My Top 50 Raw Moments

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50. IT'S VADER TIME 1/22/96

 

Vader made his debut at the royal rumble in 1996. He was suppose to make an immediate impact. In his first singles match on raw he squashed savio vega. After the match, vader continued the beating and layed into the refs as well. Then president gorilla monsoon came down and suspended vader. Vader took his frustrations out on monsoon, giving him the vader bomb. This was a perfect debut for vader giving him instant heat. Unfortunately injuries stalled his momentum and then politics ruined it but this was good tv for the time.

 

49. SID Gets the Night Off 4/3/95

 

It was the night after wrestlemania 11. Hbk went in the ring with his bodyguard Sid to cut a promo about his loss to Deisel. Shawn implyed that Sid was not much of a help in the match. He talked about a rematch and then told Sid he would have the night off when the match took place. Sid took offense to that and gave hbk 3 nasty looking powerbombs. That cleared the way for Shawn's face turn which was only a matter of time anyway.

 

48. BATISTA Makes His Decision 2/21/05

 

It wasn't suppose to be him. It was penciled in long in advance that the wm main event would be HHH vs Randy Orton. Orton failed as a babyface. The fans took to batista just on the basis that he didn't kiss hhh's ass like the rest of the locker room did. Batista won the rumble but he had the choice of facing either champion. They played that up for a few weeks. HHH kept trying to convince him that if he chose to face smackdown that evolution would have both titles. Everyone knew they way the storyline would play out but it was fun to watch anyway. Obviously batista chose to face hhh and destroyed him that night to everyone's delight.

 

47. Kurt and his Medals 9/18/00

 

I'll admit that this isn't a significant moment but I thought it was damn funny. The feud between Kurt Angle and HHH had been building for months. Both guys were heels which made it pretty interesting. Stephanie wanted then commissioner foley to call off the match scheduled for unforgiven. Angle came out and said the match must go on. That brought out HHH. Then hilarity ensued. HHH played a clip of angles olympic matches and implied that angle was gay. Foley joined in on the fun asking angle which team he was playing for now. The fact that hhh and foley were involved in a bitter feud at the beginning of the year made it that much better. Then they showed a clip of angle crying after winning the gold medal.

 

46. Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit 6/11/01

 

This match is forgotten about because of the matches that they went on to have down the line. This was a cage match. This is one of the rare occasions where two guys can have a feud over who was the better wrestler because there matches were so great. Angle giving benoit a moonsault from the top of the cage is the highlight of the match. One of the better matches shown on raw.

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45. MICK FOLEY VS TERRY FUNK 5/4/98

 

This was at the peak of the red hot austin/mcmahan storyline. Foley came out at the beginning of the show and said that he would no longer play the part of dude love. This drew out vince Vince made the match between foley and his best friend terry funk. Vince said that if foley can beat funk in a falls count anywhere match then he would have made the kind of sacrifice it takes to be champion. Austin was on commentary for the match. It was a sloppy yet fun brawl. Foley was named #1 contender after the match.

 

44. HHH vs SHELTON BENJAMIN 3/29/04

 

The draft lottery was held the previous week and benjamin was sent from smackdown to raw. HHH had been the dominant heel in the wwe for so many years at that point that he was capable of giving any new wrestler the rub. The had a pretty good 20 minute match with shelton winning. That gave him instant credibility which is what the draft was designed for, to create new stars. They didnt capitalize on this opportunity but this was still a great raw moment imo.

 

43. SHAWN MICHAELS VS CHRIS BENOIT 5/3/04

 

There were a bunch of good matches on raw for a few months following wrestlemania that year and this may have been the best. As I stated in the previous match, there had been a lot of good matches around this time. I remember people comparing the raw 10 to the smackdown six. A 30 minute world title match between two of the companys best workers. It's something that raw is missing today.

