Let me start off by saying I take no pleasure in writing this article. Being critical of something that normally brings me much happiness is not an enjoyable experience for me – but watching the 20th Anniversary Episode of Raw was no enjoyable experience either. I can’t believe that the WWE, after a huge build up, produced a very average program with such a huge opportunity.

20 years and the longest running weekly program stands on it’s own merits. It’s a huge deal. It was such a big deal that no one other than “The Boss” Vince McMahon was appropriate to welcome us (the fans) to the 20th Anniversary of Monday Night Raw!!!! Vince let us know that what we have come to expect over those 20 years is entertainment – and that was exactly what I was expecting – 3 hours of entertainment!

What I got was one awesome moment (Kaitlyn winning the WWE Diva’s Championship) and a very average program that didn’t come close to matching all the hype that led up to this historic event.

Disappointment is not even close to explaining how I felt at the end. And the disappointment was not just for myself, but for our staff here at DTRT Wrestling News as well. I use the word staff, but really all we are is 4 wrestling fans who spend our time and money (no, we don’t get paid to do this – and our little hobby is not a money producer at this point in time) covering the world of professional wrestling both inside and outside the ring.

So if we were disappointed, then I’m sure that many were just like us. Here are the tweets from three of our four crew members that were live tweeting at the end of the program:

Vanessa: Yep it’s official best part about #RAW20 was @KaitlynWWE winning#DivasChampionship the rest was lame follow me? @GreatLove91night

 

Trevor: Well thank you @WWE for turning what could have been a legit celebration and honoring those who helped build Raw. Nope – #Raw20

 

And myself: Best thing about the ending was seeing Double A, Arn Anderson helping restore order. Toughest member of #4horsemen ! #RAW20

 

I mean seriously, an event of this magnitude, and we get CM Punk vs Brodus Clay???? In one highlight videos we get Bastion Booger and Duke “The Dumpster” Droese???? Of all the Superstars from the past all we get is Ric Flair and Mick Foley???? (I love them both, but they have both had recent story lines). The best they can do with AJ is to have her climb up the steel cage and sit on the top and scream????

During his opening, Mr. McMahon jokingly (or so I thought) said this:

Why have over 4 billion viewers enjoyed Monday Night Raw? Because of one reason, because I’m a certifiable iconic genious – and because of each and every one of you and I thank you. We hope you enjoy the 20th Anniversary of Monday Night Raw.

If this show was a thank you, then there must not be much gratitude for the fans and their 20 years of support!

I was told that because the return of The Rock had been so popular the week before, that they thought he would be enough to carry this show. Not even The Rock Concert could pull this show from disaster. Even the confrontation between Rock and Punk sucked. If they wanted The People’s Champ to carry the show, they certainly should have brought him out sooner than 10:55.

If this was all about ratings, why didn’t they tease an appearance of Stone Cold Steve Austin? Do you think that “The Rattlesnake” might have brought in a few extra viewers? Oh Hell Yes!

There were some good matches. Barrett defeating Orton was good; Ryback, Sheamus, and Orton chasing off The Shield was worked for me; Cena and Ziggler in the cage wasn’t bad – but none of them was anything that we might not see any other Monday.

The night was historic, but what was historic about Sheamus losing to 3MB????

As I mentioned earlier, Kaitlyn winning the WWE Diva’s Championship was huge and deserves it’s own coverage, but they even screwed this story line up by having Eve “quit”. If you saw Kaitlyn on “Backstage Fallout”,  she had no clue how to respond to Eve’s WWE finale, and quite frankly Eve deserved to leave with something better than a goofy meltdown to a backstage reporter.

Again, if ratings were what they were after – why not jump right into a Kaitlyn/AJ feud. When they were properly using AJ many months ago, she was practically carrying the ratings on her own. They had the audience to drive future ratings, but missed so many opportunities to drive home The Royal Rumble and ultimately Wrestlemania.

I could go on about the time and effort that DTRT Wrestling News put into promoting this event, but that would make the story about us, and the only thing about us and this story is that we, like I’m sure so many other fans were, disappointed, disgusted, and angry as we were expecting something huge and got less than the best that the WWE has to offer!

Hell, we didn’t even get a good Raw!

Ed Boston

DTRT Wrestling News Co-Founder

Right after Christmas, each member of the DTRT Wrestling News Staff was asked to make their picks for the following:

1. Match of the Year
2. Superstar of the Year
3. Best Storyline of the Year
4. Worst Storyline of the Year
5. Shocker of the Year
6. Breakout Star of the Year

So without further ado, here are our choices. If you have different ideas, please use the comment section to tell us where you differ.

DTRT Wrestling News Co-Founder Trevor’s Choices with comments:

1. Match of the Year – Undertaker VS Triple H WrestleMania 28: Without a doubt this earns the title of match of the year. The buildup to the match was intense. You had two icons of the “attitude era” battling it out against the undertakers undefeated streak.
2. Superstar of the Year – CM Punk he has been able to successfully hold fans attention with one of the longest title raigns while also having a successful heel turn.
3. Best Storyline of the Year – CM Punk respect, again this angle has performed well this year.
4. Worst Storyline of the Year – AJ crazy chick, I am proud of the popularity AJ achieved after WrestleMania 28. Until then she was known simply as “Daniel Bryans girlfriend”. However after the kiss of death that cost Bryan his match at mania and to lose his championship and a very good public breakup WWE creative didn’t know when enough was enough. AJ became known as “the crazy chick” kissing all the top male superstars and didn’t see any in-ring action for months.
5. Shocker of the Year – Rybacks sudden rise in popularity: Going from squash matches to a fan favorite in just a couple of months has to be a record. It felt like he only had 2 or 3 matches and the crowd was already breaking into chants of “Feed me more”. This was one of the best comebacks and all props to Ryan Reeves who up until an injury was going by the name Skip Shepfield and do a horrible gimmick which he himself admitted he hated. Ryback was the original gimmick he had perfected during his developmental period at FCW / now NXT and it should have stayed that way in the first place.
6. Breakout Star of the Year – Say what you like about how WWE creative has done with her character of AJ Lee, there is no doubt in my mind that if you are going to count for the entire year it has to be April Mendez. Not since Trish or Lita have we seen a diva be so popular with the audience and ultimately carry the ratings for Raw for several weeks during the summer. It is proof to me that Diva’s should be considered superstars and billed as such in matches. April Mendez has the talent and in-ring ability if she should ever be allowed to properly use it? Hopefully against her friend and another talented diva Kaitlyn.

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DTRT Wrestling News WWE Reporter and Diva Opinion Writer Vanessa’s choices:

1. Match of the Year: Undertaker vs Triple H Hell in the cell at wrestle mania 28
2. Superstar of the Year: CM PUNK
3. Best Storyline of the Year: The who attacked Kaitlyn storyline
4. Worst Storyline of the Year: the AJ/cena scandal
5. Shocker of the Year: Ziggler winning money in the bank
6. Breakout Star of the Year: Kaitlyn

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DTRT Wrestling News Raw and Impact Recap Reporter John’s choices: