RAW Celebrates 900th Episode

This past Monday, the longest running weekly episodic television program in history, Monday Night Raw celebrated its special and record-breaking 900th episode. RAW has been on the air longer than any other television program, and is still going strong seventeen and a half years after it first debuted on January 11th, 1993. There have been many changes to RAW from when it first began to where it is now. For starters, RAW moved to a two-hour slot, from one hour when they first started. In the old days, RAW used to be live one week and taped the next. Now, RAW is live every single week. And finally, RAW used to be taped in the Grand Ballroom, a small New York City theater, but now is held in a different sold-out arena every week, that seats usually 20,000 fans. Monday Night Raw can be seen every Monday night from 9 P.M. Eastern Time on USA Network.

There have been many great moments in Monday Night Raw history, and some were relived on tonight's episode. Some of the highlights and flashbacks to previous episodes that were shown on tonight's Raw episode was The Rock and Mick Foley's "This Is Your Life" segment (highest rated segment in RAW history), Stone Cold Steve Austin spraying Vince McMahon with beer, D-Generation-X waging war against WCW, HHH invading Orton's home, John Cena throwing Edge into the water, Nexus invading Monday Night Raw, Bob Barker's guest hosting gig, and others.

RAW kicked off its historic 900th episode with one of the few people who were on the very first episode of Monday Night Raw, Bret "The Hitman" Hart. This leads to Hart being interrupted by the World Heavyweight Champion Kane, who says that there is no Undertaker anymore, saying he is just a man. Later in the promo, Kane starts choking Hart before Taker's gong sounds and the lights go out in the arena. Undertaker arrives in the ring when the lights turn back and the anonymous GM announces Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker later in the night.

Next, we saw a series of matches, first starting with a Triple Threat Tag Match between the three remaining NXT rookies and their pros. Alex Riley and The Miz picked up the victory after Kaval hits the Warriors Way and Miz hits Kaval with the Skull Crushing Finale. The next match saw Team LayCool against Eve and Melina. This was a very short match that ended with Melina rolling up Layla for the pinfall. We had another short match with John Morrison and R-Truth against Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. This match ended in a No Contest after both teams fought each other until the ref threw the match out.

The next match was supposed to be Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker but before the match started, Wade Barrett of Nexus interrupts and says this match isn't happening. The gong sounds and the lights go out again, and when they come back, Kane is in the ring with the Undertaker. When Taker gets the upper hand on his brother, the lights go out again and Kane disappears. This is followed by Nexus coming to the ring to confront the Undertaker. They surround the ring and Taker tries to fight them off, but the numbers game is too much. The lights go out for a third time and when they come back on, Barrett has Undertaker on his shoulder, and delivers his finisher, called "The Wasteland." Gabriel then hits him with the 450 splash.

Jack Swagger versus Evan Bourne is the following match on the card, and a minute into the match, Alberto Del Rio interrupts driving his Bentley (JBL style) in to the arena. Swagger picks up the victory after Evan Bourne misses the Shooting Star Press, followed by Swagger putting Bourne into the ankle lock and Bourne tapping out immediately. Del Rio gets on the mic and talks about how he made Rey Mysterio tap out and how he will do the same thing to little Evan Bourne. He puts Bourne into the painful armbar, and wants to do more damage until Mark Henry makes the save.

The moment of the night came next when CM Punk came to the ring and cut a promo. He starts out saying that he is better than The Rock, criticizing The Tooth Fairy movie, then moves on to Triple H, and then Stone Cold. While he is talking about Stone Cold, Austin's music hits and Punk with his S.E.S look nervous until they all start laughing. Punk laughs at the crowd saying that he fooled them all, and he wanted to show one more clip before he left. Punk shows the clip of Brock Lesnar superplexing Big Show, breaking the ring in the process. This prompts the Big Show to come out to the ring and recalls some moments of his own. Big Show mocks the S.E.S with a Hulk Hogan voice, but Punk is not amused. This segment ends with Big Show cleaning house with the Straight Edge Society.

The main event for this historic night was a 5-on-5 Elimination Tag Match with John Cena, Edge, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, and Sheamus versus Nexus (Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Michael Tarver, Wade Barrett, David Otunga). Jericho and Tarver start off the match, but before anything happens, Jericho walks out of the ring. He goes to the back and gets counted out for the first elimination. Edge is next in the ring, and he shoves the referee, getting himself disqualified. Nexus quickly picks up a two-man advantage. Slater eliminates WWE Champion Sheamus, after Gabriel hits Sheamus followed by Slater hitting his finisher. Cena enters the ring next and quickly eliminates Slater with the Attitude Adjustment and makes David Otunga tap out to the STF. Gabriel hits the 450 splash on Cena out of nowhere, pinning him. As the action continues, Orton hits an RKO on Gabriel, followed by an RKO on Tarver, eliminating both and leaving him one-on-one with Wade Barrett. Barrett immediately hits Orton with his finisher to be the sole survivor for his team. RAW goes off the air with Wade Barrett standing tall.