The SmarK DVD Rant for the Best of RAW 15th Anniversary

Although there already has been a “Best of RAW” 2-disc set released a few years back, it mainly covered the glory years of 1997-2000, and is this is the first try at a comprehensive anthology. I still think they should just bite the damn bullet and do season sets (I mean, hell, 52 40-minute episodes wouldn’t take up THAT much disc space) but this will do for now. I’m a bastard, so we’ll do this one disc at a time.

Hosted by Todd Grisham. That’s a pretty bad start.

Various talking heads relate what they were doing at the time of the first RAW, which is pretty scary when you think about the fact that John Cena was a freshman in high school at the time. They even dig Sean Mooney out of mothballs, looking exactly the same as he did in 1993.

Ric Flair v. Mr. Perfect (Loser Leaves WWF)

The DVD case says 1/18/93 and the graphics say 1/25/93, so someone’s got their signals crossed. The matches are accompanied by pop-up video facts. Again, my dream job would be watching 24/7’s content and providing the pop-up trivia. Sadly, this is clipped quite brutally, as we skip to Flair tossing Perfect out of the ring, and then back in to slug away in the corner. Flair gets two while using the ropes, then chokes Perfect out with his leg while arguing the point with the ref. They slug it out and Perfect puts him down with a forearm for two. Perfect backslide gets two. He pounds on Flair in the corner, but Ric comes back with an inverted atomic drop and a rollup for two. Flair bails and Perfect suplexes him back in for two. Clipped again to Flair retrieving an international object from his kneepad and waffling Perfect with it, and he drops an elbow for two. Flair pounds on the cut and throws a chop, but Perfect gets riled up and fires back. Backdrop and running forearm cue the comeback, and it’s a Flair Flip. Perfect catches him with a clothesline on the way down from the top, and that gets two. Flair takes him down in the corner for two and uses the ropes liberally, but Perfect reverses to a cradle for two. Perfectplex finishes at 8:06 shown, although the full match is closer to 30 minutes.

May 10 1993: Mr Perfect brawls with Shawn Michaels and causes $3300 in damage to Howard Finkel’s car in the process, according to the pop-up.

Razor Ramon v. The Kid

This is pretty famous, from May 17 1993. This should be short enough to avoid the dreaded clip. The angle here is that Sean Waltman debuts as a jobber called the Cannonball Kid and then the Kamikaze Kid, losing each time out, before running into Razor in what was assumed to be another squash. Ramon pounds him in the corner to start and gets a monster biel out of the corner, then stretches him with an abdominal stretch. He catches a bodypress attempt and turns it into the blockbuster slam, but misses a blind charge and the Kid finishes with a moonsault press at 2:10 to unleash the 1-2-3 Kid on the wrestling world. In retrospect, I wish Ramon would have won. *

Intercontinental title: Shawn Michaels v. Marty Jannetty

Also from the historic May 17 show, this is the old “Cocky champion issues an open challenge and gets more than he bargained for” deal. Todd Grisham erroneously notes that this match was voted the 1993 Match of the Year, but he (and many others) are thinking of the rematch in June after Shawn won the title back. Whoops, spoiler. As usual, that match is omitted from the matchlist, and a rather surprising omission at that because it’s not only the better match, but the introduction of a certain Kevin Nash as Shawn’s bodyguard, Diesel. Marty gets a rollup for two and they criss-cross into a sunset flip for two, and Shawn is reeling. Marty slugs him out to the floor and follows with a baseball slide, then hits him with a pescado. Back in, Shawn misses the superkick and Marty takes him down with a flying headscissors for two. Backdrop out of the corner and Shawn flips out of the ring on a corner whip, and he’s had enough! Sadly for him, Mr Perfect sends him back into the ring again and we take a break. Back with Marty catapulting Shawn back into the ring, but Shawn blocks a headscissors with a stungun and chokes him out on the ropes. And we hit the chinlock. Marty escapes with a catapult into the post and slugs away to come back. Powerslam gets two. High cross gets two. They trade rollups for two and Shawn superkicks him, but he gets all distracted by Mr Perfect at ringside and Marty rolls him up for the pin and the title at 8:59. Nothing special, really. **1/2 I think I gave it a MUCH higher rating in my review of the Monday Night RAW Prime Cuts Coliseum video from years ago, but you can safely ignore that and chalk it up to drinking too much at the time or something similar.

From December 6 1993, Gorilla Monsoon finally gets his ultimate revenge on Bobby Heenan and throws him out of the WWF about as unceremoniously as possible. You kind of had to feel for Bobby here, but he DID have it coming after 10 years of abusing Gorilla.

