Oh how I wish this were true. Most of the fancy combo videos you see with Raiden are completely out of context being in training room. Most of this stuff is very unlikely against even less than capable opponents. Nothing Raiden does is safe...nothing. Even this string for example requires early input to link. If you don't, you're not linking the attack and ending on a neutral raiden. If you enter it on block, you're open to massive easy punish.
Raiden's quickest string is b3,3. That still loses to just about every poke and many opponent strings. These combo video versions starting with either 214 or b14 will get blown up all day by pressure or turtles. Raiden (especially displacer) is all about playing mid to long range. If you get in close, you're going to be wrecked. Raiden MUST maintain full d4 reach or perish.
