Raw's Best Moments

In just a few weeks times Raw will turn 20 years old and to celebrate I'm doing 2 lists looking at the best 20 moments (this blog) and best 20 matches. For those of you who don't like to read I'll try to add videos for each entry. Now it goes without saying is that this is my list and my views.

20: Cement Corvette-October 12 1998

To be honest I was torn between this moment and the beer bash and to me the beer bash has been over played and over shown for years, hell WWE have even done parodies on it. Not much has to be said about this moment the history was basically Steve Austin destroying something of Vince McMahon's, something we would  see happen pretty much weekly. Anyways I like this moment just because of the visual, you had 2 guys in Austin & McMahon who could sell anything perfectly and the car breaking was just another added touch. I believe the car is still held somewhere and it's something I'd love to see.

19: Dumpster Ride-February 2 1998

One thing I loved about WWE back in the late 90's, before Vince Russo grabbed onto wrestling and told everyone that the fans pretty much knew everything, was that they would explain and show key facts before a match. Before Terry Funk and Cactus Jack met they explained they had history being rivals, friends and tag partners so this hardcore match wasn't done for no reason. But they used it to get the Outlaws over as a top heel team and what a way they did. Now looking back I'm sure this was done very safely but watching as a kid this seemed to be one of the sickest things I'd ever seen, just imagine being stuck in there and not knowing what or when something would happen. This was one of the first real shocks I saw in wrestling.

18: DX invades WCW-April 27 1998

This was a huge risk for WWE at the time to do and you didn't know how it would play out or how WCW would react. When you combine that with the great comedy at the time from DX and you have yourself a great moment.

17: Pillman's Got a Gun-November 4 1996

Sorry couldn't find the actual moment on Youtube but you've probably seen it already. It was one of those moments where you think "Did they go too far?". The segment did get lots of backlash but it's also remembered to this day. Also I'm a HUGE Pillman mark and think anything he did was gold.

16: DX Mocks the Nation-July 6 1998

Back to DX we go. During this time period in wrestling segments like these where someone would parody someone else was a regular thing but this was probably the best one done. I found DX to be at their best in terms of comedy at this time and it showed here. They probably couldn't get away with this now as people would likely kick off that it's "racist".

15: Cena Drafted to Raw-June 6 2005

Cena fan or not this was an amazing moment. At the time this really put over how important the draft was (remember when they actually treated the 2 shows as seperate shows?). Both shows had one major champion and this move meant both those champions were on Raw, Batista would move to Smackdown soon after though. Also at the time Cena was at his hottest as you can hear.

14: Triple H Returns-January 7 2002

Weeks and weeks of build got to this moment. In 2001 Triple H teared his quad in a classic match on Raw leading to him missing most of 2001. After the invasion was done vignettes started to play hyping up his return and what a return it was. You really had no doubt that he was a major player and major star in the company.

13: McMahon Stunned-September 22 1997

This was the moment that started one of the hottest feuds ever in wrestling. The only downfall was Vince's selling of the move but that was expected. Austin had been stunning anyone and everyone in the way and the only person left was Vince. On this night they were in the right place and the right crowd.

12: Kid upsets Razor-May 17 1993

A upset that set off a career. Such a simple idea of having this literal unknown beat an established star, something WWE would struggle to do these days. The fans lost it when Razor was pinned and to be fair to Razor he sold it great, so did the Kid. Probably the first big moment in Raw history.

11: Punk cashes in-June 30 2008

After the 2008 draft both World champions ended up on Smackdown but they both had title defences at a PPV against Raw guys so going in we assumed one of them would lose the belt. It didn't happen and it looked like both champions would be on Smackdown. However on the next night Edge ruined JR's goodbye speech and this moment happened. I'm a huge Punk fan and I lost my mind when I watched this from joy, that would die when I see how they would book him but this is still a great moment.

10: JR interviews Mankind-June 9 1997

This interview is in 4 parts on youtube and I recommend it highly. The Mankind character was already a good character but this interview added a lot more to that it and in a way would help explain parts of the character as well. It's something minor like this that could help get characters over today if done right.

9: Vegas Wedding-November 29 1999

Again I couldn't find the full thing online. This segment is probably one of the funniest I've ever seen on Raw, I watched it over and over when it first aired just laughing out loud. We didn't expect that twist to happen and Hunter was just hilarious through out the actual wedding.

8: Live Sex Celebration-January 9 2006
Surprisingly no videos of this. Although there was no sex, we did get to see a boob, this was Edge's first night after winning the WWE title. The segment was interrupted by Flair, who was beaten up by Edge, and then by Cena who would show that both Edge & Lita were actually doing nothing, those damn heels! It was a well done segment and it got great numbers leading to Edge being able to claim he was the most watched WWE champions in 5 plus years. Sadly the belt would quickly go back to Cena completely ignoring the great job Edge was doing, luckily things worked out for Edge.

7: Y2J Debuts-August 9 1999

In mid 99 a countdown clock appeared on screen from time to time, we didn't know what it was counting down to. But when it did we got one of the best debuts ever. I was a fan of Jericho's so I loved this even more and the fact he was paired with the Rock from the get go got my hopes high. This debut really set the mold for future debuts.

6: Flair's Retirement-March 31 2008

From a great start to a great goodbye. You couldn't have asked for a better send off that Ric Flair got in 2008. His retirement match was one of the best and emotional matches ever, then they followed up with one of the best tributes ever the next night. Sadly Flair would ruin this by returning to wrestling soon after but that still doesn't take away this fact. Many superstars have received similar send offs (Shawn Michaels & Edge) but this one was the one which started the trend.

5: Rock challenges Hogan-February 18 2002

The aura from these two was incredible. Such a simple build but it worked, if only they left it alone before the match. Now many would say it should have been Austin instead of the Rock but I don't know I think it worked great with Rock in there. Regardless of our thoughts on Hogan he's always has that special feeling about him that makes it easy to work with. 2 legends and when it came to match time it delivered.

4: Austin vs. Tyson-January 19 1998

The moment that started the Attitude era. It got major attention WWE's way and everyone looked great. No one thought this would happen or that it would work but it did and then some. Tyson is one of the only celebrities I think should be in the WWE Hall of Fame as he helped so much and showed he loved wrestling while doing it.

3: Pipe Bomb-June 27 2011

What can you say about this. It was the moment that got everyone's attention on wrestling again and it made CM Punk a true star in WWE. I remember watching it and the whole internet exploded afterwards, it was one of those moments when we didn't know what would happen next all we knew was that we just watched something incredibly awesome and that it would be remembered for years on.

2: Nexus debuts-June 7 2010

What a way to debut a group. It just looked crazy and the fact they went on a rampage showed how dangerous they were. They completely destroyed the ring and took out some big names from the start. Much like the last entry I remember everyone going crazy after this happened it was just a great angle and we all wondered what would happen next. Sadly it started strong and would die off pretty quickly but we won't forget how it started.

1: Mick Foley wins WWF title-January 4 1999

Without a doubt this is the best moment in Raw history (in my eyes) for many reasons. First was the crowd, they were so hot for the match they exploded when Steve Austin returned to Raw and used a chair on the Rock and then they somehow got louder when Foley won the title. It was just great to watch. The other reason was this was the infamous January 9th show were Tony Schiavone (on Nitro) spoilt this ending leading to a massive amount of people changing the channel, not only that but WCW did the infamous Finger Poke of Doom the same night so while WWE was reaching a new high WCW was hitting a low.

Well there you go my 20 favourite moments. Hope you liked it and had memories flood back to you. Keep an eye out as I'll be doing the top 20 matches very soon.