BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) “WELCOME TO MONDAY NIGHT RAAAAAAAW!”
I hate to say it, but to me the best WWF Raw Announcer wasn’t Jim Ross. It was Vince McMahon. Only he could put so much vigor into his one liners. He made things seem interesting and his slogans were awesome. “Anything can happen in the WWF!” or “Today Debacle!” or anything else heard on the old WWF Wrestlemania Arcade Game. He was actually the announcer for the first hour years of the show being around. People seem to forget that.
(THREE) NOT THE LONGEST RUNNING WRESTLING SHOW IN HISTORY!?!
Nope! It’s actually the fifth as of writing this. World of Sport was on 20 years, Wrestling at the Chase lasted 24, WCW WorldWide was on 26, and “da mothaship if you will” WCW Saturday Night” lasted a whopping 28 years. In comparison, WWE’s RAW has only been on 19 years. Look everyone! WCW is still winning! Eric Bishoff was RIGHT!
(TWO) LIVE FROM NEW YORK… IT’S MONDAY NIGHT! (EVERY OTHER WEEK!)
For years, Monday Night RAW originated from the Manhattan Center in New York City. It was a smaller theatre atmosphere. It was also one of the first shows to ever be LIVE in wrestling. Each week was a one hour live show with live matches, live commentary, and stories unfolding live. It was a big deal. They’d tape two shows. The live on that would air that night and then next week’s episode. They’d continue the every-other-week model until 1999 when WCW started kicking their asses.
(ONE) THE TNN/SPIKE TV ERA
RAW, USA Network, Mondays at 8PM (Central)… that’s a no brainer. Still, it feels like people forget that the WWE wasn’t on USA for a little while. For a three or so year gap, Monday Night RAW was actually on “The Nashville Network”. TNN would be renamed “Spike TV” and would eventually pick up another wrestling show. See folks, TNA even takes WWE’s sloppy seconds when it comes to networks too! Go figure.
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