10 Ways WWE RAW Used To Be MUCH Different

From the main event going on first to far, far smaller venues, these are 10 Ways WWE RAW Used To Be MUCH Different.
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Cultaholic provides video coverage of professional wrestling - including WWE (including WWE Raw, WWE SmackDown, NXT and 205 Live), AEW, IMPACT Wrestling (formerly TNA), NJPW, ROH, and more with daily news updates, reviews, lists, highlights, predictions, reactions, podcasts and much, much more.

[@NormanNorthman]

I remember going to an event in think 98? And they filmed Raw and then they changed the banners to, I think it was “Shotgun Saturday” or something like that, and then they would change it all up again and do a Sunday night heat episode. Saw Goldust wrestle 3 times that night 😆

[@Damienkoopmans]

That’s awesome!

[@Renegade8652]

That's nuts, I never realized that.

[@jtonywrestling2362]

I agree with you on that when wwe was on my state during 2009 they taped ECW first, then Superstars, and Smackdown the episode where Jeff had his last match. The dark match they had was DX and Cena vs Randy and Legacy.

[@imjaire]

That's cool

[@johncooper7919]

That happened when I went to a SD taping in 2012 or 2013. They filmed an extreme rules match for the PPV, a Saturday Morning Slam match, and then the whole SD show.

[@Sketch105]

I never got to see RAW during its pre-taped era, but I loved going to see IMPACT during its mid 2000s. Sting would come out and say “NEXT WEEK I FACE YOUR FOR THE TITLE” and we’d all cheer because “next week” was in an hour or so for us.

[@kirbichu54]

WWE keep wanting people to forget Superstars was still their primary show until 96

[@KickYourFace10]

This isn't accurate. Superstars was never the primary show once Raw started.

[@collectingonthecheap56353]

Superstars, after Raw, was essentially a Saturday morning syndicated show shown on independent television stations for the first 3 years of Raw. About Summerslam 1996, it went to USA network as a secondary show.

[@KickYourFace10]

@Jav Mar Absolutely not. Look at all the memorable matches and moments that happened in 1993 on TV. Did they happen on Superstars?

[@KickYourFace10]

@@christerry1611 What makes you come to this conclusion? Just look at the match listings from 1993 to 1996. You can clearly see Raw was the priority. Raw literally replaced Prime Time Wrestling, which showed the biggest matches that were happening on house shows and other TV shows, in addition to squash matches. I'm not a newbie. I know what I'm talking about. Superstars didn't have much going for it after 1992, in comparison to what was being shown on Monday Night Raw.

[@Thecallmemisterajp]

@@KickYourFace10 You still had some pretty big stuff happening on Superstars well into like 94-95, like Ludwig Borga ending Tatanka’s streak, Diesel beating Razor for the I-C Belt, Bob Backlund’s WWF Title March and heel turn vs Bret Hart, etc. In fact, I’d say if Superstars got phased out, it had more to do with other TV shows like the Action Zone, which routinely threw out big title matches and angles over its first year, than anything to do with Raw.

[@emanue2ls]

IMO one of the greatest things of the attitude era was the WWF championship changing hands on Raw when we least expected

[@SrDeMaFp]

Or The Kid beating Razor. That was HUGE back in the day

[@remingtonbouyer]

​@@SrDeMaFpwho was the 123 Kid

[@pdw8635]

Growing up. My bedtime was 9:30 except on Monday’s. Then it was 10 so I could watch half of Raw. And I also remember when the Dog show took Raws spot and I would flip.

[@MKUltra77715]

I hated that too. But now, the dog show seems more watchable on some Monday nights. 😔

[@Hyper_Driven]

The Westminster kennel club dog show at MSG?

[@getlostyougoofball]

@@Hyper_Driven yeah

[@DavidSmith-rv1bg]

As a teenager in the 90's, it used to annoy me when the Raw after Wrestlemania and other PPV's were never even mentioned on the show. I couldn't get PPV where I lived and I never knew what happened, even though the shows were constantly hyped before the PPV. Monday Nitro was the same way, they would only talk about one match and not even mention what happened.

[@robertc6293]

and they its opposite where they just replay everything over and over, and recap what happened literally an hour earlier so guess they heard your feedback 🤷🏻‍♂️ 🥴

[@alexd1685]

It used to feel like a party, now it feels like detention.

