Up until that point wrestling TV shows were pre-recorded affairs that presented sub-par squash matches and hyped up the next big PPV event or tour. That all changed when Vince McMahon and co decided to take the risk and present a weekly live show where anything could happen and quite often it did. Raw kick-started the Monday Night War with WWE's rival WCW, presented excitement and energy by being totally live, offered PPV standard matches for free and best of all you actually felt like a title could change hands right there in your living room (sometimes it did). Now after over 700 hundred episodes Raw has quite rightly changed and altered its style with the times, growing in stature, taking risks and gambles, but it still stands today as the flagship show of the WWE and wrestling.
In this superb boxset we get a wonderful trip back in time and see the program and its content change from those more cartoon oriented characters of the 1990s to the more direct and risqué manner we see today, plus get a wrestling history lesson at the same time. The matches and storylines chosen for this release have been well thought out, as they take in many of the historic match-ups and events that transpired on the Raw stage and kept the show at the top of the ratings. We get to see new stars being born, old favourites getting a welcome acknowledgement for their in-ring skill, classic match-ups and some of those long forgotten angles that you remember with fondness and a smile. So over three discs we get to see not only Raw grow up with its audience, but the opportunity to see how the show took the fight to WCWs Monday Nitro show, pulling out all the stops with new characters like Stone Cold Steve Austin, factions like DX, The Corporation and the Nation of Domination rising up, with perhaps the biggest character of all being Mr McMahon himself, whose feuds with Bret hart and Austin have been well documented.
This release is a no holds barred look at the history of Raw and a must buy for fans old and new, in this one place you get to relive those moments that made the WWE what is today. Todd Grisham introduces us to the action, pop-up information on screen adds to the informative nature and some nice talking heads with the stars are a nice touch too, this is a release that's hard to fault. As a nice added bonus the fourth disc features the entire first episode of Raw, which tame by today's standards does offer up a glimpse of a young Shawn Michaels, the barely tattooed Paul Bearer managed Undertaker, the mammoth Yokuzuna, Razor Ramon in his prime and the comedy genius that is Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