WWF title: Bret Hart v. 1-2-3 Kid

From July 11 1994 and this is one of those fairly legendary matches I’ve never actually seen. Joined in progress as Kid takes Bret down with an armdrag and they trade wristlocks. Bret slams him and Kid kips up and we’re back to the start. Kid grabs a headlock and moves into a hammerlock, holding on through Bret’s attempt to escape with a snapmare. Bret elbows him down and goes to the chinlock, but the Kid hits him with a monkey flip into a kick, then a mule kick to put Bret on the floor as we take a break. Back with Kid working an armbar, but Bret slams out of it and gets pretty upset about the whole thing, throwing forearms in the corner with some good fire. He drops an elbow on the neck and punts the ribs, then follows with a swinging neckbreaker for two. Elbow to the head and he stomps away in the corner, then whips Kid into the other corner. Nice touch as Kid does the Bret Hart Bump in the corner off that. Kid comes back with a bodypress for two, but Bret smacks him down again and then blocks a sunset flip for two. Kid tries a crucifix, but Bret falls back and gets the pin, despite Kid’s foot being on the ropes. BUT WAIT! Bret’s a sportsman, so THIS MATCH MUST CONTINUE! We take a break and return with Bret working another chinlock, but the Kid gets a backslide for two. Bret elbows him down again and drops a leg for two. A rare DDT from Bret gets two. Bret goes to the middle rope and lands on the Kid’s foot, and he comes back with a high spinkick and his kick combo into the corner. Dropkick in the corner and Kid goes up with his moonsault press, but that only gets two. Powerbomb and he goes up to finish with the Lightning Legdrop, but that only gets two. Kid clotheslines him to the floor and goes up again with a senton, but Bret misses the catch and turns it into a slam on the floor. Back in, Kid goes up AGAIN and misses another senton, definitely failing to take that hint, and Bret goes for the Sharpshooter, but Kid is quickly in the ropes. Bret goes for his own killing blow, using the superplex, but the Kid reverses for two. He keeps coming with low kicks and charges, but goes ass over tea kettle into the corner and Bret bulldogs him and then goes up himself. Kid slams him off, although I was kind of hoping that Bret was sucking him in for the kill there…and then Bret proves me right by letting the Kid go up before catching him on the way down ala Shawn Michaels in 1992 and killing him dead with the Sharpshooter at 16:00. I love when Bret plays the wily veteran who thinks two steps ahead of his cocky challenger. This was all that and a bag of chips, as the kids used to say. ****1/2

From various shows in August 1994: Leslie Neilsen searches for the Undertaker. How did this make the BEST of RAW?

From January 9 1995: William Shatner sets us back another 20 years by appearing on the King’s Court and beating up Jerry Lawler.

Owen Hart v. Shawn Michaels

From November 20 1995, this is shortly after Shawn’s return from his beating in Syracuse. Owen shoulderblocks him down twice for two and grabs a headlock, and they quickly go into the pfinall reversal sequence before Shawn backdrops him and dropkicks him out of the ring. Owen regroups and Shawn drags him back in by the arm and grabs an armbar, then takes Owen down with a rana , but Owen clotheslines him to the floor. He follows with a baseball slide. I should note that Shawn is doing a really masterful job of working a subtle “punch drunk” twist to his act here, with his stuff seeming slightly off and missing simple moves. Owen gets a german suplex for two and we’re clipped ahead to Shawn making the comeback with the forearm and going up with the elbow. That gets two. It’s really interesting to watch the difference in midcarder Shawn and main eventer Shawn and watch how he learns and alters his moveset. Shawn sets up for the superkick, but Owen won’t come out of the corner, so Shawn drags him out and Owen counters with the ENZUIGIRI OF DEATH! Shawn blocks the Sharpshooter and clotheslines Owen out of the ring, but then collapses during his celebration and things grind to a halt. Everyone acts all confused and this is the first flirtation with the “everything is fake except for what you’re watching RIGHT NOW” philosophy that Vince Russo would pound into the ground. The only problem I have with the match is that things built normally up to a finishing sequence before Shawn collapsed, leaving the weird finish more as a, well, weird finish rather than a random occurrence during the course of the match. People were pretty freaked out over this at the time and the WWF made sure to send Shawn to a hospital to really mess with people. Shawn was “out of wrestling” until the Royal Rumble, where he came back and won it, then of course completed the story by winning the WWF title at Wrestlemania. As a match it was pretty good, but as an angle that helped to change the course of wrestling it was fabulous.

From January 22 1996: Vader destroys Savio Vega and several refs until finally Gorilla Monsoon himself comes out to deal with him…and gets Vaderbombed as a result. Good thing it wasn’t Jack Tunney or it would turned Vader into a face. Sadly, they were never able to follow up with Vader as a monster heel as effectively as WCW was able to.

From May 27 1996: Vader screws Ahmed Johnson out of a King of the Ring slot as a result of Owen Hart’s slow-healing cast, knocking Ahmed out and necessitating a stretcher. In the back, Ahmed is molested by Goldust, setting up their IC title match at the PPV. Now, a lot of people were pretty skeeved out by his angle at the time, but if you view it from the POV that Goldust is straight and just playing mindgames, it’s pretty effective. Not only that, but Ahmed kicked his ass six ways from Sunday and won the title, so he got all the revenge needed anyway and decisively won the feud. The lesson: Don’t kiss an angry homophobic black man on steroids.

From November 4 1996: The Gun. This of course is HUGE, one of the moments that defined a character and changed the entire dynamic of the WWF in one fell swoop. It’s the whole saga, as a paranoid Brian Pillman hides out in his home in Kentucky while recovering from a broken ankle at the hands of Steve Austin (the equally-famous “Pillmanizer”) and does an interview with Kevin Kelly. However, having not gotten his pound of flesh yet, Austin stalks Pillman to his home and attempts a home invasion, although luckily Pillman carries protection in the form of a 9MM. You know, really Brian should have been packing a .45 to live up to his Dirty Harry image. The whole epic, complete with Austin beating up Pillman’s friends using whatever plunder is handy while the ubiquitous cameraman does nothing to help, would set the template for the whole silly Vince Russo era and the endless skits and angles therein. So anyway, Ausitn breaks into the house and the camera goes dead just as Pillman fires a shot. Needless to say, the USA Network was more than a little upset by this and nearly kicked them off the network until Vince apologized for the incident. I have to say, the drama is fairly tame compared to what would follow, but kids watch this stuff and guns are bad, m’kay?

