austin wasn't much of a comedy figure as a babyface back then so I thought this was a nice change of pace for him, and Vince's reactions to it all made it 10x better. Probably doesn't hold up viewing it today but I loved it at the time, seeing Austin pissing about in Titan Towers and bossing people around.

 

WORST

 

Again, most of the ones I would have said have been done but I thought this was shite

 

Raw in South Africa, 1997

 

This was an episode in April 1997 where they had matches air from both the US and South Africa. Utter crap. Here's the card...

 

WWF Raw is War: April 14, 1997

Legion of Doom vs. Godwinns, Owen Hart/British Bulldog interfere, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley vs. Jesse Jammes, Rocky Maivia vs. Savio Vega, Nation of Domination attack Rocky Maivia, Ahmed Johnson makes the save, INT- Steve Austin, Goldust vs. Sultan, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley/Chyna come out, Bret Hart video, Mankind/Vader vs. Headbangers, INT- Truth Commission leader, Ahmed Johnson vs. Crush, INT- Faarooq.

 

The matches in Africa especially, were so fucking boring. The arena looked dark and dreary and no-one seemed like they could be arsed. A rare stinker from 1997 Raw. I don't know why it sticks out so much because there was nothing memorable about it.

 

They got right back on track the following week though with the excellent Bret/Austin Street Fight episode.

[scott_2k16]

Best:

 

1) CM Punk cashed in MITB on edge!

 

2) Miz cashed in MITB

 

3) William Regal is the first member of the kiss my arse club!

 

 

Worst:

 

1) Katie Vick

[Baz Windham]

McMahon being revealed as the Higher Power was one of the low points of 1999 for me and it killed my interest in the Corporate Ministry.

 

 

The above is also one of the best moments. In fact, when Vince pulls a face, you've got a great moment on your hands either way

[Fox Piss]

Russo says the South Africa episode is what finally made Vince change and realize stuff had to change.

 

It might of lead to the talk where Vince tells everybody to be a larger than life character of themselves.

[gmoney]

McMahon being revealed as the Higher Power was one of the low points of 1999 for me and it killed my interest in the Corporate Ministry.

 

I remember being disappointed, but only because me and my mate, in an early example of the internet inflating my expectations, were convinced it was going to be Sid.

[wandshogun09]

Russo says the South Africa episode is what finally made Vince change and realize stuff had to change.

 

I never heard that, was it on a shoot interview? Makes sense though, it was rotten.

 

Thing is, Raw had been picking up since late 96 with the Bret/Austin, Sid/HBK, Bret/HBK, Taker/Mankind and even Ahmed/Nation feuds all being pretty hot at the time. The South Africa episode might have just been a one off crap show around then because it was back to being fantastic the following week with with Bret and Austin.

 

They had been dabbling in edgier stuff for a few months already with Austin's character, the Pillman stuff etc. But maybe the South Africa episode turning out so shit just made Vince decide to go full on in that direction or something.

[NEWM]

IIRC, Russo made those comments in a Raw Magazine article sometime in 99 before he went to WCW. Said how the whole company was down on what a fucking shitfest that episode was and how bad the beatings from WCW were.

 

In hindsight, the piece was probably an act of self-fellatio than anything else, but it reminded me of that story of Vince apparently throwing his headset off in disgust after the October 95 IYH had gone off the air. Forget where I read that though.

 

It must be those head-in-hands moments that Vince misses the least about being at war. We may never have another boom period or whatever, but the man was fucking penniless at times and must have wondered if he'd ever make it out alive. No wonder he plays it safe now he's figured out the formula.

[Up Chuck]

We've probably all seen it, but I'll run down one of my all-time favourite episodes: the night after Night of Champions 2008, where they'd done the draft the week before. At the time, that scheduling seemed odd, but on this show, it all came together beautifully. JR had been drafted from Raw to Smackdown and came out to give his goodbye speech, only for Smackdown's World Heavyweight Champ Edge to come down and run him down and have Ryder and Hawkins kick him out of the building. Edge then went on to gob off about how Raw didn't have a World Champ anymore (he'd beaten Batista, who'd just been drafted to Raw, the night before with a fuckton of interference, and WWE Champion Triple H was also on Smackdown, possibly having just been drafted too), and how he was king shit and was going to stick it to everyone by never going to show up on Raw again. Lots of boos, he saunters off up the ramp, when Batista's music hits. Edge gets an "oh fuck I forgot this guy was on this show now" look on his face, and proceeds to take a walloping from Big Dave, looking hard as fuck in his jeans. One of the bits that made this great was when Edge climbed into the crowd and I assumed the whole thing was over, but Big Dave grabbed him and threw him back into the ring, then gave him an awesome-looking straight-up powerbomb without the sit-out. He sods off and I STILL assumed it was over... but then this happened.

 

 

CM Punk, who pretty much everybody said would be the first guy to cash in Money in the Bank and lose, comes out and beats the Ultimate Opportunist at his own game. Crowd goes mental, Cole and King go mental, I go mental a few hours later watching on my laptop.

 

That's followed up by a red-hot episode, with Rhodes and DiBiase cutting an ace debut promo with their new tag titles, a fun rematch from the previous night between Chris Jericho and Kofi Kingston, JBL declaring MARSHALL LAW~ in Vince McMahon's absence and challenging Punk, leading to everyone assuming this was a one-night reign, then the match itself with that awesome visual of Cena and Cryme Tyme appearing on the ramp ready to sort out any shit that goes down. And then Punk retains when nobody expected him to win it in the first place.

 

I remember everything felt so fresh right then. Nothing much may have come out of it in the months that followed but it was a great, great episode and will always stick with me as a favourite.

 

EDIT:

.

[Joey Joe Joe Jr]

THE BEST

 

The New Age Outlaws Dumpster angle:

This angle was intense. Don't know if it comes off well today, but at the time it was insane. When the Outlaws (who were massive dicks at the time) showed remorse and the agents, follow wrestlers and Vince himself came out looking distraught, everyone in our house believed something had gone wrong. The whole episode was great in truth. Hardly any clean finishes on the show and every match set up for some kind of angle. But it didn't seem like over kill for this cast of characters. Well it wouldn't with DX, the Outlaws, Funk, Cactus, Owen and Austin. They were all awesome at the time.

 

What made that so good was what they did seemed so shocking at the time and every one played it as though Foley and Funk were seriously fucked up.

Even the outlaws were some what apologetic, if I remember right, later on the night before HBK and HHH wandered up and told them to stop being fannys and man up as it all about ratings and business so fuck them.

 

Was it that night or another similar angle in the following weeks where they some what blew it at the shows end by having Foley and Funk run out in hospital gowns with a IV?

 

Fun fact I found out this week that Vince, like with Shawn's entrance at WM 12, did the dumpster stunt himself before the show as well.

 

I love that moment too. JR sells it like they set a child on fire. Road Dogg does a funny little leap of celebration when it goes over meanwhile. Then moments later, they're being chewed out by Vince which really hits home the gravity of what they did. Awesome stuff.