I’m still on-again-off-again watching WWE Raw from 1999, here are my musing on it.

Every episode is the same and it’s killing me. Austin or the Rock shows up at the start with some promo/brawl, midcard stuff happens in the middle, a shot of Austin before each commercial break to let people know “DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL” but then he doesn’t come out until the very end and he doesn’t always even do anything. Throw in a little of Big Show and Undertaker to the mix and sprinkle with HHH and DX to taste. It’s not great. This was supposed to be the time when Raw was absolutely destroying Nitro in the rating, well either Nitro was just unwatchable (I’ll find out eventually) or Raw was coasting off of 1998 because this just isn’t captivating.

Where’s the creativity with Austin? With Foley? They’re great in creative segments but it feels like there’s none to be had. Austin and Foley showing up in Vince’s hospital room, that was to me absolute PEAK Attitude Era from the comedy to the drama to the catharsis of Vince chasing away the only man who could save him before getting a beating from Austin. Raw episodes from 1999 just aren’t creative in the slightest.

There is an element of this setup that I understand. Austin is THE star, he’s the absolute peak of the WWE, so they want to use him to draw in the viewers and keep them tuned in. That means constantly teasing him throughout the show but not actually showing him until the very end. Every single commercial in some of these episodes will be immediately preceded by a shot of Austin to trick the viewers into thinking he’ll be on for the next segment, but as someone watching these episodes without ads in 2022, this just gets tiring.

Even some of the catch-phrasing is boring this year. Between Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania of 1999 there was a stretch where no one updated their catch phrases, it was the exact same promo every week from people like Rock and Road Dogg. And to be fair it was great catch phrases and the audience would chant along, but that gets old eventually and at least after Wrestlemania they kind of started adding new bits again. Austin is a breath of fresh air because he never got completely fossilized, he would always give his Austin 3:16, he’d always talk about kicking a sombitch’s ass, but he didn’t just rattle off catch phrases and call it a day.

So yeah, what happened in 1999? Why did the program feel like it was in a holding pattern for most of the year? The big stars coming in and even the big story changes just aren’t as entertaining as anything that happened in 1998, and I’m not entirely sure why. I hope 2000 is better.