Typically the morning after Raw I post a column with five takeaways from the night before.   Of course, last night wasn’t a typical Raw and I’m not one to sell my legions of fans short.   Many of the legends that have made Raw the longest-running episodic television show in history were on hand last night as WWE was in action both from the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn and the place where it all started, the Manhattan Center.

By many legends, I don’t mean all of them.  For a variety of reasons ranging from scheduling conflicts to the company flat-out not wanting them around there were several superstars absent that helped shape Raw as a dynamo through the years. Off the top of my head that list includes Mick Foley, CM Punk, Edge, Goldberg, Alundra Blaze, Vicki Guerrero, Lita and arguably the biggest two names in the history of the WWE Raw era, Hulk Hogan and the Rock.

Still, mainly because of all the legends that were advertised to be on the show I was completely prepared to mark out all night and be completely unapologetic over it.  I’m too old to say the origins of Monday Night Raw bring me back to  being a kid as I was already legally drinking when the show’s run commenced, but it definitely made feel a lot younger.

Perhaps mainly because of those insanely lofty expectations when the clock struck around 11:15pm I was left feeling underwhelmed.

FIVE (OF THE) REASONS WHY RAW WAS BAD

1. Peaked Too Early:  The show started completely on fire from Brooklyn with both Stephanie and Shane McMahon in the ring, patronizing the crowd and introducing Vince, who came out and momentarily soaked in the cheers and appreciation before turning on the crowd and claiming he built Raw himself, which of course brought out Stone Cold Steve Austin.  The Texas rattlesnake stunned Shane (twice) and Vince to a roaring reaction from the crowd.  The problem is that the show started on such a high it could only go down from there. This should’ve been the final go-home segment, as no matter what happened over the first three hours, this is what would’ve sent the crowd home happy.

2. Rushed Last Segment:  For three hours of hype on Kane, Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar being in the same ring this felt far too rushed.  Brock came out and within maybe 120 seconds he’s powerslammed through the table and the show goes off the air.  This was too rushed.  Maybe next time booking shouldn’t have a two segment 8-woman tag match in the first hour or the DX Reunion (see below) that seemed to last an eternity.  That would give you more time to let fans digest the players set to be your PPV main event in six days.

3. Degeneration….. Dragggggggg: DX reunited in the last hour and introduced Scott Hall, who came out to his Razor Ramon music and then… commercial? Are you fucking kidding with that timing? Jesus that was awful—I thought it was a production mistake but apparently it wasn’t.  The Balor Club comes out to show respect, the Revival comes out and there’s a tag team match and then everyone from DX hits their finishers on Wilder and Dawson. In a way I suppose it was cool but sorry, it felt like all of eternity passed by to get there.  Also, is it me or does Scott Hall look like he belongs in the Hollywood Wax Museum? 

4. Undertaker Promo meant?  Taker came out to the Manhattan Center to start the 9:00pm hour and cut a promo, which brought out—nobody. I’m also not even sure what the hell he was trying to say.  Was he confirming his retirement? Was this the last time we’ll see him in the middle of a WWE ring? Was he saying that he’s got more souls to bury? I’m so confused. This was stupid.

5. Manhattan Center Wasted: Nostalgic factor aside having portions of the show emulate from the Manhattan Center was a waste of time and according to several videos of the crowd chanting “we want refunds” and “bullshit” via Twitter, didn’t go over very well. It was a waste of the legendary Jim Ross/Jerry Lawler announce team.  I know there were a few off-camera things to take place there but in total there were just three segments over three hours that were carried on TV live. If I bought a ticket I’d be furious.

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IT WASN’T ALL BAD.  HERE’S FIVE THINGS I LIKED

♦ Loved John Cena returning.  Interestingly enough despite rampant blogger speculation it wasn’t to start a program with the Undertaker. Instead he returned to essentially put over Elias, who’s becoming a big star.  You have to hand it to Cena, as he’s accepted that as his career winds down his primarily role is to put over guys from the current era.

