Raw #194 - January 20th, 1997

It’s the night after the Royal Rumble, and Bret Hart interrupts the proceedings, storming to the ring to cut a promo instead of wrestle to open the show. It’s a harbinger of how Raw will operate for the next two decades, except for the fact that Bret repeatedly refers to the “championship belt.” He addresses Vince McMahon as if he, rather than Federation President Gorilla Monsoon, runs the show, airing his grievances about being repeatedly screwed, first by Shawn Michaels in December, and again by Stone Cold at the Royal Rumble, which he would have won had the referees seen Austin get eliminated. Instead, Austin won last night, and Bret Hart unceremoniously quits tonight, hopping the guard rail to a mixture of boos and “We Want Bret” chants.

Raw #124 - August 14th, 1995

This week's Raw opens with Vince McMahon hinting that Shawn Michaels is injured (after getting smashed into a ring post by Mabel) and vulnerable to losing his title at Summerslam. That also spells bad news for HBK tonight, as he faces Jerry Lawler. However, no mention is made of the title being on the line, which had been heavily implied ever since In Your House. Why would Lawler want to challenge new Intercontinental Champion Michaels specifically after he won the title and King called him a "marked man," only for it to be a non-title match? Non-title match or not, Lawler is replaced by Ted DiBiase on this night at the commentary table.

Raw #104 - March 27th, 1995

It's that time of year again! Time for a throwaway episode of Raw. Back in the day, it was standard practice for the Raw before a big pay-per-view (especially Wrestlemania) to be a clip show to hype up the event. In 2013, WWE has the "go home" show; in 1995, the WWF had the "go away" show.

Raw #88 - November 28th, 1994

Tonight's Raw is a rarity: an episode airing live immediately after a pay-per-view. This means that we will actually get to see the fallout from Survivor Series instead of having the announcers merely tell us about it via dubbed-in post-production commentary while a bunch of matches with no storyline relevance take place. Vince McMahon is at ringside, for real this time, with Jerry "The King" Lawler, who tells us that we will be joined by even more royalty in the form of Owen Hart. Also appearing will be Diesel, the new ___ Champion. Since I'm watching a WWE-re-released version of Raw, the word immediately before "champion" is blurred out; I can think of at least one adjective describing Diesel as a champion that would have to be censored. Regardless of how Big Daddy Cool's reign would turn out, I'm sure this announcement really confused basically everyone who wasn't at the MSG house show where the title change took place, seeing how it took place over the weekend, off TV, in the days before the internet was prevalent. Also, Adam Bomb takes on IRS in a battle of things that liberals and conservatives hate about America, respectively.

Vince and Jerry commentate assassination attempt

A gunman in Bulgaria attempted to assassinate a political party leader earlier today. The key word is "attempted," meaning that no one was hurt (except for the gunman, who was beaten by about a dozen security guards). That means it's fair game for parody!

Here's what would have happened if this had aired on Monday Night Raw, circa 1995.

Raw #55 - March 21st, 1994

Tonight, for the first time ever, Raw is airing live the night after a pay-per-view, thanks to Wrestlemania X taking place in New York City. Tonight's episode is in Poughkeepsie, the new de facto home base of Monday Night Raw. The Macho Man is back on commentary after having defeated Crush last night (after nine consecutive losses in falls-count-anywhere matches on house shows). New WWF champion Bret Hart will be interviewed tonight.

The Other Kind of Politicking

WWE has had a long history of involvement in electoral politics, starting in 2000, when the Smackdown Your Vote campaign, aimed at registering young WWF fans to vote, was launched. The non-partisan campaign emphasized only the importance of voter participation, as well as legitimizing the then-World Wrestling Federation, a lightning rod for criticism, in the eyes of the mainstream media. Somehow, WWE has always managed to blow every opportunity to be taken seriously by the media and the politicians.

Raw #39 - November 8th, 1993

Raw's thirty-ninth episode emanates from the exotic locale known as Bushkill, Pennsylvania. Nothing says exciting action like the Poconos. Once again, it seems that the production crew can't get the regular graphics on screen for this live episode, so we get the same dated-looking logos and lettering (even for the early 90s) that we've come to expect from Raw's non-Manhattan Center events.  Tonight's advertised main event is Scott Steiner, who is looking to wrestle yet another country, versus Finland's Ludvig Borga.