10 Things WWE Did Better Before RAW

Some things just haven't been the same since 1993.

By Luke Lafontaine /

The WWE (né WWF) has advanced in countless ways since the '80s and early '90s, back when Monday Night was nothing more than Monday night.

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Despite various complaints people may have about the direction the product has taken in later years, it’s impossible to deny decades of progress in such fundamental areas as production values and raw in-ring talent.

Much of this progress was made possible (or at least facilitated) by the rise and subsequent age of Monday Night RAW. One might call its creation one of the great watersheds in the entire history of wrestling.

Conversely, there are certain areas where WWE simply did it better in the past, before Vince’s TV schedule was saturated to capacity.

The following are ten areas where WWE actually excelled in the days of Saturday squash shows and seasonal pay-per-views. In most cases, the drop-off is related to the advent of RAW somehow. Other times a certain golden age simply ended at or around that time.

Either way, you'd have to set your way-back machine to 1993 or earlier for the best...

10. Split Commentary

It might be pure coincidence that RAW came along right around the time Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan were wrapping up their tenure at the announce table, but the fact is that we haven’t seen a face/heel duo like them since.

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The cable years gave us many quality voices, and the idea of the heel announcer does live on to this day (albeit poorly,) but things have gotten decidedly greyer.

Lawler spent the bulk of his career as more of a playful jerk, heel Cole was all about himself, and JBL would often cheer and jeer the same guy in the same match. Corey Graves is an improvement on his predecessor, but then a bucket and wet sponge would have been too.

When it came to two announcers constantly butting heads over black and white biases, the best work was done before cable. Heenan would drive Monsoon crazy with his comically shameless “broadcast journalism,” and the latter would instinctively mark out for the good guys even while trumpeting impartiality; the chemistry was awesome.

And let’s not forget Jesse Ventura’s body of work (pun intended) alongside a boisterous, squeaky-clean Vince McMahon.

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