 

42. SHAWN MICHAELS VS SHELTON BENJAMIN 5/2/05

 

A great match to highlight a good show overall. This was one of the quarterfinals in the goldrush tourny. Bischoff declared a tournament to crown the next #1 contender. These were two of the companys top workers and they proved it in this match. Too bad it didn't get more time. Edge/Jericho and Benoit/HHH were also solid matches that night.

 

41. ROLL THAT FOOTAGE 10/6/97

 

This was the night after the first hell in a cell match. Hbk came to the ring with hhh and chyna to talk about the match and to talk about the upcoming survivor series match with bret. He decided to show everyone a clip from the hiac match with undertaker. Instead a clip played of the msg incident. This went way over some peoples heads but it was still pretty funny. Michaels went on to proclaim himself as the icon that can still go. This brought out the hart foundation. Bret wound up calling hbk and hhh a couple of homos and told shawn he was no icon until he beat bret.

 

This show also featured a hilarious promo by Jim Cornette. Cornette ran down the nwo and Eric Bischoff then said that everyone should show more respect to flair foley and arn anderson.

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Thoughts on the first 10 ?

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Too much '04-'05 stuff. I don't think #'s 42-44 were particularly great moments, at least with regards to all the great things that have happened on Raw the past 10-15 years.

[slabinskia 0]

funny,later you might be saying too much 97-98 stuff and not enough 04-05.

[CanadianChris 0]

Thoughts on the first 10 ?

Hard to say without seeing more of them. I have no real quarrel with any of them, though.

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40. HHH vs TAKA MICHINOKU 4/10/00

 

While this was not a great match, it was a ton of fun. HHH had tons of heat after being the first heel to retain his title at wrestlemania and the crowd wanted to see anyone beat him. It was suppose to be a squash match. However, taka had the APA in his corner for help. It turned into a close scare for the game. They had everyone in the crowd thinking taka could win the match.That is not easy to do when you consider that it was the best heel in the company going against a jobber. This remains a favorite of mine.

 

39. HBK HEELS IT UP 8/15/05

 

This was in my opinion, one of the best heel promos hbk has ever done. This episode of raw took place in Montreal. Hbk had recently turned heel for his match against hogan. Instead of going out to promote his match with hogan, he went out and called out bret hart. Harts music hit and the crowd went nuts. It was a joke on hbks part. Then harts music hit again and shawn had that oh shit look on his face. The crowd went crazy again but again hbk pulled one over on them. Then Hulk Hogans music went off. This would bring out hogan to shut hbk up. Nope, that was a joke too. He had everyone in the palm of his hand wanting to jump the guardrails. What did hbk do to quiet everyone ? He sat down in the ring until everyone calmed down. This was some awesome heel work. Shawn should have stayed a heel. He is better at it and he looked like he was enjoying himself. This was old school heel heat that you just don't see anymore.

 

38. ONE LAST RUN 5/19/03

 

Maybe it was because it was in Greenville. Maybe it was because of everyone's hatred toward HHH. On this episode of raw, Ric Flair showed that he still had something left. He was tired of playing second fiddle to HHH. Flair went out and cut an old school ric flair type of promo. He challenged HHH to a match. Since it was in Greenville that completely turned flair face for the night. Not only did it turn him face but he appeared to be the #1 face in the wwe that night and they might have been able to promote a ppv match between the two if they wanted. Of course flair did not win the match but they made everyone believe that he could win and had people wanting a rematch. This was one of flairs last good performances and for that reason I rank this in the top 50.

 

37. RIC FLAIR vs MR. PERFECT 1/25/93

 

This was a loser leaves the wwf match. Flair had a good one year run with the wwf but both sides wanted to move on. Perfect turned face two months earlier. The match was a good one but not a great one. That is not the reason why this is ranked. This was one of the first episodes of raw. It provided what the wwf had been lacking on its weekly shows for a long time. A big time match with something on the line. Most matches on superstars were squash matches and primetime wrestling usually features leftover arena matches. I thought this was an important match to show fans that raw would feature important matches every week and that they would be must see shows.