Mankind v. Undertaker (No Holds Barred)

From December 9 1996. I just did this one for 24/7, so here you go. This is No Holds Barred, presumably the most dangerous of their long series, according to Vince, I guess because each man has some hold that normally would be barred which they can now do. Taker quickly goes old school and chokeslams Mankind, but Executioner runs in and draws Taker away before he can finish. We take a break and return with Taker tossing Mankind into the railing and hammering on him, then stomping the claw hand on the stairs to take that away from him. He drops the stairs on the hand for good measure, although the camera angle is too close to preserve the illusion of damage, and they head back in with Taker working over the hand. Mankind clips him and stomps him down, then puts him out with a Cactus clothesline and sends him into the stairs. With the knee now hurt, they do a crazy spot with Undertaker’s knee on a chair and Mankind dropping the elbow off the apron onto it. Back in, Mankind goes to follow up, but Taker boots him out of the ring and then uses his legs to shove him into the railing. They brawl on the floor, and Mankind gets slammed on the table, and we take another break. Back with Undertaker’s knee in trouble again in the ring, as Mankind counters the chokeslam with a drop toehold, and he grabs a chair. He charges with it and gets it back in the face as a result, but evades the tombstone and gets the Mandible Claw. UT escapes with a bearhug, and sets up the fastest tombstone I’ve ever seen from him, which is of course enough to finish at 9:50. Quite a nice little violent brawl. *** Of course, the Executioner attacks and puts Undertaker down with the Asiatic Spike. Really, if they’re going to be calling it that, why not just admit it’s Terry Gordy? The match with Undertaker was pretty much the end of his WWF run anyway.

From Thursday RAW Thursday, February 13 1997: Shawn loses his smile. Shawn faces a career-ending knee injury so crippling that he’s wrestling today, 11 years later. And so, as usual, he must give up the WWF title rather than lose it in the ring like every other wrestler has to do. What a hero. Thank god he found Jesus and stopped being such a wank.

From February 17 1997: Kevin Kelly interviews Goldust and Marlena on the subject of HHH, and everything is going as normal until Hunter comes out to refute claims about his manhood…and Chyna debuts by popping out of the crowd and abusing Marlena. This was also pretty huge, because this was the bizarre aligning of the planets that turned Hunter from dull midcarder into a legitimate star. And no one was more surprised than me. In retrospect, he should have just went after Stephanie and gotten it over with.

From February 24 1997: The WWF crew goes on a European tour, so ECW invades the Manhattan Center. This is actually a series of interviews from that ECW DVD rather than the actual segments from that RAW.

European championship finals: The British Bulldog v. Owen Hart

From March 3 1997. Owen gives Bulldog a clean break to start and then starts on the arm, and they trade super-cool reversals until Bulldog takes him down to win. Owen tries a monkey flip out of the corner, but Bulldog blocks and they do a stalemate sequence off that. And then shake hands, which is always nice to see. Bulldog takes him down with the test of strength, and Owen bridges out of it and busts out the rope bounce escape. He tries to follow with a rana, but Bulldog powerbombs him, and transitions into a catapult that puts Owen on the floor. And then he lets him back in, as the sportsmanship continues. Owen comes back in with a rollup for two, but Bulldog takes him down with an armdrag and holds a top wristlock. Bulldog goes to a hammerlock and Owen tries to flip out of it, so Bulldog drops him right on the arm and we take a break.

Back with Bulldog working the wristlock again, into a crucifix takedown for two. Owen reverses a suplex and goes for the enzuigiri, but Bulldog ducks and takes him down into a bow-and-arrow submission. Owen uses the ref’s shirt to escape, so Bulldog grabs an armbar and monkey-flips him. He tries to follow with a charge, but Owen backdrops him to the floor and then also offers a clean entrance back into the ring again. Another shake and we’re on again. Bulldog takes him down with a headlock and they criss-cross, but Owen blows out his knee! BUT WAIT! It’s a miracle, as it heals up and Owen stomps him down and tries the Sharpshooter. Bulldog powers out of that and now the hurt feelings start, as they shove it out and Owen gets a leg lariat to take over.

Backbreaker and Owen goes to work on the back, and drops the leg for two. We hit the chinlock and Bulldog fights out of that, but runs into a knee as Honky does a pretty good Stu Hart impression. Bulldog bails and regroups, and Owen actually lets him be, but Bulldog fights in with a sunset flip for two. Owen takes him down with a clothesline, however, and drops an elbow for two. Back to the chinlock and we take a well-timed break. Back with Owen getting the overhead belly to belly suplex for two and goes to a camel clutch. Bulldog powers out with an electric chair drop, but runs into a boot on a blind charge. Owen tries for a pin in the corner, but only gets two. Can’t blame him there.

Neckbreaker and Owen goes up with a flying legdrop for two. Back to the chinlock, but Bulldog fights out quickly, so Owen slugs him into the corner and follows with a superplex, which Bulldog reverses into a bodypress for two. Nice counter. Bulldog comes back with a wicked series of clotheslines and the delayed suplex for two. Owen gets the turnbuckle bump and Bulldog presses him onto the top rope to crotch him, then suplexes him back in. Owen lands on his feet and hits the german suplex for two. Owen tries to alley-oop and gets caught in powerslam position, so he grabs the ropes and falls on top for two. Bulldog rolls him up for two. Owen finally gets the enzuigiri and goes to the Sharpshooter in the middle of the ring, but Bulldog powers to the ropes. Owen tries a tombstone, but Bulldog reverses to the powerslam and gets two. Bulldog argues and Owen gets the victory roll from behind for two, but Bulldog reverses for the pin and the first European title at 16:52, kicking off 5 glorious years for that belt and highlights like Mideon digging it out of Shane McMahon’s bag to win it. The finish, by the way, was awesome, as it paid tribute to both the Owen-Bret Wrestlemania X finish with Owen’s victory roll, but also the Bret-Bulldog finish from Summerslam 92 with the pinfall reversal by Bulldog. This one told a great story, had no dead spots, and was pretty much 100% clean the whole way through, and not to mention foreshadowed one of the greatest angles in WWF history when they had their rematch a few weeks later. Probably one of the best matches ever broadcast on TV. *****

From March 17 1997. RAW is now WAR. And Bret Hart is PISSED. Following a cage match loss to Sid, he flips out and shoves Vince McMahon down and goes on a profanity-filled rant against him and the WWF in general, totally reinventing his character for the Attitude Era.

