WWE Raw has provided a ton of great television over the past 25-plus years. As the Raw Reunion episode draws near, we look back at the greatest moments in the history of Raw.
This week, WWE Raw will present the RAW REUNION, featuring the most illustrious superstars from the quarter-century history of the show. Odds are there will be some memorable moments during the broadcast with so many legends in one place. But what are the greatest moments in the history of Raw?
Since the premiere episode of “Monday Night Raw” on January 11, 1993, WWE has worked to give wrestling fans an action-packed experience every week. (We can argue about their success rate at another time.) As someone who is old enough to have watched almost every one of the 1,364 episodes to air thus far, it’s fun to look back and see what once was.
When you think back to just how long WWE Raw has been on the air, it becomes difficult to narrow down the absolute greatest moments in the history of the show. We’re talking about a program that has run through the Monday Night Wars, the Attitude Era, the “Invasion,” brand splits, network changes (remember when Raw jumped from USA to TNN? Wild times.), the “RAW 25” anniversary spectacle, and so much more.
But as luminaries from eras past as varied as Ric Flair and Santino prepare to hit the airwaves for this week’s Raw Reunion, we’ve narrowed down the history of WWE Raw to the following five greatest moments of all time. With so much to pick from, obviously things needed to be left off the list.
So, apologies to Braun Strowman’s 2017-18 Property Destruction Tour, the DX Invasion of Nitro, beer trucks and milk trucks, Mankind hosting The Rock: This is Your Life, Sheamus revealing that he’s a Muppet, and anything else involving that weird “guest host” period. And without further ado, here are the five greatest moments in the history of WWE Raw, in no particular order.
Shane McMahon Buys WCW
A running theme in the history of not only WWE Raw, but the entire WWE, is missed opportunity. The powers that be come up with a singular great moment that looks like it has long-term potential, only by the time the angle ends it’s been stomped into dust and no one cares.
With very few exceptions (The Shield debut, for one), a shocking moment is eventually diminished by what follows.
But it would be irresponsible to exclude these great moments simply because of hindsight. If you were watching Raw on March 26, 2001, what you saw was one of the most incredible things you had seen on a wrestling program. What followed over the next few months was underwhelming, sure, but in that moment, fans were full of hope.
As the program opened that night, Vince McMahon was shown backstage watching WCW Monday Nitro. (He had already appeared on Nitro, which began its run one hour earlier than Raw.) See, the World Wrestling Federation had purchased World Championship Wrestling a few days earlier, ending the fabled “Monday Night Wars.”
At this point, no one knew what this meant for professional wrestling. WCW was the only real competition to the then-WWF, as ECW was on life support and mere weeks away from going out of business. Over the course of the two programs, Vince basically crapped all over WCW and its talent — several of whom were now his talent, but whatever.
The final 15 or so minutes of Nitro were a simulcast with Raw — Vince at Raw in Cleveland, with the Nitro crowd in Panama City watching on the jumbotron. More WCW burial from Vince until — cue shock and intrigue — Shane McMahon comes out to the Nitro ring and announces HE bought WCW, and he was ready to compete with his pops for wrestling supremacy or something.
We know how this ended — WCW combined with ECW for the “Invasion,” but because the WWF didn’t take on every talent contract when they bought WCW, the Invasion was led by career midcarders that no one on earth cared about, and the potential biggest angle in wrestling history fizzled out.
But in the moment, Shane buying WCW represented endless possibilities. Sting vs. The Undertaker? Goldberg vs. Steve Austin? The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan? (Hey, one out of three ain’t bad.) It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of event, and fans at that time were stoked for the future — pretty much everything you want as a wrestling promoter.
The Nexus Debuts
Hey, look: It’s another “what could have been” moment on WWE Raw!
On June 7, 2010, WWE held a “Viewer’s Choice” episode of Raw. Yes, it was dumb, but let’s forget about that for a moment. During the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, Wade Barrett came down the ramp as his cohorts jumped the barricade and, well, destroyed everything.
Less than a week earlier, Barrett had been declared the winner of the first season of NXT, back when it was a game show-type program. But his fellow competitors on the season — Daniel Bryan, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Michael Tarver, Skip Sheffield, Darren Young, and David Otunga — were left in the cold, since only the winner was granted a WWE contract.
Unbeknownst to the WWE Universe, the eight competitors had joined forces as The Nexus to obtain contracts for everyone, which led to the tour of destruction that began during the Punk/Cena match. And their initial assault on WWE was a highly disturbing and visceral attack that had several unintended consequences.
First, Daniel Bryan was shoot fired because of his actions in the attack — spitting in Cena’s face and strangling ring announcer Justin Roberts with his tie. Bryan, probably the best known of the group and arguably the most talented, would eventually return — maybe you’ve heard about what he’s done in WWE? — but hardcore fans were upset at the loss.
Second, the Nexus had peaked immediately by forcing Cena to do a stretcher job. During Cena’s run as “the face that runs the place,” he was nigh invincible. Clearly, at some point, he would need to get revenge on the group who had almost put him down.
At SummerSlam 2010, The Nexus would lose to John Cena in a 7-on-7 Elimination Tag Team Match. (Honestly, does it matter who else was on Cena’s team? He beat them practically single-handedly.)
While the fallout from SummerSlam devastated The Nexus, their initial debut set them up to be the most dominant heels in WWE for a long time.
Pipe Bomb
Never before has a man sitting cross-legged on the floor made such an impact in his field.
On June 27, 2011, CM Punk grabbed a microphone, copped a squat, and proceeded to verbally eviscerate the entire power structure of WWE. His words sounded unscripted and real, a far cry from the majority of promos delivered at the time (and even now). Fans will still debate whether the infamous “pipe bomb” promo was a work, a shoot, a worked shoot, or some other combination there’s no name for.