 

36. 10 MAN TAG 2/7/00

 

The heat for this match was off the charts. The players in this one were: The Rock,Cactus Jack,Rikishi,Too Cool vs HHH,X-Pac, Chris Benoit,Dean Malenko,Perry Saturn. That is putting several feuds together for one match. This was two weeks after the royal rumble streetfight, a match that I still think is one of the 10 best matches the wwf has had and one week after the debut of the radicals. A pretty good match but this was a huge main event to have on free tv and it delivered.

[Black Lushus 0]

Too much '04-'05 stuff. I don't think #'s 42-44 were particularly great moments, at least with regards to all the great things that have happened on Raw the past 10-15 years.

 

that Shelton/HBK match was one of the best Raw matches in at least the past 6 or 7 years...period.

[slabinskia 0]

I am having trouble remembering the dates of some of these. When did bischoff debut,when was the first beerbath and what was the date of the austin/mcmahan hostage episode ?

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Austin/McMahon hostage stuff was the night after he was fired for not counting the pinfall in the Taker vs. Kane world title match in the summer of 98.

[Aero 0]

The Austin/McMahon hostage thing was the night after Judgment Day 98, which was 10/19/98. Bischoff debuted on the Raw before Vengeance 02, which would be 7/15/02. I assume the beer bath thing is Austin in the beer truck against Rock and the McMahons. That was on the Raw before WM XV, 3/22/99.

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35. AUSTIN WINS HIS SECOND TITLE 6/29/98

 

This was the night after king of the ring where austin lost the belt in a first blood match to kane. Vince was so happy that he had a special ceremony for kane to crown him the new champ. That brought out austin who demanded a rematch. That set up the main event for the night. Austin won the match and his second world title. (I was sure that this was the beerbath episode but apparently not.That will not be included in the list since I would have to take something else out.)

 

34. THE NEW GM IS... 7/15/02

 

Maybe the only person I never thought I'd see on wwe tv. Weeks earlier, Vince beat ric flair to take control of raw. A new general manager was to be named. That new gm was Eric Bischoff. Bischoff appeared on raw and greeted a stunned booker t. From what I remember, nobody expected this. Bischoff actually made a good gm and outlasted many gms on smackdown. He is very good in that role and I don't think he ever should have been let go. For pure shock value alone, this deserves its place.

 

33. THE CROCK 7/6/98

 

1998 belonged to the austin/mcmahan feud. The second best part of 98 was degeneration x. DX was involved in a feud with the nation of domination. Both groups were led by HHH and The ROCK. On this episode, DX came out dressed as the nation. What followed was one of the funniest parodys you will see. HHH played the part of "the crock". X-Pac was "mizark henry". Road Dog was "b-lo brown" and the one who stole the show was jason sensation playing the part of owen hart.

 

32. IT NEVER HAPPENED 4/17/00

 

This featured imo one of the best heel moments in wrestling. HHH was to face Chris Jericho in a non title match. Jericho talked him into putting the belt on the line. Jericho had the apa in his corner. Earl hebner counted 3 for jericho after the original ref was knocked out. Jericho was announced as the new world champion.

 

HHH talked original refferee Mike Chioda into saying Hebner gave a fast count. HHH then went to Hebner and demanded he reverse the decision or else. HHH even telling him "earl, it never happened". Hebner agreed on the condition that HHH never touch him again. Jericho then had to come out and hand over the title and it was given back to HHH. This was one of HHH's best moments as a heel.

 

31. TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN 2/13/97

 

This is the famous thursday raw thursday. The main event was suppose to be Sid challenging HBK for the title. The match never happened. Instead, Shawn came to the ring and forfeited the title to president monsoon. It was suppose to be a very serious,heartfelt speech by michaels but some of the crowd would have no part of it and chanted for sid. Michaels talked about having an injured knee even though he appeared to be in good shape. He then gave a bizarre speech about people have told him that he has lost his smile and that he has to take time off to find it.

