10 Most Important Episodes Of WWE Raw In History

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.