Awesome / WWE Raw

Sometimes, really Awesome stuff happens during Raw.

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1993

• January 25, 1993: The third episode of Monday Night Raw featured two of the best wrestlers in the company, and mainstream American pro wrestling in general, competing in Raw's first great match. It was Mr. Perfect vs. Ric Flair in a Loser Leaves Town match. Perfect and Flair would put on a wrestling clinic for almost 20 minutes, culminating with Hennig catching Flair with the Perfectplex, sending Ric Flair back to WCW, not to be seen on WWF TV until November of 2001. This match arguably set the standard for free TV wrestling, and showed how revolutionary Monday Night Raw would become.
• May 17, 1993: This Raw is notable for two of the biggest upsets in the early years of Monday Night Raw:
  • Razor Ramon took on Sean Waltman, known at that time as simply "The Kid"; this match was assumed to be your regular squash match by the viewers. It would be played out as such, until The Kid went up the top rope and hit a Standing Moonsault on Razor and actually pinned him, picking up a shocking victory; this helped build Raw up as a show where "anything could happen". Waltman would take the name "1-2-3 Kid" and use the momentum to become an upper-midcard babyface; later, Waltman (as Syxx and X-Pac, respectively) would become a member of both the New World Order and D-Generation X. This would also set in motion a Heel–Face Turn for Razor, which led to arguably the most successful years of his career.^note However, it can be argued that this loses some of its luster when you consider that Scott Hall and Sean Waltman are both members of The Kliq, and how this was the first step toward the Kliq's backstage reign of terror in the '90s.
  • Marty Jannetty made a sudden return to defeat his former Rockers partner Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental title. It is nice to see that for one day, Michaels took a backseat to his former partner, considering their Breakup Breakout is so infamous that they occupied the picture on the trope page for several years.

1994

• July 11, 1994: In an underrated WWF Championship match, Bret Hart is taken to the limit by the 1-2-3 Kid. At one point in the match, Bret won, but the Kid's foot was on the bottom rope. He noticed this, and insisted on restarting the match.

1995

• October 23, 1995: It's a shame Ahmed Johnson never panned out as the superstar WWF obviously thought he was, because his first impression was huge - Ahmed interfered in a post-match beatdown from Yokozuna and bodyslammed him. Unlike Lex Luger from a couple years earlier, this was when Yoko was at his biggest. Sure, it was a little sloppy, but what a way to introduce yourself.

1997

• February 24, 1997: when ECW wrestlers accepted Jerry Lawler's challenge and invaded Raw, kicking off an interpromotional feud that would last a few months. Seeing the Eliminators, Taz (not Tazz), The Sandman, the Dudley Boys, Sabu, Mikey Whipwreck and Tommy Dreamer on Raw was a big happening in 1997, and Jerry Lawler heel'ed on them for all it was worth.
• March 17, 1997: With the WWF really beginning to change its direction from the New Generation approach to the Attitude era, Bret Hart was finding himself at a crossroads in his career. This feeling of being on the outside looking in on the WWF's new direction would manifest itself in a promo after Bret lost a steel cage match for the WWF title to Sycho Sid. Vince McMahon would try to interview Bret after the loss and this what we would get...
  Vince: You have to be terribly frustrated, extremely frustrated as to what has happened here.
  [Bret shoves Vince down to the ground]
  Bret: FRUSTRATED ISN'T THE GODDAMN WORD FOR IT! THIS IS BULLSHIT! You screwed me, everybody screwed me, and nobody does a Goddamn thing about it! Nobody in the building cares, nobody in the dressing room cares! So much Goddamn injustice around here, I have had it up to here!
  JR: (We apologize, ladies and gentlemen.)
  Bret: Everybody knows it, I know it, everybody knows that I should be the World Wrestling Federation champion!
  Lawler: (Get him out of the ring!)
  Bret: Everybody just keeps turning a blind eye! You [Vince] keep turning a blind eye to it! I've got that Gorilla Monsoon, he turns a blind eye to it! Everybody in that goddamn dressing room knows that I am the best there is, the best there was, and the best that there ever will be!
  Lawler: (Cut him off!)
  Bret: If you don't like it, tough shit!
  • This was the Raw before WrestleMania 13, in which he teased a heel turn.
• August 11, 1997: This episode of Raw is considered one of the most important episodes of Raw ever, thanks to these 3 things that happened on this episode:
  • During Chainz vs Faarooq's match, Rocky Maivia intervened by giving Chainz a Rock Bottom to give the victory to Faarooq, in process making him heel as he's joining the The Nation of Domination. What many didn't know at the time was that it gave birth of The Rock, which in the long run successfully turning Johnson from a hated wrestler with near-nuclear level of X-Pac Heat on him into "The Most Electrifying Man in (Sports) Entertainment".
  • Later during the episode's main event match of Mankind vs Shawn Michaels, one of the most popular stables in WWE history, D-Generation X, was officially formed when Triple H, Chyna, and Rick Rude intervened in the match to help Michaels win the match. What many also didn't know at the time is that this also pretty much help kick-start Hunter's future success, with Hunter becoming a 14-time world champion and the heir of WWE's throne in the following years.
  • Following the Mankind vs Michaels match, The Undertaker arrived in the arena only to be interrupted by Paul Bearer in the TitanTron, and for the first time ever, Kane's entrance pyro makes its debut in WWE. Kane himself doesn't appear, but the seeds for the Kane and Taker's angle in the upcoming decade has been planted.
• September 22, 1997: Two events on this Raw episode, the very first to emanate from Madison Square Garden.
  • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin had been giving the Stone Cold Stunner on WWF officials and even Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter for attempting to prevent him from bending "the rules", as a result of his injury from Summerslam weeks ago against Owen Hart. Vince McMahon, who had been a color commentator before evolving into his "Mr. McMahon" persona, reprimands Stone Cold and pressures him that he "needs to work within the system". Austin responds that while he appreciates everyone is concerned about him, he tells McMahon in five simple words, "You can kiss my ass!", and proceeds to do what every person wants to do to their boss: give him a Stunner (notably, the FIRST Stunner on Vince). While the Austin/McMahon feud wouldn't happen until after Stone Cold wins his first WWF Championship post-WrestleMania XIV, it's clear the gears in Vince's head was turning about a future storyline where a wrestler would get physical with the boss, leading it to sell and beat the competition in the ratings.
  • Dude Love is scheduled for a "Falls Count Anywhere" match against HHH. As the latter waits in the ring, Dude's Leitmotif hits, but he doesn't come down to the ring. Instead, he's shown on a video, stating the match scenario isn't a forte of his, so calls out Mankind. However, Mankind is also on the video with Dude Love, and both sit down and converse with one another. Mankind claims that although he's "dreamed of destroying Hunter Hearst Helmsley", there's someone else who wants to do it even more: CACTUS JACK, who throws out a shovel, garbage can and other items for the match to pulverize Helmsley. Not only is Helmsley completely livid, the crowd goes nuts that Foley's third alter-ego has finally appeared on WWF programming. There's a reason why Cactus should be feared by the rest of the locker room.
  Cactus Jack: Helmsley, it may be the darkest day of your life! Because it's Madison Square Garden!! And Mrs. Foley's little boy is finally home!! BANG!! BANG!!

1998

• January 19, 1998: To prepare for the Stone Cold/Shawn Michaels WWF Championship match at WrestleMania 'WrestleMania XIV, Mr. McMahon hires special enforcer "Iron" Mike Tyson, whom he dubs as "The Baddest Man On The Planet", as insurance to prevent Austin from gaining the championship. Austin, however, felt insulted that Tyson has climbed into the ring with "The World's Toughest Son Of A Bitch" and proceeds to verbally berate and threaten him with an ass-whooping. Austin ends off that if Mike has trouble understanding what he's saying, a little sign language would help, and gives Tyson the "Austin Salute". Not only does Tyson push Austin to his knees, but both men fight back, to the point where Tyson's group and WWF officials had to restrain the two of them. It also seemed unreal to believe a boxer and wrestler would really be going at it. Made more believeable as Jim Ross yells at the top of his lungs, "TYSON AND AUSTIN!!! TYSON AND AUSTIN!! ALL HELL HAS BROKEN LOOSE!!"
• March 2 1998: Tyson returns, only this time, it's Shawn and D-Generation X who come down to the ring to face him. Shawn threatens Mike that he must call the match the way it should be: a win for Michaels, but Tyson isn't intimidated by idle threats. Instead, Shawn wants a piece of the boxer; both Tyson's group and the rest of DX exit the ring, leading to an intense staredown between the two. Tyson offers Michaels the first shot and it seems as if Shawn's hesistating to throw a punch, until he grabs Tyson's shirt collar and is about to do it when he suddenly pulls down the shirt to reveal....a DX T-shirt underneath! TYSON HAS JOINED D-GENERATION X!!!
• March 30, 1998: This night was a Crowning Moment for the entire promotion. Many historic moments took place on this show, the implications of which were felt throughout the entire Attitude Era:
  • X-Pac. Yes, that X-Pac. The day after WrestleMania XIV, Triple H brought in Sean Waltman (recently released from WCW) to join DeGeneration X, and Waltman cut a blistering promo, in response to an nWo promo weeks earlier where Hulk Hogan said that they got rid of Waltman because he couldn't "cut the mustard":
    X-Pac: First thing's first...I gotta a little sumtin' sumtin' I gotta get off my chest right now. I heard Hulk Hogan come out on television sayin' I couldn't cut the mustard... well, Hulk Hogan, you SUCK, pal! So I don't think you have any room to talk about anybody cuttin' any kinda muster. And Hulk, I got some more advice for ya - you better not stop short or Eric Bischoff'll go so far up your ass, he'll know what you had for breakfast! And I got something else to say - Kevin Nash and Scott Hall would be standing right here with us if they weren't bein' held hostage by World Championship Wrestling AND THAT'S A FACT, ERIC BISCHOFF! So put that in your pipe and smoke it!
  • Triple H took over D-Generation X from Shawn Michaels and, as mentioned above, brought in Sean Waltman; later, in the show's main event, DX recruited the New Age Outlaws and helped them win the WWF Tag Titles against Cactus Jack and Terry Funk. The loss also set up Mick Foley as a challenger for Stone Cold's WWF Championship, as the fans chanted for Austin while Cactus and Funk were laying in the ring.
  • Speaking of Austin, he ended up getting arrested at the hands of Vince McMahon, furthering the brewing Austin/McMahon feud.
  • And to top it all off, The Rock seized control of The Nation of Domination from Faarooq, furthering his path to the main event.
• April 27, 1998: DeGeneration X invades WCW Monday Nitro with a tank, in one of the most memorable moments of the Monday Night Wars. Though demanding to be let into the arena, they were locked out.
• June 8, 1998: The New Age Outlaws were being forced to defend their Tag Team title in a Triple Threat Tag Team match against Legion of Doom 2000 and Disciples of Apocalypse. We were specifically told that the team that got the first fall would gain the titles. The Outlaws would spend most of the match manipulating LOD and DOA into fighting each other and preying on their pre-existing feud. Eventually, the Outlaws got too annoying, and LOD and DOA would tag in BOTH Outlaws at the same time. As much as people were really beginning to get behind DX, a lot of them still wanted to see the Outlaws' antics backfire on them as they were forced to wrestle themselves. Unfortunately for DOA and LOD's Tag title hopes, Road Dogg would proceed to lay down and Billy Gunn would get an easy three count, and they would win the first fall and retain their titles in a creative fashion.
  • The idea of both tag partners being in the match came from older elimination style matches where the partners would have to go at it and risk eliminating themselves or no one would tag them. That logic never made sense either, and thankfully this match ended the whole concept of tag partners being forced to go against each other in the middle of a multiple-team match.
• August 17, 1998: Stone Cold Steve Austin calls out The Undertaker at the end of the episode. As Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness theme hits, The Undertaker is nowhere to be seen, until it's revealed that he's apparently already at the ring, dressed in an epic black cape. Steve Austin marches down to the ring to face The Undertaker, but The Undertaker keeps his back to him...until he finally turns around, and reveals that he's wearing a red mask. Turns out it's Kane in disguise! The two proceed give each other a savage beatdown and they eventually take the fight all the way through the audience. Kane is eventually thrown into the back of a hearse that's at ringside and when Stone Cold goes to get into the driver's seat, it's revealed that the seat is already occupied by the real Undertaker, who drives the hearse out of the arena and gets his brother to safety. This was when people realized that the two brothers were working together.
• September 28, 1998: The worst month in Vince McMahon's life started the night after Breakdown, where both Kane and Undertaker had pinned Steve Austin in a Triple Threat match, and McMahon attempted to announce a new WWF Champion. He held a presentation ceremony, and introduced The Undertaker and Kane. After saying that both deserved to be the WWF Champion, Austin drove a Zamboni into the Joe Louis Arena, rammed it into the ring and jumped over the ropes, attacking McMahon before police officers stopped him, and arrested him. Because The Undertaker failed to defend McMahon from Austin, McMahon did not name a new champion, but instead made a match at Judgment Day between The Undertaker and Kane with Austin as the special referee, also making a snide remark about the two of them being mentally challenged. Undertaker warned Vince that if he got out of line with either himself or Kane one more time, Vince would be the one that was handicapped. They then caught Vince flipping them off behind their backs. This prompted The Undertaker and Kane to attack Mr. McMahon, breaking his leg with the steel ring steps.
  • The next week Vince was in the hospital, where Mick Foley would introduce Mr. Socko to try and make Vince feel better. Aside from that, Stone Cold caught wind of what hospital he was staying in. So Austin paid him a visit. And attacked him. First, he wailed on his heavily bandaged leg. Then, in one of the most memorable moments of Raw period, Austin cracked Vince across the head with a bedpan. He also shocked him with the defibrillator, then forcefully administered an enema with a catheter. Not a good night for Mr. McMahon.
  • It got worse for McMahon the following week. Vince had driven from Stanford, Connecticut to the Nassau Coliseum (the setting for that particular Raw) in one of his Corvettes. When Austin arrives at the arena, he's driving a cement truck. Three guesses as to what Stone Cold does, and the first two don't count.
  • And if that wasn't bad enough, it got even worse for McMahon the week after that. Just 24 hours after firing Austin for not crowning a new WWF Champion at Judgment Day, Vince was taken hostage by Stone Cold, ultimately culminating in Austin firing a BANG 3:16 gun on McMahon, resulting in the chairman soiling himself, and getting Stunnered again.^note (During the night, Austin had given Vince a piece of paper, which turned out to be a new five-year WWF contract signed by Vince's son, Shane, which also guaranteed him a WWF title shot.)

1999

• January 4 1999: Mick Foley wins the WWE Championship for the first time. This particular episode of Raw had been pre-taped on December 29 1998; when the outcome was spoiled on the competing WCW Monday Nitro, half a million fans switched channels to see it. This, combined with the Fingerpoke of Doom on Nitro, spelled certain doom for WCW - and for months after the fact, fans showed up with "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat" signs to mock WCW announcer Tony Schiavone's remarks about Foley.
  • Here's a comparison: The main event for Raw consisted of an action-packed match between Mick Foley and The Rock, surrounded on both sides by the Corporation, who were on Rock's side, and DGenerationX, who were on Foley's side. The crowd, meanwhile, was absolutely on FIRE that whole night, cheering at Foley's offense and booing at Rock's while marking like mad at every near-fall, of which there was plenty. Eventually, the whole match devolved into a faction vs. faction brawl when the Corporation interfered against Foley when he slapped the Mandible Claw on Rock using Mr. Socko. But when Stone Cold interfered to help Mick win the championship gold, the entire crowd ERUPTED into quite possibly the loudest pop of all time (the last time Stone Cold had been seen in the WWF before that day, he had defeated the Undertaker in a Buried Alive match at the Rock Bottom PPV). Meanwhile, on the WCW side, Nitro was promoting the return of Hulk Hogan and a main event between Goldberg and Kevin Nash. Well at the start of the show Miss Elizabeth claimed Goldberg was stalking her (he was lucky to be able to talk the writers into lowering it from rape) and he is arrested. During the show several pot shots are made at the WWF's expense, particularly sarcastic comments about Foley that lost them a lot of fans, then there is the main event. Hogan is going to fight Nash, however Hogan pokes him in the chest, which is sold like Nash had been shot, and gets the pin. Goldberg runs in and is assaulted and tasered, before having his back spraypainted. Basically, fans were cheated out of a main event they wanted, they were subject to a bad angle, WCW insulted someone the fans held in high regard and Hogan and the NWO were not given the God-Mode Sue treatment, half a year's angle and storyline were thrown out the window. WCW might have ended in March 2001, but many say it died on January 4th 1999 thanks to dicking around in the ring. WCW had previously won in the ratings for almost two years straight. After this, their ratings never rose again except when Raw wasn't on.
• February 13 1999: On a special edition (called "Raw Saturday Night"), aired just a day before the St. Valentine's Day Massacre pay-per-view, Raw has its largest crowd ever: 41,432 people (38,661 paid, 2,771 comps).
  • More specifically, this edition of Raw is War aired from Skydome (now Rogers Centre) in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It did air on the USA Network on Feb. 13, 1999, but due to the USA Network's committments to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, it had to air on 5-day tape delay. However, across the International Border in Canada, and probably for one of the few times this happened, Raw is War aired LIVE all across Canada on TSN on Feb. 8, likely making Canada the only country in the world to get to see Raw live that night. The intro with Michael Cole making mention of TSN's live airing is the one that is present in the WWE Network Vault.
• February 22 1999: Kane and Undertaker actually have an Inferno match, the second Inferno match ever, on Raw is War, something that you'd think would be reserved for pay-per-view. This was during Vince's feud with the Ministry Of Darkness. Kane ended up set on fire by his brother again, and Undertaker also set a teddy bear on fire to taunt Vince, causing him to have a Villainous Breakdown (though this part was somewhat more Narm than anything) We later find out that the teddy bear belonged to his daughter Stephanie, and it meant that he'd been stalking her.
• March 22, 1999: Mr. McMahon and Shane McMahon are interviewing The Rock about his match at WrestleMania that Sunday against Stone Cold. Stone Cold shows up to interrupt the interview in a beer truck and gives a promo standing on the truck before dousing the McMahons and Rock in beer.
  • Two years later Austin himself would end up joining Shane on the receiving end of Kurt Angle's take, swapping beer for milk.
• April 19 1999: The Rock was holding a funeral for Steve Austin's smoking skull WWF championship. But meanwhile, outside, Steve Austin revved the engine of an enormous monster truck. He proceeded to run over The Rock's brand new car, destroying it as Rock looked on at the titantron helplessly.
• April 26 1999: The Ministry Of Darkness angle but the high point of the story was probably one of the best moments ever. The night after Backlash 1999, The Undertaker has kidnapped a still young and innocent Stephanie McMahon; at the end of Raw, he comes out with the Ministry and prepares to marry her by force. Ken Shamrock and The Big Show both run out at points to save her, but The Ministry easily beats them back. Just as it looks hopeless, the sound of glass breaking (which got one of the biggest pops ever) signals Stone Cold running in and whooping everybody's ass, saving the day. Though the rest of the angle after that point was pretty stupid (this was a week or two before the Ministry merged with The Corporation and became the Corporate Ministry, seen as a Jump the Shark by a lot of fans), this one moment can't be seen without punching the air.
• May 10, 1999: While The Rock's "This is Your Life" was the highest rated segment of Raw, this episode, gaining an impressive 8.1 rating, was the highest-rated overall episode. It started off with Vince McMahon's Union in a face-off with the Corporate Ministry, until then-commissioner Shawn Michaels interrupted via satellite and made some changes to the night's line-up, mostly as punishment to the Corporate Ministry. Matches included the Big Show vs Paul Bearer, Mideon and Viscera vs Cactus Jack (the former two were still outmatched), Chyna vs Ken Shamrock, and as a special main event, Triple H, Undertaker and Shane McMahon vs Stone Cold, The Rock and Vince McMahon, with Michaels himself as the referee.
• June 7, 1999: The Big Show chokeslams The Undertaker... right through the ring.
• August 9 1999: "Lionheart" Chris Jericho had languished in the midcard of WCW for a number of years, despite pushing to try and get to the main event. When he figured out that he'd never get there, he jumped ship to the WWF in 1999. During a promo by The Rock, of all people, the Countdown to the Millennium clock that had been counting down for a few weeks prior hit zero...and out came Jericho, who redubbed himself "Y2J" and launched his WWF career. The crowd reaction was enormous, and while his WWE career has had its ups and downs, Jericho's WWE debut was one of the most memorable moments of both his career and the Attitude Era.
  The Rock: You come out here, on The Rock's Show, and you don't even have the class to introduce yourself! What is your name?
  Chris Jericho: I told you—
  The Rock: IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS!
• September 27 1999: Mick "Mankind" Foley puts on "The Rock: This Is Your Life!", an extra-long Raw segment that was a celebration of The Rock's life and career (much to The Rock's chagrin). It is STILL the highest rated segment in the history of Raw.

