This segment brought back a lot of "Attitude Era" memories. It was the first time in years that I believed in characters and their actions. I suddenly remembered the glory days of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, D-Generation X (the originals), and all the stars who made me a fan.
To nurture this nostalgia, I popped in The Best of Raw: 15th Anniversary DVD set that had been collecting dust on my shelf for the past year. Rather than dwell on the current product and its shortcomings, I've decided to take a look back on what made Raw the flagship broadcast for WWE and the juggernaut it is today. To bring the topic full circle, I'll be drawing parallels between those early days and what the product has become now and perhaps gain some insight into the principles that have both evolved and fallen away from WWE.
On Thursday, out of sheer boredom, I popped in my yet unopened copy of WWE’s The Best of Raw: 15th Anniversary. I had purchased the epic 3-disc set almost a year ago and still had yet to watch it. A summary on the back described what I was in for.
The first few moments are simply great wrestling moments and certainly historic for the business: the very first Raw, a match between Mr. Perfect and Ric Flair, a Parking Lot Brawl, Razor Ramon vs. The Kid, etc. It’s not until the almost halfway mark on the disc that we finally run into moments that were more than wrestling: they are controversial. Vader attacks Gorilla Monsoon, Goldust curing an unconscious wrestler with a “CPR”, and the infamous segment of Steve Austin assaulting Brian Pillman in his own home. Up to that time, the WWF seemed pretty straight-forward as far as the product it was presenting, but with these moments, and particularly the segment entitled “Pillman’s Got a Gun”, the World Wrestling Federation redefines itself and begins to enter the golden age of the “Attitude Era”.
What strikes me about these moments is that they are still as exciting to watch today as they were when they first happened. It rekindled in me, albeit briefly, that fascination with wrestling that has been quickly fading in the wake of the stale, clichéd, and lackluster product that has been mechanically presented each week for some time now.
Great care was taken with this presentation. The first disc chronicling 1993-1997 features the original “Raw is War” logo, and Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels on the cover. The logo alone is enough to send chills down your spine as all the memories of those years come flooding back. The second disc, 1998-2002, features the Bischoff-era logo and shows The Rock and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in mid-brawl. This brings back flashes of Wrestlemania XIX, when the two would square off for the last time.
Finally there is the third disc: 2003-2008, which features the current Raw logo and a glistening picture of John Cena smiling at the crowd and preparing for his “Five-Knuckle Shuffle”. This is such a stark contrast to the other two discs that, were it not for the color scheme and general theme of the cover, it would feel out of place next to the other two. On the first disc, Shawn Michaels, clearly full of himself, is striking a very cocky, arrogant pose with gold strapped around his waist. On the second disc, Rock and Austin are having an aggressive, adrenaline-fueled slugfest. On the third disc, John Cena is out to make friends with as many people as possible as he waves to the crowd.
The moments on the third disc are certainly memorable, but their overall appeal pales in comparison to the moments of the first and second disc. John Cena getting drafted to Raw is much less a shock than Chris Jericho’s appearance in the middle of The Rock’s promo. Evolution’s attack on Randy Orton is nothing compared to the Corporation’s attacks against and from Steve Austin. Still, the disc is somewhat redeemed by great matches such as Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle’s 30-minute Iron Man match, and HBK vs. Shelton Benjamin. Moments like Edge and Lita’s live sex celebration seem like a Swan Song for WWE’s attitude as the program continued to move in a TV-PG direction.
What was really disappointing about this set as a whole is the complete lack of representation for the Divas. Sable is shown shedding her potato sack and modeling what remains to this day the smallest outfit worn by any woman on WWE programming. The disc also highlights Chyna’s debut. However, there is not one Divas match on the entire set. While there are flashes of Trish Stratus, Lita, Stacy Keibler, Torrie Wilson, and others in montages, they appear nowhere else in this set. I can understand WWE not wanting to include any “Bra and Panties” matches or “Lingerie Pillow Fights” on their disc (though we can remind everyone how HBK and HHH showed up to Raw in nothing but Christmas thongs), but at the very least I’d have thought that the Women’s Championship match between Trish Stratus and Lita that was the main-event of Raw a few years ago, would’ve been a nice nod to the Women’s division. Instead these women are simply remembered for the clothes they took off rather than the performances they put on. That’s a real shame and says a lot about where WWE places their values in the company.
Also, there aren’t a whole lot of tag team matches to speak of. Anyone hoping to see Edge & Christian, The Dudley Boyz, or the Hardy Boyz in one of their classic bouts will be sorely disappointed. Of course, this will come as no surprise to anyone who has watched devolution of WWE's tag team division.
It’s also amazing that WWE included Shawn Michaels’ return to the ring against Randy Orton in 2007, but did not include his return to Raw in 2002 after his four-year hiatus. Perhaps it’s because Shawn had returned to join the nWo, or perhaps it’s because that particular segment featured current TNA wrestler, Kevin Nash and WWE may have been hesitant to showcase either of those assets. WWE quickly buried the nWo angle after Michaels’ return, and Kevin Nash didn’t stick around too long following Scott Hall’s termination.
For all the criticism, it remains a fact that when Raw is at its best, it truly is thrilling. As I said earlier, these moments are just as exciting now as they were “back in the day”. Yes, I was left with a nostalgic longing for “the good old days”, but more importantly I was left wondering how WWE could fall so far off the mark, and specifically, why the product today fails to captivate me the way it did then.
Since I’ve grown rather weary of treading the same ground in regards to the current WWE product, and the current state of professional wrestling in general, I’ve decided to start taking a look back to better times. In that spirit, I’ll be taking a look at each of these moments in subsequent columns. I’ll be talking about the moment itself, its impact on professional wrestling, and how the principles behind these moments can be applied for the betterment of the WWE product.