[@xxx_monte6714]

That is facts

[@Xaqplm]

Then quit watching. If you hate it so much then why do you keep watching?

[@alexd1685]

@@Xaqplm I quit a year and a half ago, just adding my two cents, right after WM 35. I didn't like it, I didn't hate it. It just did nothing for me. I was utterly bored with it so I just stopped watching.

[@josiahboatengmyrie]

@@alexd1685 don’t blame you tbh I can’t watch raw anymore but nxt and smackdown are great so hopefully you can enjoy that if and when you do watch

[@trentonmcclintock7836]

Sad but true. I can remember me and my Best friend at the time glued to the t.v every Monday night, watching raw and flipping to WCW during commercials and the occasional shit bits. Needed that constant stream of awesome late 90's rasslin'. Such a huge part of my childhood, it kinda sucks for the kids coming up today... We had wrestling, along with pokemon, video games...etc and the rest of our entertainment. Today the entire world of wrestling is essentially a nothing for the current generation of kids. At least they got the super-hero movie explosion, which was something cool in its own right... ( It's dead now too I'm afraid) but I'd not trade them for anything. I still say our heroes were better.

[@spookerredmenace3950]

a few times vince had to say if you hear weird audio' in the background we are sorry , we are dealing with gremlins

[@dannyayala3462]

I remember the debut of Monday Night Raw I was 13 years old

[@StageRight123]

Yep, I was 16. Those early years in the Manhattan Center were great!

[@michaelzack7935]

I was 16

[@mridulbatra5297]

You're very old buddy

[@jerryjanik480]

Was seven-years-old argue about wrestling with my great-grandparents and watching Monday Night Raw with one week I remember that and they were complaining Dionk the clown

[@pigeonf.6298]

@@mridulbatra5297 you're very unlikable

[@cousinchris802]

Shoutout from Burlington, VT! I was at that show as a 3 year old.

[@RolfWrenWalsh]

You go back and watch all WWE in 1993 (Raw, Superstars, Challenge,etc.), Superstars still felt like the "A" show compared to Raw. It wasn't really until mid 1994 that Raw finally took the spot as the "A Show".

[@spaceracer23]

1998: RAW. IS. WAR. 2021: Raw. Is. Unwatchable.

[@tamzidmohsinkhan3333]

RAW IS TRASH

[@Cosmic_Gorilla]

RAW. IS. BORE.

[@Lol-ik8xm]

RAW. IS. WAR. ON. MY. EYES

[@abelaldrich967]

got that right WWE sucks again Vince stopped caring so did alot of us also

[@Spidervenom23]

@@abelaldrich967 I would take 500 years of 2021 Raw over 1995 Raw. That is unwatchable lol.

[@DoctorLazers]

The amount of people that think they're HILARIOUS by saying, "#11 it used 2 b akshually gud!" is staggering.

[@garyblackburn3080]

Damn you butchered the word ACTUALLY...thats pretty hilarious

[@trentonmcclintock7836]

Soo many

[@jakesorrentino7230]

Exactly bias aside 93-95 was much worse than today

[@cijmo]

I loved going to the shows back then and spending hours there. If the fights weren't good - there were people in the audience who were like "we're all in this together" and you had fun with them. One time, we had some guys behind us and they were doing the commentary. They were so funny, there were a few matches that time I couldn't have told you anything about because we were listening to them.

[@VileSyndicxte]

It used to be watchable. T H E E N D

[@craigusselman546]

Id gladly watch 1993 RAW over the horror show I stopped watching years ago and what I hear it is now.

[@Spidervenom23]

1995 Raw was way way worse then it was today. At least today Raw had good wrestling to balance out the bad. in 95 you barley had any good wrestlers on the roster. When Kevin Fuckin Nash is your world champion something had gone terribly wrong lol.

[@jakesorrentino7230]

@@craigusselman546 That’s a stretch imo

[@bigpasty1582]

I have watched raw since episode 1 but will say I truly miss Primetime and tuning in to see Heenan and Gorilla or even Vince.

[@DCRACKA]

Man I miss them days

[@theguyfromwalgreens]

From a kid it was always a dream to go to a live show which finally came to fruition in 2005. It was great watching & growing the show(and previous Prime Time Wrestling) to what we have today. The quality is gone, but at times u can’t picture myself completely losing interest.

