Wrasslin’ Raw is a wrestling podcast that centers around three friends doing a deep-dive into World Wrestling Entertainment’s past. Starting in 1993, Joe, Ryan, and Jason take a look back at old-school wrestling by watching the WWE show Monday Night Raw in chronological order, along with the Pay-Per-Views as they happen. Bringing together three different viewpoints that sometimes agree and sometimes don’t, Wrasslin’ Raw is a round table discussion centered around individual episodes and events. Our hosts give opinions on matches, wrestlers, and storylines, as well as brief glimpses into the then-contemporary world of professional sports entertainment.
Thanks for the great question, Chris. If you don't mind waiting until next week's episode (covering the May 11th Raw), we'll each give you our individual picks then. We just need a little more time to mull this over-it’s tough to choose just one! Thanks for listening!
Love your podcast. Just curious if guys are going to do a weekly retro Smackdown podcast when you cover 1999 since its the 25th anniversary of Smackdown.
Thanks for listening, Tim! We're glad you're enjoying the podcast. Over the past year, we've talked about how to handle Smackdown, and we're leaning towards doing separate episodes for Raw and Smackdown. However, they wouldn’t be released in the same week, we’d love to do that, but it’s just not possible with our jobs and family commitments. While this approach will take longer to get through the years, we feel that skipping Smackdown or trying to condense both shows into one episode wouldn’t do them justice. Plus, it gives us more time to enjoy the Attitude Era. We’ll likely bring this up in an upcoming episode to get feedback from our listeners. Thanks again for your support!
I'm still wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy before this one, still in 1995 Raw podcasts of yours, heh... ...but I'm sure you've all heard about the passing of Sid Vicious by now. I know he was someone you all used to enjoy and like overall, hearing you speak fondly of him and his work in the episodes I'm still at.... ...and I know you've mentioned wrestlers passings before, so I wait with baited breath about the words you'll have for good, ol Sid when the time comes.
Thank you for your comments, and yes we will definitely be talking about Sid when we record our newest episode. Now for him to become Master and Ruler of a different world! Long live Ewatemela!
Do you happen to have the video or any info about the ring jump that evening? It was during the LOD vs NOD match. I believe the match was being recorded for Shotgun Saturday. It was my husband. He would love to see the video. Thanks for any info.
Sorry it took a couple weeks, I just saw this message. I looked a little bit and I couldn't find a match of LOD vs NOD at the February 2nd, 1998 Raw or the February 7th 1998 Shotgun Saturday Night, which was filmed on February 2nd, 1998 during the "Dark Matches" of Raw. Do you know the date it was filmed?
So I've already left my thoughts in a sort of review for this podcast as a whole, before, what I wanted to do now was leave a comment about what I think about the three hosts, and a little bit more of a deeper dive. I've been listening to the show now for a while, up to this point you've done about 2 years worth of shows, since Monday night raw debuted in January of 1993. Granted a lot of those episodes where ones that were consolidated all into one to make room for the backlog that came before around December 1994.. But I listened faithfully up until about now and I wanted to give a bit of a deeper opinion on what I think of the three people who host it. All three of you are great, don't get me wrong, I enjoy each of your personalities for different reasons, although I feel like I can relate to some of you more so than others ,. .. and so, going in reverse order of how much I tend to agree with your outlooks, opinions, and personality as a whole,... .... First would come who I think of as the main guy of the podcast, Jason You're sort of the anchor of the podcast. you go over the transcripts and you say what happened in each match and you sort of keep the whole thing going smoothly and in a fashionable order. So it's kind of funny that I seem to agree with you the least, haha. One thing I love about you, although, is you're not shy to give your opinion honestly. You put things very blunt, very straightforward, you never beat around the bush, if you don't like something, you're not afraid to say it. I really respect these types of personality traits... The things you seem to like and dislike, however, you and I don't really match up all that much, I find. You and I tend to have vastly differing opinions, because as I listen to these, the way that you rate matches, your highlights and lowlights, and your reactions to things, often be the complete opposite of mine. This is not always the case, however, and the times that I do happen to agree with you on something I always take as a huge point of pride because when you and I both agree, we seem to both agree very strongly about things. Overall, you're a great host, though. It's hard to imagine the show would be very good or do very well without you. You give it order and I appreciate that. You tend to act as a good moderator in that you keep it on track and keep