Dude Love, Undertaker & Steve Austin v. Bret Hart, Owen Hart & British Bulldog

From July 21 1997. This is a flag match. Joined in progress with Dude headlocking Owen, but getting kicked as a result. Austin comes in and gets clotheslined, and Bret comes in with one of his own and pulls Austin into the corner for the ringpost figure-four, which Austin fights out of. Over to Undertaker, who chokeslams Bulldog and sets up for the tombstone, but Bret saves and slugs it out with Taker. They clothesline each other and Taker goes for the US flag, but Brian Pillman holds him up while Bret grabs the Canadian flag for the win. Wouldn’t have been my choice for a Hart Foundation highlight when the Austin ambulance angle was RIGHT THERE, but it’s not my DVD. In fact, they skipped over a whole hell of a lot of great stuff in 1997 to get to this.

From September 22 1997, as RAW comes from MSG for the first time and Austin is on a rampage of destruction against WWF officials due to his anger at being injured and having to give up the IC title and tag titles. Vince McMahon (now making the transition from mere announcer to All-Powerful Owner) finally tries to talk some sense into him and calm him down, but sense isn’t part of the plan. And for the first time, it’s KICK WHAM STUNNER for Mr. McMahon and Austin is arrested. And thus the biggest money-drawing feud in the history of wrestling is born. It’s all summed up here, with Austin representing the angry middle-class common man who is screwed over by the system, and Vince representing The Boss.

From November 17 1997. Vince McMahon, now sporting a black eye a week after Montreal, claims that “Bret Hart screwed Bret Hart”. The phrase “time honoured tradition” is also a load of crap, because the “tradition” of putting over guys on the way out comes from promoters devaluing talent from a business standpoint. We’re been over this a million times before (and will go over it one more time in my next book, Dungeon of Death: Chris Benoit and the Hart Family Curse, available November 2008 in a bookstore near you!), but I still think Vince is a liar.

From December 8 1997. Marc Mero, having transformed into “Marvellous” Marc Mero upon his return as a heel, brings out Sable in a potato sack to humiliate her. Gotta say, Mero was pretty awesome as a character at this point, but he couldn’t back it up in the ring anymore. This was also a notable segment because Vince Russo had Mero call Sal Sincere by his real name, Tom Brandi, and refer to him as a “jobber”, the first time that sort of thing had happened. Sable of course drops the sack and reveals a barely-there bikini instead.

From December 15 1997, as it’s the first ever Rock v. Austin feud. Tragically, they omit the historic “The Rock thinks you should fire him, Vince” interview where Vince awarded the IC title to Rocky and skip here, as Austin appears on the video wall and tosses the belt into the river. You’d think this would have meant they would introduce the new IC title belt (ie, the current one), but they waited until about April to do that. The Rock’s awesome charisma was already shining through here, as he quickly took over the leadership role in the Nation. The pop-up notes that Austin won the title at Summerslam 4 months earlier, although this is not correct -this was Austin’s second title, which he won by beating Owen Hart (who won a tournament over Faarooq for the vacant title) at Survivor Series.

And finally, December 22 1997 sees DX celebrating Christmas in their boxer shorts and mooning the crowd. Now why would they include something marginally important like this but skip over the formation of the group? Or the atomic wedgie on Michael Cole? Anyway, Sgt. Slaughter comes out and forces Shawn to defend the European title against HHH. So later on, Shawn comes out for his epic showdown with his best friend, and then lays down for him after a fingerpoke. Sound familiar? Shawn’s post-match tearful speech is pretty funny.

Welcome to the Russo Era, and not surprisingly the 1998-2002 era is rather lighter on matches than the first disc was.

From January 19 1998: Vince McMahon introduces Mike Tyson as the special referee for Wrestlemania XIV…but Steve Austin takes exception. Best $5 million Vince ever spent. No sarcasm at all, this was huge and Tyson paid for himself at least 10 times over after the buyrate for Wrestlemania came in. This was the official start of the Vince v. Austin feud as well, as Austin attacks Tyson after verbally punking him out, thus ruining Vince’s big moment and making an enemy of him forever.

From February 2 1998: DX gives a press conference, sadly still bleeped here, where Shawn gives the State of Union and clarifies that he did NOT sleep with that intern…he was up all night! Chyna fighting to keep a straight face, while Hunter reads the list of words they will no longer say, is pretty fun, too.

From the same show, Cactus Jack fights Chainsaw Charlie (Terry Funk) and they end up in a dumpster, at which point the New Age Outlaws run out and dump them off the stage in a hokey angle. The elbow off the Titantron into the dumpster was pretty badass…until the packing peanuts flew up. Luckily they don’t show the whole angle, which spanned nearly a half an hour and bored the crap out of the crowd. This was fairly important, however, because it was the next rudimentary step in Russo’s attempts to bring “realism” to the WWF by having people acting out of character to sell how “real” the angle was.

