Epic Raw 1000

Well wasn't that a lot of fun?

That was definitely one of the best Monday Night Raw episodes in a long time. The show brought back some fantastic memories for me.

The show started off with the reunion of Degeneration X as the Chairman of the WWE, Vincent Kennedy McMahon introduced DX. I must say, it was awesome to see The New Age Outlaws, HHH, HBK and X-Pac up to their old antics. Damien Sandow came out interrupting the reunion. He would pay for that as he took a superkick from HBK then falling into the pedigree from HHH.

Good ol JR came out to commentate on the six man tag match between Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara and Sheamus vs Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho and Alberto Del Rio. This was a pretty good match with some great back and forth action. Sheamus got the pin after Ziggler laid out Jericho and once he got up he punted the head off Jericho.

We then went to a vignette backstage with Layla and AJ. Layla says AJ is crazy. AJ proceeds to open the door seeing Hacksaw Jim Duggan, R-Truth, Rowdy Roddy Piper with "Little Jimmy" and finally Mae Young with her son "the giant hand." This segment was insanely ridiculous.

Next up was the continuing dramatic fall of Jack Swagger. Brodus Clay came out and called out Dude Love to come to the ring. Brodus proceeded to destroy Swagger in seconds. They all danced in the ring and that's all I have to say about this gong show.

Finally, we had the wedding between AJ and Daniel Bryan. Slick came out to be the reverend for the wedding. AJ says "Yes" but states she isn't saying it for Bryan but instead she's saying it for Mr. McMahon and his offer for her to become the next Raw GM. As I've been saying, I am in love with AJ so I will never get tired of her.

We come back to Bryan still in the ring, going postal and destroying everything in the ring. CM Punk comes out and gives him some verbal jabs. Some music hits, the crowd goes nuts as The Rock makes his way down to the ring. He comes down and verbally slams Bryan and announces that he will be wrestling for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble, next year. He tells Bryan not to feel bad, because he got him a wedding gift, and subsequently delivers the Rock Bottom to Bryan.

Next was a match for the Intercontinental Championship, between the Champion, Christian and The Miz. Bret Hart was the special guest ring announcer. This was a very good match with The Miz delivering his Skull Crushing Finale and getting the victory over Christian, becoming the new Intercontinental Champion.

Triple H came down to the ring to call out Brock Lesnar. Lesnar's music hits and out comes his legal representative Paul Heyman. Heyman told HHH that the answer to HHH's Summerslam challenge was "no." Out comes a spectacular looking Stephanie McMahon. She proceeds to get in the face of Paul Heyman, slapping him and antagonising him into saying "yes" for the match. Lesnar's music hits again and out comes Brock. He comes down and the two brawl.

Howard Finkel comes down as the special ring announcer. He announces Heath Slater as he comes down to the ring. Slater then calls out any WWE Legend to a No Disqualification match. Out comes Lita, who looks fantastic I might add. She has answered Slater's challenge. She also announces she has hired the APA (Ron Simmons and JBL) for protection. Slater runs out of ring but ends up running into all of the legends who have beaten the hell out of him. They toss him back into the ring and Lita and the APA destroy Slater. Lita lands a moonsault and gets the win. After the match all of the legends were standing over a laid out Slater and Simmons, with mic in hand, delivered his famous catch phrase, "DAMN!"

Kane comes into the ring, but gets interrupted by Jinder Mahal, Hunico, Camacho, Tyler Reks, Curt Hawkins, and Drew McIntyre. It all hits the fan as the lights go out and the Undertaker's music blares and out comes the dead man. The brothers destroy the six men and that was about it. It was great to see the Undertaker in the ring again.

We then got the main event, the match for the WWE Championship. As John Cena was cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase against the Champion CM Punk. This match was pretty boring until Cena shoved Punk into the referee. Cena delivered the AA to Punk and was ready for the pin, however, the ref was knocked out so no three count was made. Cena went down to get the ref up, came back into the ring and The Big Show knocked Cena out. He was unable to get the three count as well because the ref was knocked out. Punk got the ref up and into the ring and Cena kicked out on the two count. Punk goes to deliver the GTS but it is countered and Cena puts Punk into the GTS. The Big Show climbs back into the ring and beats the crap out of Cena, causing the disqualification. Punk sat in the corner watching Show beat Cena down. A jacked Rock came running down and beats the hell out of The Big Show. The Rock goes to deliver the People's Elbow but Punk comes flying back into the ring and clotheslines The Rock. The crowd is stunned as Punk delivers the GTS to The Rock and the show ends with the crowd booing Punk as he walks up the ramp, still WWE Champion.

This was a fantastic show. I loved almost every aspect of it. From top to bottom, the WWE delivered. I am glad to see that CM Punk has finally turned heel. AJ becoming the new GM for Raw was something that came out of nowhere. The Miz becoming the new Intercontinental Champion is a great thing as well because the Miz has some nice swagger. Of course the DX reunion was fantastic as they have always been very entertaining. One thing is certain, the match at Summerslam between HHH and Brock Lesnar is going to be a fight.

With the permanent move to 3 hours, the WWE really needs to keep up the good work. It all begins next Monday in Cincinnati. We here at FTI will be at the Raw show so we will previewing the show later this week. Since Raw is in Cincinnati, we are trying to get an interview with some WWE talent. Please continue to check out the FTI Wrestling blog as we have some big things coming down the pipeline so stay tuned. Thank you very much for continuing to FEEL THE IMPACT.