Sam opted to fighting Raiden but Monsoon insisted he shouldn't and that he wants this fight. Then you watch this video you will realize that Raiden has finally let it go. Although its weird because he still rips people in half, that is seemingly the plot point. If you watch this video, you will realize that Sam is constantly trying to tell Raiden to let go of his weird motive of making his sword a tool of justice.

It meant that Raiden was actually better than him, the sole reason he let him go. Many people don't realize this at first, but Sam saying that meant a lot more than Raiden just being self taught. I will mention nothing of MGS2 nor MGS4 but Rising actually shows things Raiden could do. The tip was heated so it feels reasonable to believe it was due to speed. Raiden can easily parry Blade Wolf Deflects heated blades from Blade Wolf Armstrong's blitzing capabilities, though he is actually much faster in depth. You can actually see he is making a mach cone out of fire, the same effect you would see in fiction to represent reentry speeds. Reacting To Blitzes Can parry Sliders that can heat up through speed Notice the raindrops freeze, that shows he was going extremely fast in this scene. I'll slow it down so you can see the trajectories of the explosion not catching up to Raiden. You could tell he is actually outracing the explosions. That is a mach 23 expansion that is seemingly a snail compared to him. If slowed down you can tell he can make a total of 7 swings swings before this explosion even expands a little bit of a screen. Raiden can also see explosions in slow motion Does 10 swings in what looks like 2 sword swings

Raiden metal gear rising