10 Most Important Episodes Of WWE Raw In History

Since its debut episode on January 11, 1993, Monday Night Raw has been host to some of the most historical, noteworthy, and spectacular moments the wrestling world has ever seen. Equally, it’s also churned out some absolute duds, but that’s a story for another time.

But which editions of the red show have had the biggest impact on WWE as a whole? Which ones have produced the most memorable moments or singular happenings that would reverberate across time forevermore?

These are the 10 most important episodes of WWE Raw in history.

10. May 17, 1993

We could have started off with the very first episode of Raw as, you know, literally none of this would have happened without it, but that was a little too obvious. Instead, we’ve decided to focus on the first bumper edition of the show from later that same year, a night where two all-time great moments happened in the space of 60 minutes.

This was the episode where established star Razor Ramon lost in under three minutes to a virtual unknown called The Kid, in one of the most shocking booking decisions WWE have ever made. Not only did this give Raw its first big upset, but it also transformed the would-be jobber into the 1-2-3 Kid. The rest, as they say, is history.

Then came the night’s main event, which saw Marty Jannetty defeat his former Rockers partner Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental Championship. Jannetty had emerged from the crowd earlier in the night to accept HBK’s open challenge before going on to win an emotional battle that ended up being voted PWI’s Match of the Year.

9. March 25, 2002

With WCW and ECW no longer in business and the bungled Invasion angle being done and dusted within six months, WWE were left with an inflated roster and no viable competition.

So they went ahead and made their own.

The March 25, 2002, episode of Raw was not a particularly good one. In fact, if you’re going by general storyline advancement and in-ring action, it was actually rather forgettable, if not outright terrible.

It was, however, for all its faults, historic, as it was the site of the first-ever WWE Draft.

Kayfabe co-owners Vince McMahon and Ric Flair assembled their crews for SmackDown and Raw respectively, kicking off the promotion’s brand split era.

There were some odd ones, no doubt – We still have no idea what McMahon was doing using three of his ten picks on Billy & Chuck, D-Von Dudley and Maven – but by the end of the night the landscape of WWE would be changed for the best part of the next decade.

Even though the original brand split ended in 2011, WWE have since gone back to the concept and the draft episodes of both Raw and SmackDown are now established tropes.

8. March 30, 1998

For some people, the Attitude Era began in earnest when Stone Cold Steve Austin beat Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 14. That makes this show, which happened just 24 hours later, the first Attitude Era Raw.

Though it had been bubbling away for the prior few months, the legendary Austin-McMahon feud kicked into overdrive here, as the Chairman had the Texas Rattlesnake arrested for assault after he hit him with a Stunner.

Also on the show, two future legends took big steps to becoming main eventers. With Michaels out of the picture due to injury, Triple H took over as leader of D-Generation X, introducing The New Age Outlaws and a returning X-Pac into the fold. Elsewhere, Faarooq was ousted as the leader of The Nation of Domination by The Rock.

There wasn’t much in the way of actual wrestling on this night - Kurrgan versus Chainz was one match served up - but pieces that would become vital to the success of WWE going forward began falling into place.

Kane also challenged The Undertaker to an Inferno match and we found out that Val Venis was coming in more mixed action.

7. November 19, 2001

The night after Survivor Series 2001 offered WWE a chance to do a big ol’ reset. The Alliance had been defeated, a bunch of championships had been unified, and everyone was just about sick to death of hearing the word “Invasion”.

To make up for that angle being botched to high heaven, the company crammed about five years’ worth of development into a single show.

Austin and McMahon reverted back to their old face/heel alignments, which made absolutely zero storyline sense but was a welcome return anyway. Jerry Lawler made his comeback to replace Paul Heyman on commentary, re-forming his classic partnership with Jim Ross.

William Regal had a night to forget when he became the first member of Vince’s Kiss My Ass club, and then came the big one. Just as McMahon was about to strip Austin of his WWE Championship and hand it to Kurt Angle, out came Ric Flair, making his first appearance on WWE TV since 1993.

He revealed that he had bought Shane and Stephanie’s stock, making him co-owner of the company alongside a baffled Vince.

6. July 23, 2012

One of the biggest complaints about modern-era Raw is its length. At three hours long, wrestling fans have to sit through the sports entertainment equivalent of Lord of the Rings every week just to keep up, and there aren’t even any talking trees to keep you hooked.

You can thank this episode for that particular development, as the special Raw 1000 edition from 2012 marked the brand’s permanent switch to 180 minutes.

WWE filled this extra time with an appearance from DX, an Intercontinental Title match where The Miz won the belt from Christian, and John Cena’s scheduled Money in the Bank cash-in match against CM Punk, which he lost via DQ thanks to an interfering Big Show.

