10 Things You Learn Re-Watching The First Ever Episode Of Raw Is War
3. Sunset
With Shawn Michaels still absent from television after losing his smile, the maiden edition of Raw is War also had a distinct lack of input from 1996's other major standout performer.
Despite her dominance over WWE's tag team scene and status as AOL's 'Most Downloaded Woman of the Year', Sunny somehow found herself a little out of place at the beginning of 1997.
Too over not to be used, but no longer effective as a manager, Sunny's enormous appeal to the broader male audience WWE was desperately craving ensured a position on television for her, but the titillation shortcut seemed to be the only route management was willing to take.
Appearing for a promo during a nothing match between Billy Gunn and Aldo Montoya, Sunny delivered a sexually suggestive soliloquy about her new segment 'Under the Covers', debuting on a re-vamped Shotgun Saturday Night that weekend.
With Vince tiring of Shotgun's nightclub location experiment, the show would become a lowercard offering taped before Raw.
Devoid of the bite and vigour it gained emanating from the various oddball destinations, Sunny's loosely insider-based gossip segment from beneath satin sheets was considered risqué enough to redress the balance. Billy and Aldo were merely sacrificial lambs in its tepid promotion.