Simply the best
9.4
How do you review a show with so much history? with so much diversirty? You go back as far as you have to and remeber what it was when it first started and how it became what it is today...a cult phenomenom.
A major Televison landmark. As you probably know Monday Night Raw was born on the USA network in 1993 and started out as a one hour wrestling show featuring superstars of the World Wrestling Federation ( what was the WWF now the WWE for legal reasons )Wrestlers as high profile as Macho Man Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, were major highlights of the show, as well as up and comers such as Shawn Michaels,the 123 Kid, Razor Ramone, and many more, who would use Raw as a launchpad for their career.
From the begining Raw was a show that displayed so many of these talents in the ring as well as behind the curtains. Color commentary from the likes of Bobby the brain Heenan,Gorilla Monsoon,Macho Man, and even Vince himself would provide with insight and detail of the action and drama as it unfolded before our very eyes. The main idea and focal point behind Raw was that it was not taped, but filmed live in front of an audience and that anything could happen. It was exiting and unpredictable the more it grew and grew into a larger scale production. Viewers would tune in each week to witness the continuing fueds between the bad guys, good guys, and all the weirdos inbetween. This was the first time wrestling had been broadcasted Monday nights nationwide on a major tv network. It worked well because fans of the WWF would especialy be drawn on after seeing the Sunday night Pay per view matches, they would crave more action, more drama and more spectacle.
Soon Raw would be rivaled by an opposing company know as World Championship Wrestling whose owner Ted Turner thought it would be a good idea to go head to head, putting his show at the same time slot as Raw, and eventualy 1uping them by making it debut an hour early. This era from 1995 - 2001 became know as the Monday night wars.
The WCW was hell bent on stealing and converting the WWF fans. Ratings went through the roof, as both companies battled to outdo the other at any cost. With the addition of many recently acquired fromer wwf wrestlers it looked like wcw Monday Nitro had the advantage and was succeeding in winning over the fanbase, but Raw was still a contender, and managed to innovate themselves. Raw continued to introduce push new fresh talent. Likewise Nitro would follow suit. The overall quality of in ring action and interesting storylines kept Raw going, even when the company looked like it was really suffering, top performers like Bret Hart, the Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels delighted audiences, though the competition remained stiff. In 1997 the wrestling industry was on the verge of revolution, tons of fans were enthusiasticaly watching Nitro instead of Raw. Soon Raw would take drastic measures and became edgy, over the top and controversial, where as Nitro would also crank up the heat but,extreme superstars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Rock paved the way for what was called the attitude era of wrestling, with their brand of harsh language and intense physicality.
Raw pushed boundries, and explored taboos, often relying on adult themes and situations to get ratings, but the bottom line was, It was selling out the window. Ratiings were literaly shooting through the roof and soon Raw was back on top, and from that moment on it soared. Raw would go on to win the monday night war ,eventualy running WCW out of business and buying the company, and the rest is history. Raw went on to break major tv records becoming the longest running weekly series ever. It clearly cemented itself as the greatest wrestling show in the history of television.
Raw has given us so many unforgettable moments, storylines of all sorts, characters that were truely great and definetly not so great. How about when Vince Mcmahon's,limo blew up with him in it? or when Stone Cold gave the executives an un welcomed beer bath? or Kane finaly unmasked himself for the first time, or that horrible incident with an imposter Kane disrespecting a dead body. How about when Goldut gave Ahmed Johnson impromtu CPR, which caused him to rage. So many moments..so many great matches too. Weve seen oustanding proformances by HBK,HHH, The undertaker, Jeff Hardy, Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena,Kurt Angle. Just about every wrestlers whose anybody has competed on RAW. What other show could pack so much variety into 2 hours? its got everything rolled into 1 complete package. Raw is an unstoppable force, and as far as I'm concerned will always remain the number 1 wrestling show on the planet. Bar none.