[@nightflame69]

I remember being in the key arena in Seattle. And like 1/3 of the seats were empty

[@ibn1989]

What year was this?

[@nightflame69]

3 years ago?

[@B4LDISPJK47]

@@nightflame69 i was there!!!

[@nightflame69]

@@B4LDISPJK47 it was a awesome show. The best part was Stephanie McMahon getting the rko 😝

[@gob7029]

Number 11: It used to actually be good.

[@evillordbeerus2455]

number 12: I used to give a shit

[@outlawrip-offartist4161]

Now I’m not one of these people, but some people do still find it Raw entertaining.

[@gob7029]

@@outlawrip-offartist4161 oh right 4 year olds with down syndrome

[@coltkillergaming5685]

@@gob7029 some parts are good the majority is bad

[@rogregg29445]

@@gob7029 yiiiiiikes

[@DJDoubleCee]

With RAW being three hours, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was one of the reasons why the show isn’t doing too good.

[@GrayMoe]

Yeah instead of 3 hours of crap we would only have 2 hours of crap.

[@donkeysaurusrex7881]

@@GrayMoe Exactly. If it was good people would want more. If you want less that’s because you don’t like what you’re getting not because you’re intrinsically getting too much. I’m fine with three hours. I think all wrestling shows should be. I really wish AEW and NXT were three hours because they are both actually good products unlike Raw and Smackdown.

[@AG00741]

@@donkeysaurusrex7881 smackdown is amazing storylines make sense and it doesn’t have 17 Rematches every week

[@ananyaraizada7657]

I never liked nitro being 3 hours. It's really difficult to get 3 hours free from schedule for anything. Even movies are 2 or 2.5 hours

[@victortalons6873]

They had a loaded roster and probably still do: sure there would be a burnout around the last hour but the fact that nothing is important kills it more than the 3 hours. Vince tearing up the script a week in advance and making them do it again up until hours before they are live is more of why their shit stinks. It also doesn't help Vince also has a brain of a goldfish and has a 1-3 week push to see if someone goes over and then proceeds to bury them because Vince got bored.

[@nightflame69]

Wait? They narrowed it down to only 10 entries?

[@MJMilz14]

Something that younger fans from the UK may not remember that wasn't mentioned here is we didn't actually get Raw on TV for the first couple of years it aired. We had to settle for highlights on Mania and All American Wrestling the following weekend. When it did begin airing on sky in about 95/96 episodes were sometimes several weeks out of date, and even during the attitude era Mondays episode wasn't shown until 10pm on Friday. I can't remember the exact year but it was about a decade before Raw was finally shown live in the UK.

[@Wildberryjamband]

the night after Wrestlemania 14 was the primary episode that initiated some changes (like the ring rails being gone)

[@StunnedByWrestling]

I cannot believe it's the same show I'd wait all week until Friday for. Amazing we used to have to wait 5 whole school days to get the show on Sky Sports 1

[@Kuudere-Kun]

Raw the day after WM14 was very special, the NoD and DX were completely rebooted, Austine vs McMahn went from being a sub plot to the mains storyline. And most importantly that's when the Logo changed. I really do consider that the day we were first fully in the Attitude Era with no New Generation vestiges left.

[@stevenmcd4741]

I would be a LOT more forgiving of some of the current storylines if every aspect of the camera work wasn't so insulting to my intelligence.

[@jlrosiefan9848]

Reason #1: It used to be entertaining!

[@jlrosiefan9848]

I agree. SmackDown and NXT are a lot better than Raw is. Even NXT UK! Even that, for how stripped down a show that is, is still better than WWE's supposed "flagship show".

[@tamzidmohsinkhan3333]

@@jlrosiefan9848 more like AEW is way interesting than WWE

[@jlrosiefan9848]

Agreed. AEW is better than anything WWE related at the moment. It's a massive scale of quality and Raw is right at the bottom.

[@tonyslicer7399]

So was entertaining when superstar beat jobber but not superstar angest superstar

[@tinacorbet4705]

2 hours was the best.

[@kickflipdemon]

dam i fell bad for uk having to stay up all night to watch any wrestling cuz its on so late over there, you guys are hardcore!!

