As Raw prepares to celebrate its unprecedented 1000th episode we look back over almost 20 years of sport entertainment. We look back over 20 years of superstars, championships and epic encounters. However I wouldn’t be a writer without highlighting as well as lowlighting a few truisms. Monday Night Raw began in a true era of the Sport Entertainment busy of Professional Wrestling. In 1993, we still had the Pleasure of seeing Hulk Hogan wrestle. We still have the pleasure of knowing that we could watch NWA/WCW and enjoy the likes of Flair, Rhodes, on Saturday nights on TBS. However as wrestlers evolved, wrestling evolved. We saw the beginning of the Monday Night wars as WCW went from Saturday nights to Monday Nights. We saw the beginning of the corporate aspects of wrestling. We began to see personalities move from company to company. Years later we saw this within the storylines; thanks to Nash, Hall. Who can forget Luger being on Raw one Monday and Nitro the next? Who can forget Rick Rude (R.I.P.) being on Raw with the newly formed DX and then on Nitro with the NWO literally in the same week. Remember, the Monday night Wars spilled into Thursday’s with “Smack Down and Thunder. “
The Evolution of Monday nights or wrestling period took Rock and Wrestling and amp it times 100. This was about a year before the Monday Night War. Both federations gave us excellent products…WWE began to revolutionized PPV and WCW gave us PPV type programming like Clash of the Champions. Fast forward to the Monday Night “WAR GAMES”. We were introduced to the story lines within storylines; live wrestling was also born…Now, all of this could only work with believable characters. We believed in the behind the scenes actions. True fans were in awe at MSG… WE were upset in Montreal…We were shocked when Hollywood was born. We wanted to be in VA the night of the invasion. Monday night was wrestling fans time to put Monday Night Football aside because we knew WCW was going live and WWE was going to give us the best attitude on TV. The only way this worked for 5 hours…Three on WCW and Two with the WWE was the performances, the stars, the delivery…Let me not forget in Philadelphia there was wrestling’s best keep secret being born ECW, ECW, ECW, ECW…We saw Paul E. Dangerously brand a version of wrestling never seen. Every match had outside interference, foreign objects and moves we could only see in movies and in the circus.
The Evolution: No Monday Night War, No WCW, No ECW…all of this equals NO competition. Yes we enjoy TNA or Impact Wrestling, and even with the star power they have, No one is really begging to see any fantasy matches between John Cena VS James Storm or CM Punk VS A.J. Styles. This was a mainstay as we never really knew or found out who was the best between Hogan, Flair or AWA champ Rick Martel. Our biggest wonder now is wondering who’s going to jump federations next; besides every other year or so seeing the Hardy’s or Christian in either company. Within the evolution we recently saw Ric Flair being inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame with the Horsemen, while still being employed with TNA. We just saw as part of the same “deal” Christian appear at the TNA PPV, while still being employed with the WWE. These occurrences are epic because 10 years ago we never would have seen two promotions “cooperating”.
Now, as we enjoy the anticipation of RAW eclipsing 1000 shows…One thing that never evolved was storylines, characters…”IMPACT”. RAW has no competition to its brand, TNA is surviving, they have talent, they have a decent product; but both shows lack the overall constant star power in the ring and behind the mic. They seem to lack the drive once admire during the competitive years of TV. There are a few, who can carry the torch, but there are no Stone Cold’s, No Rock’s no Flair’s, No Sting’s. There are more B wrestlers put in the Main Event roles, or storylines than there are A wrestlers regularly competing. There is too much copycat storylines in TNA which gets doubly boring because what we see on Monday Night, we see on Thursday. I say this to say as WWE continues to evolve, and before moving to a three hour show, which in recent weeks have disappointed true fans. Better storylines, better talent, and more originality is needed. The evolution of Monday night needs a TV title, needs factions, and definitely needs a better selection of tag teams, not just two wrestlers thrown together for the sake of time. The Monday Night evolution need not be three hours of guest appearances by former talent just to get “pops” even though Vader looked good. We know Ryback is going to beat the squash talent, so is the “Funkasorous”, why not have them wrestle each other. We need true storylines. Not so much the likes of Nexis because that lasted too long, but more the likes of having more than one true baby-face. It’s predictable everyone wants CENA…CM Punk, Shamus haven’t really totally converted to that true baby-face, never has Randy Orton… We need more black and white and less shades of grey. We need more true ICONS in and out the ring. Let Shawn Michaels be a family man, Let the Rock be an actor; even though bringing back both this past year was awesome and needed for the sport.
It’s time WWE evolve truly into the powerhouse it is, and we know it is.
Congrats on 1000 shows…Let’s step it up
True fan
See you on the Mat