it organized well. You also don't often belabor points.... You say what needs to be said and then you move on, which is something I always really liked about you ... Next we have Joe. Joe is great in that he's really subtle, I think.... So much so that sometimes I forget he's there. He seems to talk the least, not that that's a bad thing. Regarding his opinions and insights and feedback, however, I tend to agree with him more often than not. Joe seems to me to be the more scathing of the bunch, often making great sarcastic quips, and seeming to be the most insightful of all of you. So Joe remains kind of in the middle, in my opinion, sort of a neutral type of guy, his personality is much more like my own, and I enjoy all of the comments he brings to every episode. Now we come to Ryan. Ryan could be my long lost identical twin. Seriously, if I were on the show then I would be him. Him and I pretty much matchup in most everything opinion wise. I often find myself nodding to everything he says, every little insight he makes, every point he brings up, every example he comes up with, I am almost always in 100% complete agreement Ryan seems to like all the wrestlers I like, he enjoys all the spots and moments that I do, he marks out for the same stuff... Hell, he often makes all the comments that I'm thinking of at the moment. I do believe Ryan is what you would call "my homeboy" on the show, if anyone is. He's the one I can relate to the most, by far my favorite of the three hosts, sorry Joe and Jason... Ryan simply rules. both of you also rock and roll to your own extents, but Ryan is, by far, my favorite host because he just seems to take wrestling as a whole, the way that I take it, as a very fun natured, easygoing, light-hearted sort of way. Listening to you three talk about raw for a 2-year-old period now, I can definitely say that without a doubt that Ryan is the one that fits my personality the most. I do believe that I would get along the best with him. In short, though, the show needs all three of you, it would not work, it would not survive, it wouldn't be half as good without any one of you.... You all bring something to it get the other two of you does not. You all have your strengths and things that I enjoy about you as I listen. Jason has a great and strong voice, attitude, personality, and opinions... Joe provides the backdrop, the subtlety, the reading between the lines, the things no one else thinks to say with a great, and smarmy flourish.... And Ryan is the heart of the program, with his good nature, great humor, and easily relatable views. In short, I hope you three never stop doing this. That even if you ever reach the present day of raw episodes, that you find another thing to go on to start reviewing, even if it's all the Smackdowns from the beginning, as I suggested before... Or even if you have to start with WCW Nitro.... Or hell, even if y'all just start reviewing movies, for Christ's sakes, anything to keep you three always on the air. Because job well done, you all. Thank you.
I'm still greatly enjoying this podcast. I first replied to a video of it last year, while I lived in Texas. I had listened to it all the way up to when you got to mid 1995 (listening in order, chronologically), but then was upended a bit, home-wise....so unable to access internet or online things until the beginning of this year, so I figured I'd restart this podcast from the beginning. It turned out to be a good thing, though... because at the rate I was listening to this podcast before, there was absolutely NO WAY I was gonna have any episodes of it left over, to listen to as I relaxed in bed, each night....after another month or so.... ...as it is now, there are enough episodes you three have made since then to allow me to enjoy it for awhile. Plus with me restarting it... as I did.. helps even more. Love it. Love the podcast so much. Love your threes opinions o all of the matches and such. Also started paying for the wwe archive myself now (on Peacock), to follow along and watch as well. .... Anyways, my primary reason for leaving this comment.... something I noticed that I didn't notice the first time around in listening to it... ....you three seem a little baffled or confused about the Harvey W and Fink fighting springing up and starting, almost like they were LOOKING for feuds or time fillers to throw together, at the time.... .........and I know that you all are ONLY watching and reviewing RAW episodes. I'm aware of that. No Superstars, No Action Zone, probably no Smackdown, when that starts (although--------------------HUGE SUGGESTION HERE-------------I'd think about maybe starting a new podcast or even channel dedicated to that, with episodes about it, RAW storylines will eventually bleed into that show, as I'm sure you all already know....although it would be much more work and take longer and be more on your guys' plate--it would also make more sense, and make it so ya'll might not have to always explain things and update listeners on anything that might have TRANSPIRED on that weekly show, the way it ties into ongoing storylines on RAW. Just something to think about... if ya'll don't ever want to do it, though, that's fine... although I do have to admit that having yet another show by you three and, thus, EVEN MORE FUTURE PODCASTS, is a great