2000

• January 10 2000: The Rock leading everyone (Face AND Heel) in the locker room, with the exception of D-Generation X, in making a single demand - Either the McMahon-Helmsley Regime reinstated Mick Foley, or they would all walk out on the show.
• February 7 2000: This Raw would be headlined by Triple H and X-Pac of DeGeneration X teaming with the newly debuted Radicalz (who Made A Deal with the Devil to get WWF contracts) represented by Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, and Dean Malenko against Cactus Jack in a 5 on 1 Handicap match. Prior to the match, the only guy courageous enough to assist Mick Foley was The Rock, so the former Rock and Sock Connection found themselves walking into a 5 on 2 situation. As Foley and Rock stood up on the stage staring at their opponents, the music of Too Cool played in the arena, and Grandmaster Sexay, Scotty 2 Hotty, and Rikishi walked out to even the odds. Thus began one of the most exciting main events in Raw history that alone would qualify for CMoA status. After Benoit picked up his first Raw victory with the Flying Headbutt on Sexay, they started a post match beatdown with the New Age Outlaws bringing weapons for the unfair advantage. All off a sudden, the lights in the arena went out and on the stage was none other than Paul Bearer wearing a red and black suit! Out comes Kane through the hellfire, who hadn't been seen since his lover Tori broke up with him and joined X-Pac. Kane single-handedly clears the entire ring DX and their allies, siding against the McMahon-Helmsley Faction. Meanwhile, the crowd was going batshit insane for that entire 15 minute stretch.
  • While this moment clearly belonged to Kane, it was also an incredible moment for the Radicalz. It was a risky move for them to sign with the WWF in the first place. While WCW may not have allowed them to live up to their full potential, they were the ones that gave them the national TV exposure. There was no guarantee they would get the same opportunities that they got in WCW (especially to Benoit, who gave up the WCW World title to join the WWF). Being in such a high-profile main event had to make them feel they made the right choice.
  • Note that Scotty 2 Hotty has gone on the record saying this was his favorite tag team match-up in his career. Not surprising, seeing how much the crowd was so into it.
• April 17 2000: Chris Jericho had been spending a great deal of time mocking Stephanie McMahon and her husband Triple H had enough. Triple H books himself in a match against Jericho who tricks the Game into making it a title match for Triple H's WWF Championship. At the end of the match, Jericho uses Triple H's preoccupation with referee Earl Hebner to hit a spinning heel kick and a Lionsault to pin Triple H to become the first guy to take Trips' title away since the McMahon-Helmsley Regime started (though Triple H would use his stroke to wipe the match and title win from the record). Reportedly, the WWF did just to see if the crowd would buy Jericho as champion. Judging by the reaction the answer seemed to be "Yes."
• May 22 2000: At Judgment Day 2000, The Rock lost his title to Triple H due to disqualification. The following night on Raw, with the help of The Undertaker, The Rock took out the entire McMahon Family and DeGeneration X!
• September 25 2000: This particular Raw was the very first episode to air on TNN (which later became Spike TV). In order to start Raw off on the new network in a big way, WWF officials booked a rematch from No Mercy 1999, Edge and Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz in a ladder match. The match was also a rematch from the Unforgiven PPV the night before, in which the Hardyz defeated Edge and Christian for the Tag Team titles in a Steel Cage match. With their bodies still sore from their steel cage showdown, the Hardyz and E&C tore down the house yet again and showed that Raw was not going to lose a step just because they were changing networks.
  • Also of note from this match was the stipulation that if the Hardyz won, Edge and Christian could not challenge for the titles while the Hardyz held the titles. When the Hardyz won, Edge and Christian would not let the stipulation deter them and instead went to the Charlie Brown from Outta Town playbook. Almost immediately after this match, Los Conquistadores, a Jobber team that had not been seen in years, resurfaced and almost immediately won a battle royal to win a Tag Team title shot. However, for a team that was supposedly from Mexico, they seemed to have long blond hair under their masks, and their Spanish speaking skills seemed to consist only of "Uno", "Dos", and "Essa Rios"^note the last one might be a jab at how Lita, the Hardyz' ally, made her debut...

2001

• June 25 2001: WWF Hardcore Champion Rhyno had just defeated Test by hitting the Gore into a wall. As he stands there celebrating, WCW invader Mike Awesome attacks him with a pipe, powerbombs him onto a ladder, and wins the Hardcore Title. Say what you will about how the Invasion angle stumbled later, this was an incredible way to kickstart it.
• July 9 2001: During the opening stages of the InVasion storyline, Chris Jericho and Kane were wrestling Lance Storm and Mike Awesome (representing WCW). As Jericho locked Storm in his Walls of Jericho submission hold, Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer came down and attacked Jericho and Kane, with Storm and Awesome joining in. A contingent of WWF wrestlers consisting of the Dudley Boyz, Tazz, Justin Credible, Rhyno, and Raven came down to lend their help, but after a brief standoff with Storm, Awesome, RVD, and Dreamer, the cavalry turned its back on the WWF and started beating down Kane and Jericho. Paul Heyman, the former head of ECW and the broadcast partner of Jim Ross at the time, left his position and entered the ring to announce that the InVasion had just gotten taken "to the extreme!", implying that ECW was joining in on the InVasion as a third party.
  Paul Heyman: FEEL THIS MOMENT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!
  • Sadly, this moment was ruined later in the show when it was announced that ECW was now owned (kayfabe) by Stephanie McMahon and it was joining up with WCW to form "The Alliance". However, the initial turn of the "ECW Originals" contingent of WWF wrestlers is still a shining moment in a storyline full of utter suck. You can watch the moment here.
• July 17 2001: The Raw before Invasion. The WCW/ECW Alliance had been running roughshod over the WWF the entitre show, culminating in an all out brawl that spread backstage into the ring with dozens of Alliance guys beating down the WWF wrestlers. Cut to the parking lot where Hardcore and Crash Holly are getting beat up by three Alliance guys when suddenly Stone Cold Steve Austin's truck pulls up and Austin (who had recently been a heel and McMahon's sniveling toady) takes out the Alliance guys with a broken pool cue. He goes into the arena and takes out two more Alliance guys who were beating up Edge and Christian. The glass shatters and Austin marches his BMF walk to the ring and cleans house. He "is striking anything that by God moves" and hits no less than seven stunners in a row, turning the tide in favor of the WWF going into Invasion. True, it turned out to be a fake out for a Face–Heel Turn, but at the time it was SO damn cool!
• November 12 2001: The Raw before Survivor Series. The final segment has The Rock calling out Stone Cold Steve Austin and confronting him about WrestleMania 17. For the next 20 minutes, the two go back and forth, sharing a microphone. They sing and make fun of one another. After singing a duet of "Margaritaville", they shake hands.
  The Rock: By the way, The Rock will NEVER forget!" *Rock Bottom*
• November 19 2001: This was the night after Survivor Series, in which the infamous Invasion angle had ended for good, with the WWF victorious over the WCW/ECW Alliance. Vince McMahon was in the ring, gloating about the victory and was ready to fire Alliance leader Stone Cold Steve Austin, stripping him of the WWF title in the process. However, some very familiar music started playing and out came none other than Ric Flair, making his first WWF appearance since 1993 and receiving a huge ovation from his hometown crowd of Charlotte, NC. Flair would reveal that in order to purchase WCW and ECW, Shane and Stephanie sold their WWF stocks to Flair, meaning that Flair had quietly become 50% owner of the WWF. Flair would then proceed to overrule Vince's decision to fire Austin as well as strip him of the title. Flair was so popular (especially in the Carolinas) that the decision did not turn Flair heel, but instead caused Vince and Austin to do a double turn with Vince making a Face–Heel Turn and Austin making a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Earlier in the night, Vince fired Paul Heyman, which led to a brief scuffle between him and his former colleague, Jim Ross. As Heyman was being dragged away by security, Vince brings out his replacement—JERRY "THE KING" LAWLER. Lawler, who had quit the company in February in protest of his then-wife, Stacy "The Kat" Carter, being fired, received a standing ovation upon his entrance. As JR said upon his return, "All is right with the world, at least at the announce table!"

2002

• January 7 2002: After spending ten months on the shelf with a torn quad muscle in his leg, Triple H returned to Raw at Madison Square Garden. (Warning: the pop he gets for his return is deafening, so make sure your volume is adjusted appropriately.) This kicked off his "Road to WrestleMania" (18 to be precise), wherein he would face - and defeat - Chris Jericho for the WWE Undisputed Championship.
• July 1 2002: The Undertaker (then in his American Badass persona) defended the WWE Undisputed Championship against unlikely challenger Jeff Hardy in a Ladder Match. The match itself isn't exactly the best ladder match in history, so why is this a Crowning Moment? Because everyone involved, from the wrestlers to the commentary team, made viewers believe that Jeff could make a miracle happen and defeat The Deadman in his match to become a world champion. As Jim Ross famously called:
  CLIMB THE LADDER, KID! MAKE YOURSELF FAMOUS!
  • Ultimately, Jeff would lose the match, but he'd get another Crowning Moment after the match. Before Undertaker started making his way back up the entrance ramp, he went back into the ring and demolished Jeff Hardy with the Last Ride powerbomb; after this, Undertaker made his way up the ramp, only to hear Jeff Hardy start taunting him with "I'm still standing, Undertaker!" and "You haven't broken me!" as he used the ring ropes to keep himself on his feet. Undertaker charged back down to the ring, readied himself to beat Jeff up some more...then patted his head and raised his hand in a sign of respect. While Jeff's career would be full of ups and downs after this (and he wouldn't become a world champion for the first time until 2008), this match was a tremendous boost to Jeff's credibility as a main eventer.
• July 15 2002: Former WCW president Eric Bischoff appears on stage and is announced the new General Manager of Raw, to the shock of everyone. He even hugged Vince McMahon!
  • The best part of that whole deal was that practically nobody knew why he was there, if they knew he was there at all. This resulted in Booker T being interviewed backstage, Bischoff walks past and says hi, and Booker says in response "Tell me... I didn't just see that."
• October 7 2002: A TLC match involving Christian & Chris Jericho, vs Bubba Ray & Spike Dudley, vs Jeff Hardy & Rob Van Dam, vs Kane (without a partner) for the World Tag Team titles (Kane's partner and co-champion, The Hurricane, was taken out before the match). Amazingly Kane, the one without a partner, came out on top. The match was voted "Match of the Decade" at the Raw 10th Anniversary Special, and for good reason too.
  • General manager Bischoff allowed TLC veterans Christian, Bubba Ray, and Hardy to choose their own partners (which resulted in Jeff picking fellow high-flyer RVD, Bubba Ray enlist Spike for his first proper TLC appearance, and two-time winner Christian picking TLC III winner Jericho) because Edge, D-Von, and Matt were all on SmackDown.
  • Due to a prior match, Jim Ross called the TLC contest by himself.

2003

• February 24 2003: A battle royal was held on raw to determine who would be the number 1 contender and main event at WrestleMania. The final two came down to Booker T and The Rock. The Rock, who had the victory in the big, got over confident and took his time trying to eliminate Booker T. This resulted in Booker eliminating the Rock out of no where and winning the match.
• March 31, 2003: Stone Cold Steve Austin has been forced to leave WWE after losing to the Rock at WrestleMania 19. The Rock is celebrating his victory over his long time nemesis. And then Goldberg marches into the ring. And says "So Rock, you wanna know who's next? YOU'RE NEXT!" Cue massive spear on the Brahma Bull.
• June 30 2003: Gail Kim was the first Diva to be given vignettes hyping up her debut on TV (which came with some awesome entrance music). What happened in her debut match, a seven-woman battle royal for the WWE Women's Championship? She dumped Victoria out at the end to win the title in her very first WWE match.
• August 25, 2003: The feud between Kane and Shane McMahon began when Kane lit a dumpster on fire and tried to throw Shane in. Shane slipped out, then kicked Kane just enough off-balance for him to fall into the burning dumpster.
  Shane: Burn in Hell, you son of a bitch.
• September 1, 2003: Kane handcuffs Shane McMahon's wrists to a ring post, pours water on Shane, gets jumper cables from under the ring, gets a car battery, hooks the car battery up to Shane's testicles, and electrocutes Shane McMahon's testicles. Awesome moment, and also painful.
• October 20, 2003: While Goldberg is wrestling Shawn Michaels (and the referee is down), Evolution's "Animal", Batista, returns and beats the crap out of Goldberg. Then he puts Goldberg's ankle between a steel chair and jumps off the second rope, smashing Goldberg's ankle. The rest of Evolution comes out to give Batista the $100,000 bounty for "taking out" Bill Goldberg.

2004

• March 22, 2004: The brawl at the end of the 2004 Draft Lottery episode of Raw between the Raw and SmackDown superstars. It started during the main event of the night, WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero defending against the newly-drafted SmackDown superstar Triple H. It started with Batista and Ric Flair interfering on Triple H's behalf. Suddenly John Cena (who had caused Triple H to be drafted to SmackDown and the subsequent Spit Take in the first place) and Rey Mysterio Jr. (both SmackDown at the time) appears, then Christian, then RVD. Before you know it, all hell breaks loose as the entire roster is engaged in an all-out brawl. It's truly a sight to behold! Link here.
• March 29 2004: Triple H, upset at getting snubbed by the Raw roster and still sore over losing the World Heavyweight title to Chris Benoit, punks Shelton Benjamin. Later on the night, Benjamin is booked into a match with Triple H. It's a foregone conclusion Trips is going to squash the kid... except he doesn't. Benjamin manages to match Triple H at every turn and proves he is not to be underestimated when he gets countless near falls and proceeds to frustrate the Game. He even subverts Do Not Taunt Cthulhu by routinely making fun of Hunter whenever he has the upper hand. Even with interference from Ric Flair, Shelton pushes through and snags one of the biggest upsets ever when he pins Triple H cleanly and celebrates with World Champ Benoit on the ramp as a shocked Triple H looks on.
  • Shelton would get a rematch the next week with Triple H with Evolution surrounding the arena. Even with interference from Evolution (including a particularly nasty throw neck-first into the barricade by Randy Orton), Shelton pulls off another victory by leaving Triple H too beaten at ringside to answer the ten count, resulting in a pretty good count-out victory.
• May 17 2004: Eugene is given a verbal trashing by the Coach, who mocks him, says no one like Eugene and no one wants him around and he has no friends. A tearful Eugene is about to go...when THE ROCK makes a surprise appearance to call him back to the ring. The Rock proceeds to offer his friendship to Eugene, even letting him do a "It doesn't matter what you think!" on the Coach. A series of questions lead to Eugene confessing his favorite wrestler is...HHH. Garrison Cade comes out to attack but the Rock beats him back and then hits a Spinebuster on the Coach. Teasing a People's Elbow, the Rock instead lets Eugene do the move and solidifies Eugene as a fan favorite.
• May 24 2004: The brawl between Triple H and Shawn Michaels after both respectively cost each other their title shots against Chris Benoit for a couple of weeks, and how the entire locker room had to separate the two from tearing each other apart. The brawl was so intense that Eric Bischoff announces that at the Bad Blood PPV, the two will settle their long bitter rivalry inside Hell in a Cell.
• October 25 2004: The entire face section of the Raw Locker room surrounding Evolution and giving them a massive No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• December 6 2004: Lita and Trish Stratus's main event match, which is arguably Lita's grandest CMOA and a pretty tall one for Trish. Their feud was built up with Lita being constantly attacked, bullied, and humiliated by snotty bitch Trish, and finally, Lita got some massive payback by breaking Trish's nose a month earlier. This match started out simple enough... until Trish was thrown to the outside, and Lita ran to make a dive on her. Whether Lita misaimed or things just went wonky, she wound up landing with her full weight on her face and so hard that she basically bent herself in half backwards, especially alarming considering her surgically-rebuilt neck. Not only did Lita rally back and continue the match after the sort of hit that should have sidelined not only her but probably most anyone else on the roster, she won the WWE Women's Championship for the first time in over four years after one of the best matches she'd ever had, which included a sweet Superplex and the use of her long-forgotten moonsault. The best part? Lita walked away from it completely uninjured while the arena (and her mother at ringside) exploded into cheers for her.

2005

• February 21 2005: Batista's thumbs-up-to-thumbs-down, signifying his Heel–Face Turn to Triple H, could not have been more perfect. It certainly helped when he led Trips into the trap by dropping the Raw contract, after saying he knew what he was going to do for a while.
  • There's a scene beforehand where we see Trips and Ric Flair plotting out their ploy to get rid of Batista, but unaware that he's eavesdropping on their scheming. It definitely showed that Batista was probably more clever than what Trips had anticipated.
• May 2 2005: Shawn Michaels vs. Shelton Benjamin, part of the Gold Rush Tournament to determine the #1 Contender for the World Heavyweight Championship, for two reasons:
  • Firstly, the match, much like Shelton's first Raw bout with Triple H, was very entertaining, as Shelton fought and frustrated Shawn Michaels, putting on an impressive clinic with the man many name as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, to the point that Michaels looked to be relieved that the match was over when he won. The match is also considered to be one of the best non-pay-per-view Raw matches in recent history.
  • Secondly, it ended with a shot that would be in the Raw intro for years: Shelton, having dazed Michaels, stands on the ring apron and leapfrogs off the top rope, intending to attack Michaels. Shawn, seeing this coming, nearly decapitates Shelton with Sweet Chin Music and picks up the win. Some fans have taken to calling it "Sweetest Chin Music", and there's even a few who think it's the best Superkick that Shawn ever pulled off.

• July 11, 2005: Matt Hardy making a shocking out-of-nowhere return several weeks after the real life affair with Lita and Edge (after said incident he was released). A few weeks later, Matt explained everything in a worked shoot promo: He was swiftly rehired shortly after being released when it became obvious that there was no way they could keep a lid on the fan reaction and they might as well make some money off it. For indy wrestling fans, this was especially awesome because Matt Hardy actually namedropped Ring of Honor, which he was scheduled to make a series of appearances for at the time, at the tail end of his promo that night. Needless to say, fans of the promotion were more than a little thrilled at the brief moment of national exposure. Too bad the awesomeness was reduced said few weeks later when he said he wanted Edge to die in a car accident, then Edge subsequently owned him the following week in a promo backstage.
• August 15, 2005: One of Shawn Michaels' Crowning Moments came thanks to the Heel promo he delivered on Hulk Hogan in Montreal, where he played the very real hatred the crowd had for him like a fiddle; right in the middle of his promo, after Michaels namedropped Bret Hart, Hart's entrance music played (and received a huge pop from the Montreal crowd)...but when Hart failed to appear, Michaels mocked the crowd before admitting that yes, he did screw Bret, and he was proud of it. He then goes on to fake Hogan's entrance music, and plays the crowd again.
• October 3, 2005: On the Raw Homecoming special (celebrating the show's return to USA) Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle put on a half-hour Iron Man match, bringing out the best in both wrestlers.

2006

• January 16, 2006: Edge and Ric Flair have a TLC match for the WWE Championship, and deliver a PPV-quality match. Even though it was Ric Flair's first TLC match he gave Edge a run for his money and almost won, taking some enormous bumps (such as Edge jumping onto him from the top of a ladder, which was in the ring, while Flair was laying on a table at ringside), an amazing feat given his age.
• May 1 2006: Joey Styles takes the Raw announce team, Vince McMahon, the WWE, and damn near the entire American professional wrestling industry to task in his big "I Quit!" worked shoot speech before moving to the ECW announce position a few weeks later. See the video, and Jerry Lawler's reaction, here. Joey Styles summed up in 4 minutes everything that's dragging down WWE, and looked good doing it:
  "Six months ago, WWE called me! I didn't call this company because I wasn't looking for a job; I didn't need a job. WWE called me, becuase they had humiliated and fired — again! — Jim Ross. So I get JR's spot. And from WEEK ONE, week after week, I got an ongoing lecture about the differences between Professional Wrestling and Sports Entertainment. I'm not allowed to say "Pro Wrestling", I'm not allowed to say "wrestler"...I have to say "sports entertainment" and refer to the wrestlers as "Superstars". I'm told to deliberately ignore the moves and the holds during the matches so I can tell stories. Well, ignoring the moves and the holds is damn insulting to the athletes — the WRESTLERS, not the "ENTERTAINERS" — who leave their families three hundred days a year to ply their craft in that ring! And there's the best part; because I'm not a Sports Entertainment storyteller, I get pulled from WrestleMania, and the reason I'm given is because I don't sound like Jim Ross...who's the guy they fired in the first place; that makes sense, right?! So I swallow the bitter pill; I'm a company guy. I get bumped from WrestleMania...but then I get bumped from Backlash? I'm not good enough to call Backlash?! In ECW, I called live pay-per-views on my own, solo, no color commentators dragging me down — wasn't been done before me, hasn't been done since! But I get bumped from Backlash... because I'm not a Sports Entertainment storyteller. Well, you know what? I am sick of Sports Entertainment! I am sick of male cheerleaders... I am sick of boogers and bathroom humor and semen! And I am sick of our chairman, who likes to talk about his own semen, he mocks God — HE MOCKS GOD! — and makes out with the Divas all to feed his own insatiable ego! I am sick of "sports entertainment"...and most of all, I'm sick of you fans who actually buy into this crap, this sports entertainment circus! I never needed this job, and I don't want this job anymore. (takes WWE logo off his microphone) I QUIT!

2007

• November 19 2007: "The Second Coming", the name given to Chris Jericho's awesome return in 2007, kickstarting a feud with Randy Orton over the WWE Championship.

