The Shimmy 12.10.07: My Favorite Raw Moments

Posted by Andy Clark on 12.10.2007

With Raw XV taking place tonight, The Shimmy looks back at some of the best moments in Monday Night Raw's 15 year history!

Howdy, folks. Is everybody ready for Raw's big 15th Anniversary tonight? I know I am. In honor of that big show I present to you my favorite Raw moments (at least from when I started watching the show back in 1999). My arm is hurting me right now, so let's get started!

The Rock & Big Show Fool Us All

When I first started watching wrestling I was a big fan of the Corporation. They had my favorite wrestler The Rock as the champion, the minds of Vince & Shane McMahon, the experience of Patterson & Brisco and all the muscle you needed. Kane, Ken Shamrock, Big Boss Man, Test, and even Chyna filled out a very impressive group. Then the Corporation added Big Show, fresh from WCW, as The Rock's personal bodyguard heading into WrestleMania XV. From day one there was tension between the two and it all culminated on one episode of Raw where the two men were set to do battle. Mick Foley, auditioning for the job as special referee at WrestleMania, announced himself as the guest referee for this match. The Rock and Big Show stared each other down and then Big Show pie-faced the Brahma Bull. Things were about to explode when…BAM! Down goes Foley! The Rock and Big Show double teamed Mick Foley as Shane McMahon laughed on commentary. They had fooled us all, and the Corporation was once again riding high!

Chris Jericho Debuts

I had never really followed Chris Jericho in WCW so I wasn't too familiar with his abilities or his character. And being as this was before I had internet I didn't know that the Millennium Countdown clock was all about him. Needless to say I was intrigued as to what this countdown meant. When the time had come and the clock went down to zero, the now-familiar opening of "Break the Walls Down" played and the giant word "JERICHO" flashed up onto the Titan Tron. The crowd response for that word was unbelievable. Y2J came out on the ramp and welcomed himself to the WWE and even running down The Rock who was in the ring. Of course The Rock wasn't going to have any of that, tearing the newcomer down. Even with The Rock's response, this is still the benchmark for big time debuts/returns.

Chyna Wins her Shot

On the same night of Raw, Triple H was forced to defend his No. 1 Contender's spot against Undertaker and his manager Chyna in a Triple Threat Match. Triple H obviously thought that Chyna would just let him win but the Ninth Wonder of the World had other ideas. Thanks to a hand from WWE Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chyna walked away from the night as the new No. 1 Contender. At the time I really thought they were going to put the belt on Chyna, and back then it didn't sound as crazy as it does now. Of course Chyna would lose the No. 1 Contender's spot the next week on Raw, but she still had this big moment in her career.

Mr. McMahon Makes his Return (Part I)

After Undertaker lost the First Blood, End of an Era match to Stone Cold Steve Austin at Fully Loaded, Mr. McMahon had been forced to remain off camera. It was implied that he was still running things backstage but the Mr. McMahon character was no longer harassing superstars. That is, until the night Triple H threatened to hit his wife Linda with a sledgehammer. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Linda's regular defender, was out of the arena and it looked like Triple H might follow through on his promise. Then the chords of "No Chance in Hell" hit and out came the chairman of the WWE, power walking his way to the ring. This would be one of the rare times that Vince would actually defend Linda, and it also set up Mr. McMahon's WWE Title win on SmackDown later that week.

The Rock'n'Sock Connection is Born

How can you not love this? After trying to kill each other earlier in the year, The Rock and Mick Foley found themselves with common enemies in Undertaker & Big Show. While The Rock would typically go it alone, Foley pleaded with him to team together, for the good of the people. The Rock reluctantly agreed so long as Foley didn't steal his catchphrases (a deal Foley would certainly not keep). Later that night Rock and Foley would challenge Taker & Big Show for their World Tag Team Titles. During the match Undertaker would walk out on his partner, leaving Big Show prey to a double People's Elbow from the unlikely partners. Three seconds later and we had new World Tag Team Champion and The Rock'n'Sock Connection was born.

