WWF RAW was an interesting snapshot of WWE history

 

By the time this is posted and read, WWE will have aired the 1000th episode of Monday Night RAW. At the time I’m writing it, it has yet to happen, but it is amazing to think about how long that show has been on the air.

In November 1994, WWF RAW was also the title of a video game, the third WWF title of the 16-bit era. I remember being quite excited to pick up the game, as I’d loved the previous WWF Royal Rumble on the SNES. In fact, it had been one of the reasons I finally purchased the system.

WWF RAW was at the same time a fun new world and a bit of a disappointment. The graphics seemed to be darker and less fun that Royal Rumble, killing it of a lot of the same charm. In addition to their regular move set came the odd addition of “mega moves” for each character, difficult-to-perform and over-the-top moves that seemed really out of place in the game.

The roster updates were fun and quite interesting from a historic standpoint. Characters such as Diesel (Kevin Nash), Razor Ramon (Scott Hall), the 1-2-3 Kid and Lex Luger were all gone from the WWF by the time the game reached a lot of store shelves as the WWF/WCW Monday Night Wars went into full effect. In fact, the commercials and magazine ads for the game actually referred to it as RAW IS WAR with the departed talents still featured in the ad.

This makes the game an interesting snapshot of the WWE roster just as the Monday Night Wars started to get interesting, as well as an example of just how quickly wrestling game rosters can become outdated. So many of the talents switched companies around this time that the game practically became a battleground for the Monday Night Wars in and of itself.

If you have a Super NES still kicking around, you should be able to grab the game for pretty cheap and enjoy a look at the very brink of the infamous Monday Night Wars that won’t exist anywhere else… at least until your opponent does one of those needless mega-moves on you.