[@trentonmcclintock7836]

Meh... Don't feel bad over that shit. DVR is a thing remember

[@kickflipdemon]

@@trentonmcclintock7836 yeah but always like watching live or semi live

[@ssjup81]

I started watching Raw in the summer of 1993. No school. I was going on 12, but I still had a "bed time". 9:00. Raw, from what I remember back then, came on at 9:00 so I had to get permission to stay up past 9:00 if I did watch during the school year. I missed out on quite a bit during that time. I actually did forget that the main event was first. For Saturday Night Main Event, I was just too young for that. I know my mother would never have let me stay up so late on a Saturday when that originally aired and started in the 80s. Something I miss about Raw back then, was that it was an hour. Two should've been the max, though. I liked how they didn't have pretty much the same person every week (or maybe it didn't seem like it). That way, when some came back to Raw, you were excited to see that wrestler, like a treat.

[@HeezNeez]

Gotta love that stock footage at the beginning, Grandpa and Grandson watching raw at like 2:15 in the afternoon, and they’re enjoying themselves, so you know that shit ain’t real.

[@Drumboardist]

The lack of the "Randall Keith" song makes me sad. (Specifically at 10:41)

[@1thumb2dumb76]

Dear Cultaholic we've been trying to reach you about your extended car warranty

[@williamfrancismclellan3919]

He forgot Iron Mike Sharpe

[@SheriffOutlaw]

My week will be made when I finally am able to afford Culti-Crew Merch! But yeah OG Raw was mad different looking back at it

[@SheriffOutlaw]

@@deathsnitemaresinfullust2269 both. Ok so Raw isn't perfect and has major flaws But who doesn't? What i was meaning was in terms of productions and how far they changed the playing field for weekly Wrestling shows and paved a way for Wrestling to be where it's at right now. Raw at first was a show....now? Everyone is talking about it even if they don't watch every week or faithfully talks about Raw.

[@SheriffOutlaw]

@@deathsnitemaresinfullust2269 agreed! Welcome to our Love/Hate Relationship when it comes to Wrestling 😂

[@queensgaelsmenshockey]

4:43....Alexandria Bay, New York was another RAW city in those days right on the Canadian Border in this dingy arena called the Bonnie Castle Rec Centre. I used to play hockey there and the arena barely had hot water for showers

[@benmaloy9757]

My friend went to that show and the main camera got a close up shot of the section he was sitting in and Jerry Lawler said he looked like a chubby Bob Backlund as a kid

[@theyankeepower4527]

10 way use to be different 1. It had good storylines 2. Long term storytelling 3. It didnt have constant rematches. 4. It didnt suck 5. It didnt suck 6. It didnt suck 7. It didn't suck 8. It didnt suck 9. It didn't suck 10. It didnt suck

[@coachgreg89]

I was at the Liberty, NY show! Still have my Bret Hart glasses somewhere…

[@AnyRoadRichard]

In the early 2000s WWE came to Redding, Ca. a few times. Not televised program. But the biggest stars of that time wrestled in our convention center in front of about 1500 people. The experience was fantastic and I have some fantastic stories as a result.

[@RazorFoxDV]

One thing that was annoying but also charming was the show routinely going off the air midway through something important. USA had to put on "Silk Stalkings" or whatever at its scheduled time and Raw was forced to cut to black. I remember one occasion where Bret and Shawn were exchanging heated words in the ring, and then the Undertaker came out to get in between them, and the show faded to black as Taker was midway through simultaneously choke-slamming them both. It was frustrating, but you damn sure tuned in next week to see the fallout from that!

[@ENigma-um8zw]

This is the Raw I fell in love with. I stopped watching around 2001 or so maybe 2000 and was a fan mostly from 1992-1999 and it was quite the ride to go from that era to the crest of the attitude era. Got to see a few live raw’s and a few nitro’s during the Monday night wars, and got to see Summerslam 1999 all in person , it was a great time to be a fan. Tho I know many like later times it was great looking back in hindsight how many shear legends I got to see at that time frame.

[@Panchitoisdead714]

Damn you missed alot

[@mohaseid3766]

SmackDown >

[@pikapika8926]

it wasn't always that way roman vs corbin

[@vitominichini9880]

Cap

[@almightycinder]

Another thing I noticed while watching OSW: Wrestlemania matches rarely ever had any buildup on Raw, especially compared to how they build up all the matches now.