2008

• January 7 2008: The first Raw of the year opened up with a bang with a cage match between Jeff Hardy and Umaga. This was in the middle of Jeff's first big main even push and this match cemented that regardless of his personal life, he really did deserve all the attention he was getting. The match ended with Jeff performing a whisper of the wind from the top of the cage on Umaga.
• March 31 2008: EVERYONE not under contract to TNA comes out to say goodbye to a retiring Ric Flair. The markout moment came when the Four Horsemen's music played and, for the first time ever, the Four Horsemen appeared in WWE. As if Randy Orton in tears wasn't surreal enough, The Undertaker came out like a normal entrance after Raw went off the air, the gathered wrestlers parting like the Red Sea so he could walk down the ramp and into the ring, where he dropped to one knee in front of Flair. 'Taker certainly took advantage of being the only wrestler who can get away with not breaking character during a positive shoot to give some icing on the cake of Flair's send-off. Defending Miss Elizabeth, siding with Kane, the real life Undertaker and Sara... this beats them all for his Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. The off-air continuation of the celebration was included in the most recent DVD dedicated to Flair; it also included Vince McMahon coming down to the ring to celebrate and Flair's family making their way into the ring. The fact that Flair wound up unretiring again, first to wrestle Hulk Hogan on his tour of Australia in late 2009 and then to wrestle for TNA, doesn't even tarnish this.
• June 30 2008: Coming off a victory over Batista at Night of Champions 2008, Edge taunted the Raw crowd by claiming he'd take the World Heavyweight Championship back to SmackDown with him, leaving Raw without a world title (WWE Champion Triple H had been drafted to SmackDown prior to Night of Champions). Batista took exception to Edge's claim, and demolished him...after which, CM Punk cashed in the Money in the Bank contract (which he won at WrestleMania 24) and gave Edge a Go To Sleep for the ages, allowing him to win the World Heavyweight Championship - which, itself, led to many mark-outs around the world, proving anyone who thought that CM Punk would never hold a big title in the WWE wrong.

2009

• January 19 2009: Also known as the Punt Heard 'Round the World. Vince McMahon makes his long awaited return to the WWE. And in front of a white-hot Chicago crowd, Randy Orton spoils his return by punting him straight in the head and putting him on the shelf. Although Orton was supposed to come of as a monster for committing a heinous act, the aforementioned Chicago audience cheered him like a Draco in Leather Pants.
  • Even if the ensuing Triple H feud did not live up to expectations, it does not tarnish this moment, which may have been the first signs that a Heel–Face Turn for Orton was imminent once Orton's Power Stable of Legacy ran its course.
• September 21 2009: Long-time announcer, Lilian Garcia, who had been with the company since the Raw after Summerslam '99, had her last night with WWE and was given the rare privilege to give a goodbye speech, for which the fans gave her a standing ovation.
• October 26 2009: Kofi Kingston defeats Chris Jericho, only to get attacked by Randy Orton after the match. How does he get even? He interrupts Randy Orton's mic tirade before wrecking Orton's custom-painted stock car.
• November 16 2009: Kofi Kingston made his Madison Square Garden debut in fine fashion: having been feuding with Randy Orton leading into Survivor Series, Kingston was on the cusp of being elevated to the next level of his career; Kofi ended up elevating himself by brawling into the crowd and staging area with Orton (who had been trying to beat up the night's guest host, Roddy Piper), and after setting Orton up on a table, Kofi performed his "Boom Drop" double legdrop maneuver on Orton, earning him a huge ovation from the MSG crowd.
  • On that same episode, there was a triple threat tag team match between D-X, Big Show and Chris Jericho, and Cena and Undertaker (who were both world champions at the time respectively). Taker went for the chokeslam at one point, but Cena tagged himself in....which visibly irritated The Undertaker. Then Cena took Jericho and turned around to gloat at Undertaker, as if to say "that's how it's done". So after Cena won the match by pinfall, Undertaker came out of nowhere and delivered the Tombstone Piledriver on him, just to remind Cena who the dominant force was.

2010

• January 4 2010: Bret "The Hitman" Hart returned to WWE television, stepping into a WWE ring for the first time in over 12 years - and had his first face-to-face meeting with Shawn Michaels since the infamous Montreal Screwjob. "Crowning Moment Of Awesome" would actually be an underwhelming term to label the moment that these two legends finally came face-to-face with each other after all the hype and mystique surrounding their roles in the incident. The two men agreed to bury the hachet and not only shook hands in mutual forgiveness and respect, but embraced each other in what will most definitely be seen as a long overdue Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming. Bret pretty much summed up the overall feeling of the night's events with his first words of the evening: "Well, I guess Hell froze over."
• April 26 2010: ShoMiz (The Big Show and The Miz) defend the WWE Unified Tag Team Championships against the team of David Hart Smith (the son of "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith) and Tyson Kidd (the last graduate of the Hart Dungeon), better known as the Hart Dynasty. This ended up as a great moment for the Hart family, as the new generation of Harts captured their first tag team gold with Bret Hart at ringside. Also a Heartwarming Moment watching Smith, Kidd, Natalya (the daughter of Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart), and Bret celebrate in the ring together.
  • Immediately after the match, The Big Show knocked The Miz out cold with his signature knockout punch.
  • An extra CMOA goes to Bret Hart just before the match. When The Miz defeated David Hart Smith one-on-one two weeks prior, the match stipulations stated that the next week, Bret would say ShoMiz was the greatest tag team in history. The announcement was actually made two weeks later (since Bret and most of the Raw crew were stuck in the United Kingdom because of the Icelandic volcano that spewed a giant ashcloud all over Europe); Bret did it, with no bitter sarcasm or anger in his voice... but then he followed it up by saying that he could say anything he wanted, and if ShoMiz was the best tag team ever, The Mountie was the greatest WWE Intercontinental Champion ever and David Arquette was the greatest world champion ever. Two points for the Harts: one for Bret's burn and one for the gold.
• May 31 2010: Evan Bourne got his Crowning Moment when, after taking a vicious beating from Edge at the start of the show, he was chosen by none other than John Cena to be his tag team partner in the main event. In the closing moments of the match, Edge missed a spear and collided with the ring post, taking him out of the match. Cena hit Sheamus with an Attitude Adjustment... and then dragged him over to the corner, allowing Bourne to hit his patented Shooting Star Press and win the match. The usually awful Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler did a great job of putting Bourne over, as well. That this came after months of jobbing (to Sheamus, no less) is what really makes it a CMOA, though.
• June 7 2010: At the end of a three-hour "Viewer's Choice" Raw, WWE Champion John Cena is facing off against the opponent that fans chose for him, CM Punk. A few minutes into the match, NXT Season One winner Wade Barrett (who earned himself a free title shot against any title holder on an upcoming PPV) comes out onto the entrance stage and starts making his way to the ring. Not altogether odd. But then the camera cuts to NXT rookie Michael Tarver, who's in the crowd and jumping over the ringside barricade. And then the other NXT Season One rookies, including Daniel Bryan, jump the barricade...and all hell breaks loose. The Nexus (as the group was officially named a few weeks later) start by taking out the Straight Edge Society, then they all get in the ring and deliver a Horsemen-style ass kicking of epic proportions to John freaking Cena. And after making sure he couldn't fight back, the Rookies leave the ring and start causing chaos at ringside, wasting announcers and other personnel before destroying the announce table and the ring itself. Then the Rookies return to the ring and make damn sure than Cena isn't getting up on his own, continuing the beatdown for a few more minutes before finally leaving the ring and heading to the back, leaving Cena lying in the ring for medical personnel to stretcher off. The "NXT Riot" was the one of the most chaotic and unpredictable segments in years, and even in the very post-"worked shoot" age of wrestling, it still felt very, very uneasy to watch, even to a Cena hater.
  • The entire segment was so amazing, that each of the rookies got their own moment (some even more than one) amidst the chaos.
    • For instance, who would've thought that the crazy-haired "South Beach Party Boy", Darren Young, could be capable of plowing through the ringside barricade, grabbing the timekeeper by the scruff of his shirt and yelling at him menacingly, then punching him right in the face without a hint of remorse?
    • Heath Slater took one of the darker turns of the night when he picked up the detached middle ring rope and proceeded to choke Cena with it, a moment made all the more sinister when it was punctuated by a few high-pitched shrieks from the audience. Slater's response? After standing up, he walked over to the ropes and gave the crowd a "Try doing something about it" look.
    • "A-List" David Otunga's moment is a little harder to place due to the camera angles that were used. Some might say that it was when he cold-cocked the referee, or when he flattened Cena with his spinebuster finisher. There was, however, one more thing that some missed. Whenever the other rookies were taking care of other business, like tearing up ringside, beating up WWE staff, or subduing CM Punk anew, Otunga was left in charge of keeping Cena down and out in the ring, which of course meant that there were about two whole minutes where "A-List" was free to toy with the champ, no doubt releasing pent-up frustration from having lost quickly to Cena a few months prior on Raw.
    • Michael Tarver, the rookie who got arguably the biggest hosing on NXT, redeemed himself by having two. First was the moment the camera cut to him, wearing a kickass bandanna over the lower half of his face, jumping the barricade, and looking like an attack dog, just waiting for the go-ahead, the moment most point to as being when they realized that some serious shit was about to go down. The second came after he pulled up the mat surrounding the ring. He climbed back in, measured his target, and after months of bragging about how he could end a match in 1.9 seconds (a reference to his finishing move, a knockout punch to the face) and never getting the chance to follow through, Michael Tarver floored John Cena. Let's put that in perspective—the first person in WWE that Tarver knocked out with his finisher was the WWE Champion—in other words, the face of the entire pro wrestling industry.
    • Skip Sheffield established himself as the bulldozer of the group by single-handedly taking out Luke Gallows. Cena, Punk, and even Jerry Lawler were multi-person efforts, but big bad Skip was able to take out the Detoxified Disciple by himself. Many also took note of how frightening Sheffield was when barking out orders to the other rookies, like when he made Slater take the chairs out from behind the ringside announce table, so that he could flip it over and break it with his bare fists. Skip was also the first person to assault a non-wrestler, when he booted Matt Striker out of nowhere. It was at that moment that the segment went from a gang attack to an all out riot.
    • Justin Gabriel, the flashy high-flying face of NXT, the only face who never seemed to show a hint of a dark side, even after elimination, was probably the most unexpected turn, making his crowning moment all the better. Despite not being the leader, the bruiser, or anything like that, he was the one who got the last shot in on Cena, by hitting a viciously beautiful 450 Splash. But the the emotionless look on his face before hitting the move, while perched on the turnbuckle, and afterward, on his knees staring at the fallen WWE Champion, was so striking and memorable, so unexpected from such a cheerful guy, that it earned him the nickname of "Dark Angel" on several forums.
    • Wade Barrett, the leader of this army, had more subtle moments, but among the most powerful: First was when the rookies surrounded the ring. They just stood there, until Barrett nodded at the others, at which point the all climbed onto the apron, and again waited for his signal to enter the ring. The audience only realized how powerful a moment this was when the rookies trashed ringside and destroyed Cena and the WWE staff at ringside. The rookies had become a furious group of savages, and Barrett had control over them. It's a fierce group, and they answer to Wade freakin' Barrett. This was cemented when, during the final series of vicious attacks on Cena, one rookie might irish whip Cena at another for a clothesline or lariat. For Barrett, however, he went to pick Cena up from the mat, but stopped at Slater's insistence. At this point, Slater, Sheffield, Otunga, and Bryan, (that's half the damn group) volunteered to lift Cena onto Barrett's shoulders so that he could hit his finisher. Now that's power.
    • And finally, we come to Daniel Bryan. The first moment for him came when, during the ringside pillaging, Bryan took down Justin Roberts, sat on the hapless ring announcer's back, spun Roberts' necktie around, and proceeded to choke the air out of him with his own tie. The sight of Roberts clawing at his neck and Bryan pulling back with a violent look on his face has quickly become the most memorable image of the whole assault. But Bryan wasn't done. Back in the ring, after Sheffield leveled Cena with a lariat and Slater choked him with the ring rope, Bryan proceeded to belt out three consecutive Crowning Moments, back-to-back, in one glorious sequence, a greater Crowning Moment. First, he repeatedly yelled at the top of his lungs to the grounded Cena "YOU ARE NOT BETTER THAN ME!", a declaration that no doubt pleased smarks watching around the world. He then waited for Cena to slowly work himself onto his knees, and disrespected the champ by spitting right in his face. Then he topped the whole thing by measuring Cena, and delivering a buzzsaw kick right to the head. Unfortunately for Bryan, everything that made his involvement in this storyline so awesome backfired due to Executive Meddling, as his choking of Justin Roberts with the tie and the subsequent spitting on Cena was deemed too violent for PG WWE, and was let go that same week as it was reported that a WWE sponsor felt it was too violent and might have brought back memories of Chris Benoit. However, one might think that means that Bryan is too awesome for even the Nexus, which is arguably the best storyline the WWE has done in years.
  • At one point Punk- who, as a heel, almost always runs from a fight against the odds- hits the ring in an attempt to save Cena. When the top heel in the company is trying to save the top babyface in the industry, you know the situation is dire. During Punk's ensuing beatdown, Daniel Bryan choked him out for a while but not one of the former Rookies actively tried to remove Punk's mask- that Punk's mask hiding his recently-shaven-bald head had been such a major storyline since he donned it shows the NXT guys didn't care about anything but wrecking the place.
    • This also counts as an additional CMOA for the NXT rookies. Why? Punk was the only person to try & help Cena. Either the entire Raw & SmackDown rosters had left the arena, so it was Fridge Brilliance to stage the attack when there were only three active superstars left in the building; or were stood watching backstage, frozen to the spot because of how shocking it was, or gleefully watching John Cena getting the living hell kicked out of him, as Chris Jericho claimed he was doing at the time on his twitter.
  • It's also almost certainly the case that this storyline has been planned since before NXT even aired. Suddenly, boring, generic promos from guys who were voted off claiming the WWE Universe "hadn't seen the last of them" made an awful lot of sense. And one wonders if Punk and Luke Gallows would have escaped the beating they received if the Straight-Edge Society had only befriended Darren Young, Punk's own Rookie, instead of scorning him.
    • There was quite a lot of motivation for the Rookies to stage this assault as well. Perhaps if William Regal had not referred to Skip Sheffield as a moron on the Season One Finale of NXT, he might not have been there. Or if the audience had not booed Darren Young out of the building when he gave his classy elimination speech, he may not have taken part in the riot. What about Michael Cole and his borderline slander of Daniel Bryan? Or the decision to disqualify Bryan and Michael Tarver via a last minute rule change? David Otunga probably got sick of the accusations that he was only there because of his fiance at about week 3. Heath Slater had as a good of a winning record as anyone in NXT, and it was insinuated that he was eliminated because Pros such as Chris Jericho held grudges against him because he scored upset victories against them. Even Justin Gabriel, the nicest one of the bunch, was ragged on for being a one-trick pony. Not to mention the downright demeaning challenges they were forced into, Matt Striker interrupting rookies mid-promo, and being treated terribly throughout. With each of the rookies unhappy with their treatment on NXT, it stands to reason that the winner, Wade Barrett could get them on the same page to bring the fury to the WWE machine.
    • It's very ironic how CM Punk would actually join the Nexus seven months later.
  • Plus, in one segment, Heath Slater, Michael Tarver, and Darren Young, widely accepted as the dullest of the Rookies, instantly became total badasses.
    • Michael Tarver especially. With his mask and his legit crazy eyes, it's a guarantee he was scary to some of the younger fans. (Especially in the FCW version of the beatdown. Look for footage on YouTube of it, and you'll see Tarver glare at the fan taping the beatdown so psychotically...
    • Don't forget about Skip Sheffield. When he started on NXT, he had the gimmick of a goofy cowboy, spouting off lame catchphrases like "Yup yup yup, what it do?". There was no sign of that here. Gone was the Cornfed Meathead, and in its place stood an absolute beast of a man with the best lariatos this side of Stan Hansen (which could've been Skip emulating Ryback, the more well-known character of Ryan Reeves).
  • Let's throw a little love out for an almost unnoticed thing on John Cena's part... when the entirety of the Nexus had jumped into the ring and were surrounding him menacingly for a few seconds before they attacked, he looked around at the assembled rookies, looking rather nervous (and thus putting them over as a genuine threat)... then turned to the hard camera with a "Fuck it!" look on his face, shrugged, whirled around, and pounced on Barrett, looking to get whatever shots he could in before getting killed. Even if you're a Cena hater, the man does such a good job with that sort of little character moment that it's hard not to enjoy his performance.
• July 5 2010: John Cena delivering the mother of all No Holds Barred Beatdowns on Darren Young.
• July 12 2010: The Shooting Star-KO. Just as awesome as it sounds. Randy Orton went from on his back to hitting Evan out of nowhere with an RKO mid-Air Bourne.
• July 19 2010: The Miz beating the snot out of Sheamus. Bret Hart returning and joining the others in driving off Nexus. Wade Barrett hitting his finisher on Mark Henry (it was partially botched and Wade hurt his back, but still an amazing visual).
• August 2 2010: After a Divas Battle Royal, current Divas Champion Alicia Fox (the newest - and some would argue the worst - Diva on the roster) got on the mic, saying that no Diva can beat her. Cue the back-from-injury Melina's music (who Bret Hart said was the most talented person - note the wording - in the company right now). She walks out, and proceeds to take Alicia Fox out. When she won the Divas Championship at SummerSlam, people everywhere rejoiced that the Divas belt was finally in deserving hands.
• August 30, 2010: On the "900th Episode" of Raw, CM Punk and his Straight Edge Society come out and shoot one of the best (and funniest) promos in Raw history, going so far as to mention Katie Vick just to promote his gimmick, taking everyone on a trip down Awesome Memory Lane (including Triple H attacking Randy Orton in his own home, John Cena throwing Edge into the Long Island Harbor, DeGeneration X invading WCW Monday Night Nitro with a tank, Stone Cold Steve Austin attacking Vince McMahon with a beer truck and a fire hose, and Brock Lesnar Superplexing The Big Show, causing the ring to implode), fooling everyone into thinking The Rattlesnake was returning, and giving some rather humorous Take That!-style insults to The Big Show (in response to Show's rather ridiculous insult attempts), before Show just said "Ah, fuck it" and whopped SES ass. Hands down, the best segment of the entire episode.
• September 6 2010: "Good evening. My name is Mike Mizanin, and I have no right to be here..."
• September 13 2010: Randy Orton shows us how to defeat John Cena. The best part is how it seems like a standard Cena/Orton match, with Randy beating on Cena until Cena gets a second wind and does his Five Moves of Doom... at which point Orton counters and RKOs Cena. The match gets interrupted by (in order) The Nexus, Chris Jericho, Edge and Sheamus, who Cena and Orton team up to get rid of, then they finish the match fairly, with a win by Orton. By hitting an RKO mid-AA through a table (the fifth table broken that match).
  • Michael Tarver was the first guy to get taken out, eating an RKO as he switched targets from Cena to Orton. This caused the rest of Nexus sans Otunga to switch targets... leaving Cena free to plant David with an AA. The subsequent rush by Slater ended quickly with Heath being the first guy to find himself going through a table... followed by Wade ambushing Cena with Wasteland. He then brought in the table that won Orton the match... only for Orton to push Gabriel off the top rope through a different table. Wade himself found a third table, this one right in front of the commentators, ending the interference of Nexus.
  • Edge and Jericho quickly had their own interference end with a table that had found itself in one of the ring corners before Nexus showed up, courtesy of Orton sidestepping Edge after blocking a Codebreaker from Jericho.
  • Sheamus was the only Night of Champions competitor running interference who didn't end up through a table; his attempt at throwing John Cena into the ring steps was countered into an AA.
  • Orton ambushes Cena trying to get back in, going for his rope-hung DDT. Cena counters, going for another AA (this one through the table Barrett and Gabriel had set up)... and Orton counters mid-move into another RKO.
    Justin Roberts: The winner of this match, RANDY ORTON!
    Jerry Lawler: Randy Orton?! I think he caught Cena with an RKO!
• September 27 2010: In what would be his final appearance in the WWE, Chris Jericho lists every person he ever beat before his match with Randy Orton. All of them. He started listing off names (some of which would only mean something to dedicated wrestling fans for SEVERAL years), and then the broadcast went to commercial. Many assumed they'd simply cut him off, until Raw came back from break, and Jericho was still reciting names a full 5 minutes later , achieving CMOA and Funny Moment at the same time.
  • Jericho didn't even need a list or some cards. He did the whole thing from memory.
    • As a bonus, it could be called a callback to the 1004 holds promo, which is probably one of Jericho's most well known promos, which also involved him reading a list (though he didn't read it here, it was still listy), commercials cutting him off, and then returning to have Jericho continue listing off moves. Same premise, same promo, both equally awesome.
  • In the end, Randy Orton would punt Jericho out of the WWE for good. Or at least for a good one and a half years.
• November 1 2010: On Pee Wee Herman as Raw guest host, during a comedy backstage segment between Mark Henry and Pee Wee, Mark suggested Pee Wee play Twister with the Divas. Quickly passing off the spinner to Eve, Pee Wee addressed the audience directly, promising them a night of thrills, chills, and spills, finishing it off with "Isn't that right, Lita?" And surprising everyone when LITA leaned into frame and said "That's right, Pee Wee!" before joining in with them. Lita did not appear for the rest of the night, a major disappointment considering having her come out to smack around Laycool later would have been legendary, but merely seeing her on Raw again (and so ridiculously randomly) is pure Made of Win.
• November 15 2010: The 3 hour old-school Raw was the wrestling equivalent of NFL teams wearing throwback jerseys for the weekend. The Giant Center in Hershey, PA was decked out in retro banners using the classic WWF block logo, while the HD TitanTron was scaled back to a combination of the Attitude Era's big screen and the giant Raw letters of 1996-1997. The commentators were decked out in classic attire, while Justin Roberts looked like he was ready for his senior prom. Even the broadcast went retro, with 80s style screen graphics and the 1993 opening theme (with sirens) being used for the night. And then there's the old favourites who came back, like Mean Gene Okerlund giving an interview on the old entranceway stage, Jim Ross commentating the Daniel Bryan / Jack Swagger match (much to Michael Cole's chagrin) and Howard Finkel announcing for a few matches.
  • John Cena's promo on Piper's Pit deserves a mention as well. Cena would be the special guest referee for the Wade Barrett vs. Randy Orton match at Survivor Series, with the result dictating whether Cena would be free to leave The Nexus or whether Cena would be forced to leave WWE. Cena seemed legitimately choked up with essentially having to choose between his career and his dignity. Cena would then announce that he was planning on calling the match down the middle. He would later prove his point by hitting the Attitude Adjustment on both Orton and Barrett, much to the approval of Piper at ringside.
  • Hi there, Iron Sheik! What have you been up to lately? (cue Sheiky-baby getting a live mic and going off)
  • The icing on the cake was when Cena gave a heartfelt speech on having to decide between letting Barrett win or losing his job. A fan yelled out "Never give up" and quick as a whip Cena pointed towards her and replied "You damn right."
  • Mae Young, of all people, got one too. Many of her appearances in the past few years have played her up as a sex-crazed "gross old lady." However, her appearance on Old School was simply a tribute to her career (complete with celebratory video package)...until LayCool arrived. They made their typical jokes at Mae's expense (Ensure and adult diapers were mentioned), who then challenged "these two sluts" to a No Disqualification Match. LayCool accepted and prepared to take on Mae - who was then joined by almost every other Diva on the WWE roster. After the Divas curb stomp LayCool, Mae Young delivered a huge punch to Layla and pinned her for the win. It was nice to see Mae do an appearance that wasn't totally crass, to see the Divas appreciate those that paved the way for them, and pretty much everyone liked seeing LayCool finally made to shut the hell up.
    • Mae Young has been badass ever since she got put through a table by the Dudleys - but getting away with calling LayCool "bitches" and "sluts" in the midst of WWE's "PG" campaign (to the amusement of everyone except maybe LayCool) was a nice reminder of just how tough she is.
• November 22 2010: The Miz cashes in Money in the Bank on Randy Orton to win his first ever WWE Championship. Crowning Moment Of Awesome has never been a more fitting trope.
  • Consider the very first time The Miz appeared on Monday Night Raw. Four and half years later, he pulled himself out of the Scrappy heap to become one of the best promo guys in the business, and a very worthy main-eventer.
  • We all know John Cena will be back. But goddamn, his "farewell speech" felt so genuine it was easy to forget that fact. Bonus points for his wonderful request for his traditional "Let's Go Cena/Cena Sucks" chant, complete with proper demographics.
• November 29 2010: Only seven days removed from his WWE Title victory, The Miz defends his newly won championship against Jerry "The King" Lawler in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. The same Jerry Lawler, who was celebrating his 61st Birthday on this night. Despite being over-matched athletically and outnumbered with Alex Riley at ringside, Lawler would capitalize when Miz got too cocky and pushed him off the top rope through a table. Lawler would then climb the ladder in an attempt to become WWE champion for the first time, until Michael Cole intervened and stopped Lawler. This would buy Miz enough time to recover and stop climbing, but Lawler got to do what many wished they could do and punched Wrestling/MichaelCole for his troubles. From there, Miz and Lawler would have a showdown at the top of the ladder for title, which Miz got the best of to win the match.
  • For Lawler, he actually convinced the audience that he could win a match that he really had no chance of winning.
  • For Miz, he got to kick start his WWE title with a memorable performance, though whether almost losing to 61 year-old Jerry Lawler (and needing Riley and Cole to win) hurts his credibility too much, or if making him look vulnerable may make people tune in more in hopes of seeing him lose. That can also be counter-claimed by bringing up that Miz could have won the match much earlier, but focused too much on hurting Lawler to prove a point, which CM Punk pointed out many times while doing commentary.
• December 27, 2010: John Cena comes to the ring and calls CM Punk out for his attacks of the previous week, claiming that Punk is doing it because Cena spilled his diet soda. Punk proceeds to come out, and lays down an absolutely epic What the Hell, Hero? speech on Cena, lamspshading Cena's actions since The Nexus came into WWE. Cena challenges Punk to come to the ring, but Punk refuses and promises to call Cena out later. Towards the end of the show, Cena comes back out to the ring, saying he's tired of waiting on Punk - then he calls him out for a second time... which brings out David Otunga and the rest of The Nexus to the ring (Wade Barrett was not present as he was still recovering from being bombarded with chairs at TLC earlier that month). Otunga claims that the group is "under new management" and offers Cena a truce. Cena flat out refuses, and The Nexus storm the ring to deliver yet another beatdown to Cena, with each member hitting their finisher. As Cena lies motionless on the mat, Otunga removes one of the two Nexus armbands he's wearing and holds it in Cena's face, taunting him before leading the other Nexus members back up the entrance ramp. After all the carnage is done, CM Punk makes his way past The Nexus and gets into the ring, delivering a Go To Sleep to Cena before grabbing a steel chair. Punk acts as if he's going to attack Cena with the chair, but stops...and sits down in the chair, looking at the beaten Cena before contemplating the Nexus armband Otunga left in the ring. With a smile on his face, he slips the armband onto his bicep, then looks out to the rest of the group, raising his right arm in the air - which prompts the other members of the group to respond in kind. Not only did the realisation that Punk was the leader of the Nexus result in cheers from the crowd, but with a bit of Fridge Logic, one could make the assumption that Punk had anticipated every one of Cena's actions that night before the show had even gone on the air.
  • There's also a minor one for Justin Gabriel during the beatdown - when Gabriel went for the 450 Splash, instead of his usual thousand-yard-stare, he looked directly into the camera with a look of "Yeah, this is happening" on his face before nailing the move perfectly.

