Chris Jericho, DDP, Rick Steiner, and Jim Ross Reflect on 25 Years of Monday Night Raw

– The Cult of Whatever recently spoke to a number of Hall of Famers and former WWE Superstars on some memorable moments and highlights over the years, including Chris Jericho, DDP, Rick Steiner, Jim Ross, and more. Below are some highlights.

Chris Jericho on his 1999 WWE Raw debut with the Millennium Countdown: “It was definitely one of the best debuts ever. I came up with the idea of the countdown clock and Vince McMahon came up with the idea of having the clock end right in the middle of Rocks promo. I think that is the biggest reaction I had ever got, a lot of people knew it was going to me but there were also a lot of people that didn’t have a clue. It was a different world back then, the internet wasn’t like it is today, these days you would just go online and you can find things out right away but it wasn’t like that then.”

Rick Steiner on being part of the first edition of Raw: “I didn’t have any idea it was going to last so many years, it was filmed at a music hall in downtown New York. For me it was just another wrestling event and I didn’t really pay that much attention, I honestly had no Idea that it was going be as big as it has become now. It was good to be on the first one and getting acknowledged for that.”

DDP when he showed up on Raw as the stalker of Undertaker and his wife: “I wasn’t particularly a fan of the stalker gimmick but that first night I showed up on Monday Night Raw that was a pretty big explosion from the crowd. I actually got to be Diamond Dallas Page out there, we were in Tampa, Florida and it was a pretty big pop so my first day on Raw was a lot of fun. After everything with DDP Yoga another highlight for me was when people got the opportunity to see Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts for the first time in 16 years when he returned on Old School Raw in 2014 in the main event with The Shield, The New Age Outlaws and CM Punk.”

Jim Ross on being the voice of Raw for many years: “Being the voice of Monday Night Raw for so many years was amazing, it was like being on an adventure that you got to renew every week. It was very unpredictable, most of the time we didn’t have the complete show until we were actually on the air. The whole Attitude Era was huge and when I got the opportunity to help assemble the talent roster that made Monday Night Raw’s even more important for me, because a lot of the guys I was recruiting and signing were now getting to live out their dreams and I always thought that was my number one goal to help wrestlers facilitate their dreams when I was in that talent relations role.

“The Raw in Chicago when it was announced I was going to be inducted into the 2007 Hall of Fame was a really cool moment for me, The Georgia Dome Raw was a fun thing because that was my home market back in the day, Doing Raw in Oklahoma City and hearing the Oklahoma University pep band play the Boomer Sooner was really cool. Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler and I tried to make every show special, every week we had a different challenge but the bottom line is until somebody actually does 52 weeks a year of live television with no break and you do it for several years you don’t really understand what the magnitude of the challenge is. I wouldn’t trade any of it, I loved every moment, I loved every trip, every hotel, and every live crowd and I had the best seat in the house. If you’re a wrestling broadcaster that was and still is the number one job, to be the lead voice on Monday Night Raw. I’m looking forward to going back and seeing all of my old friends, seeing what they have in store for us on Monday, it’s a big day when you stop and think about a show that has been on the air for 25 years in primetime and is still going strong with a three hour broadcast and is vibrant as it ever was.”