To be clear, the likelihood that Punk delivered a shoot promo like that on live television is incredibly low. WWE Raw runs on a slight time delay — it’s why the audio cuts out when someone like Brock Lesnar drops an F-bomb or something. If Punk went that far off script, the production truck would have killed the feed and cut his mic.
But the manner in which the words were delivered, as well as the rarity of hearing things like that on WWE programming, made the promo stand out. Punk freely admitted that he thought John Cena — company golden boy — sucked compared to others on the roster. Dropping references to other companies had always been done cryptically or vaguely, but Punk just said “I’ll go to Ring of Honor or New Japan.”
The personal attacks towards Vince McMahon also set the promo apart from others. Combine that with the fact that the entire world knew Punk’s contract was about to expire, plus Punk’s notorious abrasive and grouchy personality, and it was a perfect storm for a memorable moment.
The fact that Punk channeled the WWE Universe’s attitude into his words also can’t be denied. A large portion of the fanbase was sick of Cena’s reign at the top, and wished for better for their favorites. Punk putting that out in the open as a WWE performer was unprecedented and incredible to watch in the moment.
The Festival of Friendship
It’s astonishing as I look back at the history of WWE Raw and realize that, while I’m usually among the fans clamoring for more wrestling matches, the best moments of the show are non-wrestling segments.
I guess that even great matches tend to get lost in the shuffle after so many episodes and matches. It’s also hard to re-air enough of a match to jog a memory, while one quick sentence can capture a promo segment.
Chris Jericho is a born showman. It’s why he’s been able to remain relevant as a sports entertainer for nearly 30 years, and why a silly little metal cover band is now a legit force in the music industry. During his likely-final run with WWE, Jericho teamed up with Kevin Owens, and both superstars would win championship gold.
However, Jericho’s greatest moment in the partnership turned out to be the final moment of the partnership — a Las Vegas-themed “Festival of Friendship” that Jericho organized to celebrate his union with KO.
Twenty minute segments are rare in WWE — unless you’re a McMahon, or someone feuding with a McMahon, and you’re opening the show. But on February 13, 2017, Jericho and Owens spent over twenty minutes and two segments watching magicians, admiring art, and beating up Gillberg.
But, because Universal Champion Owens had been entered into a title defense against Goldberg by Jericho, the festival ended in heartbreak. Pro wrestling friendships are a fickle thing, and Owens abruptly ended his and Jericho’s with a vicious assault.
Some of you may be wondering why I chose to acknowledge the Festival of Friendship instead of “The Rock: This Is Your Life.”
Two reasons: first, the Festival of Friendship actually advanced the relationship/story, while This Is Your Life was twenty hilarious minutes of treading water from a storyline standpoint; second, “Bayley: This Is Your Life” is the biggest hunk of garbage promo WWE has run in some time, and the association to The Rock’s segment just by name is too much to forget.
“That’ll Put Some Butts in Seats”
So far, the greatest moments in WWE Raw history on this list have run the gamut of emotions. You have incredible hope, unparalleled devastation, euphoric shock, and the ultimate heartbreak. Why don’t we close out with not only an actual match, but a tremendously uplifting, feel-good moment?
For younger fans, the only time Raw doesn’t air live is when the show airs from overseas. Due to time differences, a telecast from Europe is taped several hours before it airs. But during the early days, Raw was taped quite often in an effort to defray high production costs.
By the time the Attitude Era was in full swing, the World Wrestling Federation would air one week’s episode of Raw live, and then tape the following week’s.
During the Monday Night Wars, WCW would often spoil the results to taped episodes of Raw while Nitro aired live. Despite being ahead in the ratings, Eric Bischoff had no problem trying to put one over on Vince McMahon; even after the WWF took the ratings lead in late 1998, Bischoff instructed commentary to tell the audience what was going to happen on Raw.
But on January 4, 1999, the decision to give away results backfired spectacularly.
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On December 29, 1998, an episode of Raw was taped to air on January 4. In the main event, Mick Foley defeated The Rock in a No Disqualification Match to win the WWF Championship. When Tony Schiavone told the Nitro audience not to change the channel because “… Cactus Jack is going to win their world championship,” millions of viewers switched to Raw.
Despite a story that would have you believe Foley’s win was the beginning of the ratings turn, Raw had been ahead since November 1998. WCW tried to reform the nWo to recapture their former glory, but airing the “Fingerpoke of Doom” opposite Foley’s big win was a disaster for Nitro.
Even discounting Schiavone giving out spoilers, Foley’s victory was huge for the WWF. The Rock was at that time associated with Vince McMahon and the Corporation. Foley had the backing of D-Generation X and all of their “anti-corporate” antics. Foley was basically the everyman — did his job, did it well, but had always been “held down” by those in power.
The biggest star in wrestling in 1998/1999 — Stone Cold Steve Austin — entered the arena during a huge brawl to attack The Rock and basically give Foley the win. It was like a tacit approval from Austin of Foley’s qualifications to be world champion (not to mention Austin once again sticking it to Vince McMahon).
The crowd response for Foley’s victory was huge. His body was on the verge of breaking down thanks to his in-ring style, but he held it together for a few more years of full-time competition. The world title win could be seen as basically a “thank you” for all he had done to make so many opponents look good in the ring over the years.
Foley may never be viewed as one of the greatest WWE Champions of all time, and honestly, that’s fine. His victory to earn the first one was one of the greatest moments in WWE history.
What do you think of our list of the five greatest moments in WWE Raw history? What would you add to the list?