2011

• January 3, 2011: 2011 starts up with AWESOME as the Miz faced John Morrison in a Falls Count Anywhere match for the WWE Championship - as the first match of the show. Both wrestlers give one hell of a preformance, and though The Miz barely won, it was back and forth all match. The show ended with a Triple Threat Steel Cage Match to see who'd face Miz at the Royal Rumble - Sheamus vs. Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett (who, if he lost, would be forced out of Nexus). When Wade was on the brink of escape, New Nexus leader CM Punk intervened, ripping off Barrett's Nexus armband to metaphorically kick Wade out - then literally kicked Wade in the head to knock him back into the ring. (Orton eventually won the match.)
• January 10, 2011: After teasing all evening that the first inductee to the WWE Hall of Fame was going to be revealed on Raw, Jerry Lawler pointed up at the Titantron to reveal a heartfelt video tribute to none other than Shawn Michaels - which was followed by Michaels himself returning in person for the first time since his retirement. Michaels applauded the audience, and then looked as if he was struck with emotion before trying to speak - until the entrance music for Alberto Del Rio started playing. Del Rio walked down to the ring, taunting Michaels all the while, and as usual, stroking his own ego to thunderous crowd boos. HBK, without missing a beat, turned his back to Del Rio (who had earlier complained about the terrible quality of American music) and delivered a spot-on Sweet Chin Music superkick to Del Rio's chin, planting the microphone to his side like a gunslinger. Michaels then turned and walked back down the ramp to some of the loudest cheering any fan had ever heard, before exiting just as quickly as he had came. Perhaps the greatest part of this promo? Michaels never said a single word. And why would he? His farewell speech didn't need any punctuation. That's why he's the best, folks.
• January 31, 2011:
  • Raw had its very first 7-man Raw Royal Rumble for the opportunity to face The Miz at Elimination Chamber, with the other six going to the chamber itself to face the victor of that match at WrestleMania. While all of the participants, from John Morrison to John Cena, put up good fronts, the night ultimately belonged to Jerry "The King" Lawler, who won the match. Regardless of whether you think this was a bad move or not, there's no denying he deserves this.
  • A smaller, but no less important moment was brought by three simple numbers: 2-21-11. A single, simple, 20 second vignette managed to get the drones of the IWC buzzing to the point of fervor.
• February 14, 2011: The announcement of the WrestleMania Guest Host: The People's Champ, The Rock!!! He comes out and cuts a promo starting at 10:55 and getting to go for almost 30 minutes (thus having a 20 minute run-over) that proves that even after being out of the business for seven years, he's Still Got It, proclaims his return is purely for the millions (AND MILLIONS) of fans, gives a Shut Up, Hannibal! to the Anonymous GM and Michael Cole by threatening grievous bodily harm to Cole with the GM's laptop, causing Cole to sit back down in his chair like he was told to sit in the corner and think about what he's done, all while completely annihilating the TV-PG image the WWE has cooked up for itself in the past few years.
  • WWE had pulled quite the reveal; they had refused to spoil who the host was all night until the end, and even had some fake spots set up (one of which originally indicated a female host by showing that whoever was exiting a limo was wearing black high heels).
• 2 21 11:
  • While the rest of these dates are written in full Month-Day, Year format, this particular episode of Raw will be remembered for the dual returns of The Undertaker and Triple H, paying off the mystery "2 21 11" video packages that had been playing for the past month. HHH would proceed to challenge Undertaker for a match at WrestleMania XXVII and Undertaker would accept the challenge. The kicker? Not a single goddamn word was needed, as they communicated merely by using their trademark gestures and by looking at the WrestleMania sign in the background.
  • Don't forget the beginning of the night, which had Cena temporarily return to his roots as the Doctor of Thuganomics and give a battle rap promo in retaliation for The Rock's slamming him the previous week. It was glorious.
  • Also, Jerry Lawler's segment. Michael Cole calls him out for an interview after his loss the previous night at Elimination Chamber. Lawler is in no mood to talk, so out comes Cole's trolling idiocy, up to insinuating that the King shamed his mother by losing. This sets everybody against Cole, and it gets Lawler pretty mad, too. He picks the announcer up by the neck and challenges him, but even this doesn't shut Cole up. He keeps antagonizing Jerry, splashes water in his face, then runs away as fast as his legs can carry him. For the rest of the night, Lawler took the empty spot at the announcer's table, and not even Josh Matthews protested. For those not knowing the situation regarding Lawler's mother: She had passed away the weekend before the Elimanation Chamber and was a subject that should have been left alone. The Miz had acknowledged the fact that Lawler's mother had passed on the Raw prior to Elimination Chamber, offered his deepest condolences and hoped it wouldn't get in the way of the match. And left it at that unlike Cole.
• February 28, 2011: "You address me in the form of rap?!" - In one line, The Rock managed to utterly destroy Cena's response to his initial promo.
• March 7, 2011:
  • The Miz, after annoying everyone with his "The Most Must See WWE Champion" promos for months, gets the drop on John Cena at the end of the show despite saying he was boycotting Raw, hitting him with two Skull Crushing Finales, then calling out The Rock, telling him to take his best shot, mocking both men with their catchphrases and hitting Cena with a People's Elbow. It's most definitely Miz's best promo since becoming Champion, and brought him out of the shadow and into the spotlight of what was until then a primarily Cena/Rock angle.
  • Stone Cold's return to Raw, to recap: This was the same night Michael Cole planned to reveal his special referee for his WM 27 match with Jerry Lawler. Cole would proceed to tease the crowd that he had selected Austin before revealing JBL as his referee. Just as JBL was about to sign the contract for the match, cue the sound of breaking glass as Austin walks up to the ring and delivers a Stone Cold Stunner to JBL with a MASSIVE pop. And then, to Cole's horror, Austin would proceed to pick up the contract and sign himself as the referee for the match. Austin then pleased the fans further by pouring beer on Michael Cole twice, leaving Cole to take a walk of shame to the back. And for good measure, Austin got back in the ring and toasted a couple of brewskies with JBL before Stunning him again.
• March 14, 2011: The Rock's humorous Take That! at John Cena by using a child to play Cena. Snooki completely pwning Vickie Guerrero and LayCool.^note Yes, Snooki got a Crowning Moment of Awesome. The return of Jim Ross, until Michael Cole and Jack Swagger beat the crap out of him and Jerry Lawler. King Sheamus beating Daniel Bryan. The Miz giving John Cena yet another No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, including throwing him through the giant WWE sign.
• March 28, 2011: The Rock appears in the ring in the final Raw before WrestleMania XXVII. He gives his usual, excellent trash talk to Cena, saying he dresses "like a homeless Power Ranger." Then Cena comes out, and gives the most heartfelt promo he has ever given, responding not only to the Rock but to all the criticism that has ever been leveled at him, including his child fanbase. Next, The Miz comes out and attacks the Rock, and the Rock responds with a People's Elbow. He throws The Miz out of the ring and then Cena comes in and takes down The Rock with an Attitude Adjustment leaving Cena standing tall over the The Rock.
• April 4, 2011:
  • Cena calls out the Rock for screwing him out of the WWE title at 'Mania the night before. A few minutes later, we get the main event for next year's WrestleMania already booked. After the match was made, the Corre came out to attack both men, and promptly had their asses handed to them, with Wade Barrett getting a spinebuster, People's Elbow, and Rock Bottom from the Great One.
  • Also, on the last match of the show, Sheamus retained the US title against Daniel Bryan. During a post-match assault, Sin Cara^note Spanish for "without face", but usually translated as "No-face" or "Faceless" (the former Mexican luchador Místico) after weeks of promos, made his debut, driving the Celtic Warrior from the ring and taking him down with a diving crossbody; (whether the rest of his WWE career will be as good, well, wait and see) still, taking down a former 2-time world champion on your debut is still an impressive feat.
• May 2, 2011:
  • YMMV on this one, but the timing of the Rock's birthday party could not have been better. He comes out and before getting into the show, he has one thing to say: WE GOT HIM!!!!! Cue one of the loudest pops you will ever hear.
    "I want to say thank you..." massive roar from the crowd "...to the proud men and women who continually and fearlessly fight for our great country every day and every night! My family are proud members of the military! I am damn proud of them! I am damn proud of SEAL Team Six, and I am damn proud to be an American!"
  • They couldn't have made The Rock a bigger star if they tried. After praising SEAL Team Six he swears his loyalty to the WWE, before Michael Cole interrupts. After a Rock Bottom and People's Elbow, Pitbull comes out and sings for The Rock. Throughout the night we have Dwayne Wade and Lebron James, Samuel L. Jackson, Ellen DeGeneres and others give their birthday wishes. At the end of the show the Rock comes out again to hype WrestleMania, when he's through Vince McMahon comes out, breaks character, and gives us this.
  • Also a Crowning Moment of Funny/Brick Joke. In 2001 Stone Cold Steve Austin invented the Big "WHAT?!" meme, which Vince hated. Ten years later, the fans would shout, "What?" after he said something. Vince then thanks The Rock for giving the fans the opportunity to use the chant and throws up his hands, calling for it.
• May 9, 2011:
  • Michael Cole goes in the ring to announce his undefeated retirement from "in-ring competition", and to announce his wish to be inducted into the Hall of Fame by virtue of his 2-0 record. About ninety seconds in, Jerry Lawler comes into the ring, not only to show the footage of The Rock slamming Cole during the previous Raw, he also offers Cole the chance to be inducted into the Hall of Fame by him, along with receiving Lawler's ring as a gift, if he agrees to another match. Cole refuses, and heads back to his booth. He then proceeds to insult the audience, as well as Lawler's late mother. Lawler attempts to attack Cole but is held off by Jack Swagger. Later, during Swagger's match against Kofi Kingston, Lawler appears, distracting Swagger long enough for Kofi to end the match. Lawler dragged Swagger out of the ring, and threw him over the barricade. He threw a chair into Cole's booth, and grabbed Cole by the tie, and repeatedly slammed his head into wall of the booth, even as more and more referees tried to separate them. Considering Cole's er, conduct, over the past few months, he had it coming. Added awesome because of how Lawler responded to Swagger's attempt to invoke Cole's GM given protection from Lawler. "I never touched Michael Cole! I only touched his tie!"
  • Then there's the contract signing for their match at Over the Limit. After Cole reveals it's a "Kiss My Feet" Match and gloating, showing a video of Jerry being forced to kiss Bret Hart's feet and his own, Jerry responds with a Shut Up, Hannibal!, saying Cole is no Bret Hart...and he's no Jack Swagger either. Jerry proceeds to praise Swagger, saying how much he respects him and how disappointed he is that Swagger has just become Cole's sidekick. Cole, having an ego the size of the WWE universe, brags about how big being his sidekick has made Swagger and that no one remembers Swagger's championship run. Cue Oh, Crap! as Cole remembers he said that while Swagger was in the ring the entire time and Swagger is now seriously ticked off. Swagger looks over Cole's shoulder at Lawler and tells him "he's all yours" before leaving the ring. Jerry's reaction reveals that he just pulled a classic Batman Gambit to get Cole to get his own Dragon mad enough to leave him. He then pulls Cole down by the tie and tells him that at Over The Limit, he's getting exactly what he has coming to him.
• May 23, 2011:
  • Riley destroys The Miz. What inspired Alex Riley to beat the holy mother of hell out of Miz? Prior to it, Riley had been screwing up and not being much help to Miz. His last screw up the night prior at the Over the Limit event^note  In an I Quit Match, Riley had accidentally discarded the cellphone that played an out-of-context recording of John Cena shouting "I Quit!", letting the referee see it. This would lead to Cena beating Miz and retaining the WWE Title., was the last straw, and Miz gave a verbal and brutal berating of Riley, eventually firing the guy from his position as "Executive Assistant". Cue Riley going berserk and beating up Miz to the fans' delight.
  • Just the sheer fact that Kharma and Beth Phoenix were standing in the same ring. Hell that entire segment had shades of awesome written all over it.
• May 30, 2011: Riley destroys The Miz again. He also owned Michael Cole prior to that, and even countered Miz's attempted ambush to get the better of him once again.
• June 27, 2011: CM Punk cuts loose with one of the best worked shoots ever seen on the WWE. Jim Rome, on his radio show, highlighted this promo the next day because he thought it was real. Shows how effective it was. He normally doesn't cover WWE (highlighting the UFC and MMA), so this says a lot.
  CM Punk: John Cena, while you lay there, hopefully uncomfortable as you can possibly be, I want you listen to me. I want you to digest this because before I leave in three weeks with your WWE Championship, I have a lot of things I wanna get off my chest. I don't hate you John, I don't even dislike you. I do like you, I like you a helluva lot more than most people in the back. I hate this "idea" that you are the best. Because you're not, I'm the best. I'm the best in the world. There's one thing that you're better at than I am and that's kissing Vince McMahon's ass. You're as good as kissing Vince McMahon's ass as Hulk Hogan was! I don't know if you're as good as Dwayne though, he's a pretty good ass kisser. Always was and still is. Oops, I'm Breaking the Fourth Wall! (waves at the camera) I am the best wrestler in the world. I've been the best ever since day one when I walked into this company and I have been vilified and hated since that day because Paul Heyman saw something in me that nobody else wanted to admit. Yeah that's right, I'm a Paul Heyman guy. You know else was a Paul Heyman guy? Brock Lesnar. And he split, just like how I'm splitting but the biggest difference between me and Brock is that I'm going to leave with the WWE Championship. I've grabbed so many of Vincent K. McMahon's imaginary brass rings that its finally dawned on me that they're just that: they're completely imaginary. The only thing that's real is me and the fact that day in and day out, for almost six years that I have proved everybody and the world that I am the best on this microphone, in that ring, even on commentary! Nobody can touch me! Yet no matter how many times I prove it, I'm not on your lovely little collector cups, I'm not on the cover of the program, I'm barely promoted, I don't get to be in movies, I'm certainly not on any crappy show on the USA Network, I'm not on the poster of WrestleMania, I'm not on the signature that's produced on the start of the show!! I'm not on Conan O'Brien, I'm not on Jimmy Fallon, but the fact of the matter is I should be. But trust me, this isn't sour grapes but the fact that Dwayne is in the main event of WrestleMania next year and I'm not makes me sick!! Oh hey! Let me get something straight. Those of you who are cheering me right now, you are the biggest part of me reason leaving than anything else, because you're the ones that are sipping out of those collector cups right now, you're the ones that buy those programs that my face isn't on the cover of, then in 5:00 in the morning in the airport, you try to shove it my face so you can get an autograph and try to sell it on Ebay because you're too lazy to get a real job. I'm leaving with the WWE Championship on July 17th and hell, who knows, maybe I'll defend it in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Maybe I'll go back to Ring of Honor. (looks at camera, waves) Hey, Colt Cabana! How you doin'? (waves at the camera again) The reason why I'm leaving you people is because after I'm gone, you're still gonna pour money into this company! I'm just a spoke on the wheel, the wheel's gonna keep turning and I understand that. But Vince McMahon's gonna make money despite himself. He's a millionaire who should be a billionaire, but you know why he's not a billionaire? It because he's surrounds himself with gladhanding, nonsensical, douchebag yesmen like John Laurinitis who's gonna tell him everything he wants to hear. And I like to think maybe this company will be better after Vince McMahon's dead, but the fact is its gonna get taken over by his idiotic daughter and his doofus son-in-law and the rest of his stupid family. Let me tell you a personal story about about Vince McMahon, alright. You know we do this whole bully camp-
• July 4, 2011:
  • The entire last segment of the show, where John Cena calls out Vince McMahon over suspending CM Punk for his comments the previous week and managed to get Punk reinstated for the Money in the Bank PPV. What makes it better is that Cena himself calls out some of the more crappy things WWE's done over the past year, such as firing Daniel Bryan and pulling signs supporting Zack Ryder. And what's even better is that Cena did something smart to boot! He used his own Popularity Power as a bargaining chip to force Vince into doing what he wanted!
  • Zack Ryder himself finally appearing on Monday Night Raw! Okay, maybe he didn't really do anything but recite his catchphrase in a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, but had it not been for his success in promoting himself on Z! True Long Island Story, there's a good chance he'd never get any airtime on Raw.
• July 11, 2011: Vince. Apologized. to CM Punk. This whole storyline is not only a great Moment of Awesome for all people involved (both Faces and the return of the greatest Heel in professional wrestling) but for the entirety of the WWE as a whole. Vince was probably the only one in the entire situation to not pull one of these off. CM Punk gets one for the above, then Cena gets his when he comes out and says he actually agrees with some of what Punk was saying, but then hits Punk with perfect Kirk Summation ending with an Armor-Piercing Question that practically sends Punk into a Villainous Breakdown; if you care so much about the WWE Universe, why are you walking out on them? Punk tries to turn it around on Cena, but his arguement ultimately devolves into Insane Troll Logic in an attempt to blame Cena for him leaving (which, due to Punks original demands that Vince had fully agreed to, no longer holds water as he'd been given everything he wanted that Cena had, doesn't hold much water) and then doing exactly what Cena was calling him out on without ever truly giving a straight answer. Say what you will about Cena, but he spoke the truth.
• July 18, 2011:
  • The ultimate defeat of the ultimate Heel. Vince McMahon has been relieved of his duties as the day-to-day manager of the WWE, unable to fire John Cena in the process. And Triple H is the man in charge now. It was, of course, part of a storyline, and Vince is still calling shots in the back, but you know that if "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was out there, and doing kayfabe, he'd be laughing his ass off with a beer. The whole ending of this edition was a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Before Triple H showed up (which was awesome), Cena came out and didn't let Vince get a word in edge-wise as he gave him an EPIC "The Reason You Suck" Speech. He tells Vince he's not going to be the one forever remembered for the next Montreal Screwjob and letting Vince make the WWE title meaningless. He then tells Vince to his face that he doesn't give a darn if he got fired because he'd rather be fired than kiss up to Vince McMahon. For the first time in a long while, there was not one boo directed at Cena the entire promo!
  • The ending switched to Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. After Triple H broke Vince the bad news, to cheers and "Nah Nah Nah Nah, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye!" chants from the crowd, he walked sadly back up the ramp as the crowd chanted his name, shooting Vince one last look before going backstage. Vince was left alone in the ring and was (one believes) authentically crying (he has NEVER been a good actor) and the crowd broke Kayfabe with him, switching to loud thunderous cheers and chants of "Thank You Vince!" which Vince tearfully acknowledged as the show went black. While it was revealed later that Vince wasn't really gone, seeing the entire crowd drop the illusion of the show and pay respect to a man who has provided entertainment to generations and made the sport what it is? That's a Crowning of Moment of Heartwarming and Awesome.
• July 25, 2011:
  • Triple H's first full episode as WWE's Chief Operating Officer kicked off with a "WWE Championship" match^note The quotes are there because as CM Punk left with the title, RAW actually had no champion. The tournament that was set up was basically Vince trying to save face, it was meaningless otherwise.. There can't possibly be any way to outdo that. But they did.
  • Triple H announces the re-signing of a popular figure in the company. Given the happenings of the last several weeks, it seemed everyone knew where this was going. Except the guy set to return wound up being none other than JIM FREAKING ROSS. Naturally, Michael Cole flips out, and Trips responds by putting him in a match against a mystery opponent, leaving Lawler and JR to announce the rest of the evening.
  • After Rey Mysterio wins the "WWE Championship", Alberto Del Rio tries to cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase... only for Mysterio, who had tasted bitter defeat that way just over a year ago, to take him out with a suicide dive.
  • Then, after a short segment that proved, if anything, that Trips' not being an active wrestler did nothing to dull his sense of humor, he announces another return. *HOOOOOOOOOOONK* "Now listen! This ain't no make believe!" John Morrison, back for only the second time since April.
  • Hilarity Ensues as Michael Cole comes out to "King of Kings," one of Triple H's well-known entrance songs. Cole has been forced to wear Trips' wrestling gear (Underwear of Power and all), and rolls with it by imitating Trips' entrance. Followed by Zack Ryder coming out and kicking Cole's ass.
  • Keith Stone putting an end to the Bella Twins' Twin Switch trick by drawing an awesome tattoo on Nikki's arm with a permanent marker.
  • As the night ends, Cena wins. Again. But instead of the final shot being Cena holding his newly acquired worthless title belt in the air, the music cuts abruptly and a mystery guitar riff starts playing: it was "Cult of Personality," the music CM Punk used while in Ring of Honor). Cena is understandably confused, telling someone at ringside, "This isn't Alberto's music." (In context, Del Rio was the Raw winner of the Money in the Bank match). Then the crowd popped massively, and the camera cut to CM Punk.
    • Although Cena won, his match with Mysterio was still quite a good one, with both wrestlers giving their all to put on a great match. Especially awesome was an amazing bit in the middle where Cena attempted to put Mysterio in the STF, only for Mysterio to roll under Cena, grab his leg, and put Cena in his own submission manuver. The pop when Mysterio locked in the STF was huge.
• August 22, 2011: Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston winning the tag team titles. Two of the high flyers in the WWE with one of the highest "Holy Shit!" Quotient forming a tag team was bound to be epic, but the match was pretty dang good. And it ended with Kofi hitting the Trouble In Paradice from the apron followed by a perfectly executed Air Bourne from Evan.
• October 17, 2011: After weeks of ego-boosting and being a general jackass, Michael Cole finally gets what's coming to him. Booked in a main event tag-team match with Alberto Del Rio against John Cena and Jim Ross, Cole repeatedly asserts that he'll have no problem winning the match, and that he can't possibly lose. During the match itself? After Del Rio tags Cole in after being badly beaten by Cena, Cole begs for Cena not to hurt him, looking like he's about to cry the entire time! For a moment, Cena looks as if he won't hurt Cole, but then gives him an Attitude Adjustment, followed by JR putting Cole in the ankle lock and forcing him to tap!
• November 21, 2011:
  • It may be low-key compared to other classic Raw moments, but the Twitter graphic glitching briefly and revealing an website address set off one hell of a firestorm amongst fans.
  • There's also John Cena singlehandedly dismantling "The Awesome Truth" without even putting so much as a finger on Miz or R-Truth.
• November 28, 2011:
  • CM Punk finally shutting up Alberto Del Rio by defending his championship after John Laurinaitis tried to unseat Punk early. The crowning moment was when Punk gave Del Rio a face full of steel from an exposed turnbuckle, after Del Rio exposed it himself. Then Punk giving Ricardo Rodriguez a GTS after Rodriguez tried to argue with the referee. Before that, there was also Punk taking a page right out of Eddie Guerrero's playbook and reversing an attempt by Del Rio to have him disqualified by tossing a chair back at Del Rio, and then falling down.
  • Also, the second YouTube address, which is cryptic yet mentions a "Second."
  • The opening of Raw, featuring a Piper's Pit segment with John Cena could very well set off what certain fans have been waiting for: An attitude adjustment for Cena.
• December 5, 2011:
  • The third of the "It Begins" YouTube addresses, featuring even more cryptic awesomeness. And rather than just flashing the address on the Twitter graphic bar, the video itself actually interrupted a segment on Raw.
  • John Cena telling John Laurinaitis off when given a Sadistic Choice between taking the WWE Title Shot he earned or giving Zack Ryder a well deserved chance to earn a US Title Shot, choosing his friendship with Ryder over another title shot for himself. He tops himself once it's clear Laurinaitis has no intention of giving Ryder a fair chance, having pitted the already tired Zack Ryder against Mark Henry in a No-Disqualification Match. Cena comes to Ryder's aid, delivers the Attitude Adjustment to Henry, and gives him the victory and his long awaited shot at the US Championship.
  • CM Punk beating the hell out of both The Miz and Alberto Del Rio during their contract signing for a Triple Threat Table Match for the WWE Title at TLC, after citing that the contract signing was getting "boring". What does Punk do? He slams Del Rio through the table and gives Miz the Go To Sleep as he stood tall over both his TLC opponents.
• December 12, 2011:
  • The main event of John Cena vs. Mark Henry gets interrupted by the return of Kane with a new mask. He then proceeds to chokeslam Cena to close out the show. But not before removing his initial mask to reveal another mask underneath. Holy shit.
  • One could argue that the Fatal 4-Way between Dolph Ziggler, Zack Ryder, Daniel Bryan, and Cody Rhodes was awesome just by virtue of all four of those guys being in the ring at the same time. But the match itself was far and away the best of the night, and arguably one of the best that's been on Raw in a while.
  • And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the fourth of the "It Begins" viral videos, again interrupting a segment on Raw.
• December 19, 2011:
  • If there was ever a Passing the Torch moment for the PG era, this was it. CM Punk comes out, and welcomes new United States champion, Zack Ryder, along with new World Heavyweight champion, Bryan Danielson. It happened in front of the red-hot Philadelphia crowd, which had nothing but the utmost adoration for the three and Punk having nothing but the utmost respect for two guys (who Punk can relate with) who truly earned their spots in the WWE; all three beign in the main event, they do crowd entrances. And There Was Much Rejoicing from the Philadelphia fans, as Punk, Bryan, and Ryder won in the main event and ended Raw standing tall and triumphant. Michael Cole might've had an aneurysm with the outcome, but everyone else must've been surely satisfied with the ending.
  • It Begins, Part Five. January 2, 2012 is going to be some good stuff.
• December 26, 2011:
  • The awesome ending segment with Kane trying his darndest to make John Cena give in to the hate of the fans, made more better with the final shot of Raw being a conflicted Cena paired with the "Let's Go Cena/Cena Sucks" chants closing out the show.
  • R-Truth making his return to get some deserved revenge on The Miz, the man who put him out of commission shortly after Survivor Series.
  • And we got the final video for whomever returns January 2nd.

