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This week’s Monday Night RAW saw Shane McMahon appear on WWE television for the first time in 10 months as the host of a new RAW Underground concept.
After heavily promoting RAW Underground during the first two hours of Monday’s episode, WWE’s cameras switched between the Performance Center and a dark warehouse for the last hour of the show.
While the regular in-ring action and promo segments took place in the Performance Center, the warehouse – RAW Underground’s setting – saw Superstars battle it out MMA-style on a ring canvas with no ropes.
WWE’s product usually has a family-friendly feel to it, but RAW Underground was presented as a gritty alternative to what fans have become accustomed to seeing on Monday nights.
The physicality of RAW Underground was certainly more aggressive than usual WWE matches, with the likes of Bobby Lashley and Dolph Ziggler displaying their real fighting skills to dominate their opponents.
Now, as WWE looks set to continue with these scripted ‘shoot’ fights in the coming weeks, let’s take a light-hearted look at a match card of real WWE fights that we wish fans were able to witness in the RAW Underground setting.
#5 RAW Underground: The League of Nations and The New Day
As this article is essentially a RAW Underground pay-per-view card, we need to kick the show off with some established names who are guaranteed to grab the attention of viewers right away.
WWE has been known to start shows with high-profile Superstars in tag team matches, so this RAW Underground card can begin with the fight that almost broke out before WrestleMania 32 between The League of Nations and The New Day.
Speaking on their Feel The Power podcast, The New Day gave an insight into the behind-the-scenes troubles that they had with their opponents on the day of the big match.
Kofi Kingston claimed that The League of Nations (Alberto Del Rio, Rusev, Sheamus and Wade Barrett) were looking out for themselves as individuals when it came to certain spots in the match, whereas The New Day wanted to produce an impressive collective performance.
Xavier Woods even admitted that he was “on another-level mad” due to the disagreements.
“This was my first time being in an advertised match at WrestleMania and it just completely fell apart at no fault of our own, so I was on another-level mad, because it shouldn’t have been like that. There shouldn’t have been arguments, there shouldn’t have almost been a fight, so I’m on like another level of heated.”
The WrestleMania 32 encounter is best remembered for Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin appearing post-match. The match itself, however, could definitely have benefited from taking place in a RAW Underground environment.
#4 RAW Underground: Paul Bearer and Sunny
After a lengthy brawl between The League of Nations and The New Day, the RAW Underground viewers need a match with less physicality and more light-hearted entertainment, which is where Paul Bearer and Sunny come in.
WWE director Bruce Prichard once revealed on his Something to Wrestle With podcast that Bearer “hated” Sunny (real name Tammy Sytch), and they even had a legitimate fight backstage at a show one time.
“Paul hated her. Paul absolutely [hated her]. Yeah. Paul hated Tammy. And, well, they got into a physical confrontation at a TV [taping] one time. And they got into a, I like to call it a 'pinch fight'. Well, it was kind of like two little kids slapping at each other. And Paul didn't want to hit her, but he didn't want her hitting him. And people got involved and got her the hell out of there.” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]
RAW Underground creator Shane McMahon watched on enthusiastically as Bobby Lashley & Co. destroyed their opposition on Monday’s first RAW Underground airing.
That is slightly different to a “pinch fight” between non-wrestlers, but WWE and RAW Underground is all about sports entertainment after all.
#3 RAW Underground: Sheamus and Yoshi Tatsu
Sheamus has already had one RAW Underground fight alongside The League of Nations against The New Day, but the Irish brawler is more than capable of taping up his fists for another scrap later in the show.
In 2020, the former WWE Champion said on an episode of Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast that Yoshi Tatsu moved into an apartment that he shared with Ted DiBiase Jr.
Unfortunately, Tatsu did not exactly endear himself to Sheamus – a man perfectly suited to RAW Underground – as he failed to pay for water, cable, gas, or any other bills.
“So we had a couple of constant conflicts whatever, and then it kind of boiled over one time. It was a bit of a shoving thing, and he took slap at me. I took a slap at him, and that was it. It was like two handbags, me and him fighting at each other.” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]
Sheamus added that the altercation lasted around 60 seconds but he denied rumors that Tatsu knocked him out.
#2 RAW Underground: Bret Hart and Vince McMahon
A one-sided fight between Bret Hart and Vince McMahon is worthy of headlining almost every WWE card, but they will have to settle for the co-main event on RAW Underground.
As everybody no doubt knows by now, Hart lost the WWE Championship to Shawn Michaels in his home country of Canada at Survivor Series 1997, but he originally thought the match would have a different finish.
Heading into the match, WCW-bound Hart refused to lose the WWE Championship to Michaels and he was under the impression that the main event would end in a disqualification, meaning he could vacate the title one night later on RAW.
Concerned that Hart might turn up on WCW programming with the WWE Championship, Vince McMahon ordered referee Earl Hebner to award the win to Michaels as soon as he locked in the sharpshooter on “The Hitman”.
Following Michaels’ astonishing win, Hart tracked down McMahon in the backstage area and knocked him out cold.
If only RAW Underground viewers could have seen this moment!
#1 RAW Underground: Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle
Of course, the RAW Underground main event has to involve Brock Lesnar. After all, this very match headlined WrestleMania 19, so how can it not go on last in a dark warehouse in front of Shane McMahon and a bunch of Performance Center recruits?
The history between Lesnar and Kurt Angle dates all the way back to the two Superstars’ time on SmackDown in 2002.
Back then, WWE did not have a RAW Underground-esque alternative to its usual in-ring action, but you can guarantee that these two would have been happy to go up against each other in that setting if the opportunity presented itself.
Angle even recalled on Talk Is Jericho in 2017 that he challenged Lesnar to a fight before a WWE show one time.
“We had the showdown. It was close. It really was. He had ninety pounds on me, but I probably took him down into the ropes a good six, seven times. He used the ropes to say we’re out of bounds. That’s okay. I did take him down once. He didn’t take me down at all.”
WWE has already used Superstars with legitimate fighting backgrounds on RAW Underground, so can you imagine what it would have been like if Lesnar and Angle were involved in that match type in their prime?!
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