♦ Jason Jordan’s drawing nuclear heat with the crowd.  He could barely speak over a crowd that booed him with no mercy every time he put his mouth near the mic.  It reminded me of the Vicki Guerrero days. I’ve said it on this blog before—Jordan’s going to become one of the company’s biggest stars as a heel, you watch.

♦ After Austin and Daniel Bryan, the pop for Chris Jericho was probably the best of the night.  Jericho was the lone lone legend to appear that wasn’t previously advertised, which knowing Jericho is hardly surprising.  He’s a made man for life among the WWE universe.

♦ I can look at Torrie Wilson and Kelly Kelly forever.  ♥FOREVER♥.  I’m hoping to see one or both again at the Rumble on Sunday.

♦ The Miz’s victory and eighth Intercontinental title win, while expected was still awesome. Obviously it  launches Roman Reigns build towards yet another Wrestlemania main event., which I pray to God for his and the Philadelphia crowd doesn’t start with him wining the Rumble on Sunday.

For no particular rhyme or reason other than being fun for me to do and hopefully you to read, I’ve decided to occasionally recap old WWE Monday Night Raw shows (Smackdown will be a future project). At least for me, it’s cool to recreate many Monday nights I evidently didn’t recall as easily as I should after re-watching a lot of these.

But hey — I’m finally getting good use of my WWE Network.

I started with episode 100 in my first recap and this is the fourth time around with this—as we arrive to September, 1996—building towards the In Your House-Mind Games pay-per-view.

Date: September 9, 1996

Raw Episode Number: 175

Location: Wheeling, West Virginia

TV Commentary: Jim Ross, Kevin Kelly, Jerry Lawler

The Cliff Notes Version:

−Farooq (with Sunny) defeated Savio Vega in the final first round match of the Intercontinental championship tournament.  Psycho Sid (his next opponent) came down and immediately four referees came between them.

−Get well messages to Johnson taped from Savio Vega, Pyscho Sid, Steve Austin, Goldust, Jerry Lawler, Owen Hart and the Godwinns (I may have missed one or two). Time-fillers not 30 minutes into the show?

−A promo for Mankind vs. WWF champion Shawn Michaels main event at “Mind Games (In Your House)” pay-per-view, followed by an In-ring interview (Carlos Cabrera) with Michaels and his manager, Jose Lothario.  HBK warns Mankind “do not hunt what you can’t kill”.

−A debuting “The Stalker” defeated (jobber) TL Hopper. While this match was going on, the camera cuts to Brian Pillman and Owen Hart backstage as Owens announces he and his brother Bret are back together again (they had been feuding) and that Bret had a major announcement he’d make at the PPV.

−Video footage shown of Mr. Perfect Curt Henning consistently stealing Hunter Heart Helmsley’s valets while the future cerebral assassin is wrestling.

−Footage from last week’s WWF “Championship Friday” show with Jerry Lawler interviewing Mark Henry, who hadn’t yet debuted.  Lawler challenged him to a wrestling match but Henry says he’s not ready yet.  Lawler calls him a coward, which makes Henry accepts. The match is set for the PPV later in the month.

(At this point there’s literally been more video footage of other things that stuff going on in this ring).

−Crush (with Clarence Mason) beat (jobber) Freddie Joe Floyd with his “heart punch” finisher.

−Another clip from last week’s “Championship Friday” show, where Mr. Backlund introduced the Iron Sheik to the ring.  The former bitter enemies hug it out and Shekie baby will be training Backlund’s newest mystery acquisition (who later turns out to be the Sultan AKA a masked Rikishi).

−Promo for WWF Superstars, which says it’s been on for more episodes than Seinfeld, more original episodes than Monday Night Football, and when it made its debut “the cast of Friends were still pimple-faced kids”

−The Undertaker defeated a previously undefeated Salvatore Sincere in the main event with a tombstone pile driver.