Punk would then turn heel by attacking The Rock, cementing the character change that would dominate the second half of his epic championship reign.

For better or worse, the move to three hours fundamentally changed how WWE operates, from increased ad revenue and screen time for lesser stars to bloated match cards causing increased fan burnout.

5. April 8, 2013

Though we have talked about a Raw after WrestleMania already, this was the night the tradition as we know it fully got started.

24 hours removed from WrestleMania 29 (one of the most forgettable ‘Manias in WWE history), a building full of exhausted hardcore fans completely hijacked the show and made it a million times better.

Fandango’s theme song was more popular than Hulk Hogan in his pomp, as the crowd’s thunderous rendition of the tune sent it to a peak position of number 11 in the UK charts.

John Cena gave a famous promo where he promised a “heel turn”, which involved him pivoting the heel of his foot, and then there was the small matter of Dolph Ziggler.

One night removed from failing to win the tag straps with Big E, Ziggler cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to become World Heavyweight Champion to rapturous applause.

This was the first time the Raw after Mania felt like something special and WWE leaned into this feeling over the next few years, packing these episodes with big returns and debuts to try and recreate the magic of this special night.

4. January 4, 1999

Back in the day, not every episode of Raw was live, which their competitors WCW sought to exploit for their own gain.

They used to occasionally give away WWE results on their own live show, Monday Nitro, in the hopes that their viewers would then have no reason to change the channel.

The most infamous example of this happened on January 4, 1999. Upon learning that Mick Foley was going to win the WWE Title on the night, Tony Schiavone sarcastically remarked “That’s gonna put some butts in the seats”. And that’s exactly what it did.

Fans were so invested in seeing the loveable underdog win the big one that they tuned into Raw just in time to see Mankind beat The Rock (thanks to a huge assist from Steve Austin) in one of the all-time great show closers.

Many of the fans never went back to WCW, which presented the infamous Fingerpoke of Doom between Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash on this very same night. Nitro would struggle to compete with Raw on a regular basis from this moment on, with many historians seeing this as the moment the tide in the Monday Night War turned.

3. January 19, 1998

The January 19, 1998, episode of Raw featured three different title matches, which might sound good, but none of them went longer than five minutes, none of the belts changed hands, and one of them was Jeff Jarrett versus Bradshaw for the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship.

None of that mattered, however, because this night was all about one in-ring segment between two icons in their respective fields.

Steve Austin, who was fast becoming the most popular wrestler since Hulk Hogan, came face-to-face with boxing legend Mike Tyson. Stone Cold - or “Cold Stone” as Tyson called him - squared up to the heavyweight, leading to a massive brawl between the two that is easily one of the most famous moments in Raw’s entire history.

Mainstream press outlets gobbled this story up, bringing serious attention to WWE on the road to WrestleMania 14. They may not have beaten WCW in the ratings that night, but this show is widely regarded as a key moment in the Monday Night Wars nonetheless.

Crucially, Tyson didn’t yawn on camera during this segment, unlike when he appeared in AEW 22 years later.

2. March 26, 2001

Thanks in part to moments like Tyson shoving Austin, WWE won the Monday Night Wars.

Vince McMahon’s victory was cemented on March 26, 2001 when Raw was broadcast simultaneously alongside the final episode of Monday Nitro.

On the WCW side of things, Booker T won the world title and Ric Flair and Sting had one final match, whilst over in Federation-land, it was mostly just Vince gloating.

The big shocker came at the end of the night, when Shane McMahon rocked up and revealed he had bought WCW from under his father’s nose. This laid the groundwork for the Invasion angle later that year.

Wrestling was never the same again after this dual broadcast. WWE had almost two decades without viable competition which led to a massive drop in the quality of their programming, although it has since picked up again in recent years following the end of Vince McMahon’s creative involvement.

1. November 17, 1997

On the surface, this episode of Raw from November 17, 1997, doesn’t seem particularly special.

Jerry Lawler beat Marc Mero, there was a six-man tag featuring the short-lived minis division, and Mick Foley faced The Rock before either man was a true main eventer. But this episode will go down in history because of three simple words - “Bret screwed Bret”.

During the show, which took place just eight days after the Montreal Screwjob, Vince McMahon appeared in a pre-taped interview to give his side of the story.

He outlined how the company had been put in an impossible situation with The Hitman leaving for WCW and spun it so that Hart, the victim of this miscarriage of justice, was actually the one to blame.

Whether this was the intention or not, Vince had just created one of the most important and infamous wrestling characters of all time - Mr. McMahon. Without this promo, there would have been no evil authority figure, no feud with Austin, and, maybe, no Attitude Era as we know it.

For all the historic moments it set in motion, this episode of Raw is one of the most important things to ever happen to WWE.