{"id":1086,"date":"2015-10-20T10:52:17","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T15:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2015-10-24T01:48:03","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T06:48:03","slug":"raw-5-list-which-legends-contributed-the-most-on-raw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2015\/10\/20\/raw-5-list-which-legends-contributed-the-most-on-raw\/","title":{"rendered":"JC&#8217;s Raw 5 List &#8211; Which Legends contributed the most on Raw?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-4018043820\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>In this week&#8217;s Top 5 List from Raw, we rank the contributions made by Legends who appeared on Monday&#8217;s Raw from Dallas. Conveniently, there were five Legends who appeared on Raw&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>(1) <strong>The Undertaker<\/strong>. Taker needed to make an appearance on the final Raw before Hell in a Cell, where he faces Brock Lesnar. There is still confusion over how the audience is supposed to view Taker, with WWE seemingly backing off the heel presentation, but Taker&#8217;s presence alone helped sell HIAC on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>(2) <strong>Brock Lesnar<\/strong>. Lesnar\u00a0needed to make an appearance on the final Raw before Hell in a Cell, where he faces Undertaker. The audience seemed conflicted over how to receive Lesnar, especially as it relates to interacting with kinda-heel Taker, but Lesnar&#8217;s presence alone helped sell HIAC on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>(3) <strong>&#8220;Stone Cold&#8221; Steve Austin.<\/strong> Austin&#8217;s show-opening monologue felt like a tack-on, especially after WWE and Austin went back and forth over whether Austin would actually appear on Raw, or just be in the building\u00a0for his post-Raw podcast with Brock Lesnar. Austin did set a\u00a0good tone for the show with some energy and laughs. Setting\u00a0up the Taker-Lesnar promo exchange seems like a lost opportunity, but what else can Austin do at this point if he&#8217;s not going to wrestle or have a regular role on WWE TV?<\/p>\n<p>(4) <strong>Shawn Michaels<\/strong>. Michaels and Austin could be flip-flopped, as Michaels had an important promo exchange with WWE World Hvt. champion Seth Rollins at the top of the second hour. However, the material was so flimsy on Michaels&#8217;s end playing PPV pitchman until Rollins interrupted. Once HBK and Rollins got rolling, though, it was a solid exchange that helped Seth look like a big deal interacting with a big star.<\/p>\n<p>(5) <strong>Ric Flair<\/strong>. In the eyes of many viewers, Flair was wasted at the top of the third hour doing a little reminiscing and then endorsing Roman Reigns. WWE just won&#8217;t give up on force-feeding Reigns, will they?\u00a0It makes sense to use the Legends to endorse the next wave of stars, but the selection of Reigns when he&#8217;s struggling right now made many viewers cringe.<\/p>\n<p>The overall picture is WWE dropped five Legends in the middle of a disorganized Raw at a time when the TV product is turning people away. WWE hoped the Legends would be a shot in the arm for the show,\u00a0but the environment is so polluted that it seems like no one is a difference-maker.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side of the age spectrum, WWE hopes that a fresh crop of talent from NXT could be difference-makers when they are dropped onto Raw, but, again, in a polluted environment, those breaths of fresh\u00a0air eventually fade\u00a0into the environment unless treated as special over a long period of time. Not just a few matches like the case of Kevin Owens or Charlotte.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2099114686\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><em>PWTorch assistant editor James Caldwell hosts\u00a0the Raw Post-Game Show every Monday night at 11:30 p.m. EST at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorchlivecast.com\" target=\"_blank\">PWTorchLivecast.com<\/a>. Listen to this week&#8217;s episode <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blogtalkradio.com\/pro-wrestling-torch\/2015\/10\/20\/pwtorch-livecast--raw-post-game-show-wcaldwell-mcneill\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3235389525\"><div id=\"pwtor-3852743898\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>In this week&#8217;s Top 5 List from Raw, we rank the contributions made by Legends who appeared on Monday&#8217;s Raw from Dallas. Conveniently, there were five Legends who appeared on Raw&#8230; (1) The Undertaker. Taker <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2015\/10\/20\/raw-5-list-which-legends-contributed-the-most-on-raw\/\" title=\"JC&#8217;s Raw 5 List &#8211; Which Legends contributed the most on Raw?\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[485],"tags":[105,191,248,474,106,71,112],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pwtorch-lists","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-ric-flair","tag-shawn-michaels","tag-stone-cold-steve-austin","tag-the-undertaker","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-raw"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Undertakerdark_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1324,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions\/1324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}