2012

• January 2, 2012:
  • The mastermind behind the recent "It begins" videos? None other than Chris Jericho! He didn't say anything (which is rare), but still, there's a shocker! He turned heel without saying a word or doing anything heinous. How is that possible? By doing nothing; he bored the fans by acting wildly and crazy and eventually pissed them off. Then, they started booing them.
  • John Cena saving Zack Ryder from being dragged under the ring by Kane.
• January 16, 2012:
  • CM Punk finally having enough of Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim Raw General Manager John Laurinaitis and giving the guy one hell of a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, causing Laurinaitis to suffer one hell of a Villainous Breakdown.
    CM Punk: You don't like me, but it has nothing to do with who I am, and if I could be your psychologist for a moment, it has everything to do with who you are not. The people have no idea who you are, and that's because when you were a competitor in 'sports entertainment', as you like to call it, you had the look...but boy oh boy, did you ever suck! And that must have been really really difficult, Johnny...your brother being one half of the legendary Road Warriors, and you never amounting to more than roadkill. See, you were boring, you weren't charismatic. You were vanilla...that's right, boring! And it kills you, it kills you that you never made it to this stage, to the WWE as a competitor. So you traded in your lame-ass tights for an equally lame-ass suit. You went from someone who just sucked to someone who sucked up. And now that you're a corporate yes man, you take your eyes and look at a guy like me, and you can't stand the fact that in the last year of my career I've achieved more than you have in your entire life! <beat> You know what...I don't even know why I'm screaming at you; you don't have an original thought in your body. You're gonna screw me at the Royal Rumble. Better men have tried, and better men have failed. But you're gonna try to screw me based on one thing: Pure, pure jealousy of who I am and where I come from, and the fact that I am the WWE Champion! I am the man! You can't stand it, so you're gonna screw me at the Royal Rumble. Let me tell you something, Johnny: It doesn't matter what you do to me in my championship match, because coming out of it, I'll still be better than you! And I'll have all these people doing something you wish you wished your entire career they did: I'll have them talking about you. Because if you screw me, I'm not gonna make you go to sleep; I'm not gonna lock you in the Anaconda Vice. But I'm gonna have these people talking about you for sure. 'Cause if you screw me, they're gonna be talking about how Mr. John Laurinaitis—Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim Raw General Manager—looks like he went through a meat grinder because CM Punk just kicked his pathetic ass!
    • Can't forget Foley's part, which sparks the above-mentioned Breakdown:
      Mick Foley: Admit it! Just admit it, John! Have the decency to admit that you intend to screw Punk at the Royal Rumble! You know, you walk around here acting like a pious, self-righteous syncophant...which is fancy, New York Times bestseller speak for saying you, John Laurinaitis, are a kissass.
  • John Cena nearly murdering Jack Swagger, who had earlier defeated his best bud Zack Ryder for the U.S. Title thanks to a dubious match made by GM Laurinaitis.^note It's dubious, as Ryder wasn't exactly ready because he was beaten to unconsciousness by Kane last week on Raw. Sure, Cena was playing right into Kane's hands, but it's still kinda impressive.
• January 30, 2012:
  • After weeks of getting beat down physically and psychologically by Kane, John Cena finally gets even and proceeds to give the big monster one hell of a beatdown, sending Kane into retreat for the first time since his return.
  • CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan in a Champion vs. Champion match. The match and the promos before it were every bit as awesome as the IWC thought they would be. It ends by Chris Jericho interrupting by throwing Bryan out of the ring and hitting Punk with a codebreaker. Amazing.
  • The Undertaker returning and making every indication he's going to WrestleMania.
• February 6, 2012: CM Punk decidedly shuts down Chris Jericho's attempted "The Reason You Suck" Speech (he was calling Punk out specifically for being a "wannabe" due to his use of "Best In The World") by simply walking out, raising the WWE Championship up high right in front of Jericho, and then leaving. Not to be outdone, Jericho does get one back on Punk by the end of the night, as he steals a win during the Six-Pack Challenge and earning the right to enter last in the forthcoming Elimination Chamber match.
• February 20, 2012:
  • John Cena easily defuses a plot by a now heel Eve Torres to use him, after she spilled the beans on using Zack Ryder. Later in the evening he gives one hell of speech to The Rock. Highlights included that come April 9th, he would still be at Raw, while The Rock would be at the next movie set laughing at his stunt double. And he was proud of being a professional wrestler. A word that is pretty much no, no in WWE.
    John Cena: You know I'm probably gonna be fined for this, but the only reason he came back was to promote Fast Five and launch his Twitter account.
  • Triple H finally accepting the challenge of The Undertaker at WrestleMania, and upping the ante by making their third (and presumably final) encounter a Hell in a Cell match.
• March 5, 2012: While somewhat overshadowed by the Long-Laurinaitis feud, Santino Marella winning the US Title from Jack Swagger was a crowning moment for a wrestler who's been getting cheered uproariously by the crowd for weeks.
• March 12, 2012:
  • Chris Jericho took his feud with CM Punk to new levels by calling out Punk's father for being a "pathetic drunk" and vowing to beat him so bad at WrestleMania that Punk would be driven to alcohol. Even more shockingly, Punk had no response to Jericho's salvo, and left the ring, shaken to his very core.
  • No mention of the very beginning of the show. Word Life. Scowling Cena. The Doctor of Thuganomics made a brief, awesome return, and the audience went from a mixed reaction to full-on cheers once he had finished his rap.
• March 19, 2012:
  • Jericho does it again, this time going after Punk's sister. Punk's reaction was WAY different.
  • Prior to Jericho's petty assault, Punk cut a passionate promo where he vowed not to let Jericho get to his head, claiming that Jericho is an obstacle he'd go through at WrestleMania, as well as expressing pride in his father, who did beat his personal demons. At some points, it even sounded like a heroic version of the promos Punk would cut as part of the Straight Edge Society.
• March 26, 2012: With only six days away 'til WrestleMania, Jericho again gets personal, attacking Punk's mother this time 'round. However, Punk decides let his actions do the talking, as he beat the holy crap out of Christian to a point where referees had to get Punk off of him.
• April 2, 2012:
  • John Cena, HERE..COMES..THE PAIN!!!
  • It's certainly not every edition of Raw that the fans themselves get a moment of awesome, but this episode of Raw featured possibly the loudest and passionate set of fans ever heard on the show in recent memory. From start to finish, the Miami fans either chanted "YES!", "NO!", Daniel Bryan's name, among other chants, and completely tore the roof off when the above-mentioned moment occurred. When Alberto Del Rio came out and confronted Sheamus, they chanted "Si, Si, Si!"
    • It's been noted as one of the most surreal things in professional wrestling that, on a night where Brock Lesnar returns, the loudest pop of the night happened during the dark match. It did not stop there. It would continue through the whole dark match, when Bryan addressed the crowd after the match, while the crowd was leaving the arena, outside the arena, in the parking lot with their car horns, and even in at least one hotel lobby. It's been said they were so loud that they were heard from several blocks away.
• April 9, 2012: Rather than cut a scathing promo on the return Brock Lesnar as a rebuttal? John Cena instead opts to walk down the ramp and simply just slap Lesnar in the face, leading to a pier-six brawl between the two where they had to be separated by other Superstars (faces AND heels) and referees and whatnot, leading to Lesnar legit busting Cena's mouth.
• May 7, 2012: The return of Paul Heyman to WWE.
• May 14, 2012:
  • On a night where John Laurinaitis was at his worst in abusing his power by firing Big Show, seeing John Cena put him in his place with a verbal smackdown has to be most satisfying.
  • The Board of Directors stipulation for Cena and Laurinaitis' upcoming match: You can only win by pin or submission, no one can be at ringside, anyone that interrupts the match will be terminated, and if John Laurinaitis loses, he will be fired. The fans in the arena liked this announcement, as did John Cena, who rubs it in that this effectively ruined Laurinaitis' big announcement (which was rather obviously rigging the match in his favor), causing Laurinaitis to have a Villainous Breakdown.
• June 11, 2012:
  • Heath Slater is running his mouth in the ring, waiting for his opponent. Little did he know that his opponent was the man they call Vader! The legendary super-heavyweight was making his first appearance in WWE since 2005 (a rather disappointing stint as Jonathan Coachman's henchman that included an embarrassing fall off the apron) and subsequently received one of the loudest pops of the night and several chants from the crowd. Vader would easily put the boots to Slater, finishing him off with his signature Vader Bomb. This could easily double as a moment of heartwarming, as Vader has had it rough in recent years due to various medical issues that led to him being both bed-ridden for 6 months and later comatose for over a month. It was obvious that he was relishing being the fan favourite on this night.
  • Vince coming back and pretty much spending the whole night chewing out John Laurinaitis and shooting down all of his attempts to kiss up to him. And then he doesn't back down from The Big Show at all.
• June 18, 2012:
  • Cyndi Lauper and Wendi Richter return to a WWE ring after an absence of 27 years. Heath Slater comes out and orders them and Layla to get out of "his" ring, but Roddy Piper comes to the rescue. Piper thanks Cyndi and Wendy for everything they've done for this business, and gives Cyndi a framed Gold Record, saying he wishes Captain Lou Albano were still alive to share this moment. Heath Slater continues to diss them, so Piper pokes him in the eyes and Cyndi smashes the record on his head, beating him bloody. The beating was so bad that Piper broke character and called for a medic.
  • Paul Heyman mocks Triple H, saying Brock Lesnar will not accept his challenge nor drop his two lawsuits, then makes a lewd comment about Stephanie. Hunter is enraged, but Heyman warns that if he strikes him, it will trigger another lawsuit. Hunter calms down, and Heyman laughs, claiming he can predict everything he does... Triple H decks him unconscious and asks, "Did you see that coming?"
  • John Cena giving Laurinaitis 3 Attitude Adjustments and then making him tap to the STF to finally get rid of him.
    • Better? To mock Laurinaitis' "People Power", he actually asks the audience if they want to see Laurinaitis given another AA. They resoundingly support the idea and thus Laurinaitis gets three Attitude Adjustments.
    • Even better, both Big Show and David Otunga pull a Screw This, I'm Outta Here on Laurinaitis at different points during the match (or in Big Show's case, before the match), leaving the once-powerful tyrant boss at the mercy of John Cena.
    • In David Otunga's case, it was after he was forced to battle against Cena alone - Laurinaitis refused to tag in until he assumed he could pin a weakened Cena, and when he did, he promptly revealed that he had been faking his injuries for the past month. The look of disgust on Otunga's face at that point was perfect.
    • Laurinaitis' Humiliation Conga continued after the show went off the air, with Zack Ryder, the Big Show, and Triple H all getting a piece of him., topped off by Vince McMahon literally getting one last kick in on the former Mr. Excitement.
• June 25, 2012: Heath Slater (obviously not learning his lesson from the past two weeks...) decides to bite off a bit more he can chew once again by declaring that he "rules the world". Cue Sycho Sid making an unexpected return and putting Slater in his place with a devastating Powerbomb.
• July 2, 2012:
  • Doink the Clown returns and schools Heath Slater before getting pinned. As Slater gloats, Diamond Dallas Page returns and plants him with the Diamond Cutter.
  • AJ is enraged because CM Punk and Daniel Bryan are not distracted by her skipping around the ring like they normally are. AJ pulls out a table, climbs to the top rope, and threatens to jump. Punk and Bryan are horrified and try to get her to stop. AJ kisses Punk, then shoves him so hard he flies into Bryan and both crash through the table.
• July 9, 2012:
  • John Cena finally staggers the Big Show with ladder strikes, temporarily halting the giant's monster run of recent weeks for the night.
  • When Heath Slater starts running his mouth yet again, Bob Backlund returns and makes him tap with the Crossface Chickenwing, with the crowd chanting, "You Still Got It!"
• July 16, 2012:
  • The return of Rey Mysterio, just in time to save Zack Ryder from Alberto Del Rio.
  • Also that night in order to keep up Heath Slater's bad luck with WWE Legends: Rikishi returns, delivering the superkick, the Banzai Drop, the Stinkface, and even the Samoan Spike in honor of his dead brother, Wild Samoan Umaga. After the fight, we got to see him dance together with his twin sons, Jimmy and Jay Uso, reminding the audience of the good times of 2 Cool.
• July 23, 2012:
  • Raw 1000 was quite the jam-packed milestone episode, featuring: the return of The Rock, Brock Lesnar answering Triple H's challenge for a match at SummerSlam, a reunion of D-Generation X, and a WWE Championship match between John Cena and CM Punk.
    • The DX reunion deserves mention for one reason and one reason alone: it got fans to cheer for a returning X-Pac
    • Damien Sandow tried to interrupt the reunion, only to eat a Sweet Chin Music from Michaels followed by a Pedigree from Trips.
    Jerry Lawler: This must be the 'taken out like common trash' part.^note Sandow had said in his promo before DX attacked him that they could dispose of him like common trash, which is what Lawler is referencing here
  • Let's not forget AJ ditching Daniel Bryan at the altar while chanting his catchphrase after accepting the role as the new General Raw Manager. And let's not forget how The Rock breaks down Bryan's It's All About Me speech.
  • Heath Slater runs his mouth again and challenges any Legend to a No Countout, No Disqualification match. Lita accepts the challenge. Slater assumes he's got an easy win, but Lita brings out the APA, reminding Slater that interference is allowed in these types of matches. Slater tries to escape, but all the other Legends block him. JBL hits him with the Clothesline From Hell, then Lita pins him with the Twist of Fate and Litasault.
  • The Brothers of Destruction reunite for one night and clean house.
• September 3, 2012: After an amazing Falls Count Anywhere main event match between John Cena and Alberto Del Rio, which included an incredible amount of reversals from both of them plus a suplex through the announce table, CM Punk lays out Cena with a GTS on a car backstage. The most awesome part? As Punk leaves in the same car, the driver is revealed to be none other than Paul Heyman. Which teases the REAL beginning of the new Summer angle.
• September 10, 2012:
  • During a tag team match between Daniel Bryan/Kane and the Prime Time Players, Jerry Lawler, for real and not kayfabe, suddenly collapsed at ringside and was immediately rushed to the hospital (Doctors would later confirm it was a heart attack), leaving a visibly shaken Michael Cole to break the news as the show continued, leaving fans both at ringside and those watching at home worried as they waited for news on Lawler's condition. At that point, no one would have faulted Cole for leaving the table to check on his friend and colleague. The fact that he stayed on, refraining from commentary out of respect for Lawler, and to provide the audience updates on his condition, ending the show with an announcement that Lawler's condition had stabilized, and all the while maintaining his composure earned a lot of respect for Cole tonight.
  • For the first time in fifteen years, Bret Hart was in a WWE ring in Canada. For the first five minutes, Bret couldn't get a word in because the audience was THAT loud.
  • John Cena giving CM Punk another "The Reason You Suck" Speech, detailing why people won't respect him. Punk angrily throws a punch at Bret, but Cena blocks it. Punk tries again, but Bret blocks it himself and knocks Punk out of the ring. Credit also has to go to the three for giving it their all in that segment, especially given the circumstances that hung over the show at the moment.
• October 8, 2012:
  • Vince McMahon faces CM Punk. Punk assumes Vince is a feeble old man and the match will be a piece of cake. Vince beats him down. Highlights include: Vince throwing Punk over the announce table, Vince jumping over the announce table to tackle Punk, Vince ramming a chair into Punk's groin, Vince clocking Paul Heyman, and Vince beating Punk down with a kendo stick. All of this was followed by Ryback making his presence felt as he once again went after Punk, who naturally tried to run away. However, John Cena cuts him off at the pass and tosses him right back into the ring... and to a waiting Ryback. The fans exploded throughout this, with the hard camera even shaking due to the Sacramento crowd erupting. A lot of internet bloggers and dirt sheets called it the closest thing WWE had seen to an Attitude Era-type show ending in years.
  • A little Real Life note on this entire sequence: Vince, or rather, Mr. McMahon, wasn't meant to have any involvement whatsoever with the Punk/Cena(/Ryback?) storyline. But the October 1st Raw put up some of the worst ratings for an episode of Raw in recent history.^note In all fairness, though, it's occupying the exact same time slot as Monday Night Football and you're going to come up short in that battle more times than not So Vince decided that one of the best ways to boost ratings was to have Mr. McMahon make this appearance. In other words, a 67-year-old multimillionaire CEO appeared on his own show himself and did all of the above to his body (not included was the part where Punk went to town on his back with two kendo sticks) in an attempt to get a few more people to watch. Considering the last pretty old guy to step into the ring with the active superstars about a month prior had a massive heart attack on set and nearly died (and was half a decade younger) it was a Brass Balls move by Vince in more ways than one. The way he runs things is quite divisive, but his dedication to WWE is undeniable.
• November 12, 2012:
  • Two months after his heart attack, we get to witness the return of the King. Possibly doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
  • CM Punk and Paul Heyman cruelly taunt Lawler and say his heart attack was his own fault... until Mick Foley comes into the ring and verbally slams them both down, and in an added moment of poetic justice for his misdeeds, Punk ends up losing his main event match against John Cena after Ryback prevents Punk from making an escape from the ringside area.
• November 26, 2012: The trio of Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns, now referring to themselves as The Shield, made their presence felt during the CM Punk vs. Kane main event match by laying waste to both Kane and his partner Daniel Bryan. When Ryback went to confront the trio, The Shield would end up leaving the big man down on the mat with the triple-team powerbomb move they used on Ryback last week on Raw and the Survivor Series.

