After a week off (sort of) Monday Night Raw returned live from Denver as WWE tried to fix their Royal Rumble mistake and draw their fans back in. Let’s take a look at how they did.
Triple H Calls an Audible
After hyping this announcement for days, out comes Triple H and the Authority to discuss the “controversial” finish to the Royal Rumble. Trips puts over the Patriots Super Bowl win, as Steph says they won because it’s best for business and Triple H calls the Seahawks sore losers. The COO says Kane and Big Show shouldn’t have beat Roman Reigns down after getting eliminated in the Royal Rumble because it wasn’t right.
Trips then moves on to the Rock, who he says shouldn’t have gotten involved because he isn’t even a WWE superstar anymore. Steph says that if Rock hadn’t gotten involved anything could have happened, and curiously neither has even mentioned the fact that Rusev probably should have won. Actually they haven’t even mentioned Rusev the entire segment.
Steph says that while Reigns will go down as the Royal Rumble winner, the question is whether or not he deserves the reward of a title shot at Wrestlemania 31 (short answer: no)? Steph says they aren’t really sure he should get to face Lesnar, and with that being said… and out comes Roman Reigns of course.
Reigns gets a heavy mix of cheers and boos (you know, kind of bad for the future face of the company) as he comes through the crowd. Reigns grabs a mic (cringe) and says he earned his spot in the Wrestlemania main event, and he isn’t letting Triple H take it away from him as he steps to the COO. The two stare each other down as Steph gets between them, and she says it’s ironic that the very family that got him into wrestling is the same family that are the reason he probably shouldn’t get the ‘Mania match.
Triple H starts to make his announcement and… YES! YES! YES!
Out comes Daniel Bryan, and the first thing he does is apologize to Reigns for having to deal with the Authority messing with him. Bryan then goes on to say if we’re talking about guys who deserve a shot at Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania, the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion who was stripped of his title and never actually lost it should be at the front of the line.
Triple H says that Bryan is probably right, and he probably would have gotten his title shot… if he hadn’t shown up and entered himself into the Royal Rumble. That being said, Triple H is finally going to announce that…. aaaaaand out comes Seth Rollins.
Mr. Money in the Bank says if anyone deserves a shot at Wrestlemania it’s not Bryan, who Lesnar would eat alive, or Reigns, who had to cheat to win, it’s the guy who stole the show at the Royal Rumble. Rollins says he put a chink in Lesnar’s armor and broke the Beast’s ribs, and he deserves the match.
Triple H says all three men make good points, so he’s going to call an audible (not sure how they missed the obvious “I’m going to do what Pete Carroll should have done on second down and call an audible” joke there). Trips says that tonight, Daniel Bryan will face Seth Rollins, and the winner of that match will get a shot at Roman Reigns at Fast Lane. The winner of that match? Well they’ll get a shot at Lesnar at Wrestlemania 31.
Roman, what do you think of that?
So they’re trying the whole make Reigns look like an underdog overcoming all these obstacles things because hey it worked for Daniel Bryan, why wouldn’t it work for Reigns right? The kicker here is it all will probably end with Bryan losing tonight or at Fast Lane, which I’m sure the WWE Universe will take pretty well.
Triple H tells Reigns not to go anywhere because he has a match right now and Big Show’s music hits. The match is relatively quick (because it’s a Roman Reigns match) with both guys exchanging control. Reigns hits a Superman Punch and and sets up for his Spear before J&J security distracts the ref and Rollins hits Reigns in the ribs with his briefcase. One chokeslam later, Big Show gets the 1-2-3 and the win.
Oh, that was the first time Reigns has ever been pinned in a singles match. Ever. First time. Seriously. This underdog Reigns push is going to be so, so bad.
Backstage we see Trips and Steph laughing about manipulating Reigns into accepting a match they had no authority to make and yeah, seriously, so bad. Later they’re with Rollins backstage talking to the Authority and they tell him to take advantage of the support unlike Randy Orton who complained and whined and they laugh about Rollins Curb Stomping Orton and talking about him so… yeah Orton-Rollins feud is coming.
Then we see Bryan talking to Reigns backstage and it’s totally obvious that WWE should have put Bryan in because he’s about 10 million times better than Reigns in every single way. Reigns gets mad, tells Bryan he’s going to win no matter what the WWE and the fans want, and kicks DB out of his locker room. Okay so maybe not the underdog face? I don’t even know at this point.
Bryan Earns His Shot at Redemption… Sort of.
The intro to this was hilarious. Lillian Garcia literally said:
“The winner of this match will face Roman Reigns at Fast Lane for the right to face Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania!”
Okay then. All jokes aside, this should be an incredible match. Bryan and Rollins are without a doubt the two best (non-NXT) workers in the company today, sorry Dolph.
Bryan takes control early and targets Rollins left arm. He flips Rollins over in an inverted DDT hold but it somehow ends in an arm-bar.
Okay that was pretty cool.
Rollins counters by throwing Bryan out of the ring, then J&J security hit Bryan as Rollins distracts the ref. Rollins follows that up with a suicide dive out of the ring and he’s in control as we head to commercial break.
Back from commercial and Rollins is in control and for some reason now Big Show is ringside. Rollins is targeting Bryan’s neck because obviously and Bryan is no looking at a 4 on 1 disadvantage. Rollins plays to the crowd and Show teases knocking Bryan out while the ref turns his back.
Daniel Bryan chants break out as the leader of the Yes! Movement looks to rally but Rollins squashes it by sending DB face-first into the bottom turnbuckle. JBL takes the moment to say of Reigns, Rollins and Bryan, DB has the worst chance of beating Brock Lesnar. And then Bryan gets another cheap shot.
