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Raw is 25!


HarmonicGenerator

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So this year marks the silver anniversary of Monday Night Raw / Raw is War / Raw Supershow / just Raw.

To mark the show's 25th birthday, WWE have put up a countdown of Raw's 100 Greatest Moments on the Network (in the Collections section).

Last night I started working through them in reverse order, I'm only up to about 95 but so far we've had non-wrestler Hugh Jackman punching Dolph Ziggler, non-wrestler Mike Tyson punching Chris Jericho, wrestler-playing-non-wrestler Santino Marella beating Umaga, non-wrestler Floyd Mayweather building up his WrestleMania match with Big Show, Kurt Angle coming back, and I'm halfway through a Triple H-Stephanie segment from the build to WrestleMania X-8 that I'm intrigued to see how it's one of Raw's greatest moments because unless it involves Lucy the dog I'm not buying it.

 

Point is, as these segments were playing I thought "you know who'd come up with a good selection of great Raw moments? UKFF" and this thread was born, much like Mae Young's hand on an episode of Raw.

 

So what are your favourite moments from the past 25 years of Raw? Segments, promos, angles, matches, turns, run-ins, all that sort of stuff. As I work my way down the Network list we can see how much better our list will be!

 

(I might even do a countdown/write-up sort of thing!)

 

We never had Sky Sports when I used to watch as much WWE as I possibly could, so I was always a SmackDown guy (TM Tazz) because Saturday mornings on Sky One are the best time and place for wrestling. Whatever I saw of Raw was through highlights shows like Livewire and Bottom Line. Most of the full episodes I've seen are from that 2004 - 2006 period where it really wasn't very good, though I have fond memories of the first RAW Roulette episode in 2002 which I did see in full somehow. The show-long storyline was really good, the TLC main event was excellent, William Regal was dressed as a showgirl against Goldust, and Triple H had a Blindfold match against, I want to say D'Lo Brown.

More recently I've only ever watched the post-WrestleMania episode because it's the one episode a year where major stuff is most likely to happen. 

So I'm going with RAW Roulette.

 

How about you?

Insert Nickelback / Papa Roach / that one from Forceable Entry / other Raw theme song here

 

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25 years? Christ. My Raw memories are connected with first watching it on Friday nights in 2000 as an 8 year old, keenly changing the channel when the disclaimer came on and the Richard Keys-sounding narrator said it was unsuitable for young viewers.

I never really watched regularly for various reasons in the following years except during the long summer of 2006 staying at my Grandma's (who, thanks to a divorced Dad, no not that one :D) had Sky Sports installed and I was allowed to stay up and watch it live. 

Off the top of my head I really love and remember fondly:

 

  • Owen vs Davey Boy in that weirdly lit arena from Germany in the first European title match
     
  • Edge slapping fuck out of Cena's dad to build towards their Summerslam title match in 2006 
     
  • HBK and Cena go an hour in the UK circa 2007
     
  • Brock Lesnar's return in 2012
     
  • Being at the Amway Centre for Roman Reigns' 10 minute, one sentence promo where he got absolute pelters from the crowd.
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My top moments:

CM Punk's Pipe bomb promo: Everyone breaks the fourth wall now but this felt genuinely amazing at the time and got a lot of people talking. Plus it spawned many T-Shirts. And if that's not a measure of success then I don't know what is!

Stephanie Tied to the Crucifix: I mean this was pure Attitude era wrestlecrap but I loved it. The pop Austin got when he finally came out to save her. The hammy acting, the failed attempts by other wrestlers to save her and Mideon! This segment had everything.

Shawn Michaels kicks Shelton's head off: For me this may be the match I've most enjoyed watching on Raw. A great showcase for Shelton against a man who (let's face it) is the best in ring worker of all time. And THAT finish.

Mankind wins WWE Title: I know Mick has eroded a lot of the good will to him over the years this was an amazing feel good moment. He was the perfect guy to program with The Rock. It encapsulated everything about the typical Attitude Era main event. Complete clusterfuck with everyone interfering. But him running around the ring with the title celebrating was a great moment.

