WWE Monday Night Raw Episode 1 (11/01/1993)

If there’s anything that will stay with you after having watched the debut episode of Monday Night Raw it is a series of questions you’ll be asking yourself. For example “who is Rob Bartlett?” “Why is he here?” and, “Whose idea was this?!” That’s because Bartlett’s inclusion as part of the 3 man announce team here is easily the most noteworthy thing to come out of the premiere of what will go down as arguably the most important wrestling TV program of all time. To answer the first and third of those questions listed above, Bartlett, had gained some fame on the back of popular New York radio show ‘Imus in the Morning’, performing characters often centred around real-life pop culture figures. I can only surmise that McMahon must have been a listener to the show, because Bartlett had no prior pro wrestling knowledge, no clue of the role of a commentator on a wrestling show, and whose inclusion comes at the expense of the great Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan. Bartlett is dreadful as he runs through a deluge of tired and puerile jokes at the expense of the talent, but McMahon is clearly having a blast as he painfully guffaws at his broadcast colleague. WWE has always been about a constituency of one- and if there is one thing Bartlett had a talent for, it was playing to that constituency.