[@chrisyanover1777]

Remember the main event of the first Monday Night Raw? The Undertaker vs Damion Demento! One went onto become a legend in the industry and the other was the Undertaker! With Rob Bartlett calling the match!

[@VeritasAbsoluta]

Why TF is it still called Raw now? Raw means unrefined, it makes you think it's going to be edgy and dangerous, but instead it's overscripted and overproduced. There's nothing raw about Raw.

[@glitchsister]

RAW is how it makes your brain feels after watching five minutes

[@nicolashebert9804]

On Wikipedia, they said RAW mean Rampage American Wrestling... but it's from Wikipedia so...

[@getpumped87]

@@nicolashebert9804 Ross said to always trust Wikipedia so I believe it

[@ridanann]

Wow that's examine this concept how many aew shows ended in explosion 1 how much thunder was at WCW thunder none how much nitro appeared on WCW nitro I don't remember any Smackdown is basically the only Wrestling Show that's ever really made sense in the mainstream my favourites always been shotgun WTF shotgun great name for Wrestling Show describes everything.

[@jeremy8807]

Because Well-Done would be a lie.

[@tamzidmohsinkhan3333]

Ruthless Aggression Era days were the last time RAW was greater relevant

[@outlawrip-offartist4161]

As someone who started watching wrestling in the ruthless aggression era let’s be honest it isn’t as good as everyone remembers it as.

[@ananyaraizada7657]

I actually saw 3 hours of full show until 2013 but still I would say raw was watchable till 2015. Cena reduced role was the last nail in coffin.

[@johnharris1994]

#3 was when JR said, 'well "insert name here" get back in this match, we find out when RAW returns', goes to commercials. Back from commercials, 'and we are back live on RAW'

[@JOHNNY34A]

I very much loved the original concept when they did it in the Manhattan Center. It actually felt...Raw. I liked the up close and personal feel, I liked the New York vibe, I liked the unpredictability, and most of all, I liked the fun atmosphere. When they stopped doing it at the Manhattan Center, they kept in the small venues to keep that same vibe but it didn't work. Without being in the Manhattan Center, it just looked like a cheap small arena. With one exception.........The Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts, where they did Thursday Raw Thursday (the night Shawn Michaels had to give up the WWF title and talked about losing his smile). That venue is a lot like the Manhattan Center and has that nice look and vibe to it.

[@Pentarax]

Fun tidbit; An October Raw in 1994 at Memorial Auditorium in Burlington Vermont was Randy Savage's last WWE appearance before he left for WCW.

[@DNeed77]

I was in attendance for the Feb 3, 1997 RAW. McMahon, Ross and Lawler were ringside, for all of 5 mins at the start of the show, but it looked like a house show. The dark match (Sid vs Michael’s vs Hart) was not the triple threat match we all know. There was one guy on the apron and had to tag in! Weird!

[@matts9382]

That Burlington VT RAW had the fantastic Kid vs Bret Hart match. Absolute gold!

[@jordancourtney9142]

Honorable mention: it didn’t use corny Alexa bliss related meme material as the shows closer

[@MS-it9vv]

An alternate title for *most* of this video could be “How they RUINED Raw.” I DO like that they now give viewers more than 1 decent match each episode. But the product is now bland copy pasta.

[@DocMartin_88]

For a BRIEF second I thought the guy with his kid watching TV at 0:18 was Denzel Washington LOL

[@trentonmcclintock7836]

What, you saying blacks all look alike?

[@DocMartin_88]

@@trentonmcclintock7836 No, fool, I said what I said. To me, he looks like older Denzel from Flight when I first saw this clip.

[@grimreaper1542]

It used to be watchable

[@veryananduren8513]

I have a feeling that RAW was very much "artisanal" at this point

[@flippineck2825]

There used to be feuds with story arc and protagonists with a compelling reason to be a challenger or champion. There used to be wrestling. Now all that's gone. They have the story structure of a one-off indy show and the match quality of a developmental match set in 1986 featuring Stacy Keibler & Maven.

[@paranoidpixie95]

The #2 entry blows my mind. I watched those early Raw episodes a few years ago on the WWE Network, and I couldn't believe that Raw didn't air in certain weeks because of a flippin' dog show. Not being from that generation, it sounds so surreal that a dog show would be considered in favour of wrestling.