−Also during the match, Jim Ross (as he’s teased all night) confirms there’s “negotiations” to bring back Razor Ramon and Diesel to the WWF.  He says negotiations have hit a snag with Ramon but they’re progressing well with Diesel.

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MY TAKE:

Episode 175 was near the height of the WWF downslide, which is easy to see in both a review of the ratings and show itself.  After dominating in ratings for many years WWF had already lost some of their aging stars to WCW, most notably Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. They withstood that but the real blows came just a few months before this Raw aired, when first Scott Hall and soon after Kevin Nash defected.

While WCW ventured towards more reality-based storylines, WWF remained true to full-fledge gimmicks.  The differences were glaring.

At the start of 1996 WWF and WCW did plenty flip flopping in the ratings wars, with each side claiming victory depending what week it was, but WCW begun to dominate by the end of May.  In fact, when this 175^th episode of Raw aired, WCW had either won or tied the ratings war for 17 consecutive weeks.

Watching this show nearly 21 years later, it doesn’t take a genius to know why.

For starters, sans the Undertaker none of the WWF’s top attractions wrestled live.  That’s a big no-go for Shawn Michaels (the champion), Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Psycho Sid, Curt Henning, Mankind or even Goldust.

It was also before Steve Austin, Triple-H or The Rock had become any sort of relevant stars, which meant few people really cared about them—yet.

Instead we got a show that featured The Stalker? Crush? An UNDEFEATED Salvatore Sincere?

Beyond the horrible in-ring product at the time, perhaps the most indignant move by WWF was having Ross constantly (for weeks include this one) tease the WWF return of Razor Ramon and Diesel via “sources”, which as we all know turned out to be imposters.  I mean, what in the hell was the brass at WWF ever thinking that it could possibly get over with the audience? It wasn’t going to lead fans to turn the dial off WCW and even if it did, it would only be temporary.

What a miserable time for the WWF and its fans.

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A few notes from the show…

♦ Jim Ross was on commentary by this point in place of Vince McMahon along with Kevin Kelly (who?) and Jerry Lawler.  Ugh, even back in ’96 King’s futile attempts at stand-up comedy fell flat in the booth if not downright tasteless.

♦  Ross, as always was great on the mic but took things a bit too far with what he’s described about The Stalker

“A lot of big game hunting. He stalks one animal per year. He hunts that animal, kills that animal, mounts its head and puts it on the stand.”

(Not everyone knows this, but the Stalker was actually Barry Windham, one of the more decorated wrestlers in NWA/WCW history.  This WWF gimmick didn’t last long).

♦  Like I mentioned in our last recap 25 episodes ago, there’s multiple mentions of Mike Tyson early in the broadcast. It’s very obvious Vince wanted him to be a part of WWF, which of course he eventually was.

♦  For what it’s worth, the Intercontinental championship tournament was happening because Ahmad Johnson had to vacate the title after being attacked (by a debuting) Faarooq a few weeks prior. Marc Mero would eventually go onto defeat Faarooq in the finals later this month on an episode of Raw.

♦  1996 was when Sunny was at her best. She looked great and played an important role in WWF both as a manager and segment host. Sunny was the 1996 Pro Wrestling Illustrated Manager of the Year.

♦  Making fun of Jake Robert’s alcohol problem was actually a storyline back in 1996. There’s a clip shown of Lawler pouring a bottle of booze down a beaten Roberts’ throat before Mark Henry came to the rescue. (This was not part of the September 9^th Raw).

♦  During this time, The Undertaker was in a feud with Mankind and his former manager, Paul Bearer, who turned on Taker at Summerslam during the “boiler room brawl” match. It feels like an eternity ago, but Taker was such an athletic big man.

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MoranAlytics Score: 1.5 out of 10.  This is only the fourth Retro Raw I’ve recapped, but it’s far and away the worst.  If fact, I can’t imagine the show being worse than this pile of shit fans were served. There isn’t one redeeming reason to ever watch this episode of Raw unless you’re a fan of seeing The Undertaker when he could actually move and perform well, or if you like looking at Sunny when she was hot.  Otherwise, this was an awful waste of your time now and your Monday back then.