2013

• February 25, 2013:
  • John Cena and CM Punk fight in a 26 minute main event for who gets to face the Rock for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 29. The two bring everything to the table at each other, kicking out of each others' finishers and submissions. Hell, Punk even hits Cena with a piledriver, a move which has been banned in regular wrestling for years, still couldn't keep him down! Cena even manages to get some form of hurricanrana on Punk as well! This would also be the first time Cena's won against Punk, too.
  • Also, there's the brawl between Brock Lesnar and the returning Triple H at the beginning of the show. During the brawl, Triple H tossed Brock face-first to the ring post, resulting in Brock to bleed. Yes, there was blood at that night.
• April 8, 2013: The night after WrestleMania, and like the previous year, it was just amazing. And in most minds, there's no doubt it eclipsed Mania itself. The crowd was one of the best crowds in history, surpassing the crowd from last year's event. Just the show from start to end was amazing:
  • First off, John Cena came out to his usual thunderous boos and had his new trolltastic T-Shirt after defeating the Rock for the WWE Championship at Mania. However, Cena decided to actually be entertaining tonight. Trolling about a heel turn, saying that a possible Rock return match would be "Once in a Lifetime: Best out of 3", turning the crowd's chants of Sexual Chocolate (Mark Henry had come out to challenge him) into "Sex with Chocolate", Cena was actually having fun that night.
  • Big E Langston gets his Raw debut match against Daniel Bryan. Bryan got many cheers that brought a smile to his face, likely remembering last year where the crowd helped bring him to stardom. Langston along with the rest of the Ziggler stable performed like a well oiled unit, providing a dominating win for Langston and a precursor for the rest of the night.
  • The Miz and Wade Barrett had a rematch for the Intercontinental Championship. Their match was a supreme improvement over their Mania match and in a shocker, Wade Barrett ends up regaining his Intercontinental Championship. It's shocking due to the fact that the normal success rate for winning the rematch after losing the title the previous night is insanely low. On top of that the crowd was behind Barrett the entire match.
  • Del Rio gets a handicap against Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter. A decent match all around, but its ramifications would be felt almost immediately afterwards thanks to Jack Swagger annihilating ADR's ankle and leg.
  • DOLPH ZIGGLER FINALLY CASHES IN MITB AND WINS THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP. And the entire crowd ERUPTED with a massive pop not felt in years. Ziggler and his crew celebrated greatly and it was emotional. AJ Lee herself was almost among tears and the three embraced. Unlike most heels in this moment, there was no malice from Ziggler in this celebration or in the interview after. Just joy, emotion and success.
  • The Undertaker comes out to celebrate his latest Mania victory (or at least as much as Taker ever celebrates) and the Shield decides to interrupt him. Just when it looks like Taker is gonna take that long road to recovery for Mania again, Team Hell No comes in and saves his ass. The Brothers of Destruction are reunited and Daniel Bryan is with them. And on the way out, all three did Taker's trademark pose at the ramp. For one night, and possibly more... Daniel Bryan became the 3rd Brother of Destruction.
  • Randy Orton and Sheamus ended up facing each other in a serviceable match but... even by Sheamus' own admission afterwards on Twitter, no one will remember the match because it was all about the crowd once again. Likely perturbed by the fact that absolutely no one wanted to see this match at this point (especially after a bait and switch "vote" just to get stuff trending on Twitter), the crowd decided to chant every single thing they could think of. From Randy Savage, RVD, HBK, OLE and ECW, to Mike Chioda, JBL and even MICHAEL COLE. In their own self indulgence, they even shouted "We Are Awesome". Along with all of this, they even did the wave midmatch. What made this really notable was that the commentators, the cameramen and even Orton and Sheamus themselves acknowledged it the entire time. The camera even caught moments of the Wave and zoomed in on JBL during his chant. And then, after both missed their finishers, Big Show came out and destroyed them both. Instead of being booed, the crowd greeted him with a "Thank You Big Show" chant. And when he was throwing chairs, they chanted for "One More Chair." Just incredible.
  • Fandango vs. Kofi Kingston. Normally a match that draws no real notice, and Kofi pretty much got no reaction. The big winner was Fandango, who is the most likely recipient of the yearly Daniel Bryan Post-Mania push if last year is any precedent. The crowd SANG HIS THEME SONG. Kind of notable when his theme song has no lyrics. Fandango danced a bit more in the ring than even usual due to it. The match did not last long as Jericho came in and absolutely demolished him. But Fandango wasn't done as after the brutality... he still went through the trouble of correcting Justin Roberts by correctly pronouncing his name. After pronouncing his name right along with him, the crowd went right back to singing his theme music.
  • The Rhodes Scholars and the Bellas vs Tons of Funk and the The Funkadactyls. Also a match that would draw no notice but it has history. The match was bumped from WrestleMania onto Raw, and you could really feel for Tons of Funk as the entire crew was wearing their Mania outfits. Now, worry sets in when you realize how harsh the crowd was on the Orton/Sheamus match and it could be disastrous for morale if these guys get worked like that. However, the crowd was being fun and was continuing Fandango's theme. Cole was dancing to their theme and the 8 Man Mixed Tag was a fun, quick affair all around (which leaves one to wonder why it was left off the Mania card).
  • Main Event, Cena vs. Henry. Started off decent, the crowd also singing along to Mark Henry's theme as much as possible. However the match took a bad turn when it ended quickly by count out, a pretty poor effort that made the crowd chant "Same Old Shit." Three guesses as to why. They also found time to sing Fandango's theme some more which Cena decided to play along with. But the true fun started afterwards. Henry, to no one's surprise, decided to enter Cena into the Hall of Pain with a World's Strongest Slam. Then Ryback's theme hit and the crowd went off. He came to the ring and fought Henry off. The fans were cheering, then booed immediately when he helped Cena up. Then Cena decided to try and play off the "Feed Me More" chants himself, which got him a Meat Hook Clothesline to the face. Crowd goes off again and goes absolutely ballistic once Ryback nails Cena with Shellshock, essentially putting himself in the title picture and ending Raw.
  • After Raw, instead of sending everyone off with his music or generic music, Cena gets WWE to play Fandango's music even more and danced a bit with it before leaving. Everyone got to sing and leave to Fandango's music which continued out to the parking lot and, in a repeat of last year's post-Mania insanity, played on car horns. It was even heard on the train after Raw. The best part of all this is that, instead of trying to pretend that it didn't happen, WWE is acknowledging the crowd and trying to make Fandangoing a thing, with the crowd eventually winning a Slammy Award for "Best Crowd Participation". You can say many things about Raw and WWE in general, but tonight included the one thing it had been missing as of late. FUN. Pure, absolute fun for everyone.
• April 22, 2013:
  • Cena and Ryback have a face-off... which ends when The Shield show up. It looks like Cena is going to do to Ryback the exact same thing Ryback did to him last week (leave him to the Shield). Instead, once the Shield are in the ring, Cena comes running to the ring with a steel chair and gives the Shield a beatdown. He follows it up by nailing Ryback with an Attitude Adjustment. Not only is this awesome, Ryback had been accusing Cena of leaving him to the Shield when he needed Cena (most of the time Cena wasn't even there or busy with his own problems). Cena, instead of taking revenge Ryback's way and proving him right, proves Ryback wrong and takes revenge HIS way.
  • On the same night, the Shield's three-man tag team match against Daniel Bryan and Kane (Team Hell No), with The Undertaker joining Team Hell No as their third man. An all-around amazing match, and The Shield picked up the victory by pinning Bryan!
  • The Shield also showed up in a helicopter on the show, and went from the helicopter to a Range Rover to drive to the show. It should be noted that this was legitimate: The Shield were also booked for a house show in another city, and took the helicopter-Range Rover to get to Raw.
• June 3, 2013: To prove he is not the weak link in Team Hell No, Daniel Bryan challenges Ryback to a match. He then proceeds to take the big hungry lug to the limit with a flurry of missile dropkicks.
• June 10, 2013: Daniel Bryan vs. Seth Rollins a match for the ages.
• June 17, 2013:
  • The impressive main even non-title match between CM Punk and a newly heel-turned Alberto Del Rio, ending with Del Rio walking out and letting himself be counted out, only to be ambushed by a now babyface Dolph Ziggler. If that wasn't enough, Punk, who had declined Paul Heyman's management earlier, was alone in the ring, happy he won the match, only to stop in place when BROCK LESNAR's music rang, resulting in Lesnar delivering a BRUTAL F-5 on Punk.
  • In what seemed like a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, Mark Henry came out to the ring after the end of John Cena's promo, for what a large number of people thought was going to be his retirement speech. Indeed, Mark reflected on some of his history with the company, and thanked the people for their support over the years. But when Cena gave him a handshake followed by a hug, Mark Henry put Cena into the Hall of Pain with the World's Strongest Slam. He then proceeded to challenge Cena for the WWE Title while he lied in the middle of the ring, and then nonchalantly walked up the ramp with his jacket over his shoulder. Finally, he stated "THAT'S WHAT I DO!!!" before exiting. Amazing moment.
• June 24, 2013: Capping off Raw was an intense Street Fight between Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton wherein the two brawled and went the distance. The finish saw Bryan making Orton submit to the "No!" Lock, even using a Singapore Cane as further leverage to add to the effectiveness of his submission maneuver.
• July 8, 2013: The Wyatt Family making their first appearance.
• July 22, 2013: In the main event, Brad Maddox challenged Daniel Bryan to prove that he's ready to face John Cena for the WWE title at Summerslam by fighting three consecutive matches. In nearly 45 minutes of action, Bryan would go on to make Jack Swagger tap out, pin Antonio Cesaro in spite of interference from both Swagger and Zeb Colter, and hold his own against Ryback for the final 10 minutes before winning by disqualification after Ryback threw him through a table. After all of that, the show still ends with him on his feet in the center of the ring, theme music playing, while he and the audience chant "YES!"
• September 16, 2013: The main event featured Daniel Bryan, who had been stripped of the WWE Championship by Triple H due to an unintentional fast count at Night of Champions, and Roman Reigns. Both men put on an action-packed match until Bryan traps Reigns in the Yes Lock only for Randy Orton to run interference. Orton then tries to break Bryan's neck with a steel chair as he had done to the Miz earlier in the show. That is when a small army of wrestlers emerge from the back to save Bryan. Orton immediately runs, and Bryan finishes Rollins with a running high knee as the show ends with the roster hoisting Bryan on their shoulders in triumph.
• September 23, 2013: The main event, with The Shield facing Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, The Usos, the Prime Time Players, Justin Gabriel, Rob Van Dam, Zack Ryder, and Daniel Bryan in an 11-on-3 elimination handicap match, after Stephanie and Triple H decided to feed the Shield to the wolves in an attempt to quell the previous week's uprising. Yes, the Shield lost, but only after whittling their opponents down to just Ziggler, Bryan and the Usos, and getting jumped by Cody Rhodes and Goldust before the match, over Stephanie's set-up of their father Dusty a week earlier.
• October 14, 2013: The main event match, where Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins of The Shield defended their Tag Team Titles against Cody Rhodes and Goldust. As an added stipulation by Triple H, the match was made into a No Disqualifications match. What followed was a hot main event, with the fans treated to a back-and-forth brawl. The match would culminate with Big Show intervening and knocking out both Reigns and Rollins, as well as Dean Ambrose. This would lead to Cody pinning Reigns to capture the Tag Titles for him and Goldust. Cue the fans rejoicing in "YES!", much to the chagrin of Triple H, to close out Raw.
• October 28, 2013: The show starts off with the new World Heavyweight Champion John Cena giving a promo... only for Damien Sandow to come out. Damien goes for Cena's arm, and then cashes in Money in the Bank. Sandow's got this in the bag, right? NOPE. Cena, despite effectively having one arm, gives one hell of a performance, and the crowed agreed with "THIS IS AWESOME" chants. And on the end... Cena wins, making him only the second champion to keep his title after a MITB cash-in.
• November 18, 2013: The Shield and The Wyatt Family go against CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, The Usos, Goldust and Cody Rhodes in a 6 v 6 Tag Team match. Made even better when Rey Mysterio makes his return after the match.
• December 9, 2013: The Championship Ascension Ceremony:
  • First off, there's the setting. The final show before TLC, in which World Heavyweight Champion John Cena is going up against WWE Champion Randy Orton for the unification of the two titles, making whoever wins the TLC match on Sunday the Champion of Champions. While Triple H explains the significance of the event, the crowd begins loudly cheering for Daniel Bryan (whose hometown, Aberdeen, is about an hour away from where the show was held in Seattle) to the point that much of his promo becomes inaudible.
  • Randy Orton starts bragging about how he's the face of the WWE like he's been doing. Cena breaks script and begins interviewing Daniel Bryan to the crowd's acclaim, holding him up as an example of a man who had to work for everything he's ever gotten in the WWE, and who, in his only fair shot at the WWE championship, beat Cena clean. Cena promises Bryan a rematch if he wins on Sunday, and offers Orton a handshake. As Triple H cues for the titles to be raised, Orton nails the distracted Cena with a cheap shot and the entire ring erupts in a violent scramble, during which it takes Big Show, Khali, and Mark Henry, three of the biggest guys in the ring, to hold Cena back (impressive in itself).
  • Then while they're still trying to chill everyone off, Punk goes to help with Orton, who hits him in the face, and Punk just loses it and starts wailing on Orton, before getting tossed away by Triple H, who proceeds to start shouting at Orton. Punk goes after Triple H, and cue Superkick from Shawn Michaels (bonus points for looking badass in his tuxedo), who is then blindsided by a Running Knee from Daniel Bryan.
  • Orton, having freed himself from his dogpile, tries to RKO Daniel Bryan but gets pushed into Stephanie McMahon, knocking her out. Triple H, in a Crowning Moment of Heartwearming, scrambles over to her to see if she's alright, before switching right back to Crowning Moment of Awesome and kicking Orton in the gut, followed by the Pedigree.

