9 Ups And 5 Downs From WWE Raw Reunion

by Scott Carlson

1. Heartfelt Austin

Stone Cold Steve Austin promo
WWE.com

If you’ve got a pulse, how could you not love “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s heartfelt promo at the end of Raw?

Austin came out to toast Raw for the reunion special, and just when you might have felt like it was a forced, network-ordered super-show, the Rattlesnake talked up his experiences seeing people the past couple days and made it feel like a real reunion. He talked about recording a podcast with Hulk Hogan, drinking beers with and listening to stories from Ric Flair, hanging with Ron Simmons and running into a bunch of other superstars in the hotel bar.

As the legends filled the ring, Austin saw Gerald Brisco, laughed and starting telling a story about being on a plane with him doing something illegal before shifting to admitting he was nervous about coming out to do the promo before Coach told him to just be himself.

The entire promo has more reality and emotion to it than 90% of what Raw puts out there these days, and it was just Stone Cold riffing and being himself. That says a hell of a lot.

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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.