The Radicalz Debut

This show started innocently enough with the New Age Outlaws defending their World Tag Team Titles against Head Cheese in the opening match. As the match was getting underway, though, four men sat down in the front row. These men would be Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko, and the unbeaten WCW Champion Chris Benoit. Days earlier these four men had walked out of WCW together and apparently had come to join the competition. The Monday Night Wars were chock full of people jumping from one organization to another, but I don't think there was a move that was a jump that was this surprising and with this many people throughout those years.

The Big Ten Man Tag

As it turned out The Radicalz were there as friends of Mick Foley. Unfortunately for Foley, he didn't have the power to sign them to WWE contracts. That power laid in the hands of Foley's arch-nemesis Triple H, who was running things as part of the McMahon-Helmsley Fact-gime. As such The Radicalz would turn on Foley in the hopes of getting jobs. This would set up a big Ten Man Tag Team Match for the main event of Raw, pitting Triple H, X-Pac, Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, & Dean Malenko (with an injured Eddie Guerrero at ringside) against Foley and any four partners he could scrounge up. As the night wore on Foley's search for partners wasn't going very well. He managed to turn to his Rock'n'Sock Connection partner The Rock for help, but heading out to the ring for the match it was still only those two. Then some familiar dance music hit the PA and Rikishi and Too Cool hit the ring, volunteering as Foley's other three partners. The match was chaotic and eventually saw Triple H score the pin. After the match was over the New Age Outlaws ran down with lead pipes and helped their DX teammates and the Radicalz beat down on Foley and company. Suddenly, the lights went out and a large red ball appeared on the stage. Wait, that's no ball! It's Paul Bearer! And he didn't come alone! Fire erupted from the ringposts as Kane made his return from an injury and cleared the ring. Kane, Bearer, Foley, Rock, Rikishi, and Too Cool stood tall in the ring as the show closed.

Mr. McMahon Makes his Return (Part II)

As Triple H and Stephanie McMahon ran things on Raw, Mr. McMahon had been at home, sulking over the loss of his baby girl. Meanwhile The Rock had been left alone to fight off the McMahon-Helmsley Fact-gime. He had been screwed out of his WrestleMania title shot by Shane McMahon, and Big Show now had that shot. The Rock had convinced Big Show to put his title shot on the line one more time, with the stipulation that The Rock would not receive any title shots if he lost. Thanks to Shane McMahon's officiating it looked like The Rock would come up short yet again. As the match was going on a limo pulled up in the back. Out stepped a returning Mr. McMahon who marched towards the ring, ready to right the wrongs of his family. Triple H attempted to cut of McMahon, but the boss just dropped him with a right hand. Once he made it to the ring there was another right hand in store for Shane, just in time for The Rock to deliver the Rock Bottom to Big Show. Mr. McMahon himself took over officiating and counted the 1-2-3 for the People's Champ.

Commissioner Foley!

Following King of the Ring 2000 the leadership in WWE was in disarray. Mr. McMahon had gone back to Greenwich, Connecticut to be a "genetic jackhammer" and Shawn Michaels had given up the job of Commissioner due to the fact that he was rarely at the shows. This lead a vacancy at the top of the WWE, a vacancy that would be filled by the three-time former WWE Champion and best-selling author Mick Foley. Foley would bring a sense of fun to the WWE, as evidenced by his first night on the job when he finally managed to get The Rock with his own "It doesn't matter!" It was definitely good for Mick Foley to right here on Monday Night Raw, yeah!

The Simulcast

The night the war ended. Vince McMahon had purchased his competition WCW and on this historic night addressed the viewing public on both Monday Night Raw and WCW Monday Nitro. While he did flub his lines ("…everyone watching on TNN and…TNN") it was still a historic moment. Perhaps even more historic was Shane McMahon arriving live at Nitro and declaring that it was he, not Vince, that had purchased WCW (in kayfabe terms of course). This is one of the biggest nights in the history of professional wrestling.

