WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was the subject of a WWE website interview and was asked to name the most important superstar of the WWE Raw era. "There’s no question that guys like Triple H, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker have all made enormous contributions to this company, but if there was one single personality that exemplified Raw in the truest sense of what I wanted it to be, it would be 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin.

"Make no mistake, the Attitude Era started long before 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. Bret Hart was the first one to push Mr. McMahon on his ass. When the audience responded to that incident so positively, I knew we had something.

"The great thing about what we do is that we have a focus group every night – our fans. You think you’re giving them what they want, but then they shift on you. Raw has changed. Raw has continued to be flexible in order to keep true to what WWE fans want to see. That’s why Raw has produced more hours than any other television show in history."

McMahon was also asked about the competition offered by WCW. "Generally speaking, good competition is great for a product," McMahon said. "It keeps you on your toes, and forces you to adapt."

McMahon was also asked about running WCW out of business. "I don’t think we drove WCW out of business. That was certainly never our intent. That was the mindset of Ted Turner and WCW, but not WWE. See, if you spend all of your energy trying to kill the other guy, your product suffers.

"If you don’t kill the other guy, then he’s going to come back at you, and when he comes back, you won’t have done anything to make your house better. It’s no different than being in a fight and knowing that, if the other guy keeps on hitting you, that son of a bitch is going to wear himself out pretty fast." To read the full interview, visit WWE.com/inside/raw1000/mr-mcmahon-interview.

Powell's POV: It's an interesting interview, as Vince notes that he's never been completely satisfied with any particular episode of Raw and doesn't believe he ever will be. He also stated that he's considered taking Raw back to the Manhattan Center where the first episode was held, but he feels the viewers are nostalgic for talent rather than venues. I generally agree, but I think it would be cool to see a Raw show in that smaller setting again. Vince also spoke about the name of the Raw show, whether Nitro was considered as a name, and more.

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