Last night’s Raw helped WWE push forward some Survivor Series storylines by again focusing on the young talent up and down the main event roster. With older stars like John Cena and Randy Orton missing, the youngsters got another chance to shine and for the second consecutive week delivered a pretty damn good Monday Night Raw. Let’s take a look at what went down.
Rollins Delays The Inevitable
The slow-burning coronation of Roman Reigns is officially underway, and we kick Raw off with the new #1 Contender out to cut a promo. Now, generally speaking any Reigns promo tends to be met with nothing but a cringe, but this one was actually pretty good considering who was delivering it. Reigns basically calls Seth Rollins an ass-kisser and then says that he doesn’t like people who lie or stab his back, so apparently he doesn’t like Seth Rollins! Math kids, it’s amazing!
Reigns finishes with his very heavy-breathing promise that no force on Earth can stop him from winning the WWE World Heavyweight title.
Cue Seth Rollins music. The Champ comes out and says that Reigns is good, but he’ll always be second best and people will remember him as the guy that used to carry Rollins bags. Reigns challenges him to get in the ring, Seth pretends he might actually do it, and then the Authority comes out and puts an end to all that nonsense.
Steph says Rollins and Reigns is happening but not tonight because as Triple H puts it, how high are you people to think that would ever happen? They announce Team Rollins vs. Team Reigns tonight in a traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series match. The presumption here is both guys will find their own teams.
Backstage we see Rollins walk up to Kevin Owens and talk about a champion vs. champion match between them at Wrestlemania before asking Owens to join his team. KO says he’s in but reminds the champ that now Rollins owes him one.
More Rollins backstage and Seth is looking for partners when he runs into… THE NEW DAY!
Rollins agrees to let them join his team but says they have to play under his rules and that they need another guy….
Could it be???
XAVIER WOODS BACK!
The New Day starts chanting ‘Team Rollin’s as Woods plays trombone and Rollins dances along before realizing he’s actually dancing along and leaves immediately.
So now Team Rollins is set and it’s the greatest team of all-time. Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and the New Day.
YES!
So after what feels like 7 hours we FINALLY get the main event featuring the Rollins Dream Team and out first is everyone’s favorite group cutting an awesome promo as is customary. How over are the New Day? Their latest gimmick is unicorn-centric, and the crowd is loving every second of it.
Out next is Kevin Owens, who really doesn’t want to dance with the New Day despite their best efforts.
Now it’s Rollins time and the New Day is doing their best rock band impression because they are amazing.
Now it’s time for us to meet Team Reigns who we totally forgot was even a thing in the awesomeness that is Team Rollins.
Out first comes Roman Reigns of course, followed by… THE USO’S!
Jimmy and Jey are back and teaming with their cousin while presumably moving into the title picture since they are the team set across from New Day in this one.
Out next is Ryback which okay great thanks for not giving a young guy a push in favor of putting someone nobody wants to see in this match. The last partner in this group is of course Dean Ambrose because Ambreigns Bromance.
Xavier Woods starts things off and man is he hyped! Get it Xavier!
Super kick. Uso Splash. Xavier is eliminated in 5 seconds because he is this match’s Santino. Damn it.
The eliminations came pretty quickly in this one with Kofi being the next eliminated before Big E and Owens each eliminated an Uso. In the middle of all this we got this exchange between Big E and Kevin Owens that was the perfect example of both wrestlers characters.
This was followed by Ryback eliminating Big E and the first five guys out are all in the tag team division so that’s cool.
As soon as Ryback eliminates Big E he is taken out by Rollins with a Pedigree. Thank you Seth.
Owens is the next one to go out because Rollins went full Rollins and trash talked Dean Ambrose enough for the Lunatic to recover and duck a flying knee that instead hits KO. Now we have just the three Shield members left, Ambreigns against Rollins.
Reigns beats the hell out of Rollins before the Champ grabs a chair and takes out his frustration on both men. Apparently Superman Reigns kryptonite is Seth Rollins swinging a chair. Needless to say, this wasn’t exactly a great finish to what should have been an awesome match.
After the match Rollins keeps using the chair before getting Reigns into the ring for more abuse when…
OUT OF NOWHERE REIGNS HITS HIM WITH A SUPERMAN PUNCH! I TOTALLY DID NOT SEE THAT COMING WHATSOEVER!
Rollins escapes with his belt as Ambrose and Reigns stare him down to close the show.
Seriously, this better be leading to a triple threat match for the title at Wrestlemania 32.
Also, meh finish to an otherwise good show. For a second straight week the young guys show that they can get it done.
Other Results –
Now THAT Is A Divas Match – To determine the #1 Contender for Charlotte’s Divas Title, we had a Fatal Fourway match between Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks (swoon), Paige &… Brie Bella?! We’re told that all team members are banned and nobody will interfere. This was a great match featuring a ton of near-falls and this awesome top rope powerbomb with all four competitors involved.
Much deserved “This Is Awesome!” chant from the crowd as each Diva nearly picks up the win with their finisher before Paige hits the Rampaige on Becky for the 1-2-3. Paige cuts a promo after the match saying everyone is a loser or something and BOOM! There’s your new #1 Contender.
Bray Wyatt, Soul Sucker – The Wyatt Family comes out and Bray says that he wants to give us all something we won’t forget and talks about his family carrying out the carcass of the Undertaker and the scorched body of DEMON KANE. Bray says they didn’t want the bodies, but the souls of the Brothers of Destruction because souls live forever. Bray says he is a higher power who consumed their souls and their powers. Now he is the one who summons lightning and fire.
And Bray is going to burn everything to the ground.
Follow, the buzzards.
Prince Pretty Strikes Again – Our first match of the night is a non-title bout between Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens. The match was pretty damn good which is exactly what you’d expect with these two. Owens basically dominated this whole thing while Ziggler sold a leg injury. And by sold a leg injury I mean he SOLD HIS LEG INJURY.
Eventually Tyler Breeze came out to distract Ziggler with selfies at ringside before jumping on the apron to take a selfie with Ziggler. The distraction allowed Owens to hit Dolph with a Pop-Up Power Bomb for the win. After the match Breeze takes a selfie with Ziggler’s prone carcass before laying him out with his awesome spinning heel kick.
Cesaro Finally Starts Getting a Push… Maybe? – Cesaro and Miz faced off in match that apparently was set up during the pre-show, and man did the announce team spend a lot of time putting Cesaro over. Miz gets some offense in but this turns out to be a squash match.. for Cesaro??? The Swiss Superman hits a Swing about 25 times before locking in a Sharpshooter for his fallen teammate Tyson Kidd and picking up the win via submission. More of this please.
Lucha Dragons Are a Thing Now – The Lucha Dragons took on King Barrett and Sheamus in an interesting tag match that saw three key things. One, the Lucha Dragons doing some awesome things in the ring like flying and rolling.
And some great reversals.
It also saw the announce team putting the Lucha Dragons over in a big way, and two former main event guys jobbing to some former NXT Tag Champs. Yup.
Del Rio and Swagger… Again?! – Backstage we see Jack Swagger telling Zeb Colter that he isn’t buying this whole MexAmerica thing with Alberto Del Rio. So Del Rio shows up and tells Swagger that people like him always look for trouble and if that’s what he wants he’s in the right place. I forgot how much I missed Del Rio’s terrible promos… BUT YOU ALREADY KNEW THAT!
Del Rio then proceeds to squash R-Truth in a match that not one person cared about.