6 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Raw 25

2. A Dearth Of Surprises

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WWE.com

It’s understandable that WWE would book a lot of notable superstars and alumni to appear on the 25th anniversary of Raw. And it’s also understandable that WWE would announce many of them in advance to entice fans to tune in and drive ratings up.

But one thing fans were undoubtedly hoping for was some kind of major announcement or surprise, and they got neither.

Sure, Steve Austin, Undertaker, Trish Stratus and Shawn Michaels were all announced for Raw, but what about a surprise visit from Batista, The Rock, Lita, Mick Foley or Sting? And what about a significant announcement for the Royal Rumble or even WrestleMania? If this was going to be a highly rated episode, then it would have been an opportunity to plug one of those major PPVs to try to get extra eyes on them.

But instead, we got some cool moments in what amounted to a standalone episode that was good, but not as great as it could have been.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.