Tuesday 23 January 2018 21:13, UK
"The only person that needs to be thanked is me - I did it all by myself. I didn't need any of you, I didn't need my family members, I didn't need anyone but me."
Vince McMahon's show-opening segment on the 25th anniversary of Raw was the perfect introduction to the evening and a spot-on lead into the - perhaps somewhat inevitable - interruption by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
It was a reminder of the captivating personality behind the Mr McMahon character that made Raw such a huge hit in the Monday Night Wars era.
And it led to the biggest crowd reaction of the night.
One final distribution of Stunners to Vince and his son Shane and a round of Steveweisers for the road and the nostalgia had been turned up to 11, to the delight of a packed house at Barclays Center.
But Vince has a point. He has been the driving force in the success of Raw, and therefore the modernisation of wrestling in the past 25 years.
He has been one of its most interesting characters in that time. He has been the dominant reason for its success, both on-screen and off.
And he has been the man responsible for the journey on which Monday Night Raw has been for the past quarter of a century.
That journey, from being the company at the forefront of a niche business after the national expansion of the 1980s to the vast global corporate empire WWE is today, was double underlined in permanent ink in New York City this week.
The Manhattan Center, which was a co-venue for the anniversary show, was refurbished in full 1993 garb, right down to the "chrome mirror" logo on the turnbuckle pad covers and austere metal guard railings.
Earlier that day, a group of journalists were shown around the old building on 34th Street as part of the media preparations for the evening.
At one point an employee at the venue looked puzzled when they were told a tour group was visiting, as if to imply the (admittedly somewhat tired-looking) place was not worthy of such attention.
"What you're going to see tonight is going to be like a timewarp," said the tour guide, as ring crews clattered seats onto the battered carpet; around a thousand in total, all tickets for which were snapped up in minutes.
Stephanie McMahon had told the same journalists earlier that day that the Empire State Building would be lit up in red for the occasion.
"If my grandfather had even contemplated that such a thing could have been done by his company…" Stephanie had said, trailing off, herself perhaps amazed by the progress the WWE has made. Amazed by the journey.
The story of Monday Night Raw is the story of the WWF and the WWE. But it is also the story of wrestling in New York and now, wrestling in the entire world. The story of the transition from regional to national to global.
It is the story of a vision realised, and that vision belonged to Vince McMahon. It was only right that he opened the show on its 25th anniversary.
Many fans will not agree with the direction in which the modern product has gone. The edgy Attitude Era of the late-1990s has now very much been consigned to the past, with the show now offering a decidedly more family-friendly form of sports entertainment.
In Brooklyn on Monday night, and in arenas all over the planet, the crowd will always include a huge percentage of children and it is clear that demographic is now being seen as a priority by the powerbrokers in Stamford.
Whether that direction changes over the next 25 years remains to be seen.
As for last night's show, it had its moments and everyone will have their own ideas about ways in which it could have been done better.
One fairly common cause of complaint is that there were no genuine surprise appearances, that some of the announced ones should have been held back to generate that shock factor.
And there is some concern that The Revival's momentum might have taken a blow by how they were used, but if their part in the show - and, probably, going forward - was to help make Balor Club feel like the modern-day equivalent of DX, then it could be a price worth paying.
Cesaro and Sheamus, the final WWE employees tasked with media duties on a long day for the company staff, were in full flow in the backstage area in the hour before the show went live.
The pair know how this game works. They know they are eminently likeable and have superb chemistry together and, as a result, had the assembled journalists in the palms of their hands.
In several interviews, Cesaro provided a quote which seemed to encapsulate the way in which Monday Night Raw is viewed on the other side of the curtain. Among the talent. Among 'the boys'.
"Raw is the top of the mountain," he smiled, through teeth repaired after being broken for the WWE cause. "Everybody wants to be on this show."
As The Bar - both students of the game who paid more than their dues in the independent scene - later walked out in front of around 12,000 fans at the Barclays Center, that opinion would have been doubly reinforced.
And as those fans watched footage from the Manhattan Center, with its faded New York glamour etched into every chipped chandelier, they would have reflected on the journey and the progress of the past 25 years.
It is Vince's journey. It is the WWE's journey. But it is also their own.
The 25th-anniversary episode of Monday Night Raw is repeated in full at 9pm on Tuesday on Sky Sports Arena.
