A core part of WWE Monday Night Raw’s identity is a sense of edginess. In an era when only PPVs and the occasional specials aired live, Raw was a rare wrestling show broadcasted live from arenas across the country on a regular (albeit not weekly) basis. WWE turned up the heat during the Monday Night War with the Attitude Era. From there, even as the company has settled back into family-friendly entertainment, Raw has still had its moments that walked a razor’s edge of being uncomfortable, offensive, or otherwise over the line.

Related: 10 Most Important Title Changes To Ever Happen On Raw

Here is a look back at ten different occasions when it felt like Raw went off the rails, and was nearly too much for the fans.

10 Pillman’s Got A Gun

As the Attitude Era took hold, things got especially heated between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Loose Cannon Brian Pillman. The October 5, 1997, episode of Raw had a storyline run through the episode of Austin planning to invade Pillman’s home to beat him up, not realizing that Pillman was waiting on him with a gun. The story resolved a bit anticlimactically with the camera cutting out. Nonetheless, the tension and life and death stakes of the situation were all but unparalleled in WWE history.

While the angle that became known as Pillman’s Got A Gun was riveting, it also walked right up to the line of decency. After all, a core part of wrestling is that it typically does not involve firearms or other deadly weaponry, in favor of hand to hand combat resolving differences. The USA Network was reportedly very unhappy with this one.

9 Who Killed Mr. McMahon?

Vince McMahon's limo explodes

The June 11, 2007 episode of Raw hosted “Mr. McMahon Appreciation Night.” It turned out not to be a very good evening for The Chairman as he was repeatedly embarrassed and disappointed throughout the show. Little did he know how much worse things would get when he got into his limo to leave, only for the car to explode.

The general consensus is that this moment was intended to set up a mystery angle of who killed — or at least tried to kill — McMahon. The choice to portray a death was quite arguably in poor taste and over the line for a wrestling show. WWE self-corrected by uncharacteristically having McMahon return as say the storyline was over. This happened after the real-life tragic, controversial death of Chris Benoit made a storyline death feel even more inappropriate, and compelled WWE to steer attention away from deaths, real or fictional.

8 Katie Vick

In the build to Triple H facing off with Kane in 2002, WWE unraveled a story of The Big Red Machine being responsible for a young woman’s death years before. That much of the story, on its own, was arguably offensive in the context of a wrestling angle.

Things got much worse, however, when The Game went on to suggest that Kane had engaged in intercourse with Katie Vick’s corpse. He went so far as to put on a Kane mask himself and act out what the incident would have looked like.

7 Choppy Choppy

Kai En Tai

Kai En Tai was not the first, nor the last cluster of Asian wrestlers to walk a line between celebrating another culture’s talent and making fun of it in WWE. They were one of the most provocative groups to come to WWE, though, and made a high profile impact by attempting to "choppy choppy," or cut off a piece of Val Venis’s anatomy with a sword.

The scene was pretty absurd by any standard, and the threat of such simultaneously brutal and silly violence hasn’t exactly aged well. WWE wound up working around the angle in having John Wayne Bobbitt work a guest spot and suggest he had cut the lights to save Venis.

6 The Undertaker Says Brock Lesnar Will Have To Kill Him

The summer of 2015 saw by far the most heated iteration of the on and off years-long rivalry between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar. The Dead Man was out for revenge against Lesnar for not only ending his WrestleMania undefeated streak but bragging about it so much over the year to follow. The Beast was heated about The Undertaker having cost him his WWE Championship.

Related: 5 Best Undertaker Vs Brock Lesnar Matches (& 4 Worst)

The feud kicked into a new gear on the Raw after the Battleground PPV when the two had a war of words that gave way to a pull-apart brawl. It culminated in Lesnar crossing WWE’s normal lines in telling The Undertaker he’d kill him, only for The Phenom to yell back that Lesnar would have to.

5 Chris Jericho Pours Whiskey On CM Punk

The feud between Chris Jericho and CM Punk was instrumental in legitimizing The Straight Edge Superstar as a top star and respected world champion. The rivalry included a featured WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 28. It was in the aftermath, however, when Jericho upped the stakes by bringing up the alcoholism that had previously run in the Straight Edge Superstar’s family.

In a climactic moment on Raw, Jericho knocked out Punk with a whiskey bottle, before proceeding to pour alcohol all over him. While Punk himself surely agreed to the controversial spot, it had to be triggering for those who have their own issues related to alcoholism.

4 Joey Styles Shoots

Joey Styles

As a precursor to WWE launching its own version of ECW, play-by-play commentator Joey Styles cut a promo. An uncomfortable series of events on Raw saw Styles feel repeatedly disrespected; consequently, he had some scathing words about everything wrong with the company and how it treated him.

While fans had to suspend their disbelief to a degree — if Styles hadn’t been authorized to speak, surely WWE would have cut his mic — he nonetheless felt like he was speaking his truth. It was a cathartic moment for a lot of fans who were critical of WWE but also felt a bit like watching a public domestic dispute. It was uncomfortable, but hard to ignore.

3 Austin Gets Crucified

On December 7, 1998, matters between Steve Austin and The Undertaker reached a fever pitch. A climactic moment in the rivalry between Stone Cold and the leader of the Ministry of Darkness saw The Undertaker’s druids attach Austin to a The Phenom's cross-like symbol in what looked an awful lot like a crucifixion.

RELATED: Stone Cold: 10 Final Matches Of His Career, Ranked From Worst To Best

This visual certainly wouldn’t pass contemporary standards. Even in the Attitude Era, it felt like a step over the line for fans of a Christian faith.

2 Randy Orton DDTs Stephanie McMahon

While the Attitude Era saw its share of incidents in which men and women perpetrated violence on one another, by 2009 WWE had separated itself from those sorts of dynamics. It was an understandable move from a public relations perspective, particularly for a company pitching itself as family-friendly and selling toys to kids.

The WrestleMania 25 angle between Triple H and Randy Orton grew intense, though, including The Game invading his opponent’s home, and The Viper attacking Triple H’s father-in-law and brother-in-law. A climactic moment saw Orton go so far as to hit a hanging DDT on Stephanie McMahon before kissing her cheek in front of her seething husband. While provocative and important to the storyline, the man on woman violence was uncomfortable.

1 Daniel Bryan Chokes Justin Roberts

The Nexus made their debut in the summer of 2010 by storming the ring unannounced, destroying everything in sight (most notably, John Cena). In the fray, Daniel Bryan took things to the highest level when he choked announcer Justin Roberts with his tie.

It was a gruesome visual for sure. Little did Bryan apparently know that strangulation was a strict violation of WWE’s standards at the time. While the image did help sell the violence and chaos of The Nexus, it also temporarily cost Bryan his job.

Next: 5 Raw Women's Title Matches You Forgot Happened (& 5 We'll Never Forget)