 

Depending on who you listen to, this interview at the very least changed wrestlemania for that year and at most changed the future of the wwf. I will also note that on the show we had the very green rocky maivia winning the ic title in a decent match from then champion hunter hearst helmsley.

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30. LET MY PEOPLE GO 4/27/98

 

The wwf was red hot after wrestlemania 14. Every episode seemed memorable. On this episode, DX decided to go to the norfolk scope where wcw nitro was. They were dressed in there army gear. They interviewed fans on camera saying they were given their tickets for free and saying that wcw sucked. They then drove up to the back of the building and tried to get in yelling to let hall and nash go back to the wwf. This was high quality stuff at the time and had everyone talking the next day.

 

29. NEW TALENT 1/31/00

 

This was the debut of the radicals. During the opening match, Chris Benoit,Eddy Guerrerro,Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn were spotted in the crowd at ringside. This was an immediate upgrade to the wwfs talent roster. The four men attacked road dogg and billy gunn after road dogg was thrown into the crowd and onto the radicals. They would quickly align with cactus jack and just as quickly turn on him and align with HHH. Benoit and Guerrerro would go on to have a good amount of success in the company. Malenko had short term success with the light weight title but would fail since wwf never took that belt seriously. Saturn never panned out.

 

28. 5-4-3-2-1 8/9/99

 

For weeks leading up to this episode of raw, they had a countdown clock for the new milennium. I don't think I was the only one who thought it was real. When I realized it was to go off on this day I wondered what it meant. When the clock hit zero out came Chris Jericho. He talked about the Y2J plan and officially named it raw is jericho. This brought out the rock and they had a great verbal exchange between two guys who are both great on the mic and good in the ring. This was one of the more hyped debuts that I can remember.

 

27. WOOOOOO 11/19/01

 

 

The return of the nature boy. I think everyone knew it would only be a matter of time. After wcw closed up there was no way ric flair was going to sit at home forever. The day after survivor series where team wwf won and Vince won total control of the wwf, Flair had an announcement. Shane and Stephanie sold their stock to Ric Flair and he was part owner of the wwf along with Vince. Flair had not been on wwf tv since the loser leaves town match with Curt Hennig in 93. I did not know about this ahead of time so this was a huge surprise to me.

 

26. STEVE AUSTIN/ SHAWN MICHAELS VS OWEN HART/ DAVEY BOY SMITH 5/26/97

 

This was one of those unholy alliance teams where both austin and hbk hated the hart foundation and would team up if it meant getting revenge. This was one of the better matches on raw. Shawn showed in this match just how serious his knee injury was by performing numerous highspots. Austin and Michaels won the belts in this match.

[Ravenbomb 0]

The Rock was already in the ring when Jericho first came out

[CanadianChris 0]

Yes, he was cutting a promo on Big Show when Jericho interrupted.

 

I still remember the huge roar when "JERICHO" appeared on the Titantron.

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wow.pretty big mistake on my part. Any thoughts on the list since we are at the half way point ?

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

RE: Batista's decision...I think I may have liked the WM contract signing more. HHH went into one of his long promos he was notorious for and Batista just sits there completely no-selling. Eye rolling, sighing, no real reaction, until HHH is done. Then Batista just sits up, looks around for a second and says "You talkin' to me?" Perfect reaction and tie-in to the movie theme they were using for that WM. Man, Batista was golden during that run, it's a shame he was moved to SmackDown.

[slabinskia 0]

25. HHH VS HBK 12/29/03

 

These two had tons of matches and their feud went on forever. Most of their matches were average at best but there was one that stood out above the rest. Hbk was given a title shot in his home town of San Antonio. Shawn was wearing the crimson mask and it looked like there might be a title change. After a 30 minute match it ended in a draw after bischoff counted both men down. This was one of the better matches shown on raw.