2014

• January 6, 2014: Three words: Old School Raw.
  • The show opened with Ric Flair personally confronting Randy Orton over his recent prima donna attitude, reminding him that in his day, a champion had to fight every night to defend the belt.
  • Ted Dibiase Sr. would reunite with his former Million Dollar Corporation stablemates, Nikolai Volkoff and Irwin R. Shyster, in a backstage sketch.
  • Rikishi teamed with Scotty 2 Hotty and Grandmaster Sexay against 3MB with Rikishi getting the pin. Earlier in the show, his sons, the Usos, had won their match against the Wyatt family, marking the first time in WWE history that father and son had won separate matches on the same night.
  • Rowdy Roddy Piper hosted Piper's Pit, interviewing the Shield and trying in classic Hot Rod fashion to provoke them. At just the point when the Shield seemed like they'd had enough, none other than the New Age Outlaws made a run-in to save him.
  • In the main event of the show, CM Punk faced Roman Reigns, the only Shield member he'd yet to face in singles combat, with the New Age Outlaws in his corner as a result of the previous incident. Reigns would go on to beat Punk, and the ensuing three-on-three brawl saw the Shield gain the advantage before the sudden last-minute appearance of Jake "the Snake" Roberts, making his first WWE appearance since 2005, dumping a new and improved Damien out onto Dean Ambrose after his appearance allowed Punk and the Outlaws to find their second wind and lay out the Shield.
  • An WWE.com interview with Roberts suggests that as far as he knew, only a talent relations executive, Triple H, Vince McMahon and "the lady that did the travel" knew that he'd be there, complete with separate transportation and having to "smuggle" him into the gorilla position^note just off to the side of the entranceway with his head down... cue the seemingly Enforced Method Acting on the part of both the commentators and The Shield... which may be part of why Dean Ambrose was caught on camera smiling.
• January 13, 2014: At the December 29 Raw two weeks earlier, Daniel Bryan had agreed to join the Wyatt Family after being physically and mentally broken by them, and had subsequently appeared as "Daniel Wyatt", wearing a blue boiler suit and wrestling in the Wyatt family style. On this show, Bryan teamed with Bray Wyatt in a tag match against the Usos that ended by DQ when Luke Harper and Erik Rowan intervened, with Wyatt "punishing" Bryan afterward with a Sister Abigail for his failure to win the match. Kane, Bryan's former tag partner and now Director of Operations, booked a rematch for the same night in a steel cage, which the Usos would win by escaping the cage. With Bryan and Wyatt left locked inside the cage, Wyatt demanded that Bryan fall to his knees and take the Sister Abigail again... and just as Wyatt prepared to drop him, Bryan would break the hold, strip off his boiler suit to reveal his familiar red trunks and boots underneath, and deliver a running knee to Wyatt, thus ending his brief heel turn to a massive pop from the crowd. How massive was the pop for Bryan exactly? Literally everyone in the arena was chanting for him and doing "YES!" gestures when Bryan turned on Wyatt.
• February 3, 2014:
  • Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan put on another physical clinic, dishing out as much pain and taking it. Bryan picks up the win by fighting off Kane's interference, then hitting Orton with the Running Knee.
  • Cody Rhodes and Goldust have a brutal steel cage match against the New Age Outlaws. The big spot of the night was Cody climbing to the top of the cage and moonsaulting onto Road Dogg, taking both out. That allows Billy Gunn to hit him with the Fameouser and pick up the W.
  • The Shield show the Wyatt Family that they're not intimidated by their cult behavior in the slightest and promise that they will take them down. Bray is quite eager for this fight and shouts "I WELCOME THIS WAR!"
• February 24, 2014: Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman make their return to the WWE since the Royal Rumble with a contract which let's Brock give a open challenge to anyone, given by the Authority, who Heyman rips into, calling the contract a "consolation prize" due to them declining Lesnar getting a championship match against the WWE World Champion. They're about to leave after declining the contract only for a very familar gong to go off, stopping both in place as The Undertaker makes his return, entering the ring, staring at Lesnar before both look at the WrestleMania XXX sign in silence. Then Lesnar makes his choice, signing the contract before pressing the pen onto Taker's chest as Heyman gloats the Deadman to sign if he wants the match. So how does Taker sign it? By STABBING Lesnar's hand into the contract with the pen before chokeslaming him into the table as Heyman retreats in horror as Taker stands over his next target.
• March 3, 2014:
  • WWE had the balls to turn a fan movement, meant to overtake the show and get CM Punk back, into hype fuel for WrestleMania. In Chicago.
  • After weeks of coming just short of the gold, The Usos finally win the Tag Team belts from the New Age Outlaws.
  • The Wyatt Family and The Shield had another instant classic.
• March 10, 2014:
  • Daniel Bryan hijacks Raw in an "Occupy Raw" movement to not only finally get his match against Triple H at WrestleMania, but also to get in the main event if he wins, making both Stephanie McMahon and Triple H finally, after months of them playing triumphant Smug Snakes, suffer Villainous Breakdowns.
  • Paul Heyman tries to deter The Undertaker from competing against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. The Undertaker responds with a badass line; "The fear of death is greater than the death itself. But the fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all."
  • Sheamus Brogue Kicking Christian through a drum in their Memphis Street Fight match.
  • To cap it off, Bryan and Big Show face off against Randy Orton and Batista in the night's main event, which ends with Bryan giving both Batista and Orton a Running Knee to the face, pinning the latter for the win.
• March 17, 2014: Kane calls Jerry Lawler to the ring, accusing him of having helped orchestrate Daniel Bryan's "Occupy Raw" protest last week in King's hometown of Memphis. The Shield eventually come on stage, presumably about to punish Lawler. Seth Rollins than says to Lawler that the Shield "Always does what's best for business". Right as he says that, the Shield immediately turns on Kane and plants him with a Triple Power Bomb.
• March 31, 2014:
  • In the go-home show before WrestleMania, Bryan pays back Triple H for the beatdown he received two weeks ago while waylaying Randy Orton and Batista yet again. The night ends with Trips being forced into retreat as Bryan celebrates in the ring to a raucous "YES" chant from the crowd.
  • While Bray Wyatt is celebrating a win over R-Truth, a figure wearing Erick Rowan's sheep mask and coveralls comes up from behind the shadows and into the spotlight, he then removes the mask to reveal Cena who then proceeds to beat the shit out of Rowan and Harper as Bray immediately gets the hell out.
• April 7, 2014: The Monday after WrestleMania and it looks like, in a repeat of last year, the Raw audience is back to their cheering ways. Plus the show was just so freaking awesome. They themselves are a CROWD of awesome Let's take a look:
  • Daniel Bryan comes out to the crowd's acclaim and thanks the fans for being behind him only for a very pissed off Triple H coming out to spoil the celebration and challenge him to a title match at the main event.
  • During the presentation for the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal trophy, Cesaro reveals himself to be a Paul Heyman Guy. The best part is? The crowd is behind Cesaro the whole time. Even better? Heyman is cheered by the audience because he's affiliated with Cesaro. This is the same Heyman who gloated on how Brock Lesnar ended Undertaker's streak.
  • The Wyatt Family's match against John Cena, Sheamus and Big E. Langston During Cena's entrance, the crowd starts singing "John Cena sucks" to the tune of John Cena's own theme song. Bray manages to put Sister Abigail on Big E. for the win and the audience is on their side throughout the whole thing chanting "Let's go Wyatts!" and singing "Whole World In His Hands". And the most chilling part is while Bray does his Exorcist crab walk to Big E, the crowd is chanting "BRAY IS GOING TO KILL YOU." Wow. While the faces got a few cheers (Big E) and a plethora of boos (Sheamus and Cena), when the Wyatt Family came in the crowd was clapping in rhythm.
  • Rob Van Dam returns and cleans house with Damien Sandow. The crowd chants "You Still Got It!"
  • Wade Barrett vs Rey Mysterio and for the third year in a row, Barret cleans house with his opponent. Barrett is getting chants of "Bad News Barrett" while Rey gets boos or sometimes no reactions at all. Barrett getting over most faces is pretty clear, getting over Rey Mysterio speaks for itself.
  • Paige comes out to congratulate A.J. Lee on her WrestleMania win. AJ is having none of it, and attacks Paige before challenging her to a match, which she makes a title match. After reversing out of AJ's Black Widow, Paige beats AJ Lee for the Divas' Title, becoming both the current Divas Champion and the NXT Women's Champion!
  • The Ultimate Warrior steps in a WWE ring for the first time in 18 years...which would also be his last... and gave an oddly prophetic and meaningful promo;
    Ultimate Warrior: Every man's heart one day beats its final beat. His lungs breathe their final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others and makes them bleed deeper in others something larger than life, then his essence, and his spirit will be immortalized by the story tellers, by the loyalty, by the memory of those who honor him and make the running the man did live forever. You are the legend makers of Ultimate Warrior. In the back, I see many potential legends, some within their Warrior spirits. And you will do the same for them. You will decide if they will live with passion and intensity, so much so that you will tell your stories and make them legends as well. I am Ultimate Warrior. You are the Ultimate Warrior fans. And the spirit of Ultimate Warrior will run forever.
  • At the main event, Randy Orton, Batista and Kane come out to the ring and beat up Bryan with their finishers before Hunter walks down the ramp. Just when it appears Bryan is about to yet again be screwed out of the title, cue the Shield's theme playing as they walk up to the apron and after a brief standoff, the Shield proceed to waylay the Authority as Bryan hits Trips with the Knee+ to cap off the night. The crowd approves of this, chanting "HOUNDS OF JUSTICE!" and of course "THIS IS AWESOME!!!".
• April 14, 2014:
  • A villainous example. After The Shield has been beaten down by 11 other Superstars, a familiar theme begins to play as Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista appear on stage and walk down to the ring together.
    Triple H: Believe in Evolution!
  • Paige and Alicia Fox have a really solid match, which ends with Paige putting Fox in the Scorpion Crosslock.
• April 28, 2014: As John Cena is questioning the fans about why they turned their back on him, the lights go out and, in one of the creepiest promos in a while, a child starts singing "Whole World In His Hands", the lights then come on to reveal a choir of children singing along. Then The Wyatt Family come out and Bray sings along with the children, culminating in the children surrounding the ring wearing lamb masks, Bray laughing, and Cena broken in the middle of the caged ring.
  • Daniel Bryan saving Brie from Kane during the title match that Stephanie McMahon granted her.
  • Ric Flair comes out and endorses The Shield before Roman Reigns fought Randy Orton. The crowd sticking behind Reigns even though Orton was the hometown boy was also amazing in itself.
• June 30, 2014:
  • At the end of the show, defending champion John Cena is waylaid on the ring floor after a tag team match against Randy Orton and Kane. Seth Rollins, who had won Money in the Bank the previous night, attempts to cash in only for Dean Ambrose to run in and prevent the cash in, chasing Rollins out of the arena while wailing on him. As Triple H and Kane take out their frustrations on Cena, out comes Roman Reigns, Cena's partner for the night, to give a spear to Kane before looking Hunter in the eye, eliciting "THIS IS AWESOME!" chants as the show ends.
  • A.J. Lee returns after 3 months and gives Paige a taste of her own medicine by winning her title back through the same tactic Paige did when she goaded AJ into a title match the night after WrestleMania.
  • Chris Jericho returns to Raw by interrupting The Miz's own return with a Codebreaker. He then starts a "RAW! IS! JERICHO!" shout before getting interrupted by The Wyatt Family, setting up their feud.
• July 7, 2014: Roman Reigns opens the show with a Stone Cold-ish promo where he calls out the Authority, calls Kane "Randy Orton's bitch" to his face, and then, when a group of referees and road agents try to stop them from brawling, he spears Fit Finlay and tosses Jamie Noble aside with one hand before giving Kane the Superman Punch.
• July 21, 2014:
  • We knew it was coming, but Paige's epic Face–Heel Turn against A.J. Lee, with her ferociously attacking AJ when her back was turned, definitely counts as this.
    Paige: THIS IS MY HOUSE NOW!
  • Brock Lesnar makes his return to the WWE since breaking The Undertaker's streak at WrestleMania and shakes hands with Triple H, signifying that he's going to face John Cena at SummerSlam for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
• August 4, 2014: Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins were in a Beat the Clock Challenge to determine who can add a special stipulation for their match at SummerSlam. Earlier in the night, Ambrose won his match with Alberto Del Rio but it lasted for 15 minutes. While Rollins' match with Rob Van Dam is about to begin, it's announced that Van Dam was changed... for Heath Slater, not exactly with the best win-loss record, seemingly giving Rollins the advantage. However, when the match begins, Ambrose arrives ringside, opens Rollins' Money in the Bank briefcase and tear up the contract. He then proceeds to fill it with soda, popcorn, and JBL's hat, shuts it, and swing it around for good measure. Rollins gets so distracted by Ambrose's vandalism that it ends up costing him both the match and the Beat the Clock Challenge. Plus the mere fact that Heath Slater got a win over Seth Rollins is a huge moment for Slater.
• September 15, 2014: John Cena calls out Brock Lesnar by threatening to beat up Paul Heyman. Heyman, of course, tries to get Cena to cross the dark side and hit him, telling him the only way he's gonna beat Lesnar is to become a beast himself. Cena takes the high road and leaves until Heyman makes a remark about Cena's mom. Cena pushes him out of the ring and then Brock's music comes out. After some teasing, the two get to fighting in the ring, with Lesnar hitting a German suplex on Cena, knocking him out. It looks like it's gonna be a repeat of Summerslam until Cena tackles Lesnar to the ground and beats on him until security has to pull Cena off of the champ!
• September 22, 2014: After the main event of John Cena and Randy Orton gets thrown out due to Seth Rollins and Kane getting involved, the trio lay waste to Cena. They pull him to the announce table next to a box, thought to contain the same cinder blocks that Rollins used to seemingly put Dean Ambrose on the injured reserve (as well as a failed attempt to Roman Reigns), only to find that the box doesn't have cinder blocks, only Dean Ambrose. Cue Ambrose damn near beating up the three Authority goons by himself.

2015

• January 12, 2015: The contract signing for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match this upcoming Royal Rumble. At the end of the night, it wasn't Brock Lesnar or John Cena who was standing tall, it was Seth Rollins. To elaborate: after all three men signed the contract, a brawl between Rollins and Cena started. Lesnar interrupted this by delivering yet another German Suplex to Cena. Rollins tried to escape but Lesnar also delivered a German Suplex to him. Cena then got a second wind and proceeded to deliver an Attitude Adjustment to Lesnar through the contract table. In turn, Rollins also got his second wind and kicked Cena in the midsection before delivering a Curb Stomp. Rollins, seeing Lesnar struggling to get up, also decided to deliver a Curb Stomp to him too (the best part about this is Heyman yelling out a NO! when he sees what Rollins was planning to do). The Architect is looking good for that Triple Threat Match. Another great part about the contract signing was Rollins finally deciding to shut Heyman up by telling him that he plans on walking out of the Royal Rumble as the champion.
• January 19, 2015: The Raw Reunion. The whole night was awesome, but the CMOA goes to the end. Sting showed up at the end, helping Cena earn Rowan, Ryback, and Ziggler their jobs again. After the match, Lesnar heads out to the ring to get some payback on Rollins and ends up hitting the F-5 on Kane and Big Show.
• March 9, 2015:
  • Bray Wyatt had been trying to summon The Undertaker for a couple of weeks, so he could have a match against him in WrestleMania. He got a hold of the Urn, and after cutting an awesome promo, he opened up the Urn, and started to taunt that it was empty... and then smoke started to come out of nowhere, and the gong hits. Suddenly, a rocking chair materialized in the middle of the ring, and a Cut-and-Paste Note showed up, saying "The man comes around." And it that wasn't enough, Taker's voice comes out of god damn nowhere, saying "You will... Rest. In. Peace!", and then a lighting bolt comes out of fucking nowhere, striking the chair, and setting it on god damn fire. And what does Bray do after this, you ask? He laughs. Watch the whole ordeal of awesome here.
  • John Cena delivering the most unexpectedly vicious beatdown to Rusev after the latter's curbstomp of Curtis Axel. The best part is Cena's entrance: There's no music, and Cena doesn't say a word or even crack a smile. He just removes his hat and shirt and charges into the ring, whereupon he immediately puts Rusev in a lock and actually gets him to pass out, much like what happened in reverse at Fast Lane. After that, he throws water on Rusev to wake him up, and puts him in another lock and makes him pass out again. Lana has to beg Cena to release him by promising a rematch at WrestleMania. This is the first time Rusev has known defeat, and boy, does Cena deliver.
  • The main event was a 2-on-1 handicap match, Seth Rollins and Randy Orton against Roman Reigns. Standard enough. But Orton had been out for a number of months, thanks to Rollins curb-stomping him. Near the end of the match, Rollins was getting his ass handed to him, so he went over to Orton, who had his hand streached out as if he wanted to tag in. But that's when Orton pulled his hand away. Rollins looked at him, obviously confused, saying "you're just playing!", and Orton responded by Flipping the Bird at Rollins. Bonus points for the camera just catching it before panning down. After costing Rollins the match, Orton proceeds to beat the holy hell out of Rollins.
• March 30, 2015:
  • Brock Lesnar suffers one hell of a Villainous Breakdown after being denied a rematch by the NEW WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Seth Rollins. One poor cameraman gets caught in the crossfire and takes TWO F-5s.
  • Other events on the show include Adrian Neville (now just Neville) making his main roster debut by showing why he's The Man Gravity Forgot in a match against Curtis Axel.
  • John Cena is already one day into his reign as United States Champion by having one hell of a back and forth match with Dean Ambrose.
  • Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler start the show off with a match for the Intercontinental Championship, the two of them having another headbutt war like the previous night. This match also marked the return of Sheamus who comes in with a new look, and a Face–Heel Turn as he lays out Ziggler and Bryan. All he has to say about that is two words: "I'm Back."
• May 4, 2015: Sami Zayn accepting John Cena's US Open Challenge in his hometown of Montreal. Much like Cena's debut against Kurt Angle in 2002, he didn't win but put on a hell of a match against the WWE's top star.
• May 18, 2015: Kevin Owens comes out in response to Cena's US Open Challenge, and promptly one-ups Zayn by delivering an ice-cold Shut Up, Kirk! speech to John Cena, followed by a boot to the gut and a one-shot-KO from a pop-up powerbomb. Owens caps off his debut by literally stomping on the US Championship belt with the NXT Championship belt raised high above his head, and taunting Cena with his own "You Can't See Me" gesture. May double as a Funny Moment when you remember that Owens is Canadian. Of course he'd be disdainful of the US Championship.
• June 8, 2015:
  • J&J Security winning against Seth Rollins. The two moved together like a well-oiled machine and, with the smallest of assistance from Ambrose, surprised everyone by coming out on top.
  • Also from that night, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan bringing back the Dudley Death Drop in a match against Los Matadores.
• July 13, 2015: The Bella Twins and Alicia Fox come down to the ring, then Nikki cuts a promo about her dominance in the Divas division and how she's lacking challenges. Stephanie McMahon agrees and she declares she is giving the division a shot in the arm in the form of Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks. Becky and Charlotte align with Paige, while Sasha teams up with Naomi and Tamina Snuka. Ultimately, this leads to a big brawl with a major highlight being Sasha, Charlotte, and Becky all using their submission finishers at once on "Team Bella."
• July 20, 2015: Paul Heyman has the gall to call out the Undertaker for costing Brock Lesnar the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Battleground. Taker comes out, ready to put a world of hurt on Heyman until the Beast comes out (to which the commentators' reaction was to immediately hightail it from ringside, no doubt remembering what happened the last time Lesnar was this angry) and the two brawl. Security tries to break it up, but no matter what, they just power through to swing at each other. It gets so bad that the entire locker room empties out to keep the two of them apart, even as they're still taking swings at each other in the backstage arena! To put it into perspective: this is probably the first time a crowd has chanted "THIS IS AWESOME" during something that wasn't a match in quite some time. This also prompted a short but sweet badass exchange between the two:
  Brock Lesnar: I WILL KILL YOU!!
  The Undertaker: You're gonna have to!
• August 24, 2015:
  • THE DUDLEY BOYZ ARE BACK! The entire tag team division is put on notice when the Dudleys lay out the current Tag Team Champions, The New Day. Complete with Xavier eating a Dudley Death Drop through a table.
  • Seth Rollins, after beating John Cena for the United States Championship at SummerSlam the previous night thanks to Jon Stewart (It Makes Sense in Context), comes out with Stephanie and Triple H to unveil a statue of him commemorating his accomplishments. Only to unveil Sting. The looks of sheer disbelief on everyone in the ring is a sight to behold, before Sting attacks Rollins and sends him packing, and then holds up the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, indicating just what he's after. Now we get Sting vs Seth Rollins at Night of Champions!
• September 28, 2015: For that night's main event, Roman Reigns looked to finish his business with Bray Wyatt once and for all, calling him out for a one-on-one match. After goading Wyatt into sending his "training wheels" to the back by calling him a little bitch, the two proceeded to have a physical match-up before deciding they want to rip each other apart more than having an actual match. The match ends in a double count out as the two begin to brawl at ringside. Highlights include Wyatt throwing a tech guy as a projectile at Reigns before barreling at him through a barricade. This spawned "THIS IS AWESOME!" chants from the crowd, but it wasn't over yet. As Wyatt stood to gloat right on the announce table, Reigns spears him right through it. Cue "YES!" chants. It was great build up for what is sure to be an epic conclusion to their feud at Hell in a Cell.
• December 7, 2015: The show started off with Sheamus and his League of Nations talking about how badass they are... and then the Wyatt Family shows up. Even before any punches are thrown, the crowd is chanting "THIS IS AWESOME!" Then Team Extreme shows up to introduce their newest member, Rhyno. And then cue Team Roman Reigns. The match ends up being a 16-man Fatal Four Way. Highlights include Braun Strowman powerbombing the Usos who were also suplexing Rusev, colliding with Tommy Dreamer!
• December 14, 2015: Stephanie McMahon is furious about Roman Reigns attacking her husband the night before at TLC. Reigns interrupts her promo. She calls him a disgrace, and Roman fires back, telling her that she and her entire family is a disgrace. She responds by slapping him several times, and then says that she won't fire him because Triple H told her not to, but instead Vince McMahon himself would be doing the honors.
  
  Then Vince McMahon calls out Reigns and demands an apology. Roman, who didn't even bring a mic with him, silently shakes his head no. Vince tells him to get on his hands and knees. He again, with a more defiant look, shakes his head no. Vince then insinuates that he might beat an apology out of him if he were younger. When Reigns' reaction to that is to smirk, Vince decides that The Coats Are Off, when then Sheamus intervenes on Vince's behalf and says that he'll give a match to Reigns for the title later on Raw. Vince refuses, but Reigns snatches the mic away from Vince and goads him into doing it, telling him (paraphrased): "You used to talk about having those big grapefruits, but now they're old, shriveled up prunes". Vince agrees to set the match... under the condition that Reigns will be fired if he loses.
  
