Next Monday, Raw will air it’s 1000th episode. Although it’s been pretty poor lately, it’s given us some memorable moments since January 1993. We mentioned on last week’s SLTD Radio that we’d be doing a special blog leading up to the 1,000th episode of Raw and here it is! The format’s pretty simple. We each chose our top 5 Raw moments of all time and welooked at them on this week’s SLTD Radio, which you can listen to here.
Incase you don’t know, there’s normally four of us on each week: Brad (Mr Personality), Greg (2nd Greatest Man That Ever Lived), yours truly, George (#mancrush) and the one man on the SLTD Radio crew that doesn’t have a nickname yet, Mark! Haha.
Let’s not muck around any longer and get straight in to it.
Brad’s top 5 Raw Moments (in no particular order)
HHH’s return from injury in January 2002
Hunter tore his quad muscle in a tag-match in May 2001 and basically missed the entire Invasion angle. The injury was so severe that his career was in jeopardy. On the first Raw of 2002, HHH came back on Raw. Here’s his return.
Mae Young getting powerbombed through a table by the Dudley Boys
During the Attitude Era, the Dudleys came in as heels and went through a phase of putting women/divas through tables. This video shows when they put crusty old Mae Young through some wood.
Kane’s unmasking – 2003
This came when Steve Austin was the Sheriff on Raw and he was trying to get the “monster” back. He thought Kane had gone soft, so he put him in a match where if he lost, he needed to lose the mask. Eric Bischoff came out at the end and made him go through with it. Relive it here.
Shane-O-Mac purchases WCW – 2001
In March 2001, after a battle that raged for almost six years, Vince McMahon did the unthinkable. He went out “and bought his competition”, or so he thought. The product of Vinnie’s grapefruits had different ideas though.
Vince McMahon hires Eric Bischoff – June 2002
In 2002, Vince was looking for a General Manager for Raw. Speculation was running wild about who would take over from Vince and I bet nobody thought it would be Vince’s number 1 enemy, the former head of WCW.
Mark’s top 5 Raw Moments (in no particular order)
Chris Jericho debuts on Monday Night Raw – 1999
For a few weeks on Raw, we’d seen a mysterious “Countdown to the Millenium” clock appearing on Raw. With The Rock in the ring cutting a promo, the lights went off, pyro’s exploded and we were treated to the debut of a new WWF superstar.
Shane-O-Mac buys WCW – 2001
(Because I’ve already posted the link above, listen to why Mark chose it on the latest episode of SLTD Radio!)
Brock Lesnar debuts in the WWE – 2002
No build-up promo, no vignettes, no music, just impact. That describes the debut of “The Next Big Thing” in WWE the night after Wrestlemania 18.
DX does the McMahons – 2006
In 2006, DX and the McMahons clashed in one of the most entertaining feuds in the last ten years. This promo is probably one of the highlights of the entire feud.
Punk drops a Pipebomb – 2011
This was one of the most important moments in wrestling history. Leading up to it, Punk had announced he was leaving WWE when his contract was expiring. At the time, Punk was on a roll and in the form of his life. Then, this promo changed his life.
Greg’s Top 5 Raw Moments (in no particular order)
The reformation of DX – 2006
In 2006, Vince McMahon was on a rampage. Mind you, he does that a lot. During a handicap match in 2006, HHH was up against it in a match with the Spirit Squad when this happened.
The Barber-Shop Incident – 1993
The Rockers were one of the best tag-teams in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Their high-flying explosive style made sure that they were one of the hottest acts in WWE. That was before they broke up in this segment.
Punk drops a Pipebomb! – 2011
(Because Mark has already chosen this one, I won’t post the link here again.)
Austin makes a “Stunning” comeback – 2001
With WWE seemingly losing a war with the incoming ECW/WCW rebels, they needed one man to help them overcome the odds. One man who bled WWE. Who ya gonna call? Steve Austin!
Milk-O-Mania – 2001
The Invasion angle between WWF, WCW and ECW is in full-force. Austin has defected to the “dark side” and WWE needed a hero. Who’d step up to the mark? Only a god-damn All American, Olympic Gold Medallist that’s who. It’s true, it’s damn true.
George’s Top 5 Raw Moments (in no particular order)
Who’s your Daddy Montreal? – 2005
Because of the Montreal Screwjob, Shawn Michaels was hated in Canada. In 2005, he chose to screw over another adopted Canadian hero, Hulk Hogan. This segment is classic!
Ric Flair says Goodbye – 2008
All I’ll say about this before you listen to the SLTD Radio show this week is that this is where we said goodbye to a legend after Wrestlemania 24.
Nexus invades Raw – 2010
WWE cancelled ECW in February 2010 and debuted a new season, billed as the future of WWE. It was called NXT. Once the season ended, we wondered what would happen to these superstars. In June 2010, this happened.
The birth of Mr McMahon – 1997
After the infamous “Montreal Screwjob”, we began to see the birth of Mr McMahon. On Raw, JR conducted an interview with Vince McMahon.
The Rock Concert – 2003
At the time, The Rock was in the latter stages of his career, having gone off to Hollywood to make movies. The fans weren’t happy, but as usual, Rocky had the answers.
So, there’s the SLTD Radio “Top 20 Raw Moments” of all time. Now, we want you guys to get involved and make this the most interactive post ever at SLTDWrestling.co.uk! What we want you to do is leave your own top Raw moments in the comments section below and we’ll choose some of them to talk about on the next episode of SLTD Radio this weekend.
We’ll tally up all the votes and announce our fans’ top Raw moment on the show this week! Everyone who votes or comments on this post will get a shout-out and if this is the most successful post in SLTD history, we’ll look to do something similar again in a few weeks’ time!
It’s all down to you guys. We want you to be a huge part of the site, so get posting and commenting on your own top 5 moments in the comments section below and we’ll read as many of them as we can on the next SLTD Radio show!
Single Leg TakeDown 