Seth Rollins & The Authority Call Out Dean Ambrose
This was a pretty great segment. I'd personally say it was Roman Reigns' best yet. If you didn't see it, HHH asked for Ambrose to return the WWE Title only to get Reigns. He vouches for Ambrose to get a rematch for the WWE Title at Money in The Bank and it will be a Ladder Match! Looks like we'll be getting another Ambrose/Rollins classic! Reigns plays his role extremely well here and is announced to be in the MITB match next month, IF he is able to defeat Bad News Barrett next.
1) Roman Reigns vs. King Barrett
Decent little match here aside from a few pointless moments that were clearly there just to kill time. They put together a great closing sequence and also had a number of cool moments during the match itself. Reigns throwing Barrett into the steps only for him to jump off them and kick them back into Reigns' leg being one of them. However, for every good exchange there was an extended period of rest holds from BNB. I don't mind headlocks, hell, I love a solid headlock, but when two guys are given more time than normal in a match, you'd think they'd come up with something a little more intricate. It was still a fairly entertaining contest though, despite that.
Match rating - **3/4
Ryback speaks and prepares for his first title defense
Another meaningful promo from Ryback here. It's things like this that won me fully over in favor of the big guy. He just seems so genuine in his love for wrestling. He was scheduled to defend his newly won IC Title against The Miz here, but The Big Show canceled that party by punching out Miz and going face to face with Ryback about who the real big guy is. Meh. Anything involving Big Show in a wrestling contest in played out at this point in time. Just as Ryback takes one step forward, they give him an opponent that could very well take him one step back because of how little interest Show will garner.
Kevin Owens & John Cena go face to face
As you can probably guess, this ruled. I wondered what they would do heading into the next portion of their feud and it appears they're making it personal. Owens bringing his son into the picture allowed him to display the emotional side of his character however I think he's just beginning to scratch the surface. I feel things will get even more personal as time goes on and we will see Owens really let out some passionate promos. Cena did a phenomenal job here as well. The intensity built and they teased a brawl only for Owens to pull a Brock Lesnar and back out at the last second.
2) Dolph Ziggler & The Prime Time Players vs. New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, & Xavier Woods)
This originally began as Ziggler against Kingston and Ziggler won only to be attacked afterwards by Big E & Xavier. MILLIONS OF DOLLAS! MILLIONS OF DOLLAS! PTP makes the save and we get some trios action! This didn't last very long, but it was perfect for what it was as Titus O'Neil got his moment to shine and the crowd ate it up. I've been waiting for this moment for nearly two years and it's finally come! Titus cleans house and lets out an URRAH URRAH URRAH before putting away Xavier Woods. PTP for tag champs!
Match rating - ***
3) Roman Reigns vs. Mark Henry
This happened and I could care less. Nice superman punch spot on the outside was the only highlight. Reigns picks up the win VIA COUNTOUT for some reason. I expect a rematch on Smackdown after that and I expect to not tune in for it. Reigns moves on after this pointless segment.
Match rating - *
4) Nikki Bella vs. Paige - Divas Championship Match
I actually had some expectations for this one considering how good of a match these two had on Raw a month or so ago. Well, they weren't able to duplicate that despite this being decent. It wasn't much to write home about to begin with then they pulled off a corny finish that killed it for me. That's just personally though. From a non biased perspective, I think it was a nice way to get some heat on Nikki, IF they're planning to turn her heel. It seems like they just turned her face a few weeks ago, but hey, it's whatever. I'm just curious where the Divas Title picture goes from here because it's in a sad state at the moment. Completely boring.
Match rating - **1/4
5) Randy Orton vs. Sheamus
I'm not gonna sit here and act like I actually watched this. I tried, and failed. I played guitar with this airing in the background so I technically did watch, I just didn't give it my full attention. None the less, they did stuff for 15 minutes or so then Sheamus hit Orton with a chair which called for a disqualification. There's nothing WWE does that annoys me more than things like that. It makes me feel like I just wasted 20 minutes of my time by even watching that match.
Match rating - **
6) Bo Dallas vs. Neville
NEVILLE! He's always fun to watch so this was bearable albeit uninteresting. Short squash for Neville. On a positive note, Kevin Owens is having an NXT Title Open Challenge on Smackdown and they aired an advert for it prior to this match so I'm crossing my fingers that it was a way of foreshadowing that Neville will answer the challenge. Let's hope!
Match rating - **1/4
7) Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt
This was what it was. Reigns completes his sweep of the night by picking up the victory and advancing to the MITB match at the Money in the Bank PPV. After the show, I realized how ignorant this was because in 2015, WWE is more focused on protecting Mark Henry from taking a pinfall loss than Bray Wyatt. I am SO confused. Anyways, I hate to keep it so short, but this honestly was all leading to the inevitable return of..
Match rating - **1/2
DEAN AMBROSE IS IN THE HOUSE! He's standing on the announce table with the WWE Title, Rollins dives at him, Ambrose jumps over him and hits the ring to help Reigns fight off The Authority. They clean house and the crowd pops huge. It's clear that WWE is trying to get the stinch of Reigns' WrestleMania mishaps by placing him with arguably the most popular guy in the company right now as much as possible. Can't say I blame them. Super fun finish to an otherwise dull show.
PAUL HEYMAN IS BACKSTAGE ON HIS WAY TO THE STONE COLD PODCAST! Seeing him strut down the hall was better than the majority of stuff on this show.
Overall thoughts: This was another Raw that was horribly similar to last week's atrocious episode. Cena/Owens was the highlight with an Authority segment or two being decent. Everything else reeked aside from the fun six man tag. Beyond it just being boring, WWE picked Mark Henry over Bray Wyatt and Cesaro wasn't even on the show. Some things never change despite other things getting much better. Let's hope WWE is just hitting a bump in the road because they have some awesome stuff going with Cena/Owens, Ambrose, and New Day/PTP - they just need to drop the filler and put some effort into everything else.
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