The 20th anniversary of Monday Night RAW was a blast. But away from all of the special appearances and fun, the storyline development and matches were equally as special.
Here’s our weekly list of RAW’s brightest stars.
5: Alberto Del Rio: Talk about a pop he got in Houston on Monday. Could Del Rio eventually be the superstar Latin face the WWE needs him to be? That big gold belt looks damn good on the Mexican Aristocrat and with the fans behind him, there’s no telling what he can accomplish. With his feud with the Big Show picking up steam, Del Rio’s stock continues to rise.
4: Daniel Bryan and Kane: Behind another hilarious segment with Dr. Shelby and some solid ring work, Hell No is single-handedly keeping the tag team division in WWE alive. With some help from Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes, tag team wrestling is actually becoming fun again.
3: Kaityln: Although she is still noticeably green, Kaitlyn put on one heck of a show in earning her first Divas Championship on Monday. With a unique look and plenty of strength, Kaitlyn has stores of promise and more than enough pure ability to rejuvenate a lackluster Divas division.
2: Wade Barrett: A clean win over Randy Orton? That may be a defining moment in the young man’s career. He still has a ways to go, but this may be the beginning of the rise the WWE has planned for him from day one. It’s taken a while, but Barrett may be on the path towards the upper-mid-card.
1: Dolph Ziggler: What else does Ziggler have to do to prove to fans that he can steal the show? An excellent showing in his first-ever steel cage match, Ziggler did get some help from Big E. Langston and AJ Lee, but he never looked weak. Plain and simple: Ziggler is a future WWE Champion.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
The 20th anniversary of Monday Night RAW was a blast. But away from all of the special appearances and fun, the storyline development and matches were equally as special.
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