The Canadian Chrises vs. The Two-Man Power Trip

This is largely regarded as one of the best matches in Raw's history. Stone Cold Steve Austin & Triple H were the dominant World Tag Team Champions and Chris Jericho & Chris Benoit were former rivals that had come together a night earlier to win the No. 1 Contender's Tag Team Turmoil Match. This match is mainly known as being the match that Triple H suffered his first quad injury, but it was also one hell of a match. It's a shame WWE is still dealing with the Chris Benoit tragedy because this match deserves to be on the Best of Raw DVD (a great looking DVD available on December 26).

ECW Returns! (the first time)

With WWE now owning WCW it was only a matter of time before WCW invaded WWE. As part of this new war a tag team match was scheduled between WWE's Chris Jericho & Kane against WCW's Lance Storm & Mike Awesome. Jericho & Kane had the match going there way until two of WCW newest signees Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer arrived to attack them. The four men beat down the two WWE superstars until a group of WWE reinforcements arrived. Tazz, Raven, Rhyno, Justin Credible, and the Dudley Boyz all came down to the ring to defend their comrades…unfortunately those comrades turned out not to be Jericho and Kane. They aligned themselves with RVD, Dreamer, Storm, and Awesome and it became apparent that these men did not represent WCW at all. Paul Heyman would leave his position on color commentary and proclaim what was quickly becoming apparent: ECW was back! Unfortunately later in the night ECW would join forces with WCW to form The Alliance, but nothing can taint the cool factor of that initial reformation.

Singin' with The Rock & Stone Cold

This is one of my favorite Raw moments. At Survivor Series 2001 The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin were set to lead their teams into battle. But before the PPV came around the two rivals decided to mark the occasion with a song. Stone Cold started off the festivities with his version of "Delta Dawn" and The Rock followed up with his rendition of "The Gambler." The two men finished with a duet of "Margaritaville." I don't have any idea who decided it would be a good idea to let these two guys go out there and sing days before a big grudge match, but it's still one of my favorite Raw moments. Great stuff.

RVD vs. Eddie Guerrero: The Ladder Match

For the longest time I considered this my favorite match, and it's probably my second favorite nowadays. This is an incredible match, definitely one of the best Raw matches ever. There isn't much to say other than this match is great, and if you haven't seen it go out of your way to do so. Try and get the unedited version so you can see the dumbass fan that nearly ruined the match by running in and knocking Eddie off the ladder.

Climb the Ladder, Kid!

When they first booked Undertaker vs. Jeff Hardy in a Ladder Match for the WWE Title I really wasn't that impressed. I didn't think Taker could hang in a Ladder Match and Jeff Hardy was pretty far removed from the WWE Title picture. No way this thing is interesting, right? Wrong. This was one of the best matches of 2002 (which says a lot) and it was one of the most dramatic matches in Raw history as well. No one gave Jeff Hardy a chance at winning this match coming in, but by the end of the match a lot of people were convinced. Jeff Hardy made a believer out of everyone in this match, and JR's call of the match made it that much more special. It was also a cool moment to see Undertaker give Jeff his props after the match. This is probably the best non-upset that I can remember.

"I've been waiting for this for a long time…"

Another favorite moment of mine. WWE had done an excellent job of the slow burn face turn for Batista, and now it was time to declare what championship he wanted to go after at WrestleMania 21: SmackDown's WWE Title held by JBL, or Raw' World Heavyweight Title, held by Batista's Evolution leader Triple H. Batista held both World Title contracts in his hand and Triple H and Ric Flair looked on intently. Batista looked at the contracts and tossed down the Raw contract, apparently deciding to head to SmackDown. Triple H and Flair gave Batista the thumbs up in approval and Batista returned the favor. Then, in a nod to Triple H's thumbs down months earlier when Evolution booted Randy Orton out of the group, Batista gave a thumbs down of his own. Realizing what this meant Triple H called Batista a "son of a bitch" and charged at his now former partner. Batista cut him off, Batista Bombed Triple H through a table, and signed the Raw contract. This was a great segment and one of the best WrestleMania set-up segments in recent memory.

