10 Notable Changes Made To WWE Raw In 1997

If there's one thing from Raw's glory days that drives today's fan nuts, it's the fact that three hour broadcasts open up with an intricately-scripted gabfest that reiterates most of the same boring talking points from week to week.

It's a crutch that has existed for close to twenty years now, and is only made worse by the removal of improvisation skill from the equation.

In its day, though, an impassioned pro-Canada speech from Bret Hart or a series of daunting threats from Steve Austin would do a fine job of kicking off a fast-paced two hour show, and they actually did a fine job of getting over the character tweaks that the era called for.

Once Evil Mr. McMahon started taking part in 1998, they only got better.