5 Best & 5 Worst Moments From WWE Raw's 3 Hour Era
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In July 2012, WWE held a three-hour special of their flagship show Monday Night Raw. Only this special was extra-special. So special in fact, that it would commence an era of every show being 'extra-special'.
Kicking off with the celebratory Raw 1000 (which, admittedly, was an achievement worth trumpeting), Monday night wrestling went one hour longer. Subsequently, weekly followers have now literally spent hundreds more hours watching the show in the last half-decade than they would have done previously. Back-to-back, it would be possible to watch every edition of the show from the start up to some point in 1997 with that time.
But would it be time better spent?
There are always criticisms to be made of the current product with many of them fair, but the increasingly bloated broadcast has still been capable of offering some of the greatest moments in company history over nearly six years at 180 minutes.
Of course, whilst the increased run-time should foster more moments like these, it inevitably kicks the door wide open for sprawling, unmanaged drivel that dominates an episode and leaves a bad taste for the product at large.
Several years down with no end in immediate sight, does the evidence stack up that the highlights cancel out the cavernous lows?
10. BEST: A New Era
With the 2016 Brand Extension, WWE attempted to breathe life into both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live! with defined styles and rosters that could offer alternative experiences for each respective audience.
WWE had tiptoed around the roster reinvention earlier in the year by allowing Shane McMahon to run Monday Night Raw, but mentions of a 'New Era' were largely in name alone. Roman Reigns was still WWE Champion, and little had occurred beyond the odd post-WrestleMania surprise that implied significant change.
The Draft brought those long awaited seismic movements.
The first post-split Raw was an electric episode, and arguably the best complete episode of the three-hour run. Taking place on July 25th one week removed from the Draft itself, it kicked off with one of two fatal four-way matches designed to determine a challenger for Seth Rollins at SummerSlam in a match for the newly-created Universal Title. Those battles were won by Finn Balor and Roman Reigns, which provided an unadvertised first meeting for the two won clean as a sheet by 'The Demon King'.
Fans that had followed his path through NXT were elated, as they were for fellow Full Sail alumni Sasha Banks when she dethroned Charlotte in what was (at the time) the best women's match in Monday Night Raw history.
The show also featured Braun Strowman as a repackaged loner. His hilarious squash victory over James Ellsworth set the 'Monster Among Men' off on the run of his career, and even earned the plucky loser a full time job.