The Debate

This is an unsung gem of a segment. Muhammad Hassan & Daivari were set to have a debate with JR & Jerry Lawler. As was the case with most of Muhammad Hassan's run, his opposition made complete ignorant asses out of themselves. Hassan attempted to maintain a sense of decorum, but eventually he went over the edge. Hassan and Daivari went on to beat down the Raw commentators. Hassan took of Lawlers belt and beat him with the metal buckle and then choked out JR with it. Lawler attempted to get back into the fight but he was too beaten to do anything. The heat for this segment was incredibly, and even though a lot of that heat was all for the wrong reasons, but this was a star making segment for Hassan.

Vince Goes to Church

You either loved or hated this segment. In April 2006 Mr. McMahon was at war with Shawn Michaels, and more specifically Shawn Michaels' tag team partner God. In order to scout his opposition Mr. McMahon and Shane went to a church to talk some trash. Mr. McMahon showed his obvious lack of church etiquette, and Shane McMahon absolutely made the segment by being Mr. McMahon's incredulous accomplice. The best part was Mr. McMahon slurping up a mouthful of Holy Water and spitting it out, proclaiming "Shane, who am I?" in an obvious play on Triple H's entrance.

Shriveled Up Monkey Penis

The Rock has not had a match since 2004, and the last time he was actually in an arena was during a Diva Search segment later that year. Needless to say I think many wrestling fans were going through Rock withdrawals. Well, with the Battle of the Billionaires Match coming up at WrestleMania 23 everyone wanted their chance to chime in…including the People's Champ. Being half black and half Samoan The Rock decided to let us all in on a Samoan secret: Umaga is actually Samoan for shriveled up monkey penis. Really, Vince, how are you going to beat Bobby Lashley with a shriveled up monkey penis? Even though this was only a taped segment, seeing The Rock back on Monday nights was a welcome sight. Here's hoping we get to see some more of The Rock tonight.

Going the Distance

When John Cena and Shawn Michaels went out for their WrestleMania rematch at 10:00 I'm sure many people expected there to be some sort of screwy finish. After all, why else wouldn't it go in the main event spot? To the surprise of everyone it did have the main event spot. And the 10:00 main event spot. And the 10:45 filler spot. For 56 minutes Cena and Shawn Michaels fought in an epic match. This is many people's Match of the Year (it got my vote) and deservedly so. While the finish wasn't quite as fast and furious as their WrestleMania match, the bulk of the match was significantly more interesting. If there were any doubters out there about John Cena's wrestling ability this match should have quieted them. I don't know if we'll ever see a non-Iron Man Match ever get this much time on free TV again, but if we don't we at least have this great match to remember.

Andy! Andy! At Last You Have Some Feedback!

16seconds writes:

long time reader first time writer:

Jericho vs Kennedy in 2 out of 3 falls.
After Jericho is eliminated from the rumble, kennedy gets in his face about how the one who should be saving the wwe is mrr........'WILL YOU PLEASE......SHUT...YOUR MOUTH" and jericho is sidetracked as micheals finishd business with orton and orton gets his fued with hhh finally all at once, as
Micheals wins the rumble and hunter turns on him [yet agian, while still staying semi face, somehow...?] I'd watch Kennedy and Jericho go at it verbally and physically.

Jericho goes over with a Codebreaker off the top turnbuckle..

Tag Team Elimination Match for Consolidation of the Belts:
Cade and Murdoch w/ Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly vs. "Fighting Irish" Fit Finly and Dave Talyor w/ Gregory Helms and Kenny Dykstra. First team to get a pinfall advances to an immediate match between that brand's respective two teams. The team that win's takes the belts to their brand, with brand vs brand matches at future ppv's. I'd go with sending it to smackdown initially.

