When was the last time Raw was “good”

[flowercity]

Loved Rollins’ run as champ/Cena US Open challenge summer. Really has been bad since then in my opinion.

[sfvega]

Mar 19, 2019 17:39:11 GMT -5 Pushed to the Moon said:

I think it was good during the Shield's original run. At least all the 6 man main events were good anyway. I forget how the rest of the show was tbh.

Yeah, the Shield's run and the Wyatts back when they were still hot, Punk was still going, Bryan, Jericho, etc. The wrestling on the card was worlds better than even 5-7 years prior on the main roster, and they were giving people a lot to give a shit about. So yeah, that 2011 or 2012 through 2014 run was pretty good.

Then 2015-2017 wasn't great, and I only watched sporadically. And I've watched maybe 3 hours of Raw since the start of 2018. It's trash. It has always been that when the financial stability of the company is great, they couldn't give a shit about the product. I don't think it is any coincidence that the last time I enjoyed Raw was when they were launching the Network and really worried about the paradigm shift in the way they made money. Then Network did well, TV rights money has only gone up, and the Saudi money is coming in. They are about as motivated to produce a palatable product as I am to get out of bed when I'm maddeningly hungover. Chances are, they won't give a shit til Trips takes over Raw and Vince retires/dies. Then I'll give it another shot, but not until then.

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2019 17:13:20 GMT -5 thecrusherwi said:

The last time I really enjoyed it on a week to week basis was probably summer and fall 2003, believe it or not. I liked Evolution, Shawn Michaels as a full timer, Jericho doing fun stuff, a bunch of ex-WCW guys, and I loved the Austin/Bischoff co-GM stuff.

But really since the original brand split in 2002, weekly TV and really WWE in general has been very hit and miss.

I agree with this. I enjoyed this era of Raw.

The problem with WWE these days is it feels too formalic. Every week the show is set up the same. For example, why does the show never start with a match? Why do we never get random thrown together main events like 123 Kid vs Bret Hart? They could do that stuff again by having Bryan defend the title against somebody like Fandango or something. They need to stop with those tag team matches too... I’m sick of seeing Lashley/Corbin/Drew vs *insert 3 faces here*

In general I just don’t enjoy watching the show. You’re better off watching the PPVs and catching up via the hype packages.

[KobashiChop]

Mar 19, 2019 21:02:50 GMT -5 David-Arquette was in WCW 2000 said:

Mar 19, 2019 17:26:44 GMT -5 KobashiChop said:

I enjoyed the summer of 2010. Nexus, Cena was watchable, Evan Bourne was being pushed, Orton was insanely over as a face. It was a fun time.

2011 through early 2013 were enjoyable as well. Started tailing off round about the time Roman's singles push started. Not necessarily because of that, its just the most significant detail I can remember of the time.

This for me, though I started to lose interest in Raw a couple weeks after it went to three hours. Generally through these time periods it was good and entertaining.

Yeah the three hours thing is a big difference maker. It's amazingly hard to keep a 3 hour weekly wrestling show entertaining

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

Mar 20, 2019 3:11:16 GMT -5 KobashiChop said:

Mar 19, 2019 21:02:50 GMT -5 David-Arquette was in WCW 2000 said:

This for me, though I started to lose interest in Raw a couple weeks after it went to three hours. Generally through these time periods it was good and entertaining.

Yeah the three hours thing is a big difference maker. It's amazingly hard to keep a 3 hour weekly wrestling show entertaining

I don't have the best attention span as it is. I ended up recording Raw every week and watching it the next day just so I could skip the filler. Soon enough it I just could not be bothered so I only watched Smackdown, which gave me Raw highlights anyway lol

[theironyuppie]

Consistently 'good' might be a stretch, but it was better than SDL for a good bit of 2017, particularly in the summer.

[BoomPeriod]

The last time Raw was good was when Vince McMahon hired me. He hired all of us, but then he fired all of us and it went downhill from there. Still waiting for my check.

[Deleted]

I don't think there has ever been an era where the majority didn't bitch about everything. That's just how we enjoy wrestling, because we're all smarter than the bookers.

For me it's around '97 when Bret Hart turned heel. I was watching Nitro during the Austin/McMahon era and haven't watched RAW regularly since.

[Deleted]

Yeah 2012-2013 is pretty great. We had the rise of the Shield putting on amazing matches every week. Team Hell No and Bryan's rise up the card to eventually winning the title. Lesnar returning. Punks title reign. The Rhodes brothers run with the tag titles. Cesaro getting red-hot and winning the ARMBAR. The Wyatt's debut and eventual feud with the Shield. I was personally loving the show. The Shield solved the top-heavy issues with the card because they were easily able to tie up 3 main eventers at any time and it was believable. Being the first team to beat the Shield became a title in and of itself at the time.

The Daniel Bryan "weak link" storyline is one of my favourite storylines ever. Every piece played their part perfectly.

[nickcave]

The summer of 2013 Raw was very very good. So good that I remember the board commentating on what could possibly be the reason for the uptick in quality. It nosedived again after Summerslam but that was the last time it was must see TV for me, it got me through a bad summer working overnights stocking at Walmart in-between semesters of college.

[Cieto]

That episode with the Owens/Neville opener and Y2AJ vs the new day.

Think it was the road to mania 32, last time I legitimately enjoyed an episode of raw.

[Deleted]

The last time I was really excited about WWE was the build to Mania 30. Right after that Bryan lost the belt, and the shows went back to the same old shit only worse.

Literally the only time I've marked out since the main event of Mania 30 was AJ Styles debuting in the Rumble, and neither of those things even happened on Raw.

[stevec484]

2001 before WMX7. Although you could see it starting to go downhill in September 2000

[Rican]

Honestly I really enjoyed 2013-14 for the most part with The Shield, Bryan, early Wyatt family, Jericho, motivational Bo Dallas. Most of the shows were fun I thought.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

Early 2013 was awesome for Raw in terms of in-ring action. There were a lot of new matches and some big ones that hadn't been done to death. Jericho came back and wrestled all kinds of people. We got Jericho/Punk again, Jericho/Ziggler again, Bryan/Jericho (first time since NXT), Jericho/Cesaro, and then stuff like Bryan/Mysterio, The Shield when they were new and establishing themselves, that Punk/Cena match that could've easily been the main event of WM that year.

[darbus alan]

I think the last time I really liked Raw on a regular basis was when CM Punk was main eventing. His feuds with John Cena especially were money. Daniel Bryan's "YES!" movement was also a great underdog story.

[thegame415]

Probably early 2014. I'd say from the Rumble until Extreme Rules.

[Toilet Paper Roll]

Consistently good? Not just like a good episode here or there worth watching?

Somewhere in the early stages of the reign of terror

[fw91]

Wrestlemania season of 2014

[Dub H]

in the nexus-punk-Bryan era raw kept striking gold just to manage to destroy it in a few weeks.

The only consistent good booking was the shield until they split