thing.....haha. Very alluring).....it's all just RAW and the PPVs.... .......but Fink and Harvey's feud goes wayyyyyy back It didn't just start there, on that episode... it was already two or three years old by that time. It first started back when Harvey first brought out KAMALA long ago, when he still managed HIM. There was one episode were Howard Finkel mispronounced Harvey's name and it pissed him off SO MUCH that he grabbed the mic and pushed Howard away and said he'll do it himself because Howard was apparently inept and coudln't do anything right and etc, etc...........berated him a huge amount, even that first time.. That's why Harvey started introducting all of his wrestlers HIIMSELF....Kamala, Big Bully Beauford (a blink and you'll miss him wrestler around that time), The Great Gonzalas.....Harvey would get on the mic himself and always announce them, OCCASIONALLY pushing Howard out of the way from time to time, just to REMIND everyone of their beef/feud. Sometimes he'd get on the mic and talk smack about Howard... I've witnessed it many times, because I recently started watching the entire history of the WWE again (for the fourth or fifth time). Started in 1985 and watched all PPVs, all weekly shows, all of it... in order...."speed watching" if you will (meaning, I don't watch all shows IN FULL, but I do watch at least one match from every show--usually the "main event" and then any others that interest me) and then just read the results for all the other matches... doing it this way, I've watched from 1985 to about this moment (1994) in only four months time. But yeah... I've seen Howard and Harvey's bitter rivalry building up for years now, it's been there, it's just mostly been on other shows (like Prime Time Wrestling, Superstars, Special Coliseum Video Collections, etc). So it finally coming to a "bigger head" on THIS episode of RAW makes sense. It wasn't just out of the blue like it might have seemed. Harvey has always hated Howard and bullied him. IN fact, found an early allusion to them fighting... here's one from 1992, I want to say? Might have even been the start of it all... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XzpAVK2eJys.html ... But anyways, great podcast. The best one in regards to RAW. Glad to be able to listen again.
i always wanted a heel in the early 90s, like Sid Justice, low blow hogan in the balls = only for Hogan to immediately "hulk up", as usual, and act like nothing happened and go on to win the match!!! lol
Great review, as always. I was looking forward to hearing everyone's point of view on regards to Jim Cornette's rant on Phil Mushnick, particularly when Cornette says that "Brian Pillman was a friend of mine."
28 subscribers??? What? Okay, uh.. well, I just started listening (in order, from the beginning, going in chronological order, too... so I only skipped ahead to leave this comment on this vid since it's the most recent and, I figured, would have the best chance to be seen by ya'll) about a week or two ago and ALREADY it's, IMO, one of the BEST EVER, if not THE BEST ever podcase about RAW I've found. However, there aren't all that many podcasts that review all of the raws, in order, from the beginning. Most time when I do a search of "raw" and "podcast", let's be honest, it's gonna be raws from, say, the last 10 years or so... or only going back about ten years. I've not found or seen many that go back to when Raw first started, but to be fair, the WWE network hasn't really been around all that long... it's only about 4-5 years old, isn't it? In that time, not many podcasts have set themselves up to dedicate to doing a review into them all. I LOVE yours, though. I've listened to the first ten so far, and I can't see myself stopping until I've heard them all. I love WWE wrestling and was a huge fan of Raw from around the 1993-2000 era, so I have a huge collection to look forward to listening from you guys. Just surprised you don't have more subscribers, though.... as podcasts go, yours is one of the best. The layout, the way you present it, the three of your personalities, it's all put together so very well. I look forward to spending the next five or six years with ya'll. Okay, going to go back to where I left off, which is about Oct 94. Yeah, long way to go before I even reach this very episode (of which I'm leaving this comment on). At the rate I'm going, should be reaching it in about 2 or 3 more years, haha...but I will eventually, rest assured. I'm already a huge, huge fan of you three. Love your humor, love your personalities, love how you present it and the format.... I love it all. Even among podcasts of WRESTLING IN GENERAL (and not just specific to RAW REVIEWs), THIS IS one of the BEST. Thank you all so very much for continuing and going on, even in the face of ...not that many subscribers. You deserve wayyyyyyyyyyyyy way more, like, easily hundreds of thousands to millions of more. Hopefully someday people start subscribing in droves because you easily deserve the recognition.
thanks for the kind words! the best way to help is to just spread us around! tell anyone that you think might enjoy us to check us out. downloading/subscribing/rating on podcast platforms are one of the best ways to work the algorithm. 'word of mouth' isn't just a technique Vince McMahon used to use on Shawn Michaels you know!
