Raw Top 25 Moments

General
1

For those who saw the list either on the network or online, what did you think of what ended up being No. 1 for the countdown?

I thought Austin giving Vince the stunner for the first time should have been an easy No. 1 choice other than Austin’s promo on top of the beer truck ahead of WrestleMania XV.

My top five moments would have been:

No. 5 - DX’s Nitro Invasion
No. 4 - Crowd vs. Roman the Night after WM 33
No. 3 - Mick Foley Wins First WWE Championship
No. 2 - Punk’s Pipebomb
No. 1 - Austin Stuns McMahon

2

I honestly think the Steve Austin beer truck moment is a deserving No. 1. It’s certainly in my all time top five. And one of my favorite promos of all time: “Check right in to the smackdown hotel, check into room 3:16, and burn that son of a bitch to the ground!”

I think anyone would have a hard time creating a top five or even top 25 list of Raw moments and WWE did a better job than I would have expected. There were only a couple of recent moments that I don’t think belong in the top 25 like Roman being booed after Wrestlemania 33.

My personal top five favorite moments (not biggest, not best - my favorite) are:

  1. Mankind “putting butts in seats” by winning the WWF championship off The Rock with the help of DX and Steve Austin. So much star power in one moment.
  2. CM Punk Pipebomb promo on John Cena
  3. Austin interrupting Rock and Vince with the Beer Truck
  4. Triple H returns from a brutal quad injury months early looking jacked as superman in 2002.
  5. ECW alumni reunite with Paul Heyman at the beginning of the invasion.

But there are so many you can even categorize them.

Retirements - Daniel Bryan, Edge, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Mark Henry’s fake out.

Returns - The Rock, Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan, Shane McMahon, Undertaker, Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, Ric Flair. Matt Hardy after being fired. Ultimate Warrior the night before he passed away.

Debuts - Chris Jericho, Nexus, RVD, The Radicalz, The NWO, Goldberg, Eric Bischoff, Paige.

Betrayals - Rollins & the Shield, HHH & HBK about to reunite DX, festival of friendship, Batista on evolution

Firsts - Miz & Dolph cash in their MITB, Kane wins first TLC match on Raw, Chris Jericho (kind of) wins his first heavyweight championship. The first Draft.

Industry Changing - Raw/Nitro Simulcast. Tyson on Raw. Lita & Trish main event. The Eddie and Owen Hart memorial shows.

And a million more great matches, promos, skits. Even after I listed my top five I know i’m going to remember something else I should have listed. I’m looking forward to seeing what other people say their top five is.

1 Like
3

Haven’t seen the list, but is the Pipebomb even on there, since Punk is non-existing in the WWE Universe since 2014?

4

It was actually number 2! I don’t think you can accuse WWE of trying to erase CM Punk in this case. The list of the Top 25 is here: http://fanbuzz.com/pro-wrestling/wwe/monday-night-raw-top-25-moment-anniversary/ and you can find the list of top 100 a couple of places.

The WWE’s top five were:

  1. Stone Cold Beer Truck
  2. Pipe Bomb promo
  3. Yes movement occupies Raw
  4. Chris Jericho debut
  5. Austin stuns Vince for the first time.

Like I said in my post, I think their top 25 list is better than I expected but still has some recency bias. And while they didn’t erase CM Punk, I do think they left off a lot of Hulk Hogan, Benoit (for obvious reasons), Eric Bishoff, and others that the company has issues with.

5
  1. Vince buying WCW simulcast
  2. Cena beats Punk to face Rock at Mania
  3. Reigns beats Sheamus for title in Philly
  4. Rock returns 2011
  5. Austin/Mike Tyson confrontation
6

Well, that is surprising, since WWE released a RAW 100 Greateat Moments DVD in 2012 and the Pipe Bomb was at #5, so it’s interesting that he actually moved up in the rankings, although they don’t have the best relationship.

7

I haven’t seen it in forever, but the Raw where Austin kidnaps Vince and threatens to shoot him was my favorite Raw episode for years