From March 30 1998, the night after Wrestlemania, as HHH fires Shawn Michaels from D-X and introduces his replacement…X-Pac. This was money. Not only did this turn D-X into a totally different group, but it turned the Monday Night Wars around and was the first huge defection from WCW to the WWF, rather than the other way around. JR’s disgusted “Well look who’s back” is great. Sadly they omit the end of the show, where the Outlaws also join.

From April 13 1998: Vince McMahon steps into the ring against Steve Austin, generating the first win for RAW in the ratings in 82 weeks, and they never look back. I would have also included the training regimen earlier in the show with Brisco teaching him to counter the stunner, but you can’t have everything. Of course, the whole thing is a big swerve and new corporate lackey Dude Love attacks Austin instead, setting up that match for Unforgiven. I really wish they’d bring the giant eagle belt back, actually.

From April 27 1998: D-X invades WCW when they’re both in Virginia. Kind of cheesy, but again this was huge, as it turned D-X into faces and gave the WWF that “cool factor” they had been lacking.

From July 8 1998: D-X parodies the Nation! Another Russo trademark, that being one group of people imitating another group of people. However, this was important not only because it was funny, but because it gave the Nation actual personalities where none had existed before. It also gave the world Jason Sensation as Owen Hart, doing a dead-on impression. Poor choice of words, I guess. “I tried to be a tough guy but I just couldn’t grow my damn beard in” is a great line.

From September 28 1998: The World title is vacant and Vince is about to award it to either Kane or Undertaker, but Steve Austin interrupts on a zamboni and all hell breaks loose. Vince is so pissed that he decides to keep the belt, and an enraged Undertaker and Kane team up and break his ankle as a result, although the segment omits that part and reduces it to a pop-up factoid. An absolute classic moment regardless.

From October 5 1998: The next week, Vince is in the hospital having his leg set, and Mick Foley decides to stop by and cheer him up with Yurple the Clown…and Mr. Socko! Now we’re really getting into the prime of Vince Russo’s run. Vince thinks he’s safe when the doctor chases Foley away…but of course it’s Steve Austin, who delivers an enema the hard way. Vince’s disgusted reactions to all the craziness around him show why he was such an incredibly effective character.

From October 12 1998: The next week, Vince brings his classic Corvette to the arena…and Austin dumps a load of cement in it, completely destroying it.

From October 19 1998: Topping off the worst month of Vince’s life (as noted by the pop-up just as I’m typing that), Austin holds Vince hostage with a “gun” and makes him piss his own pants, before “firing” and revealing a little sign that says “Bang 3:16”.

WWF World title: The Rock v. Mankind

I forget if I’ve ever ranted on this before, so we’ll do it anyway. From January 4 1999 (although it was taped the week before). D-X and the Corporation are all at ringside. Rock attacks to start and slugs Mick out of the ring, then whips him into the stairs and hits him with it. I hope that Test had someone take lots of pictures of him at ringside holding the WWF title, because that’s the closest he ever got to it. Rock suplexes him on the floor and then grabs the headset and does his own color commentary, which allows Mankind to fight back. Mick adds his own commentary in a great bit, but Rock hits him in the face with the bell and chokes him out with a cable. Rock Bottom through the table, and that gets two back in the ring. Russian legsweep gets two. Mankind comes back with an elbow out of the corner, but Rock slams him and follows with the People’s Elbow. That gets two. Mick with the neckbreaker, but Rock hits him with the belt for two. Mankind gets the double-arm DDT for two and it’s time for the sock, but Ken Shamrock comes in and breaks it up with a chair. It turns into a big brawl at ringside, but Steve Austin trumps everyone by coming in and nailing Rock with the chair, then putting Mick on top for the pin and the title at 8:45. “Yeah, that’ll put butts in the seats.” I hope they engrave that on Tony Schiavone’s tombstone. Just kind of a sloppy brawl compressed into TV time, but obviously the match quality wasn’t the issue here, the insane crowd reaction and huge feelgood moment WAS. They pulled the trigger and created a new star and hopefully they remember that lesson with Jeff Hardy as well. **1/2

From March 22 1999: Rock and Vince are doing an interview in the ring…and Austin drives a beer truck down to ringside and soaks everyone with it. This was voted the #1 moment on RAW on that horrifying “RAW X” special a few years back, and it’s hard to argue too strenuously about that.

From April 19 1999: This isn’t actually the segment, it’s a video package about it, but Rock reveals that he still has the smoking skull belt, and Austin drives a monster truck into the arena and crushes the hearse that was being used by the Rock.

Gerald Brisco & Pat Patterson v. The Mean Street Posse

From May 10 1999. Shane was trying to replace his dad, so the Stooges fought for the honor of Mr. Mahon. The Posse attacks Brisco in the ring and Rodney drops a leg on him. They stomp away on Brisco in really bad fashion, but Pat fights them off with a motorcycle helmet and Brisco suplexes Pete Gas. Patterson dumps Rodney while Brisco puts Pete in a figure-four for the submission at 2:08, and that was it for the Posse. And not a moment too soon. -** The use of “Real American” and Patterson’s posedown were a funny slap in the face of Hulk Hogan.

From June 7 1999: The Greater/Higher Power was Vince! It was Vince all along, Austin! Again, this is just a video package rather than the actual segment. This led to some horrendously stupid stuff, like the Magic Briefcase and the Corporate Ministry and whatever Vince Russo’s brain could concoct on a napkin before showtime.

