A look back at 5 previous WWE Raw 'Reunion' episodes

This Monday, WWE is bringing back some familiar names and legendary superstars for a huge "Raw Reunion" special. While it's clearly a Hail Mary play to bump up the ratings of the show, the fact of the matter is that these kinds of episodes are always really a lot of fun.

This may be the "biggest Raw reunion ever," but it's certainly not the first. So, we thought it would be fun to turn back the clock along with WWE and look at five previous other episodes of Raw that revolved around classic returning Superstars.

Some of these are special anniversary episodes, and some of them are "Old School Raw" episodes. But they all have plenty of big names from the company's past coming by to, you know, do their thing. If anything, it's one way to kind of determine how Monday's "Raw Reunion" is going to go.

I mean, not really, but this should be pretty fun anyway.

Oh, also, we're not including episodes that feature a retirement celebration, like the ones for Ric Flair or Edge, not any episodes where a Superstar passed away and former Superstars may have shown up to share memories of them. Not only is that too easy but, man, that's also pretty depressing, too.

Finally, and of course, this isn't the definitive, exhaustive list of these episodes. In fact, if you can think of an episode of this style we didn't include, well just pop on down to the comments section and show us the error of our ways, why don't you? Or share with us what your favorite "reunion" episode or moment is.

(For the record, mine is when Jake "The Snake" Roberts draped a big honkin' python on then-heel Dean Ambrose of The Shield during Old School Raw 2014, who couldn't keep himself from smiling because it was such an awesome moment).

#5 October 3rd, 2005 - Raw Homecoming

The night Raw returned to the USA Network

For years, as they do now, WWE aired their programming in the U.S. on the USA cable network, first airing WWE Prime Time Wrestling on Monday nights, and then debuting Monday Night Raw, their first live weekly series. Then, something happened, and WWE moved their programming to TNN - a channel that originally aired programming based on Country music called The Nashville Network and is now The Paramount Network.

However, this only lasted a few years and, eventually - actually, on October 3rd, 2005, to be precise - Raw returned to the USA Network, and boy, did they make a big to-do about it.

The show opened up with a segment of Piper's Pit featuring WWE Hall of Famers Mick Foley and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and eventually included Randy Orton and his father, another WWE Legend, "Cowboy" Bob Orton. Other legends who appeared on the show included Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Snuka, Koko B. Ware, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Dr Death Steve Williams, Nikolai Volkoff, and a ton of other legends introduced throughout the night (h/t to WrestleZone for the old school results).

The episode also included a 30-minute Iron Man match between Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle that ended in a draw. It also featured Stone Cold Steve Austin hitting the Stunner on all four members of the McMahon family (yes, even Linda) and some other classic moments. And some not so classic ones.

Of course, you can watch it on the WWE Network, and here's the iron man match between HBK and Kurt Angle.

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#4 December 10th, 2007 - Raw's 15th Anniversary

Raw was 15 years old in what feels like FOREVER ago...

So, it was around this time that Raw really started ramping up the nostalgia shows. Between 2007 and 2010, we were treated to the 15th anniversary of Raw, the 17th (why?), Raw's 800th and 900th episodes, and an episode of Old School Raw (some of which we'll touch on in a bit, hang in there).

This episode, however, is the first one that really celebrated how long the show had been (and still is) running - again, if you don't count that 10th anniversary special, which didn't air on Monday and it was on TNN anyway, and yeah, that doesn't count.

There were plenty of former superstars involved in the episode, as you might well imagine, but the real highlight for nostalgia addicts - such as myself - was the 15th Anniversary, 15 Man Battle Royale. featuring legends like... Repo Man (OK, with was Smash in Demolition, so he gets a pass), Skinner (who used to be Steve Keirn and, man, I hope he got a good paycheck from that), and The Goon (oh well).