 

24. BANG BANG 9/22/97

 

This was a pretty famous episode of raw. Raw was being held at msg. There was suppose to be a streetfight between hhh and dude love. Dude Love was shown on the titantron and said that he doesn't do streetfights. Then mankind appeared on screen and told dude love that he wasn't going to be in the match either but he knew who would want in. Cactus Jack then appeared and went down to the ring. This was mick foleys wwf debut as cactus jack and where better than msg. The match itself was by the numbers stuff but this was one of my favorite moments.

Normally I wouldn't count two seperate things from one show but something else happened on this episode of raw. We will get to that later.

 

23. A WORKED SHOOT FOR THE AGES 11/20/95

 

The main event was HBK vs Owen Hart. These two were in the middle of a feud. Michaels had forfeited the ic title at the previous months iyh ppv after being beat up legit outside a nightclub. Michaels returned at survivor series. The next night was his match with owen. During the match, owen hit him with the enzuiguri kick. Moments later he collapsed in the ring. refferees,vince mcmahan,gorilla monsoon and emt's were all in the ring trying to revive michaels as the show went off the air.

 

This is one of the most believable worked shoot angles I can remember. I didn't find out until years later that it was a work. It was a reason to keep shawn off tv until the rumble ppv. I think this one had everyone fooled.

 

22. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN THE WWF 5/17/93

 

This early episode of raw is famous for two things. First off, HBK was in the ring cutting a promo. He issued an open challenge to anyone and agreed to put the ic belt on the line. A mystery man in plain clothes came in the ring to confront michaels. Shawn agreed to the match and the man revealed himself to be Marty Jannettey.

 

Then on the show, Razor Ramon was scheduled for a squash match against the kid. Turned out to be more than a squash as the kid scored the upset win. This turned out to be Sean Waltman's big break as he was later named the 1-2-3 kid.

 

Then in the main event, Marty Janetty got the win over hbk and won the ic title in his return match. This was the best raw of the year and gave the show an anything can happen type of feel that you didn't have with the syndicated shows.

[slabinskia 0]

what was the date of the austin/rock singalong and how did that go ?

 

Also, What moments are you still waiting for ? What is ranked too high or not high enough ? Discuss.

[foleyfanforever88 0]

I don't think Austin winning his 2nd title or Kurt and his medals belongs on this list. You said you didn't include the beerbath because you'd then have to take something out, but I think the beerbath is probably in the top 25.

 

Moments that I am still waiting for:

 

Foley wins his first title

Milk-o-Mania (wasn't this voted the greatest RAW moment ever at some point?)

The Invasion

Rock vs Hurricane

HBK returns to join the NWO

Evolution beatdown on Orton

HBK superkicks Hogan

Kane/Lita wedding

[foleyfanforever88 0]

Double Post

[slabinskia 0]

Just curious but when did you start watching raw ? No love for 97-98 ?

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I don't think Austin winning his 2nd title or Kurt and his medals belongs on this list. You said you didn't include the beerbath because you'd then have to take something out, but I think the beerbath is probably in the top 25.

 

Moments that I am still waiting for:

 

Foley wins his first title

Milk-o-Mania (wasn't this voted the greatest RAW moment ever at some point?)

The Invasion

Rock vs Hurricane

HBK returns to join the NWO

Evolution beatdown on Orton

HBK superkicks Hogan

Kane/Lita wedding

 

As someone who's watched Raw from the very beginning, the Foley title win is the only moment from that list that belongs in the top 50. The rest of those were total throwaway moments. I was at Milk-o-mania live and it was a fun moment, but it didn't even get over that well with the crowd. It was just a cute ripoff of the beerbath. As for the rest on that list.... uggh.

[slabinskia 0]

21. SINGALONG WITH THE ROCK 3/26/01 ?

 

I apologize if this is the wrong date for this. I thought this was great stuff at the time but for whatever reason I am drawing a blank on the details. This is the Rock/Austin singalong. One of the most bizarre ways to build to a wrestlemania main event title match.