From August 9 1999: Y2J! Chris Jericho debuts after months of the Millennium Countdown, gets an insanely huge reaction, and then promptly goes to waste for months afterwards because they don’t know what to do with him. Luckily he was talented enough to recover. I’d have to say this ranks as the biggest and best debut ever. Here’s a weird thing: 24/7 currently has this segment up as well, but they air it unedited (plus blurring, of course) whereas this one does a weird edit when he says “WWF”, cutting to the crowd and altering the audio so that he says “World Wrestling Federation” instead, cutting in that phrase from earlier in the interview.

From September 27 1999: This Is Your Life, Rock! This was the peak of Russo’s creative powers and the highest rated segment in the history of the show, and also one of those segments that polarized the audience. Mick Foley, desperate to reunite the Rock N Sock Connection, brings out a series of people from Rock’s past, and it goes on for nearly half an hour. It’s all Rock improvising and Mick doing crazy reactions, and although it’s very entertaining, there’s no payoff forthcoming and it didn’t build to a match. ANY match. Still, “You cut the Rock off at second base!” is worth the price of admission.

From November 8 1999: Big Bossman reads poetry in tribute to Big Show’s dead father. This didn’t really warrant inclusion.

From November 29 1999: Again, not the segment, just a video package, as Test and Stephanie are trying to get happily married, but HHH interrupts and reveals that she already married him the night before while drugged. And who hasn’t been there?

WWF World title: HHH v. Chris Jericho.

From April 17 2000. Jericho takes him down with a drop toehold and pounds away on the mat, then backdrops a charging HHH to the floor. Jericho misses a baseball slide and HHH slugs him down on the floor, but Jericho dropkicks him off the apron. Back in, Jericho misses a clothesline and feels the wrath of HHH’s knee, and HHH takes over and pounds away on the apron. Jericho meets the stairs, and back in HHH suplexes him and adds the kneedrop for two. Jericho tries to come back, but puts his head down and gets DDT’d. HHH goes up, but Jericho uses Kurt Angle’s Pop-Up Superplex to bring him down, and fires away in the corner. Missile dropkick gets two. HHH comes back with KICK WHAM PEDIGREE, but Jericho reverses to the Walls of Jericho, then catapults HHH into the ref by accident. He goes up and gets brought down by Shane, which prompts the APA to chase him away. The belt gets involved and Jericho hits him with it, but again no ref. A second ref comes in for the two count and gets put down by HHH, but that allows Jericho to hit the Lionsault for the pin and the title at 9:50. Or so we thought, since HHH whines that it was a fast count and has the decision reversed, thus getting the belt back. Decent match, and at least Jericho would get his win back when…uh…actually I’ve got nothing here. This was some monster heel heat for HHH, days before Rock kicked his ass and won the title to avenge the fans and Hebner. Again, dunno if it warrants inclusion based on match quality or anything (which was about ***) but it’s a good representation of HHH at his peak.

From March 26 2001: The end of Nitro. Again, video package. Vince publically fires Jeff Jarrett in one of those weird things that only happen in wrestling, then we get the simulcast with RAW and Nitro and the reveal of Shane as the new owner of WCW.

From August 20 2001: It’s Stone Cold Appreciation Night, as he bullies Tazz for not wearing a WCW shirt, but Kurt Angle interrupts and drives a milk truck down to ringside for his version of a beer bath.

From January 7 2002: HHH returns from the quad tear. And then beats up Kurt Angle before going on to win the Royal Rumble and the World title. If he could have fixed the Nobel Prizes to give himself the Nobel Quad Tear Recovery Prize, I’m sure he would have done so as well.

From February 18 2002: Hollywood Hogan invades WWE on behalf of the nWo, but the Rock appears to start a promo war and draw a gigantic buyrate for Wrestlemania. This was one of those weird deals where they did a super-intense staredown and history-making interview segment using only their natural charisma, and then they went and flushed the whole thing down the toilet by having Hogan try to murder Rock in a semi for some reason. Thankfully they omit that second part and leave things with Rock laying out Hogan with a Rock Bottom instead.

And finally, from July 15 2002, hell freezes over and Eric Bischoff debuts on RAW as the new General Manager. They cut the death of Nitro down to a 30 second video package and they kept Bischoff rambling for 10 minutes complete? We really just needed The Hug and nothing else.

This was a weird one, with only a couple of matches and the rest angles and interviews. It was classic stuff, to be sure, but there were a LOT of glaring omissions here. Some involving Benoit (the Radicalz debut and the 10-man tag and the Jericho/Benoit tag title win, to name three) but what’s the excuse for leaving out the ECW/WCW Alliance reveal? Where’s Steve Austin v. Undertaker, the highest-rated match in the history of cable TV? Or Ric Flair returning to the WWF after 8 years? Or the Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club, which was stupid but important? What about Edge and Christian and their sodas? It’s mind-boggling what they left out and what they put in instead and although this disc represents the peak of the show, it’s a huge disappointment in a lot of ways.

Onto the modern era, starting in 2003 now.

From March 24 2003: The Rock gives us a solo concert in full heel mode, singing “Leaving Sacramento” and it’s absolutely hilarious. Even Rock sounds like he’s having too much fun to keep a straight face. Unfortunately Steve Austin was well past his expiration date at this point so the feud was little more than an afterthought to build up Rock for Goldberg, but Rock was just so over-the-top entertaining in any role he was in that it’s almost a shame he left when he did. The storyline here is also great, with Austin trying to lure Rock back to the ring with his autographed Willie Nelson guitar, and then smashing it.

From June 23 2003: Kane loses to HHH and unmasks. The wig looks really obvious here. In retrospect the unmasking was inevitable and gave Kane a much wider range of facial expressions, but it also killed one of the few unique looks in wrestling. The whole heel turn afterwards was kind of blah as well.

