Top Five Favorite Raws

[Guest Greg Valentine]

It's real simple and it’s probably been done before: What are your five favorite episodes of Monday Night Raw? No particular order, and try not to pick based on "historical significance" or "important in the ratings war" or things like that. Just pick your five favorite episodes of Raw that at 11:07 P.M. (or 10:00 P.M. as it once was) on that Monday night made you sit up and say, "Now that's why I watch wrestling!" Mine?:

 

1. 1993 - Night of the Upsets - Marty beats Shawn, 123 Kid beats Razor - Maybe the most fun hour of Raw ever.

2. 1997 - Night after the Royal Rumble - I just remember this show being so crazy and fun, what with Bret Hart quitting the WWF and Jerry Lawler celebrating all night long until Bret Hart came back and Lawler was TICKED .

3. 1998 - The week before Summerslam - The forgotten Cell match with Kane and Mankind and another just chaotic night of wrestling, plus the Brawl For All finals people! (I'll always remember Mankind speeding to (and slamming into) the ring in a stretcher for some reason from this night).

4. 2001 - Night after Judgment Day - Jericho/Benoit vs. Austin/Triple H (Best match of 2001 in my opinion), and another fun 2 hours with Angle's medal ceremony as well (I'll also never forget Shane getting Angle slammed off the podium, that was so cool).

5. 2001 - Night after King of The Ring - Funniest Raw ever as Angle and Austin began their summer of hilarity, plus one of my all-time markout moments when Mike Awesome "stole" the Hardcore title. It was a good jumpstart for the otherwise dismal InVasion as well with Booker T's attack on Vince.

 

Honorable Mentions - Raw Roulette (another 2 hours of just plain fun), Night after IYH: Breakdown 1998 (I'm not sure why, but the Zamboni incident is one of my all time favorite wrestling moments of the 90s.)

 

How about you?

[Guest BAR]

I'm not sure about a list as I can't remember too much unless I've got it on tape. And the only ones I've got on tape are two historical ones: Jan'93 (Flair/Hennig) and May'97 (Tag Titles).

 

I'd have to say anything in the Summer on '97: my favourite angle ever.

[Guest Askewniverse]

My favorite episodes of Raw change from time to time, but here's my favorites at this time:

 

1) May 17, 1993- "The Night of Upsets" as GV put it.

 

2) February 13, 1997- Thursday Raw, Thursday Live- just before the IYH: Final Four PPV, where HBK vacates the title because he lost his smile. Also, Rocky vs. HHH for the IC title in what I believe was their first televised singles match against each other.

 

3) April 21, 1997- featured the memorable Austin-Bret ambulance angle.

 

4) May 26, 1997- Austin & Michaels win the tag titles.

 

5) September 22, 1997- first Raw at MSG. Austin stuns Vince for the first time, Cactus vs. HHH in a street fight, Owen vs. Pillman, and Bret vs. Goldust.

Edited July 12, 2003 by Askewniverse

[Guest Mr. Adam]

#5: December 8th 1997.

 

Shawn and Hunter get drunk on JD and play strip poker. They proceed to lay a beat down on Los Boriquas who had just helped them beat down The Legion of Doom.

 

#4: March 26th 2001.

 

The WCW/WWF Simulcast. Just tremendous significance for me. My modem was on the blink when the news came out that WWF bought WCW. So to my surprise, there's Vince talking about Jeff Jarrett with Jarrett's visage on a monitor on Nitro.

 

#3: July 9th 2001.

 

ECW Invasion. How were we to know that it would suck.

 

Mark out city.

 

#2: May 17th 1993.

 

A night of upsets indeed. The Kid does "thirteen somersaults in the air" apparently. But by god it was one hell of a moment.

 

#1: November 20th 1995.

 

Enzuigiri. Michaels passes out and children cry with fear.

 

Oh yes, and this was during the BAD period which made this look so much better by comparison.

[Guest JHawk]

Based on various factors (and these change from time to time):

 

1. March 26, 2001. I was there live, and the simulcast was just a huge moment. It's a shame that if I hadn't written the results on a notebook I'd have completely forgotten the matches by now, but hey.

 

2. As has been said, 5/13/1993. The Night of Upsets is a good way to put it.

 

3. 3/3/1997. European Title Raw. Owen vs. Davey Boy, plus Sid vs. Mankind and Rocky vs. Vader.

 

4. 2/24/1997. ECW's invasion to the Manhattan Center

 

5. 1/4/1999. Mankind wins his first WWF Title, and even knowing it was going to happen it was the greatest markout moment of the era.

[Guest Aero]

I'd have to say anything in the Summer on '97: my favourite angle ever.

I agree. The Hart Foundation vs. USA angle is one of my favorites of all-time, especially with all the separate feuds involved: Bret-Austin, Dude Love debuts, HBK-Bret, HBK-Undertaker, Austin-Owen... all just great. I was watching an old tape the other day and actually found the main event on the RAW before Summerslam 97: Bret vs. Patriot. The crowd was hot the entire match. First you had Bret saluting Canada with the Canadian National Anthem, and then Patriot gets USA's played, only to have Bret jump him from behind right in the middle. The crowd was all over Bret the rest of the night. Patriot getting the upset win is a cool moment, too.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

This is realy just 5 Raw's I remember really enjoying in no particular order...

 

The post Canadian Stampede Raw - the only Raw I have on tape. Sasuke vs Taka and the show angles are good. Hot crowd.

 

The Austin/Bret/Ambulance Raw. Don't remember a thing about it outside of that angle, but I've always held it in high regard.