Rollins taunts Bryan and continues the beat-down before Bryan finally makes a push and hits Rollins with a flying clothesline. The crowd explodes and Bryan is rolling now with kicks to Rollins body for the near-fall.
Bryan is rolling right now as he hits a top-rope hurricurana on Rollins who somehow rolls through for a near-fall,
Yep, Rollins is the best.
The two begin to exchange punches then kicks before Bryan goes for the Yes! Lock before tang J&J Security out then flipping Rollins out of the ring. DB follows that up by hitting a suicide dive on all three, sending everyone onto or over the announcers table.
Bryan tosses Rollins back into the ring and heads up top but Rollins catches the rope and crotches DB. Mr. Money in the Bank looks to take advantage while Bryan is prone on the top turnbuckle and Bryan counters then hits an awesome suplex from the top-rope and Bryan grabs his neck and rolls over for the near-fall!
Bryan starts the YES! chant as he looks to setup his knee but Rollins counters and power bombs him into the corner and hits a superkick but somehow Bryan kicks out!
“THIS IS AWESOME” chant breaks out as we all start to realize we could have had this as the Wrestlemania main event and now I’m sad.
Rollins looks to take advantage but locks in the YES! lock and Rollins tries fighting to the ropes by crawling backwards and somehow gets his feet on the bottom rope to force the break. That was creative.
Rollins rolls out of the ring and Roman Reigns runs down and hits THE GREATEST SPEAR OF ALL-TIME.
Seriously, that was the best spear I’ve ever seen. Maybe there is hope for Reig…. never mind don’t want to give Creative any ideas.
Reigns then spears Mercury as Noble tries to hit Bryan with the briefcase. The ref stops him and Reigns hits Rollins with a Superman Punch before Bryan hits the Running Knee for the 1-2-3!
Bryan. Reigns. Fast Lane. Prepare yourselves, disappointment is coming.
We see Triple H backstage and says he won’t comment until the podcast.
Michael Cole interviews Bryan who says the fans put him there and have made him who he is. So he promises to beat Roman Reigns and earn his his shot at Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 31.
Seriously, WWE is genius. As mad as we all were a week ago, they suck us back in. WWE now has three weeks to figure out if they can get Reigns over enough to put in the main event, or if they audible and give us Bryan-Lesnar.
Other Results:
Bray Wyatt defeats Dolph Ziggler – Ziggler is still getting pops that are probably second only to Daniel Bryan at this point and yeah, he’s never going to get a real push. Wyatt physically dominates Ziggler, who refuses to give up, for most of the match. Great match between the two, Wyatt somehow takes a Fame-Asser and immediately hits Sister Abigail for the 1-2-3 and the win.
Later we get a creepy Wyatt promo that definitely sounds like it’s aimed at a certain Dead Man. Wyatt calls himself the new face of fear and closes with “I know you’re listening, find me.”
Wyatt-Taker is coming, thank you WWE.
Dean Ambrose Challenges Bad News – Curtis Axel comes out and says he was never eliminated so he wants a Mania shot, which leads to Dean Ambrose hitting the ring, tossing him over the top rope, and saying now Axel is eliminated. Ambrose says he wants to get on the Wall of Champions at WWE headquarters, and he’s coming for the Intercontinental title and Bad News Barrett. Oh the segment ended with Axel eating Dirty Deeds. Mr. Perfect is rolling over in his grave right now.
Cena Welcomes back Ziggler, Rowan and Ryback – Cena says he’s not the past like Triple H claims him to be, and he’ll beat Rusev at Fast Lane. Interesting that the match is for the U.S. title, i guess they want to restore prestige to that title. No you’re right, they’ll just merge it with the heavyweight title when it’s Cena’s time… again.
Rowan/Rusev – Rusev attacks and beats Rowan down before the match even starts and sends a message to John Cena. This ends up being an extended beat-down before locking in the Accolade on Rowan (no Cena save?) and Lana cuts a promo on how Rusev will destroy Cena. Then they actually show a movie trailer of Rusev destroying everyone and calling Rusev a true patriot. All this for him to put Cena over at ‘Mania huh?
Side note: Good work by Lana and Rusev adjusting to the Russian flag not dropping properly. These two are great.
Ryback defeats Luke Harper – Really good, physical match between the two big men. Harper can be a seriously dominant heel if he’s given the chance, he has some incredible agility and athleticism for his size. Ryback hits Shell Shocked for the win.
Cesaro defeats Jimmy Uso – Cesaro won this thing with an amazing uppercut as Uso tried to come off of the top rope for a splash.
Good thing – Cesaro/Kidd are likely in line for a title shot. Bad thing – it means they’ll feud with the Usos for 4-5 months.
Mizdow is Getting Sick of Your Stuff Miz – Mizdow and Miz are backstage when some one comes back and asks for an autograph. Miz tells him he’s busy but the guy asks for Mizdow’s instead. Miz rips up the autograph and tells Mizdow that he’s a real star who made Mizdow relevant and he calls Mizdow an ungrateful, talentless prop and then he fires Mizdow as stunt double, and instead hires him as his personal assistant.
Later Miz takes on Sin Cara and stops Mizdow from doing any stunt double stuff. Loud “We Want Mizdow!” chants break out during the match and Miz taunts Mizdow while he wrestles. Eventually Mizdow climbs the turnbuckle because the crowd wants it and Miz tells him to get down and gets in Mizdow’s face. Miz tries to get fan cheers but keeps failing so Mizdow jumps up and gets cheers instead, the distraction causes Sin Car to roll up Miz for the win.
Paige defeats Alicia Foxx – Paige really gets an awesome pop for a Diva. Oh she’s fighting Nikki Bella for the Diva’s title and the Bella’s and Fox spray some tanning spray or something on her after the match and (insert Total Divas stuff here).