Monday Night Raw will celebrate its 15th anniversary this Monday night with a three-hour live special at 8 o'clock. It got me thinking back to when Raw first came on the USA Network, essentially replacing Prime Time Wrestling which was hosted by the late Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby"The Brain"Heenan. Prime Time was two hours of taped matches from various arenas that the then W.W.F. would visit. Raw was something new and even better, because most Mondays it was live. Today it is always live.
The first commentating crew was Vince McMahon, Randy"Macho Man"Savage, and Rob Bartlett, known for his comedy on the Don Imus radio show.
The initial Raw shows emanated from the grand ballroom of the Manhattan Center and I recall some really odd gimmicky wrestlers making their debut in addition to the regular roster back in the salad days of Raw.
There was Damien Demento, Doink the Clown, Friar Ferguson, Bastion Booger, Duke"The Dumpster"Drocey, Repo Man, and others. But the weirdest gimmick was Max Moon who was actually based on a Japanese cartoon character. He was billed as being from "outer space" and is pictured above this post. That was by far the worst gimmick I had seen, although come to think of it, I don't know if he was as bad as the Gobbeldy Gooker! More on him at a much later time...much later!
From the "tell me something I didn't know" department, I read recently that John Nord and Bruiser Brody were set to come to the W.W.F. in 1988 to feud with Demolition. This would never occur, though, as Brody would be murdered in a still unsolved case. Nord would eventually make his way to the promotion but as The Viking and The Berserker. He just never fulfilled his potential. Too bad.
More on Raw in the coming posts...
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