Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated wrote a piece about Monday’s 25th Anniversary of RAW that revealed several behind-the-scene notes from the event.
According to Barrasso, the reason WWE opened the show with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Vince McMahon was an attempt to attract more casual viewers to the show to help build towards WrestleMania.
“The goal remains to attract more casual viewers during the build to WrestleMania 34, which is why the show opened with Steve Austin and Vince McMahon in an interaction that was certain to attract millions of viewers, many of whom do not watch the product every week.”
Barrasso has many other notes from the show, which can be read at this link.