It’s that time of the year where the fourth and final of the WWE major Pay-Per-Views hits the air. Survivor Series comes this Sunday, November 19, live of course on the WWE Network. Between the kickoff show and actual card itself this is expected to be an event that lasts at least six hours.

Marketed as “the only time Raw and Smackdown go head-to-head”, this card is highlighted by a battle between the WWE and Universal champions along with traditional Survivor Series elimination matches on both the men’s and women’s side.

As a life-long wrestling fan I’m looking forward to the matches, although I think the whole Raw vs. Smackdown feud is stupid. The pride these guys take in representing their respective brands is pretty much meaningless considering within a year or less half or more of them will be rasslin’ on the other brand anyway.  But I digress.

Anyway, barring a last second change here’s  the full Survivor Series card along with my personal prediction for each.

 Enzo Amore (champion) vs. Kalisto for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship

Due to the format of Survivor Series this is actually the only title match on the card, albeit taking place on the kickoff show. In my opinion it’s also one of the easier matches to predict. I don’t think Enzo can afford to drop the title a second time, as having two very short reigns would cement him as a cup of coffee champion, similar to Sasha Banks’ runs as Women’s champ.  Conversely I don’t think fans care about Kalisto nearly enough to put the strap back around his waist at this point.  I’m confident Enzo stays champ until 205 builds up a worthy new champion that can get over with the crowd (Drew Gulak anyone?) or a guy that defies gravity ultimately returns?  PREDICTION: Enzo Amore.

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Alexa Bliss (Raw Womens’s champion) vs. Charlotte Flair (Smackdown Women’s champion)

It’s all about momentum and I think Charlotte is going to ride it following her title win Tuesday against Natalya to launch her fifth WWE title reign. I love me some Alexa Bliss but I don’t think she’ll knock off Charlotte. Charlotte is surfing the poignant wave of her dad going from near-death to appearing back on TV along with the positive media coverage stemming from the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary brought to both father and daughter. You’ll see Carmella flirt with cashing in her Money in the Bank contract but ultimately it won’t happen.  That’ll be saved for another time and place. I suppose if WWE wanted ot throw a real twist into the wind they could have Carmella come out post-match ans cash in over a beaten Alexa Bliss.  Either way, Charlotte’s not losing Sunday.  PREDICTION: Charlotte Flair.

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Sheamus & Cesaro (Raw Tag Team champions) vs. The USO’s (Smackdown Tag Team Champions)

This may be the match fans care about the least — sad considering it can easily become the best match of the night. I also love this being the first-ever encounter between the teams.  Admittedly this was thrown together last minute as WWE rushed to get the straps back on Sheamus & Cesaro when they knew for sure Roman Reigns would be back in advance of Survivor Series. The Uso’s facing Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins surely would’ve produced more noise but don’t let that take away from what’s certain to be an exceedingly entertaining bout. I got the Uso’s winning not only because it benefits them going forward but it ultimately keeps the final tally between Raw and Smackdown tighter. This a match Team Raw can afford to lose without it hurting their champs.  PREDICTION: The Uso’s.

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The Miz (Intercontinental champion) vs. Baron Corbin (United States Champion)

Typically it’s difficult to tell how the crowd will react when two heels square off with each other, but in this case I think they stand dominantly behind the Miz. He’s been exceptional at continuously portraying Raw’s egocentric windbag and while against most superstars that results in fans hopeful of seeing his face get caved in, those same fans simply loathe Corbin.  Granted, winning would do more to instantaneously advance Corbin’s career than Miz’s but regardless, I think the Raw Intercontinental champ pulls this out, of course with some timely help from the Miztourage.  Don’t forget—it’s important for the Miz to remain perceived as a credible champ, particularly considering Brock Lesnar only actually defends the Universal championship about three times per year.  PREDICTION: The Miz.