Regal's King of the Ring win: This was just a great little wrestling tournament told throughout the show. The general manager booking himself on a relatively easy path to the final. Overcoming a plucky CM Punk who was carrying a back injury after a grueling match with Chris Jericho. Regal sitting on the throne was a great image. Shame it didn't all lead to something bigger because of his suspension.

 

 

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Shawn vs Shelton - love that match.

Rock's return in 2011. Watched that live with a three month old daughter who wouldn't sleep, and marked out in a way I hadn't done in absolutely years.

Punk's pipebomb - even my non-fan wife watched that and said 'He's not allowed to say that, surely?'. Jaw-dropping stuff.

Reigns the night after beating Taker - he absolutely owned that crowd.

'TYSON AND AUSTIN! TYSON AND AUSTIN!'

And one that's always stuck with me - Edge was doing some kind of 'Pick Your Poison' thing with someone (possibly Cena?) and Christian came out. They had a great match, only to be interrupted by Edge's opponent declaring that he had no idea why Christian was there, as Edge's actual opponent was someone else. Taker's music plays and he comes out, and Edge legs it backstage. I always liked that!

Shawn's retirement speech. Stuff Flair's, this is the one that got me.

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Recently watched the Bret Hart promo from the night after WrestleMania 13 again. Fuck that pipe bomb, this is the best promo in the history of the show. It's a magnificent monolgoue summing up a year and a half of story, justifying his heel turn and creating range and emotion that only exists because Bret believed every word. His promos from late 1996 to SummerSlam 1997 were almost all fantastic but this is a thing of beauty.

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My best memory from RAW would be the Nexus debut. May have been fucked up afterwards, but that initial attack wads great. Something we'd never seen before and even the stuff such as taking the ring apart seemed like a huge leap from what WWE had been for ages.

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A favourite of mine, despite how shit it ended up being, was the episode where Triple H is trying to track down Shawn (I think this was him trying to get Shawn to reform DX). The angle played out through the episode and when Trips finally tracks him down he's working as a chef. Shawn is finally convinced and super kicks the boss. Chef's snotty kid comes out and say's her Dad will fire him so he superkicks her in the face aswell. It's always stood out to me because it was Attitude Era levels of silly in a period that was lacking that sort of thing.

Edit: Found the clip

 

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In no way as iconic as many of those mentioned, but I've always been a fan of segments that ought to have died on their arse being given necromancy by great talent. The one that always comes to mind is Ric Flair saving musical chairs in 2004:

 

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1 hour ago, WyattSheepMask said:

So the collections on the network runs #100 to #26 with the top 25 to follow later. Are we just assuming that the top 3 will be Shane buys WCW, DX 'invades' WCW and "Austin with a beer bath!"?

Zamboni at 4. Milk truck at 5. Concrete corvette at 6. 

Anything with cars are always how these things go. 

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2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

though I have fond memories of the first RAW Roulette episode in 2002 which I did see in full somehow. The show-long storyline was really good, the TLC main event was excellent, William Regal was dressed as a showgirl against Goldust, and Triple H had a Blindfold match against, I want to say D'Lo Brown.

Much like you I didn't get sky sports until about 05, and was a more of a smackdown fan in the split as a result. I remember a mate who did get raw and me getting into quite the discussion when Stiner started in 02, but my jealousy turned to relief after he lent me the rumble. 

Anyway, I too was lent a copy of that raw roulette show, the same mate brought it round, such was it's change from the norm and merit to discussion in maths class. 

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Most of the above, plus the final Nitro crossover show. Surreal still doesn't even cover it.

1 hour ago, Grecian said:

Reigns the night after beating Taker - he absolutely owned that crowd.

This. I'd been enjoying the Day After shows but last year had the potential to be horrible with everything being shit on, it was a genius production move to let all that bad air get out, then shut it down with just five words. 

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