Three Takeaways From 25th Anniversary Of Monday Night Raw

The 25th Anniversary of Monday Night Raw was very hit-or-miss from segment to segment. Some moments were fantastic, while others were duds. Featuring a moment that was “too sweet” as well as Stone Cold Stunners galore, let’s take a look at our three takeaways from the special show.

1. DX And The Balor Club Meet- One of the biggest issues with the worldwide-famous stable Bullet Club is the fact that they use the “Too Sweet” gesture that originated with the NWO and The Kliq. While members like The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega would use the gesture, older fans and legends would get all outraged over it. Tonight was one of those instances were the WWE decided to not be petty.

As D-Generation-X made their way to the ring with Scott Hall eventually joining them for a nostalgic moment, Finn Balor’s music hit as he and Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows hit the ring. Instead of a throwdown between the two largely-over groups, they threw up the sign and embraced. It was an uber cool moment and though some will say that the moment only happened because of the WWE setting, no one can dispute how wild a moment it was. The Revival then wrestled Gallows and Anderson and fell to the tag team before suffering a worse fate. Dash and Dawson stepped up to the legends, getting a good old-fashioned beatdown, courtesy of everyone in the ring.

Too Sweet, indeed.

2. The Miz Reclaims The IC Belt- When The Miz lost the Intercontinental Championship to Roman Reigns and left television for a month or so, Raw felt empty. The Cleveland native had made such a revival in the last two years that he had become the main attraction on Monday nights. So it was safe to say that when he won the title back on Raw against Reigns tonight, the wrestling world was in a better state of mind.

Exposing a turnbuckle that would later set up a Skull-Crushing Finale, The Miz knocked off Reigns to tie Chris Jericho for the most IC title reigns with eight. It’s a huge feat for the A-Lister and he should once again make the belt relevant again. Roman, on the other hand, will now look to win the Royal Rumble, as he is and should be one of the betting favorites.

3. Lack Of Manhattan Center Action- While there was a ton of fun cameos from legends throughout the night, it was apparent that the WWE did not plan to appease both locations they broadcasted from. The Manhattan Center and those in attendance were rather quiet for most of the night. That was because most of the action took place in the other arena and the crowd had to watch on a big screen and wait for something, anything to happen where they were.

Sure, they had a Matt Hardy/Bray Wyatt match, an Undertaker cameo, and the encounter between DX and the Balor Club but besides that, the crowd was shorted of a good time.