  Then in the match itself, and despite interference from Rusev, Del Rio and Vince, all of whom received a Superman Punch for their efforts, Reigns managed to finally win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship for good. The Philadelphia fans, who just 11 months earlier were booing him out of the building, cheered him on the entire night and popped loudly when he won.
  
  Not only did the WWE tease a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match on Raw, but they actually went through on it and completed the match despite all the above shenanigans. The last time this title was won on a non-PPV was in November 2010 when The Miz cashed in Money in the Bank.^note No, as mentioned above, the match between Rey Mysterio and John Cena eight days after Money in the Bank 2011 doesn't count, as CM Punk "left" WWE with the actual championship, and that match was to determine a faux "champion"

2016

• January 4, 2016: Mr. McMahon stacks the odds against Roman Reigns by being the guest referee in his championship match against Sheamus. The match's conclusion as such ends up being a very edge-of-your-sear affair: Reigns decides to change a Spear mid-run into a Superman Punch to McMahon (kudos to Reigns for being able to do so in a single flow) and, after beating Sheamus a bit more, decides to take matters into his own hands with McMahon, when Stephanie McMahon appears to plead to him not to touch her father; Reigns just circumvents the Wouldn't Hit a Girl rule of modern WWE by throwing Mr. McMahon to her, making her fall to the mat. When Reigns is about to give Mr. McMahon a Spear, Sheamus reappers with a Brogue Kick, but Mr. McMahon is still too dazed from the walloping to do the count, so another referee appears, also making a fast count, but Reigns kicks out. The camera then pans to the referee... who turns out to be a very frustrated-looking Scott Armstrong; you know, the same Scott Armstrong that pops in every time The Authority needs a crooked referee. Armstrong then pretty much kills any remaining doubt of him being crooked by holding up Reigns for Sheamus so that he can Brogue Kick him, but Reigns breaks free, Superman Punches Sheamus, Superman Punches Armstrong, and after a Spear, finally manages to pin Sheamus thanks to a third, unbiased referee; John Cone (who gets punched by Mr. McMahon for his troubles). Mr. McMahon gets the last laugh when he says that Roman will be defending his title... against 29 other men in the Royal Rumble! A subsequent rigged draw then forces Reigns to enter at number 1.
• January 11, 2016:
  • Mr. McMahon starts the show declaring that Roman Reigns will face several members of the WWE roster in a "One Versus All match," mocking Reigns's "One Versus All" Catchphrase and as a taste of what's coming to him in the Royal Rumble. It ends up about as one would expect: Reigns' opponents, about 14 heels (including Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Kevin Owens, The New Day, and others) annihilate him, taking turns to attack him. All relatively normal by now, except that Brock freaking Lesnar makes his return,^note Motivated in part by Mr. McMahon's order early in the night that Lesnar must compete in the Royal Rumble match. and the crowd explodes. In short time, he sends Big E, Owens, Del Rio and Sheamus to Suplex City, and caps it off by giving Reigns an F-5.
  • The Social Outcasts (Heath Slater, Adam Rose, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel) challenge The Wyatt Family to a match. The crowd and even Bray Wyatt started cracking up, since the Outcasts are made of joke wrestlers. But when the actual match happened, the Social Outcasts actually held their own, winning over the crowd. Ryback interrupted the match and attacked the Wyatts, but the Social Outcasts proved that they weren't jokes.
• January 25, 2016:
  • A bunch of impersonators (of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, The Rock and Undertaker) get front row seats in line with the hard camera, and are seen hamming it up during various segments of the show. Of course, the WWE doesn't like them detracting from the show and forces them to move towards the opposite side of the arena. Everyone thinks that's the end of them until the real Rocky shows up and declares to the audience: "TIME TO GO OFF THE SCRIPT!" And there's nothing that Vince can do from preventing Rocky having fun with the impersonators!
  • AJ Styles won his Raw debut match, and it was against Chris Jericho.
• February 22, 2016
  • The episode opens with Vince McMahon wanting to give someone the "Vincent James McMahon Legacy of Excellence Award", announcing that the recipient will be... his daughter Stephanie. As she's about to launch into her speech, however, something plays that hadn't been heard on WWE programming for six years: "Here comes the moneyyyyy! Here we go, money talks!" This gets a tremendous pop from the crowd,^note Notably, despite it being the PG era, the "Holy shit!" chant is left unbleeped on the Network and Shane McMahon has to wipe away some Manly Tears at the warm reception before refusing to so much as shake his father's hand, and explaining why he's there - to assume control of RAW, as Stephanie had been "running this company into the ground". Vince, owing Shane a favor for bailing him out "a few years ago", obliges his demand, provided Shane is willing to have "One match, one night", against an opponent of Vince's choosing.
    Vince McMahon: And the place and the time is gonna be... WrestleMania! And your opponent is gonna be... The Undertaker! Just so you can't take your ball and run home like you have before, this match will be in HELL. IN A CELL.
  • Closing out the episode was a brawl between Triple H and Roman Reigns. Hunter beats Roman pillar to post and gives him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that leaves Roman bloody on the floor. Just to add insult to injury, he Pedigrees Roman on the steps.
  • After being assaulted and nearly hospitalized by Brock Lesnar before Raw started, Dean Ambrose hijacks an ambulance, drives back to the arena, and literally drags his body to the ring to confront Lesnar. Lesnar, feeling pity perhaps, simply disrespects him by stepping on his head and walking over his body to leave — only to stop in his tracks after Ambrose calls him out, telling him to kiss his ass and challenging Lesnar to a No Holds Barred Street Fight at WrestleMania. Ambrose eats an F-5, but his challenge is accepted, and he can be seen smiling afterwards.
• April 4, 2016: The Raw after WrestleMania continues a chain of excellence and debuts.
  • Mr. McMahon appears to gloat about his son Shane's defeat the previous night before he's interrupted by Shane himself, who offered a handshake to his father following his loss the previous night. Once again, Shane receives adoration from the live audience, and when Shane went to depart the arena, Vince, mad at Shane for upstaging him, decides to grant Shane control of Raw for one night only!
  • The League of Nations kicks out King Barrett after he and Sheamus lose a WrestleMania rematch for the WWE Tag Team Championship against The New Day. Afterwards, The Wyatt Family's video flashes on the screen and the lights go out. When they come back on, The Wyatt Family is viciously attacking The League of Nations!
  • Baron Corbin makes his main roster debut, facing Dolph Ziggler. The match ends in a double countout after Corbin sent Ziggler into the live crowd. He then proceeded to deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Ziggler, ending with the End of Days.
  • After the Dudley Boyz defeat the Usos in a Tables match, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady make their debut by basically roasting the Dudleys in the only way they can.
  • Earlier in the night, a Fatal Four-Way match for the #1 contender to Roman Reigns' championship was set up between Chris Jericho, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. However, close to the main event, Zayn was attacked by Owens, rendering him unable to compete in the match. The match was still, however, a fatal four-way, as Zayn was replaced with a returning Cesaro! Then there's the ending of the match, when Jericho and Styles basically recreate the ending of their WrestleMania match, except that this time Styles kicks out; and catches Jericho in the Styles Clash for the win!
• April 11, 2016:
  • Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows make their debut in WWE (well, return for Gallows) attacking the Usos, applying their finishing move from their Bullet Club days in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Magic Killer, on Jimmy (and the commentators actually do call it Magic Killer), and just give an absolute beatdown on them while the commentators put them over mentioning how they dominated the Japanese tag team scene.
  • Since Sami Zayn got screwed out of an opportunity to fight for the #1 contender at the last week's Raw, Shane McMahon has him in a match against AJ Styles where if Zayn wins, he gets inserted in Styles' championship match. To make sure it's fair, he has Kevin Owens escorted out of the building by security so he doesn't interfere. It's a match worthy of NXT as the two go back and forth before AJ wins.
• May 30, 2016: John Cena makes his return after being injured with a rotator cuff injury. After a heartfelt Memorial Day speech, AJ Styles comes out to congratulate him and before he can even speak, the crowd spends several minutes in dueling chants of "LET'S GO CENA!" and "AJ STYLES!". Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows come out, calling AJ a sellout and kiss-ass for buddying up to Cena and looking for a fight. Him and Cena are ready for a fight....and then AJ immediately makes a Face–Heel Turn as the Club reunites to give Cena a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. And then AJ runs back into the ring twice just to kick Cena's ass some more. The whole segment is a hell of a ride.
• July 25, 2016:
  • Two Fatal 4-Way matches are held to determine the number 1 contender to wrestle Seth Rollins for the newly created Universal Championship at SummerSlam. On one end is Rusev, Cesaro, Kevin Owens and Finn Bálor. The other end is Roman Reigns, Sheamus, Sami Zayn and Chris Jericho. The main event boils down to Bálor vs. Reigns, the two of them going back and forth, with Bálor picking the win over Roman Reigns.
  • On the Women's side, Sasha Banks finally gets her match against Charlotte for the Women's title. Taking a page out of Eddie Guerrero's playbook, Sasha fakes getting attacked by Dana Brooke with the title belt. One big moment involved Charlotte hitting Sasha with a moonsault outside of the ring, evoking a "HOLY SHIT!" chant from the crowd. The finish comes from Sasha making Charlotte tap to the Bank Statement and becoming the new Women's Champion.
• August 29, 2016: The main event of the night is a four way elimination match for the vacated Universal Title between Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens and Big Cass. During the final minutes of the match, Triple H makes his first appearance since WrestleMania by knocking out Roman Reigns and setting him up for Seth to pin. He bring Owens into the ring where it looks like he's gonna set him up for Seth...until turning around and Pedigreeing Seth, allowing Owens to get the pin and become the new Universal Champion.
• October 3, 2016: The main event is a Women's Title match between Sasha Banks challenging Charlotte. Before the match, Dana Brooke had gotten into Bayley's face and paid for it by getting slammed into equipment, taking her out of Charlotte's corner. The two fight each other like they're back in NXT. The two of them work each over back and forth, with one spectacular spot being Charlotte hitting Sasha outside the ring with a corkscrew moonsault! Even after hitting her with Natural Selection, Sasha kicks out, just about making Charlotte have a Villainous Breakdown, yelling that Sasha will never beat her, screaming at her to stay down. Sasha soon gets Charlotte into the Bank Statement, winning her second Raw Women's Championship.
• October 17, 2016: After 12 years, Goldberg returns to the WWE to a hero's welcome, cuts arguably one of his best promos ever, and accepts Brock Lesnar's challenge.

  Goldberg: So, Brock Lesnar... not only does this mean that you're next, but most importantly, it means that, Brock Lesnar, YOU'RE LAST!

2017

• January 23, 2017: The go home Raw before the Royal Rumble. Goldberg cuts a promo about how he's going to win the Rumble and headline WrestleMania before being interrupted by Paul Heyman. And not too far from his handler, the Beast Brock Lesnar arrives. The two have a staredown when the lights go out and an all too familiar funeral bell plays. The lights come back up, and The Undertaker is in the ring, ending Raw with a three way staredown between three huge stars to set up the Rumble.
• January 30, 2017: Seth Rollins comes down to the ring to confront Triple H, having been calling him out ever since last August when he screwed Seth out of the Universal Title. Just as he's about to get to Hunter, Samoa Joe proceeds to make his main roster debut by beating Seth up and down the ring, then choking him out with the Coquina Clutch with the audience chanting "JOE'S GONNA KILL YOU!"
• March 13, 2017: Earlier in the night, Stephanie McMahon had given Mick Foley a task: Peruse the Raw roster and find someone to fire. Keep in mind that this was three weeks before WrestleMania. Foley struggled with it all night, until the final segment, in which Stephanie called Foley out to the ring to name the person getting fired. Foley does so...and names Stephanie. He begins to lay into her with a fantastic "The Reason You Suck" Speech, and at one point when she cuts in to try to cut him down, Foley interrupts with a yell of "I WILL NOT BE SILENCED!" It takes nothing less than the entrance of Triple H to get Foley to pause. Hunter then starts to lay into Foley, with Foley rebutting everything he says — until HHH brings up Foley's grown children, both of whom are employed by WWE. That seems to cow him. Trips tells Foley to leave the ring, and he seems to comply — until he stops at the corner and reaches for his pants. HHH notices something's up and confronts Foley — only to eat a Mandible Claw. Stephanie interrupts it with a low blow, but before they can do anything else — enter Seth Rollins. He hobbles down to ringside with a crutch, then stops, drops the crutch, unzips his jacket to reveal an awesome new "Kingslayer" T-shirt, and dives into the ring to attack HHH. Bear in mind this is five weeks after he tore his MCL during the above Samoa Joe debut. Before this, the diagnosis was eight.
• April 3, 2017: The Raw after WrestleMania.
  • The show starts with the crowd chanting Undertaker's name until Roman Reigns comes out, the crowd throwing white hot heat at him. He could not speak for 15 minutes, the crowd chanting not just "DELETE," but things like "FUCK YOU ROMAN" and "FUCK OFF!" When he got to talk he cut one of his best promos in just a sentence "This is my yard now."
  • Later in the same episode, Vince McMahon showed up to address the problem of Raw not having an authority figure, since Stephanie McMahon had taken a bump through a table the previous night and Mick Foley was fired a few weeks prior. His choice? KURT. ANGLE. Oh, it's true! It's DAMN true!
  • Then, The New Day were in the ring (with Xavier and Kofi wearing shoulder pads like The Road Warriors, except in pastel colors and with ice cream cones instead of spikes) lamenting the fact that they didn't have a match at WrestleMania 33 the previous night. So they issued an open challenge to any tag team in the locker room. The next thing we hear: SAY YEAAAH! Enter The Revival, making their official main roster debut, to answer the call of the New Day.
  • Finally, the main event was set to feature Seth Rollins and Chris Jericho taking on Samoa Joe and Kevin Owens in a tag team match. However, before the match could get under way, Joe and KO attacked Y2J during a backstage interview, leaving him too injured to compete. Angle assured Rollins he'd have a partner for the match, and once it came around, we saw who it was: Finn Balor, FINALLY making his long-awaited return. Balor would score the win here, hitting KO with the Coup de Grâce, and have his hand raised in victory by his partner.
• May 1, 2017: Seth Rollins, The Miz, and Finn Balor put on a blistering main event for the #1 contendership to the Intercontinental Championship. Rollins and Balor had their own awesome moments in the match, with Rollins pulling out a superplex and going straight into a falcon arrow, and Balor tossing the Miz to Rollins, who catches the Miz with his head under his arm, then dropkicks Rollins in the chest, causing Rollins to inadvertently DDT the Miz. And the match's ending, with Samoa Joe interfering to take out Rollins and Bray Wyatt interfering to take out Balor and giving the Miz the win, only added to the experience as it help establish three big-name rivalries going into the next Raw PPV.
• September 4, 2017: Big Show vs. Braun Strowman in a steel cage. The "Holy Shit!" Quotient went off the charts as 800 pounds of wrestler were being thrown about the ring, culminating in Strowman putting Show through the steel cage after the match had ended.
• October 9th, 2017: The Miz has been taunting Roman Reigns for several weeks, and his new allies have been beating down on Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. Miz is celebrating his victories over all three of them individually, and, when Roman comes out, he decides to call him out on the rumors about a reunion of The Shield. Roman Reigns just looks at him smugly, before delivering one heck of a Wham Line in response...
  Roman Reigns: Who said anything about rumors?
  Dean Ambrose's music starts up...
  ...followed by Seth Rollins's
• December 4, 2017: It finally happened. Matt Hardy is BROKEN once again!
• December 18, 2017: Stephanie McMahon interrupting a large argument to announce the first all-women's Royal Rumble match.
  Stephanie: What do you say, ladies, you make history once again?

2018

• February 19, 2018: The first two hours of Raw is a gauntlet match of all seven participants of the men's Elimination Chamber, becoming the longest match ever broadcast on Raw. While Braun Strowman was the last man standing after pinning the Miz and utterly destroying him and the Miztourage, the real MVP is Seth Rollins who fought two hard matches back to back against Roman Reigns and John Cena back to back! By the time he was finally pinned by Elias, he had wrestled for 1 hour and 5 minutes, the longest on record since Rey Mysterio’s Royal Rumble win, and on Raw period.
• April 9, 2018: The night after WrestleMania is always filled with pure insanity and this one did not disappoint.
  • Stephanie McMahon, sporting an arm sling, walks out at the start to enormous boos from the crowd. After several minutes admitting her defeat and trying to downplay her loss the previous night, McMahon invites Ronda Rousey for a truce. After embracing McMahon, Rousey's smile immediately turns into a scowl, drops her and applies an armbar to Stephanie once again to a thunderous reaction.
  • The newly crowned Raw Women's Champion Nia Jax came down for a tag team match to a huge pop and a massive series of "You deserve it!" chants. Alexa Bliss and Mickie James walked down the ramp to shockingly loud boos. After mocking Jax for not having a partner, she corrected them and said that she did: the debuting Ember Moon. Jax and Ember win after Alexa eats an Eclipse (Ember's finisher).
• November 12, 2018: Just a week before Survivor Series, SmackDown Women's Championship Becky Lynch led an attack on the Raw locker room. As Team Raw were in the ring follwing the final match, the camera shifted to backstage where Becky had Ronda Rousey in the Dis-Arm-Her before entering the arena. This is followed by Team SmackDown coming from behind and attacked Team Raw where the Blue Brand showed dominance against their rival. During the brawl, Becky suffered a legitimate broken nose after being punched by Nia Jax, causing her nose to bleed but that didn't stop her at all. Ronda then charged into the ring and took on anyone who get in her way until Becky beat her up with a steel chair. As the invaders left through the crowd, Becky stood proudly with a bloody nose, mimicking the iconic image of a bloodied "Stone Cold" Steve Austin during his match with Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13. With her popularity already sky rocketing into outer space, this event without a doubt put Becky in the pages of history and made it difficult for WWE to overlook her now.

2022

• March 7, 2022: Say what you will about how WWE treats its tag teams, but the Triple Threat Tag Team Match between Alpha Academy, RK-Bro, and Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens was a masterclass of tag psychology as each team jelled well with each other and their partners. The big highlight however was Randy Orton giving another all-time amazing RKO outta nowhere by catching Chad Gable in one in the middle of a moonsault! The crowd and commentary were understandable freaked out in awe at the sight, as it seems the legendary Shooting Star-KO to Evan Bourne had finally been dethroned.

2023

• February 13, 2023: The go-home show before Elimination Chamber saw Sami Zayn, who had grown into one of the hottest babyfaces in recent memory after his betrayal of The Bloodline and was going into the show and his hometown of Montreal as challenger to Roman Reigns, and Cody Rhodes, who had won the Royal Rumble and was poised to challenge for the title himself at WrestleMania, come face to face. Instead of bickering over who will defeat Roman, both play into the audience's desire to see them both succeed and acknowledge each other's drive and desire to dethrone The Tribal Chief in an amazing showing of promos from both. Sami's underdog status along with Cody's impassioned style lend amazingly well, with Cody telling Sami to his face to "finish his story", which sends the Brooklyn crowd into a frenzy and lights a spark in Sami not seen since his NXT days. It has to be seen to be believed.
• April 24, 2023: Ten years after its retirement and twenty years on from the day Eric Bischoff officially transferred its lineage over from WCW, the World Heavyweight Championship is back, reintroduced by its inaugural and most iconic titleholder, Triple H.
• November 6, 2023: Adam Pearce, fed up with all the games being played between The Judgment Day and the quartet of Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Sami Zayn, and Jey Uso, announces that the eight men will participate in a WarGames match at the upcoming Survivor Series.

  Adam Pearce: You wanna play games? We're gonna play games, in Chicago, at Survivor Series, (Pearce removes his glasses at this point) IN WARGAMES!

• November 13, 2023: The eight men collide again, during which JD McDonagh takes a spear meant for Damian Priest. Pearce announces that Sami, Seth, JD, and Dominik are banned from the arena for the tag team title match where Damian and Finn defend the titles against Cody and Jey. There's still interference in the match, but in the form of Drew McIntyre completing a Face–Heel Turn stemming from issues with Uso dating back to a prior feud with The Bloodline. Drew is later added to Judgment Day's team in the WarGames match, upgrading it to a 5-on-5 while maintaining Judgment Day's team being the faction plus an extra man (as Damian promoted JD to an official member in a backstage segment in between the early brawl and the title match).
• November 20, 2023: After Judgment Day's team won the 'advantage' for the WarGames match, another brawl breaks out in which Cody, Seth, and Sami rush to Jey's aid while armed with steel chairs. Cody then reveals he's found a fifth man for his team: Randy Orton. Notably, Cody never actually name-drops Randy; the crowd deduced it to be Orton via two clues Cody gave.

  Cody's first clue: Somebody that I have a Legacy with.^note From the second half of 2008 through to the run up to WrestleMania 26 Cody was part of the Legacy faction, led by Orton

  Cody's second clue: Did you not know that with us, is the Apex Predator?^note One of Randy's titles is the Apex Predator
  (the crowd realizes Cody's referring to Orton and start chanting his name)

  Cody's third clue, in response to the chanting: You're not just hearing voices inside your head.^note hearing voices in one's head is the opening line of Orton's theme "Voices".

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