5 Best & 5 Worst Moments From WWE Raw's 3 Hour Era

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.