WWE Monday Night Raw: Looking Back at the First Year of the Show

WWE's Monday Night Raw is closing in on 1,000 episodes.  How far they've come.   

Fans who saw Shawn Michaels square off against Max Moon on the first episode would have a hard time imagining how the show would evolve.   

It all began on the USA Network on January 11, 1993.

The groundbreaking show was only an hour back then.  Most wrestling shows were taped at the time, and even though Raw was only live every other week, the originality of the concept created a buzz for fans and for the industry.   

The live audiences back then were treated with an intimate atmosphere.

The Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center Studios is tiny compared to many of the stadiums and arenas that host Raw today.  

The theme song sounded like it should belong to a crime show, sirens wailing and trumpets blaring.   

Vince McMahon, Rob Bartlett and "Macho Man" Randy Savage began as the commentary team, but Bartlett was replaced on April 19 by the legendary Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.  

Barlett was out of place, a radio personality and comedian who clammed up come match time.  

Raw was one of McMahon's greatest innovations, but looking back on its first year, the show looked almost nothing like it does today.  

Post-'80s Boom Hangover

When Raw first hit the air, WWE was in transition.  Hulk Hogan was gone.  Stone Cold hadn't been created yet.

The company had yet to realize that its cartoony flavor was growing stale.  Raw's first year had plenty of nights that were duds.  

It took the Monday Night Wars to shake McMahon out of his routine, for him to stop rolling out the same old tropes from the '80s.

Before that, superstars faced jobbers far too often.  Ham and eggers like Tony Roy and PJ Walker were on the show as frequently as big-name guys.  

Matches too often ended in unsatisfying double count-outs.  

Episodes often lacked a true main event. 

While the Undertaker, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were featured prominently, Raw also had its share of forgettable wrestlers like Bastion Booger, Damien Demento and Adam Bomb. 

Even with all the jobbers and circus gimmicks, Monday Night Raw's inaugural year had a number of memorable matches and captivating moments.

January 25, 1993

On paper, Ric Flair vs. Mr. Perfect should have been a five-star classic waiting to happen.  It turned out to be a letdown considering the talent involved and the Loser Leaves WWF stipulation.

Flair was on his way back to WCW and decided to leave with style and drama, helping to create Raw's first big moment.  

Too many commercial breaks interrupted the flow of the action.  Flair portrayed the classic heel, doing everything out of the bad guy manual from putting his foot on the ropes for leverage and pulling out a foreign object out of his kneepad.  

He flung Mr. Perfect into the ring post, which busted Perfect's brow open.  

An anti-climactic ending saw Perfect slap on the Perfect-plex for the win, forcing Flair out of WWE until 2001.  

May 17, 1993

This episode featured the show's first great match and its first great upset.  

The little known speedster who would eventually become X-Pac faced off against Razor Ramon, and fans rightfully expected a squash match.

The 1-2-3 Kid's unexpected victory proved what Vince McMahon had been claiming from the announcer's table that "anything can happen" on Raw.  

Having the skinny youngster pull out a victory against Razor set a precedent for the unpredictable nature of the show.  Raw wasn't going to be like every other wrestling show that followed the same script.

Razor and the Kid would go on to have an entertaining feud where Razor offered increasing sums of money for a rematch. 

Later that night, Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels battled for the Intercontinental Championship in what remains one of the best matches in Raw history.

Michaels had been boasting in the ring about being able to beat all comers when his former tag partner challenged him to an impromptu matchup.

Jannetty was electric, zipping in and out of the ring.  Michaels played both the cowardly heel and the favored champion.  

The fast-paced action, excellent chemistry and surprising title change helped establish Monday Night Raw as a place for great, unmissable wrestling.  

June 2, 1993

Marty Jannetty and Doink put on a set of surprisingly quality matches during their '93 feud, including a Best of Three Falls match during this episode of Raw.  

Doink’s over-the-top clown gimmick and outfit often overshadowed his technical and overall skills.

He and Jannetty put on an entertaining battle that, despite sagging in the middle, was well-paced.  Doink played the sadistic clown to a tee, grinding and punishing his foe. 

Bobby Heenan made a series of jokes about what was under the ring.  At one point, he said matter of factly that Clinton’s half-brother was sweeping under there. 

If fans check out this underappreciated match for anything, it should be the superkick for the ages that echoed through the Manhattan Center.

October 4, 1993

President Jack Tunney stripped Shawn Michaels of his Intercontinental Championship and announced a Battle Royal on Raw that would decide two challengers for the belt.

The last two men in the ring would face off the following week to crown a new champ.

The hectic action featured Bam Bam Bigelow, Jimmy Snuka, Randy Savage, Owen Hart, a baseball-themed wrestler named MVP and many others slugging it out until the competition thinned.  

The tag team champions at the time, the Quebecers, lasted until the very end.  They formed an on-the-spot alliance with Rick Martel in order to gang up on Razor Ramon.  

Ramon took on all three men, eventually tossing out the tag champs and leaving him and Martel as the last two men standing.  Ramon defeated Martel the next week and went on to become one of the greatest Intercontinental Champions of all-time.

This eventually led to Ramon and Michaels clashing in their classic WrestleMania X ladder match. 

December 6, 1993

Gorilla Monsoon tossing Bobby Heenan out of the arena is one of the funniest and most unforgettable moments in WWE history.

Heenan had decided to leave the company to spend more time with his family and ease into retirement.  WCW came calling later, and everything changed.  

His departure would be as entertaining as his commentary had been.  Watching him scrounge around in the dark for belongings (a roll of toilet paper and some loose socks) was equally heartbreaking and hilarious.

This would certainly not be the last non-wrestling event that shaped the Raw timeline.  As the show and WWE itself matured, many of the traditional limitations of what people thought a wrestling show should be were altered forever.  

Raw's first year was not its best, but it led to what it became: an entertainment juggernaut.