From July 5 2004: We skip ahead a whole year now, as Eugene plays GM and sets up a World title match by having people play musical chairs. Flair hitting on Stacy and then shoving her aside to take her seat is classic Ric Flair. Chris Jericho hits Tomko with the last chair to win, and went on to lose his IC title match against Randy Orton later in the night. This was funny and different, but I wouldn’t call it one of the best or anything.

From August 16 2004: Randy Orton retains his World title against some guy, probably no one important, and then Evolution gives him the thumbs down and turns on him. This was of course completely ass-backwards because you can’t create a new babyface star by having the heels turn on him. Weeks of Orton jumping out of birthday cakes would be mercifully ended by HHH winning the belt the next month.

From November 22 2004: Vince gets all edgy and relevant by spoofing the Nicolette Sheridan skit from Monday Night Football. This was dumb and ham-fisted and went over the heads of everyone who didn’t actually watch football while RAW was on. Which would be a good chunk of the audience, since they run head-to-head.

From February 21 2005: They redo the Randy Orton turn with Batista and get it right this time, as Batista outsmarts the heels and turns on HHH, powerbombing him through a table and becoming a new star.

Shelton Benjamin v. Shawn Michaels

From May 2 2005. They do a wrestling sequence on the mat to start, and Shelton gets the better of that. They go back to the mat again and Shawn makes the ropes again. Shawn tries overpowering him this time, getting a hiptoss out of that, but Shelton suckers him in for a kick and a series of armdrags that have the old Shawn beginning to show. Shelton takes him down with a headlock, but evil Shawn comes out again and he forearms Shelton out of it. Shelton takes him out of the ring with a Cactus clothesline and we take a break. Back with Shawn hammering him on the top rope, but Shelton comes down on him with a bodyblock and both are out. Shawn fires away with chops, but walks into a samoan drop and Shelton fires away with rights. Vicious backbreaker gets two. Shawn comes back with the forearm and kips up, but so does Shelton, and they do a cool pinfall reversal sequence. Shawn throws the chops, but Shelton throws the stinger splash, so he wins. He fights for the exploder, but Shawn backdrops out of it and tries the superkick. That misses, so Shelton gets the dragon whip for two. They head up to the top and Shelton goes down first, and Shawn follows with the flying elbow. Shawn is bleeding internally, but the POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS HIM! Superkick is blocked again and Shelton gets his own, and that gets two. Shelton elbows him down and pops up to the top with a springboard clothesline, and that gets two. Those are some amazingly hot near-falls. Shawn tries tossing him, but Shelton hangs on with another springboard, and this time Shawn counters with the superkick and gets the pin at 14:54. That was some seriously high-quality professional wrestling, with a creative ending to boot. **** And that superkick looked nasty from every angle.

From June 6 2005: The John Cena era begins. You had to know that Cena would take RAW over sooner rather than later, as his star power was getting too big for Smackdown. The feud against Jericho that he debuted with was less than successful. This was the point where the love-hate relationship with the fanbase really started for Cena, though. I’m pretty surprised they left Christian in here, though.

From June 20 2005: The lovely wedding of Edge & Lita, complete with Lita’s ultra-classy dress and poetry from Snitsky. Ah, the good old days when he was just a babykiller instead of a foot fetishist. The Matt Hardy tease is pretty funny, although it kind of lessened the impact when it happened for real later on. Sadly, Edge and Lita never complete their vows, thanks to Kane. Trainwreck appeal alone makes this one of the better weddings on RAW. A pop-up notes that all of the weddings on RAW have ended in disaster. Indeed.

From July 4 2005: The end of a tag match with Shawn & Hulk v. Carlito & Kurt Angle, as the babyfaces triumph and then Shawn almost redeems his bible-thumping by turning on Hogan and becoming the most awesome heel since, well, himself in 1997. Then he turned back and got boring again. Well, that’s wrestling for you.

From August 22 2005: John Cena beats Chris Jericho and Chris gets fired from RAW forever. Or two and a half years, whichever comes first.

Iron Man match: Kurt Angle v. Shawn Michaels

From October 3 2005, aka RAW Homecoming. Shawn chops Angle down for two to start and gets a neckbreaker for two. They brawl outside for a bit and Shawn comes back in with the double axehandle, and that gets two. Angle fires back with forearms, but walks into a sleeper before escaping with a suplex. Kneelift and Angle pounds away on the mat, and a slam gets two. We hit the chinlock and Shawn escapes with a jawbreaker and backdrops Angle to the floor with a sick bump. Shawn follows with a baseball slide, but Kurt slickly turns it into an Angle Slam on the floor. Back in, Angle stomps away in the corner and then powerbombs Shawn into the turnbuckle for two. That move always terrifies me. Angle tries the superplex, but Shawn fights him off, so he turns it into an Angle Slam instead for the pin at 8:08. We take a break and return with four minutes gone by and Angle holding another chinlock. Shawn fights out and throws elbows in the corner, but misses a charge and hits the post. Kurt follows with a german suplex for two. Vertical suplex gets two. Shawn comes back with chops, but Angle whips him into the corner and tries another Angle Slam, which Shawn reverses into a sunset flip, but Angle reverses into the anklelock. Shawn rolls him up for the pin out of that at 11:18. So we’re tied at 1. Shawn gets a quick rollup for two, but Angle tosses him and sends him into the stairs, which gets two. Angle goes to a bodyscissors as the pace has really died off, and Shawn has to bite him to get out of that. Rollup gets two, but Angle pushes him off and turns it into the anklelock. Shawn won’t tap, so the heel hook finishes the third fall at 15:12. And then we REALLY jump during the break, with only six minutes left now. The commercials really kill the flow here. Shawn comes back with the flying forearm, but hurts his leg on the kip up, which is a nice touch. He fights back with slams and goes up with the flying elbow, which sets up the superkick for the pin at 17:18. Shawn chops away in the corner, but gets whipping into the corner and Angle Slammed for two. Another attempt is reversed by Shawn into a tornado DDT and it’s the double KO. Shawn gets two. Angle charges and hits boot, and Shawn gets the moonsault press, but Angle rolls through into another anklelock with time running out. Shawn again won’t tap, so it’s the heel hook with a minute left, well past the point when a real human being would have a broken leg. But it’s good drama, so what the hell. Shawn rolls him over and kicks out of the unkickoutable move, and the superkick hits as the time expires at 22:08 aired, for the draw. Kind disappointing, with commercial breaks and chinlocks slowing it down. ***