ECW Hvt Belt:
Punk vs Morrison w/ Benjamin at ringside.
Morrison goes over after his bodyguard Shelton superkicks a chair into punks face with the ref down.

MVP vs Ric Flair [Flairs last match]

After 18 minutes of classic flair and strong mvp stylin and ballin, MVP gets Flair caught in the ropes and attacks his knee, only for flair to slip in a figure four out of a sneaky rollup, which mvp reverses into his own figure four for flair to tap out after fighting it for several minutes. Flair goes out in style, MVP gets another great rub and gets build up promos agianst one of the best mic holders ever, he can play the cool confident heel saying the passing of the torch is now, flair can say mvp may or may not win, but he will have to break flair and pry the torch from his dead hands.

after the match mpv stares at flair for several minutes. he offers his hand, and raises flairs, face blank, before rolling out and walking to te back with his own arms up, flair soaks up the cheers.

Diva Battle Royal:
whoever . I don't care. you know they have it. bathroom break.

MITB Match: Tommy Dreamer, Big Daddy V, Charlie Hass, Paul London, Jeff Hardy [IC holder], Kane, Matt Hardy, Rey Mysterio

Smackdown Hvt Belt:
Taker Vs Edge in a Last Man Standing. Streak vs Streak
edge in 28 after 2 chair shots, a urn shot, and a spear through a table.


main event: Raw heavyweight belt
hhh vs orton vs micheals
micheals superkicks orton afetr he rkos hunter, falls on hunter to win in 34 minutes
afterwards jericho comes out, shakes his hand...and gives him the codebreaker and turns heel,
saying micheals screwed him at the rumble out of his chance for the belt when he superkicked him over the ropes when orton ducked.

keep up the good work!

I like some things (mainly Jericho-Kennedy) and in theory I really like the Last Man Standing stip for Edge-Taker, but I think they can do well with just a one-on-one match for their first meeting. Jericho turning heel on Michaels wouldn't be bad either, but I'd save it for the night after WrestleMania, not on WrestleMania itself. Oh, and Charlie Haas has no business wrestling on a WrestleMania card without Shelton Benjmain.

The Shimmy Likes It Raw!

What's on tap for tonight's big Raw XV?

Legends Return! Officially announced for the show are Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Eric Bischoff, Trish Stratus, Lita, and Sunny. There are also plenty of smaller names that have been bandied about unofficially including 2 Cold Scorpio (no doubt as Flash Funk), Haku, Bart Gunn, Gangrel, and Jim Neidhart.

Evolution Reunion; After having broken up for good in 2005, Evolution will be together again in one ring as Triple H, Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Batista will all be back for Raw's 15th Anniversary.

Intercontinental Title, Ladder Match: Jeff Hardy© vs. Carlito; In honor of the great Ladder Matches in Raw's past we are treated to this one. Carlito may not have been particularly exciting to watch lately, but if there is any match that he can shine in it should be a Ladder Match. Jeff Hardy looks to be moving up to the main event and Carlito recently decided to stay with the company so I wouldn't be surprised to see a title change here.

McMahon Family Portrait: Mr. McMahon, Linda McMahon, Shane McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, and Hornswoggle McMahon will all be in the house for a family portrait. The last time the McMahons were all together on a big Raw Stone Cold delivered Stunners to the whole family. Will their luck change now that they have a leprechaun in their midst?

15th Anniversary Battle Royal: 15 mystery superstars of Raw's past will compete in a Battle Royal? Who will they be? Of the current crop of superstars I bet Santino Marella has a role in this match.

Well that's it folks. My arm help up longer than I thought it did, hooray! I'll be back here next week. Enjoy Raw XV and Armageddon. Until next week, don't die. Clark…out.