9 Ups And 5 Downs From WWE Raw Reunion

1. Heartfelt Austin

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.