 

20. LOOKS LIKE YOU CAN USE A TAG TEAM PARTNER 7/14/97

 

For weeks, mankind was trying to convince Austin to choose him to be his tag team partner. When austin gave mankind the stunner and told him he would never be his partner mankind told him he would never be the same.

 

On this episode, it was a tag title match between owen/buldog vs austin and a mystery partner. Austin had no partner and decided to fight them himself. During the match mick foley appeared on the titantron dressed for the first time as dude love. As a long time cactus jack fan, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The crowd didn't know what to make of it. Neither did austin and neither did the hart foundation. Austin and dude love won the belts and the show ended with dude love celebrating with the dudettes.

 

19. STEVE AUSTIN/HHH VS CHRIS BENOIT/CHRIS JERICHO 5/21/01

 

A top 5 raw match imo. This is more famous for HHH tearing his quad but this match was great stuff. After arguablly the best wm ever the wwf had several weeks of lackluster programming. Originally austin was going to keep feuding with undertaker but vince made the change. Benoit and Jericho were being put in the main event picture and the iwc went nuts. These four could have put on moty candidates for as long as the program was going to last but HHH got hurt and a month later benoit got hurt. Still, this is one of the best matches shown on raw.

 

18. EDDY GUERRERRO VS ROB VAN DAM 5/27/02

 

Speaking of top 5 raw matches here is another one. One of the few raw moments of 2002 worth noting. This was a ladder match for the ic title. This was also when rvd was still over pretty big with the crowd. While this wasn't the best ladder match I've seen, its still very good and a great tv match. Rvd won the belt here also.

 

17. BRET HART VS 1-2-3 KID 7/11/94

 

I am sure most will disagree with me but I think this match is incredibly underrated. Maybe it was the 10 year old mark in me at the time but I was hoping for the kid to win the match. Waltman commented on this match saying that bret carried the entire match and made him look like a million bucks. Tough for me to disagree there. A 25 minute world title match on free tv was rare at the time. This was one of those matches where you had the veteran going against the underdog and they played that up perfectly. This was a favorite of mine.

 

16. WINNER AND NEW WWF CHAMPION..... MANKIND 1/4/99

 

As I said earlier, I was a long time cactus jack fan and I knew he could get over in the wwf. I didn't think I would see him become the world champion. Apparently neither did tony schivani who made tons of people change the channel over to raw when he gave away the taped results of the match on nitro. Everyone wanted to see foley win the belt. It was The Rock defending against Mankind. Mankind had dx with him while the Rock had the corporation. While both groups brawled around ringside, Austin came to the ring to an insane pop and hit the Rock with a chair. That was when mankind covered the rock for the win. The show went off the air as dx hoisted mankind on their shoulders and celebrated the new champion. Where you place this moment depends on how much you liked foley and he was one of my favorites so it is a top 20 for me.

[Darth Vader 0]

The singalong was the Raw before Survivor Series. It was stupid and doesn't even belong on the list. I'm still waiting on the Raw where Vince came back and helped Rock beat Big Show to go to Mania. That brought the house down.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Mankind's title win at #16? Jesus' return better have been on a Raw that I missed.

[CanadianChris 0]

Mankind's title win at #16? Jesus' return better have been on a Raw that I missed.

 

I would have had it in the top 5, but I can think of a few moments that were better. The Bret/Austin street fight, for one, and the teased Austin/McMahon fight that led to Dude Love's heel turn. Also the ECW reformation, if I could only forget how it ended.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

The Bret/Austin street fight

 

Do you mean the Raw where Austin beat up Bret in the ambulance? That's the only thing along those lines I recall.

[Guest whizzo]

Nope Foleys first title win beats ALL of them.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Nope Foleys first title win beats ALL of them.

 

Bret's heel turn gets my nod. Don't forget the first word in my and Chris' names.