My copy of the Raw 20th Anniversary Boxed-Set came yesterday.
Tonight I watched an episode from the Attitude Era. Damn what a difference.
What surprised me is that they actually showed the "WWF" logo all over the place and the wrestlers and announcers said "WWF" and "World Wrestling Federation" without being bleeped or silenced. And the production value was a bit lower. You don't notice it, really, because it was upped in such a small amount for such a long period of time. But the Raw looked almost cheaply made, compared to today's WWE productions.
That said, it didn't diminish the entertainment value whatsoever. The promos were better. The feuds were better. The matches were better. The announcers were better. And the over-all-feel had this explosive feeling to it like anything could happen and whatever that anything was, it was going to kick ass.
You see this, of course, in the many DVD documentaries and hand-picked matches from here and there. But when you watch an entire episode of Raw from then, it really evokes and entirely different feel than the WWE of today.
And the audience, oh man, the audience was a riot in itself. They chanted during nearly every match. Like every 3 people in the audience had a sign or logo or something. And the entire time they were charged and on their feet.
I know people think a lot of us jaded wrestling fans are just waxing nostalgic about wrestling in the past. But tonight just solidified it for me, it's not just nostalgia, wrestling truly was something to behold back then. Owen Hart & The Legion of Doom vs. D-X, The Rock vs. Farooq, Stone Cold vs. Vince McMahon, Undertaker vs. Kane, and Sunny! Great stuff on this particular episode.
I'm very happy with my purchase. This will provide a bit of viewing for me, for a little while.