Philly's Most Memorable RAW Moments

Philadelphia has had quite the year when it came to pro wrestling. It hosted the biggest WrestleMania of all time, had a plethora of other events during mania weekend, including our own Suplex Mania and now, finally, Monday Night Raw and WWE return to Philly for the first time since the Raw after Mania earlier this year.

When Raw comes to Philly that usually means to make way for iconic returns, landmark episodes and high stake matches. Let's take a trip down memory lane for some of Philadelphia's biggest and most memorable RAW moments. 

John Cena returns to Raw after winning the Royal Rumble, D-X Reunites 

Date: January 28th, 2008

John Cena suffered an injury that forced him to relinquish the WWE title and end a year-plus long reign as champion at No Mercy in October of 2007.  Cena was expected to be out for months. At Royal Rumble 2008 Cena made a shocking return as the 30th entrant, going on to eliminate Triple H and win his first rumble. The night after, Cena opened Monday Night Raw in Philadelphia with a promo that addressed the WWE universe about the circumstances that led to his early return.

HBK and HHH reunited to form the original D-Generation X duo in June 2006. The party came to a halt when Triple H injured his other quad at New Years Revolution 2007. HBK and HHH would have a few D-X reunion team ups before their final run in 2009; this was one of those moments (ironicallly they had another brief reunion after HBK ran in to save HHH from Umaga and Randy Orton the last time Raw was in Philly on October 29th, 2007).

The Rock returns to join the WWE against The Alliance

Date: July 30th, 2001

The Rock lost the WWE title to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in at WrestleMania 17 in a classic main event that featured Austin turning heel to join Mr. McMahon so Austin could reclaim his spot as the top man in the WWE. The Rock would get his rematch on Raw is War the next night, but then got absolutely destroyed by Austin, McMahon and Triple H leading to the formation of the short-lived Two-Man Power Trip. Vince McMahon "suspended" The Rock from the company. In reality, The Rock had actually begun his part-time path between Hollywood and the business that launched him to megastar status. While The Rock was gone for almost 4 months the WWE entered its "Invasion era" which pit WWE against WCW and ECW (aka "The Alliance"). "Stone Cold" Steve Austin shockingly defected to WWE's opposition, leading Vince McMahon to act in a moment of desperation. Vince, in what was quite the epic promo, lifted The Rock's suspension, allowing "the most electrifying man in sports entertainment" to return.

The Rock made his official return to WWE on Raw in Philly. Mr. McMahon, Shane and Steph tried to convince "the people's champion" to join their respective teams. Rock listened and decided to get some revenge on Vince. Rock then rope-a-doped a very excited Shane into a rock bottom and announced he was coming home to  WWE to a rawkus Philadelphia crowd. 

Note: After the event Rock entertained the remaining crowd for 15 to 20 minutes and it was awesome.

Roman Reigns wins the WWE Title 

Date: December 14th, 2015

Pre-Bloodline era Roman Reigns and Philadephia had a complicated relationship. Earlier in the 2015 Roman Reign's was booed out of the Wells Fargo Center when he won the Royal Rumble. The Rock, who helped his cousin on route to victory, had a meme-famous reaction to the crowd's sentiments.

"The Big Dog" won the WWE title at Survivor Series months later, but only held it for a few moments due to Sheamus cashing in his money in the bank contract. Three weeks later on Raw, Roman Reigns would get a rematch for the title. The former shield member prevailed against "The Celtic Warrior" despite antics from Vince McMahon. Reigns also (surprisingly) got a much better reaction from the crowd than he received at the Rumble. Roman would continue to face rejection from fans (similar John Cena in his "super Cena" era) until he (finally) found his footing years later as our Tribal Chief.

These moments don't cover all of Philadephia's rich Monday Night Raw history, but they do represent how WWE loves to make their flagship show a special one whenever they return to the city. Odds are next time won't be any different.