WWE legends returning to action is something that is synonymous with old school or anniversary special episodes and the fans certainly looked forward to this one. On most occasions, WWE veterans are just used in backstage filler segments, often mouthing their catchphrases or portraying their signature gimmicks. So, when we got to see a battle royal match, it was a visual treat.

Well, you can watch the entrances, anyway. Which is all you really want to see, anyway, let's be honest.

#3 November 15, 2010 - the first Old School Raw

These guys were the big deal back in 2010

The first-ever "Old School Raw" was held during the beginning of the Nexus angle - featuring the first "contestants" of the first season of the reality show that was NXT before it became something tolerable.

Plenty of legends showed up that November 2010 night, including Sgt. Slaughter, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, and TIto Santana. In fact, here they are...

Sorry to make you listen to that Nickelback song.

But the real old school highlight of the night was, once again, an episode of Piper's Pit featuring John Cena - who was an unwilling member of said Nexus and the special guest referee of the WWE Championship match between Nexus leader Wade Barrett and the champion - and Randy Orton - said-WWE Champion at the time.

The Nexus angle has just picked up steam and was the next major breakout story in the WWE. The brand used it to its advantage, clubbing the old school setup with the new age faction to give us a memorable night.

The episode made use of plenty of the original show's graphics and set, and the inclusion of announcing legends like "Mean" Gene Okerlund and Howard Finkel added to the nostalgia factor.

And, let's be honest - how great was Cena's promo?

#2 July 23rd, 2012 - Raw's 1000th episode

The 1000th episode of Raw featured a kick-ass reunion between Undertaker and Kane. So, shut up.

WWE not only ran special episodes for Raw's 15th, 17th, 23rd (why?) and 25th (hang in there) episodes, but also for episodes that hit the hallmark episode number. Whenever Raw opens and you hear Michael Cole brag about Raw being the "longest-running episodic TV series in history", well... he's not lying. It's literally been on the air longer than Gunsmoke, The Simpsons, and pretty much any other non-news TV show.

So, WWE made sure to make big honkin' deals about Raw's 800th and 900th episodes, but it was really the 1000th that people got excited about.

And why not? There's so much history there, plus CM Punk was the champion, The Rock was making a comeback after his win against John Cena at the previous WrestleMania, and - to be fair - WWE was on a creative roll at the time. I know, right? That does happen sometimes.

For the most part, the show did its best to focus on the then-current stars of the time - although it also included a cameo from Mae Young's "son"... the hand she gave "birth" to during the Attitude Era.

But let us take a look at the awesome opening segment of the show here:

Anyway, outside of CM Punk turning heel and taking out The Rock, which was awesome, there was the conclusion of the Heath Slater vs WWE Legends storyline that had been running for the previous few week, leading up to this episode, where he took on WWE Hall of Famer Lita in No DQ, No Countout match. Here's what happened...

And now, let's take a look at WWE's 2018 nostalgia-fest (not that there's anything wrong with that), before we head into Raw Reunion on Monday.

#1 January 22nd, 2018 - Raw's 25th Anniversary

You can probably guess what happened to Shane after this...

It feels like it was just yesterday, doesn't it?

In what was a pretty cool choice, Raw 25, as they called it, was held in two locations - The Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, NY and The Manhattan Center in, well, you can probably guess. The latter was, among other things, the location of the very first episode of Monday Night Raw - which took place on January 11th, 1993.

This episode featured a plethora of former Superstars making an appearance, including Chris Jericho (this was well before the announcement of AEW forming), The Dudley Boyz, Bruce Pritchard as Brother Love, and The Boogeyman.

The show also featured a really odd promo by The Undertaker at the Manhattan Center who basically announced he wasn't retiring? Also, there was another D-Generation X reunion (which are always awesome, fight me) apparently "passing the torch" to the reunited "Balor Club" of Finn Balor, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, doing the "too sweet" gesture amongst each other which went.... well, nowhere, really, but it was pretty dope at the time.

Man, I really still wish this was a thing.