 

The post Vengeance 2002 Raw - A decent for TV ladder match, a great DX / HHH heel turn swerve, a tremendous Eddie interview ranting to Rock and a good match to go with it.

 

The ECW/WCW Alliance debut Raw. Yeah, it didn't end up very well, but at the time that was, to me, a tremendous Raw.

 

The first MSG Raw - The 'debut' of Cactus Jack, Vince's first Stunner.

[Guest Greg Valentine]

#3: July 9th 2001.

 

ECW Invasion. How were we to know that it would suck.

 

Mark out city.

Wow, I can't believe I forgot that one. That was quite the hour of television from the Jericho/Kane I think was his partner vs. Awesome/Storm match to the 20 man tag "match", just wild and crazy stuff.

[Guest CanadianChris]

1. April 1997 - Austin vs. Bret in a street fight. Austin ends up beating Bret up, and beating on him some more in the ambulance. Bulldog and Owen roaming the halls saying they're going to kill Austin was great, and then Pillman coming out and attacking Austin after Bulldog and Owen were chased away by HBK was even better.

 

2. January 1999 - Mankind vs. the Rock for the WWF title. This was amazing not just because of Mick's title win, but because of the whole sequence of events -- Vince making Mankind vs. HHH for a spot in the Royal Rumble, HHH winning but Pedigreeing Shane and leaving him for Mankind, Mankind holding Shane hostage for a title shot -- hooked the viewer in for the entire night. Mankind celebrating on the shoulders of DX was wonderful to watch.

 

3. July 1997 - HBK announced as special referee for Bret/UT WWF title match at Summerslam. This Raw was in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Canadian crowd was booing the living shit out of Shawn as he cut one of his top 3 promos ever. This Raw also featured the Bret/Vince hockey fight, as well as the excellent 6-man flag match to close the show.

 

4. February 1997 - RAW is ECW. With most of the boys overseas, Vince allowed ECW stars to perform on WWF television. Notable not as much for the matches (Big Stevie Cool vs. Little Guido, Taz vs. Mikey Whipwreck and Tommy Dreamer vs. D-Von Dudley) as for the hilarious interplay between Vince, Lawler and Paul Heyman on commentary. The Eliminators doing Total Elimination on one of the ring hands was pretty fun, too, and LOD returned to a HUGE pop (and spawned some interesting chants from the crowd during their match!).

 

5. May 2001 - Austin/HHH vs. Benoit/Jericho for the WWF tag titles. The finest match I've ever seen on Raw. It was truly thrilling, giving the viewer no idea who would win until the very end. And, of course, it was the site of Quadapalooza 2001. Kurt Angle also carried Kane to a highly watchable IC title match.

 

Honourable mention: RAW is Jericho (August 1999), Jericho "wins" HHH's WWF title (May 2000), Flair re-debuts on WWF TV (November 2001), Austin/HBK win the WWF tag titles (May 1997), Austin/Dude Love win the WWF tag titles (August 1997), Austin vs. McMahon (April 1998), X-Pac debuts/Outlaws join DX (March 1998), Hell in a Cell (August 1998)

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

I don't have 5 fav's but my top two are:

 

1993 - night of upsets with marty vs. shawn and 123 kid vs. Razor

 

or

 

the ecw RAW - at the time, for me it was heaven

[Guest papacita]

I've got WAY too many favorites, and think I change my list everytime we do this topic, but they include (no real order):

 

1. Night of Upsets

 

2. The 8/24/98 Raw from Philly: Kane and Taker finally came together...that didn't come out right :shudders:, HBK saves Chyna from the Nation, Kane and Mankind in HIAC...and I was there. Great show.

 

3. The Raw after Rumble 96: Vader going berserk and attacking Gorilla Monsoon. That was wild at the time.

 

4. 9/22/97: First Raw in MSG.

 

5. 4/21/97: Even though after watching the tape recently, I'd say the 4/28 show was a little better (With Pillman praying, Owen winning the I-C Belt, Anvil's return, etc), the ambulance incident alone puts this over the top. Plus Mankind running in with the blow torch had us all going crazy in school the next day.

 

HM's: Damn near anything from April-November 97.

 

the Raw from the week before Royal Rumble 93 (I haven't seen it since I was 9, but I remember it being crazy with Flair and Mr. Perfect brawling all over the place).

 

Whichever Raw that was when Savage got his revenge on Crush for lacerating his tongue.

 

Raw from the day after Survivor Series 95 (Shawn's collapse, Diesel's "shoot" on Vince, Marty Jannetty's random ass run-in during the 1-2-3 Kid/Hakushi match)

 

7/24/95: Bret Vs Hakushi II. One of my favorite Raw matches.

 

Edit: Forgot the ECW Invasion.

[Guest Askewniverse]

Raw from the day after Survivor Series 95 (Shawn's collapse, Diesel's "shoot" on Vince, Marty Jannetty's random ass run-in during the 1-2-3 Kid/Hakushi match)

Jannetty actually had a reason for running in during the Kid-Hakushi match. He had unfinished business with Kid from the PPV. Jannetty and Kid were the last two participants in their match, and Kid managed to get the cheap win thanks to Sid.

[Guest papacita]

Raw from the day after Survivor Series 95 (Shawn's collapse, Diesel's "shoot" on Vince, Marty Jannetty's random ass run-in during the 1-2-3 Kid/Hakushi match)

Jannetty actually had a reason for running in during the Kid-Hakushi match. He had unfinished business with Kid from the PPV. Jannetty and Kid were the last two participants in their match, and Kid managed to get the cheap win thanks to Sid.

I know. It was just funny how it went down. Him running in the middle of the match and getting caught by the officials just made me laugh for some reason.