WWE Raw: Reunion was mixed in well with the modern era

The July 22 edition of WWE Raw saw the Raw Reunion take shape, a night that celebrated the past stars that helped make the red brand what it is today, but also a night that saw the past and the present coexist at times.

Last night’s WWE Raw was a memorable show that was dubbed a Raw Reunion that brought back countless legends and icons of the business that helped make the brand the longest-running weekly episodic television show in history.

The night kicked off with the return of John Cena, who brought back The Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick briefly at the request of The Usos.  That would only be the start of the past superstars coexisting with the modern-day Superstars.

The opening match saw The Usos battle The Revival with Rikishi in the corner of his sons and D-Von Dudley in the corner of The Revival.  This was a cool touch and the match itself was stellar, as usual, between these two teams.

What really stole the show was the 24/7 Championship picture, which got all-time crazy last night in a night that saw eight different title changes in one night.  It all began when Drake Maverick got the title back from R-Truth, but Maverick’s reign wouldn’t last very long.  Maverick tripped over his own luggage in the locker room area after being distracted by The Boogeyman, which led to Pat Patterson defeating Maverick to become the 24/7 Champion.

Gerald Brisco got the better of his former stooge counterpart and took the title from him next before Kelly Kelly won the title from him. Kelly then lost the title to Candice Michelle, who lost it to Alundra Blayze, who tried to throw the title away in a trash can as she did with the WWE Women’s Championship on WCW Nitro back in 1995.  However, The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase bought the title from Blayze and walked out with it.

As he got in his limo, DiBiase was apparently pinned by Maverick, who won back the title before Truth inevitably got it back and took off in Maverick’s limo, with his wife no less.  This was the single best night for the 24/7 Championship so far, and much of that can be attributed to the legends.  Last night even saw female 24/7 Champions crowned for the first time.  The legends didn’t just coexist with the 24/7 Championship scene, however.

AJ Styles’ battle with Seth Rollins would turn out to be a match with plenty of fireworks involved.  Styles, flanked by Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, had the numbers advantage over Rollins from the start.  However, that all changed when the match ended in disqualification after “The O.C.” got involved.  It was then three-on-one against The Architect, but that changed when DX came out to even the odds.

Triple H and Shawn Michaels briefly got into with them before Road Dogg, X-Pac, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall all came out.  It all finished with Rollins taking the place of Billy Gunn and leading everyone out with those two famous DX words that the crowd gladly screamed.  This was a cool moment and segment, but another later on in the night really helped to coexist the past and the present.

Mick Foley was cutting a promo in the ring and showing video footage of his all-time favorite Raw moment of his career, until the lights went out. It was Bray Wyatt in Fiend gear, who used Foley’s own move, the mandible claw, to take down the WWE Hall of Famer.  This was an impactful moment for this new version of Wyatt and one that immediately made him felt like an even bigger deal.

Overall, Raw Reunion was a fun show that gave fans a throwback to the past stars.  It wasn’t as much about current storylines, but when the past was involved with the present, it was handled well from top to bottom.  The 24/7 Championship picture alone made the night enjoyable, but when seeing so many all-time greats back on the same show, it was even better.

If nothing else, no matter what you personally felt about the Raw Reunion show, it blew Raw 25 out of the water and it provided the WWE universe with a night that won’t be seen very often again.