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The Shield vs. The New Day

This will be an entertaining match, quite possibly the show stealer of the night, but I don’t think there’s any doubt who the victors will be.  Win or lose the New Day’s legacy as an all-time great trio is already cemented.  While the same can obviously be said for the Shield, there’s no way WWE reunited them only to lose a six-man at Survivor Series in their first pay-per-view match back together.  The reunion tour probably has a shelf life of two months tops before Wrestlemania season where Vince builds towards another Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar clash/formal passing of the torch, so enjoy the Shield while you can.  PREDICTION: The Shield.

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Women’s Team Raw (Alicia Fox, Sasha Banks, Nia Jax, Asuka, Bailey) vs Women’s Team Smackdown (Becky Lynch, Tamina, Carmella, Naomi, TBA)

WWE has been built up Asuka’s invincibility for far too long to have her shoulders pinned for the first time in a 10-person elimination tag match. She’s going to destroy errrrrbody.  The real mystery, literally is who the fifth Smackdown member will be. If it’s a returning Paige or Nikki Bella that makes things far more interesting and will result in the crowd totally marking out (myself included), especially if it’s Paige.  I feel very bad for Natalya if it’s her, as disappointed fans will unfairly shit all over it.  If the fifth member was going to be Natalya or even worse, Lana they could’ve just told us that on Tuesday. Regardless, I think Becky Lynch will be Smackdown’s biggest asset and last woman standing, but Asuka is ultimately going to run through everybody. She and Nia Jax are the survivors, possibly setting a much-anticipated Raw women’s program in the weeks to come.  Prediction: Team Raw

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Men’s Team Raw (Kurt Angle, HHH, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Braun Strowman) vs. Men’s Team Smackdown (Shane McMahon, John Cena, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura)

Since I have the Raw women winning and don’t think one brand sweeps both traditional Survivor Series matches, I need to find a way for Smackdown to come out on top here. I arrive with the match containing plenty of outside influence. I can easily eliminate Finn Balor, seeing creative allowed him to get massacred by Kane on Raw less than a month ago in singles competition. Speaking of the Big Red Machine, Kane undoubtedly comes out at some point to brawl with Braun Strowman to the rafters, back stage and parking lots, eliminating the Monster Among Men. Perhaps an irate and bitter Jason Jordan arrives to distract Kurt Angle and kick start his much-needed heel turn.  That leaves Joe and Triple-H for Raw. Joe’s star can hit meteoric levels by pinning two icons late in the match, Cena and Orton.  Seeing Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn have no role on the card they can cost Shane an opportunity to win and further their disgruntled angle. Roode will stick around for most eliminations before ultimately losing, leaving an underdog Nakamura against Joe and Trips.  Shinsuke eliminates Joe first and after HHH looks strong for an extended period, Nakamura hits his Kinshasa out of nowhere to pick up the stunning win. Admittedly this is wishful thinking, as knowing Vince McMahon it will probably come down to HHH against Shane McMahon with Trips nailing a pedigree and being the sole survivor. God, I hope not. Prediction: Team Smackdown.

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Brock Lesnar (Universal Champion) vs. A.J. Styles (WWE Champion)

This is one of those classic what the heart wants versus what it needs matches. I want Styles to knock off Lesnar with every fibre of my being. I simply don’t see it happening.  Lesnar matches this year have been borderline monotonous this year, to be honest and there’s no wrestler on earth more likely to bring out his best than Styles, who can carry anyone who steps in a ring. This was an advertised champion vs. champion match that was essentially a throwaway with Jindar Mahal representing Smackdown before fortunately WWE realized as such and hastily made A.J. champ. I think Styles shows a ton more offense than anyone expected and find himself on the cusp of a monumental upset before getting caught mid-air and Lesnar nailing a F5 for a victory. If Strowman couldn’t kick out of single F5, Styles sure as shit isn’t either. There’s no way Brock loses to anyone before Reigns at Wrestlemania. Prediction: Brock Lesnar.