[@kawaiikeith1190]

I remember when I used to actually want to watch Raw, now I just skip through so I won’t be confused on the PPV😂

[@dylan2na652]

okay now i need to know which episode that 1994 gymnasium raw was

[@leandar]

#10 also likely was set on the old school business model that Vince Sr started, probably, in that you have the main event early in the evening, so as to announce the rematch later in the evening.

[@johntammaro]

I think my earliest raw memories are either Brutus getting his nose smashed my Money Inc and the 123 Kids upset of Razor. Oh and an IC title rumble, I think it went down to the model Rick Martel and Razor

[@316malica]

Holy shit that little tidbit about a high-school gym in 94 in Liberty NY was MY HIGHSCHOOL!! They did a house show there back in like 06 or 07. I need to find out what episodes were taped there in 94 and watch them.

[@gu3liooo159]

3:55 would of never thought the guy on the ground would become one of the greatest wrestlers ever the charismatic enigma

[@Renegade8652]

The debut of Mankind was nuts. He put a beating on the deadman doing elbow drops from the canvas onto the hard floor. Was freaky stuff.

[@h0ckeyd]

Great Bottom shot there (and if anyone else gets that reference, nice one!).

[@Cirrus5005]

It's interesting how complacency has set in. They know they're guaranteed a TV deal, they know they're guaranteed box-office venues and they know that loyal fans will watch regardless of content or where on the card it's placed. I, for one, wouldn't mind learning random facts about the hosting town or city's heritage on commentary haha.

[@andrewburak1205]

It used to actually be watchable?

[@benjaminpujols1914]

I believe I was 19 when I first started watching Raw it was my first time watching wrestling in many many years since wrestling had moved on to cable channels and I also had to move and it was different place everything was so different when I came back to Indiana I started watching I just stumble upon it one night on 1996 and I loved it I was so happy and proud of the WWF at the time before becoming WWE had grown so much Vince McMahon was still there and the chief Pops that they would do about what this city had or invented or whatever what it's known for I loved it because it was just another way of learning something new that maybe I wasn't aware of and to hear somebody say well this city is well-known for that or this I loved it because it just shows you no type of respect and believe it or not no matter how kind of a big mouth running person you maybe not everybody knows everything about every city every state of our country therefore learning something new is always

[@nicolashebert9804]

Oh god, the infamous Green Screen... They used that also on Superstars and on Wrestling Challenge during the weekend. In the French version broadcasted in the province of Quebec with Ray Rougeau and Jean Brassard, they used it too. They want to believe they were on the site but they were at Stamford in the WWF Titan Tower to make the footage in front on the green screen and make all the commentaries in a studio.

[@TheSinlessAssassin]

1997-2001 were the best damn years

[@TheLarryburns84]

so basically just the attitude era then? I could agree

[@johnharris1994]

1999 to start of PG era, I was an old WCW Nitro kid...Sorry

[@vanzammerz]

Of all places. Bushkill pa was mentioned. I went to many. Smaller intimate venues were awesome for being in attendance. Always good seats. The aisle way fence you could get close. And I had signs and could be clearly seen. None of this is shocking. I remember

[@TheFrontzClub]

they still try and make taped shows feel live especially Christmas episodes taped a week or so in advanced

[@coonurkan]

Number 10: It used to be fucking good once

[@joshthemediocre7824]

I've met Bad Boy Barry Hardy & Duane Gill...they are friends with my neighbor, he's an old 90's wwf jobber too.

[@kevinroulette]

I remember going to the WWF superstars recording. Virgil wrestled like four times lol. It was the first time WWF ,recordingTV in my town. Hogan was there for pipers pit or maybe the snake pit. The best was Jake the snake vs Macho man. This was the match with the cobra . It was awesome and people where in shock. I can see myself as I was on hard camera side. The good old days jobber matches .

[@Brando-Lee3725]

I once attended a TV taping at Rupp Arena in Lexington Kentucky in the late 80s early 90s . Id been to plenty house shows there before , but man ! I swear i was there for 5 hours watching Jim Powers , Brooklyn Brawler and random job guys get beat over and over ! I think if i remember correct for this event we got Demolition VS Hart Foundation as the main and ONLY non squash match ! Unless you count like Terry Taylor vs Greg Valentine or Tito Santana vs a Conquistador or some shit ! LOL

[@davidgeer430]

I remember all of this!! You hit all the points!