Later in the Homecoming show: Steve Austin stuns Vince McMahon. Again. And Shane. And Stephanie and her giant cans. Linda comes out to talk sense into Steve and demands an apology, so they have a beer together and he gives her the worst stunner ever.

From December 5 2005 : Bischoff on trial! Again, a video package rather than the actual segment. Vince’s line about the IPod is pretty funny, the rest is the usual level of humor for this show.

From January 9 2006: Edge celebrates his WWE championship victory over John Cena by announcing the first ever live sex celebration with Lita. Although this was a REALLY high-rated segment, it falls into that trainwreck mentality, and it was really far over the line for what should be acceptable for prime time. Although Flair coming out and offering to show Edge how to please his woman mostly saves the segment.

From June 26 2006: The reunited D-X strikes again, as HHH does his version of Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels portrays Shane. They have the mannerisms down, but there’s not really any good jokes past HHH pulling on his ear and Shawn dancing. And really, the “Stand Back” joke has already been beaten into the ground. Speaking of beaten into the ground, the real McMahons come out to protest, and get poop dumped on them. HILARITY!

RAW World title: Rob Van Dam v. Edge v. John Cena

From July 3 2006. Rob got caught with pot, so we get this match. Cena and RVD take turns beating on Edge in the corner to start, and Cena gets a suplex before tossing him. We take a break and return with RVD kicking Cena down in the corner and setting up for a superplex, but Edge dumps Cena and rolls up RVD for two. Rob gets his own rollup for two and superkicks Edge into a cartwheel moonsault for two. Cena pulls Edge out and introduces him to the stairs, and RVD hits Cena with a pescado to follow. Back in, RVD gets two on Cena. Cena tries the F-U, but Edge breaks it up and lays out RVD. Cena tries to suplex Edge, but RVD comes off the top with a bodypress on both of them. Cena & Edge team up with a double spinebuster on RVD, but they turn on each other with a clothesline and everyone is out. JR gets indignant about the ref counting when it’s one fall to a finish, but he was also talking about how one guy could be eliminated earlier so really he’s got no reason to talk. Rob gets dumped and Cena clotheslines Edge to come back, and you can’t see him. Five knuckle shuffle, but Edge blocks the F-U. Lita comes in with a chair and takes the F-U in Edge’s place, but that allows RVD to get the Van Daminator. Frog splash follows, but it misses and it’s an F-U for RVD. Edge lays out Cena with the belt and pins RVD to win the title at 8:28. The image of the kid with his mouth open in shock became something of an internet staple soon after, and Edge leaving Lita in pain to continue his celebration is a totally in-character move for him. Decent three-way, although they’ve all had better matches with each other in various combinations. ***

Shawn Michaels v. Edge

From January 22 2007. This is a street fight, as we’re now into the D-X v. Rated RKO feud. Shawn beats Edge down with his belt to start, and grabs some chairs from under the ring. Trashcan to the head, but Edge comes back with the chair and we take a break. Back with Shawn bleeding and Edge hitting him with various items, including a ladder to the arm for two. He sets up for a powerbomb onto the ladder, but Shawn slugs out of it and they do the big slugfest. Shawn kips up and chokes Edge out with a chain in the corner, and now we have double juice. Shawn slams him on the ladder and heads up, but Edge follows and they fight for the superplex. Edge goes down onto the ladder as a result and Shawn hits him with the flying elbow and goes for the superkick, but Edge almost kinda turns it into an electric chair, or least enough of one to slow him down. Edge tries the spear, but Shawn counters that and then follows with a good old chair to the face before putting Edge’s head on a chair and setting up for the Conchairto. However, Randy Orton pops in with an RKO, and Edge gets the pin at 11:07. Kind of an anti-climactic finish, but it was some good blood-and-guts grudge match action. ***1/4

And finally, from October 5 2007, Vince McMahon holds a ceremony to congratulate Randy Orton on winning the RAW World title from HHH, but Shawn Michaels returns and superkicks him.

Ugh. No wonder I stopped watching the show. I don’t even remember HEARING about half the stuff on this disc, and many of the truly great moments and matches are missing because of the elephant in the room, Chris Benoit. I mean, stuff like the musical chairs and Shawn Michaels’ return are just head-scratching. And does Brock Lesnar no longer exist? Why is Vince McMahon so terrified of acknowledging past stars? He owns ALL THE FOOTAGE.

The Bottom Line: So in summary, the first disc is great with some rare, high-quality matches. The second disc is a pretty good look at the Russo years, but lacks some footage and features too many video packages in place of the actual segments, and the third disc is a steaming pile by comparison to the first two. It’s probably worth a recommendation if you don’t have WWE 24/7, but I’d actually track down the original “Best of RAW Volumes 1 & 2” DVD set on Ebay for a better look at the glory years.