Two weeks after being absolutely laid to waste by Seth Rollins and The Authority, Brock Lesnar returned to Raw in Chicago on Monday night with one thing on his mind – revenge.
And he got his, that’s for sure.
We were treated to a fantastic main event Monday night, something we haven’t seen in a very long time. I can’t remember the last time Raw featured a four or five-star main event, but they delivered on Monday with a great United States Championship contest between John Cena and Cesaro.
A rematch from last week, WWE gave Cesaro another opportunity to go out in the ring and put on a great match with the champion. And he did. No lazy ending, a fantastic match throughout. And, even though people love Cesaro, the right ending.
We’re two weeks away from Battleground, and it’s looking more and more to be a must-see special event. If you don’t have the WWE Network, I suggest you subscribe now.
Here are some of the main stories coming out of Raw:
The show kicked off with that ever familiar chord that screams, “The Beast is here!” Lesnar, along with his ever fluent-in-awesomeness manager, Paul Heyman, headed to the ring so Heyman could once again strike gold on the mic during his promo.
Mission accomplished. It’s been a while since we heard a promo like Heyman’s to open Raw, and I think it reminded everyone just how missed he is when Lesnar isn’t in current storylines. Heyman could make me want to fight a mouse. And Rollins would respond later in the show.
Not only did Rollins and Co. come out for a promo in the ring and try to goad Lesnar into a 3-on-1 assault, but they had axehandles with them. Calling Lesnar Heyman’s “bitch” may have not been the best career move for Rollins, and even I cringed when the words came out of his mouth.
[If I ever see Lesnar out in public, I’m walking the other way. I don’t even want to look at him wrong. He’s that intimidating.]
Thanks to Heyman, Lesnar had his own weapons – actual axes. And he used those weapons to completely destroy the 2015 Cadillac CTS Rollins gifted to his security team. And threw the door of the car into the audience.
Nice, Brock.
After demolishing Mercury and Noble, and likely breaking the latter’s arm with a kimura arm lock, Lesnar ran after Rollins, but the champ got away. What a rough couple weeks it’s been for Noble. Legitimate broken ribs and with the way Lesnar always applies that kimura lock, it wouldn’t surprise me if his arm is legitimately hurt. It sure looked that way.
As an aside, before Rollins went to the ring, he and Triple H had a discussion backstage that leads me to believe a feud awaits in their future. Triple H convincing Rollins he had to call out Lesnar led to the demise of his security team, and left him running for the hills. It’s almost like we’re seeing H poking and prodding Rollins without the champion even realizing it. I can see Rollins losing the championship and blaming H, leading to a feud between the two, but that’s still a ways away. It just seems to me like that’s the direction the two are heading.
An absolute classic of a match main evented Raw Monday night, and I had to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.
For the second week in a row, Cesaro was given a chance to showcase his abilities against a guy who most smart wrestling fans think sucks, and with good reason if they want to base it on his past. But the fact is Cena hasn’t had a bad match in a long, long time. Sure, some of that can be attributed to his opponents, but rarely does one wrestler ever carry an entire match. Cena has really brought the goods these last few months and two great matches in a row with Cesaro followed by likely another great one with Owens at Battleground gives me the impression he’s leaving everything out in the ring before he eventually says goodbye.
After the classic United States Championship match, which Cena won, Owens tried to attack him and received a quick Attitude Adjustment for it before leaving the ringside area. Not a great way to book Owens, but if I wasn’t 100% sure he was walking away from Battleground the United States Champion, I’d be worried.
I think the whole Bray Wyatt-Roman Reigns feud got a little hokey at the end of Reigns’ match Monday night. Of course, Wyatt once again interrupted a Reigns match – and, really – who didn’t see that coming?
Wyatt, or what looked like Wyatt, started walking toward the ring and Reigns met him in the aisle with a Superman punch. He then went to grab Wyatt’s head, and then the wig came off. It wasn’t Wyatt. Reigns was counted out, and then apparently completely vaporized because the camera didn’t show him after that. Not sure that angle did either Reigns or Wyatt any favors.
Randy Orton then returned to television after a nice [legitimate] vacation and attacked Sheamus. And, of course, he ended it with an RKO outta nowhere. Good stuff here. It allows Orton to get cheered because everybody legitimately doesn’t like Sheamus.
It looks like Rusev is finally healthy, and it couldn’t come at a better time. With Rusev and his new main squeeze, Summer Rae, in the ring, Dolph Ziggler and Lana decided to join the party. Ziggler said the magic words, and Rusev was ready and waiting and attacked Ziggler with his crutches, which he doesn’t need anymore. Rusev took off his walking boot and looks to be completely healed of his foot injury, which is good news for me.
I love seeing Rusev wrestle, as I think his style is something different that’s been missing in WWE for a while. I’m glad to see him back in physical activities on television, so let’s hope a match with Ziggler at Battleground, or at the latest Summerslam, awaits him.
For what it’s worth, they did the whole hospital angle with Ziggler after the fact.
I kind of enjoyed the angle between Ryback, Big Show and Miz in the beginning of the program. The fact that both Ryback and Show attacked Miz was pretty humorous. But that also means we could see him sneak away with the Intercontinental Championship at Battleground.
I hope that’s not the case.
Match Rundown
• Non-Title: Big Show d. Ryback by disqualification after Miz attacked Show in the ring. Miz was doing commentary from a microphone during the match.
• Brie Bella d. Paige by pinfall via the Bella Buster. Alicia Fox and Nikki Bella attacked Paige after the match.
• Sheamus d. Roman Reigns by countout after a fake Bray Wyatt distracted Reigns. Reigns then apparently disappeared.
• Dean Ambrose d. Bo Dallas by pinfall via Dirty Deeds.
• King Barrett d. “King” R-Truth by pinfall via a Bull Hammer.
• The New Day [Big E and Kofi Kingston] d. Lucha Dragons [Kalisto and Sin Cara] by pinfall via a double-team DDT Big Ending.
• United States Championship Open Challenge: John Cena d. Cesaro by pinfall via an Attitude Adjustment off the second rope. Owens attacked Cena after the match, but Cena hit him with an Attitude Adjustment and he scampered away.