[@DementedDistraction]

Those greenscreen segments were brutal to look at and even funnier to see today - the jankyness of it all was exacerbated by the audience never being at the right scale, or in proper perspective with Vince and whoever else was standing next to him. Though one thing that always made me laugh about RAW in the early days and how they tried to portray it as being live was how there would be commentary going on during matches, but if you look at ringside there are plenty of instances where there wasn't a commentary team or table present at ringside at all.

[@DownrightEntertainment]

There’s one part I disagree with the Raw After Mania actually started to mean something after WM11 when Sid powerbombed HBK several times. Then the following year I think Diesel and Shawn got into a squabble on the Raw after Mania after Shawn won the World Title at WM12.

[@Wildberryjamband]

Raw could actually benefit from using a couple of lesser known NXT guys as jobbers on Raw to fill up time for 3 episodes, and actually allow a superstar to get over with a few wins, cutting back on 50/50 and genuinely pushing the others. And spread out your "star vs star" matches so there's a limit on weekly rematches. Also factoring that there is about six times the amount of television time for WWE now compared to the 1 hour of Raw for 4 years, more from NXT should be used on the main brands. Fandango and Tyler Breeze to Smackdown; Brendan Vink, Timothy Thatcher, Kyle O Reilly, Adonis and Swerve Scott as enhancement on Raw in rotating periods. Tony Nese and Chad Gable would be a cool addition for Raw with a longer match and using the Wild Card Rule for such a suprise random match to start the second hour...

[@darkwolve]

POP QUIZ!!! When is the last time a top WWE Championship [World/Universal] changed hands (via match) on both Raw and Smackdown, respectively? I legit don't know...

[@MJMilz14]

I've barely watched live during the covid era so I may be misremembering but didn't Drew McIntyre win his second title from Orton on Raw last Autumn, and I'm pretty certain Lashley won from the Miz this year? Smackdown was probably Lesnar beating Kofi and before that Bryan beating Styles?

[@rayphoenix8685]

I had that video cassette tape! Lost it years ago.

[@ammagnolia]

I found out number 7 when they filmed the Vader beating Gorilla thing in my town, then the next week I saw what they had filmed. And week after that I saw they were still using footage from our night

[@zacharycarter9887]

I dont understand why promotions today need these big sets keep it simple as raw did in the early stages and can fit more paying customers

[@VastKing]

Is that Jeff Hardy getting his hair pulled by Razor Ramon aka Scott Hall 3:49 lol if not it looks like him

[@davidrosario1215]

From Liberty New York. That gym was tiny af . It have a high school game like feeling to Raw

[@arpegio88]

Despite ALL of the flaws of early RAW, I still prefer anything from those days over anything in 2021. I think that's unanimous amongst veteran fans.

[@dnakatomiuk]

Raw now feels like you've been tide to a chair, head clamped forward and your eyes forced open and water dripped in while it's on and it's on surround sound turned up to 11

[@timbest2125]

My hometown of Utica, NY hosted a few episodes of RAW back in its early years

[@jessebunnell6442]

IF Vinces autobiography was TRUTH every single human alive would buy it

[@corrinnelindsey6568]

Honestly WWE is making me want to start watching Impact Wrestling and AEW. That’s how bad it’s gotten. But I will still continue to watch Smackdown.

[@AntonXul]

My wife and I are going through the old Raw & In Your House episodes right now as she wants to experience the attitude era. We went through all of 1995 and are halfway through 1996. She’s about to witness Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Austin 3:16 promo at King of the Ring as that’s our next PPV to watch. All the things you said I am currently reliving it and realizing how much has changed. It looked real weird seeing Raw in small venues and no fancy wrestler entrances.

[@walterreed7639]

"If you became a fan"? I was born a fan. Prime Time baaaabbbby. And also, USA Up All Night.

[@rayejohn79rj11]

I remember that...turning to Raw and the dog 🐕 show was on...lol

[@jerryjanik480]

Be like dark in elevation and I like both of those shows

[@johnharris1994]

AEW has MUCH better matches than 2016-present RAW

[@ronepting5030]

A long way from Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan in the studio showing various House show matches

[@JaDan]

Yes! Loved seeing the hammersmith hardmen

[@NoCharismatv8557]

I’m so happy To have grown up watching wwe between 1999-2008

[@VictorArg01]

Number 1: It used to be good.