If the end of the final Monday Night RAW of 2015 was any indication Roman Reigns has made a huge mistake getting on the bad side of the Chairman of the Board, Vince McMahon. After Reigns landed the ‘Superman punch heard around the world’ to the jaw of the 70+-year-old man in route to winning the WWE title, it was evident that there would be hell to pay. To compound the issue, Reigns unceremoniously kicked the prone body of Mr. McMahon out of the ring to the floor as he celebrated his win. As Vince recuperated from “dental surgery” the princess of the McMahon Empire, Stephanie McMahon, accosted Reign on the behalf of her fallen husband Triple H and the presumably toothless Mr. McMahon.

Mr. McMahon made his triumphant return to RAW last week, and promptly to threaten Reigns. In a classic series of fortunate event, Mr. McMahon ends up getting himself arrested. The acting during this segment left a bit to be desired, but you have to appreciate the attempt WWE is making to turn Reigns into a pseudo-Stone Cold Steve Austin anti-authority character.

Credit WWE
Credit WWE

Mr. McMahon is, ahem, surprisingly released before the end of RAW. He appeared on the stage to tell Reigns that he will be defending his title on the first RAW of 2016 against Sheamus with Mr. McMahon himself as the special referee. If this doesn’t scream a throwback to an attitude era episode of RAW, I don’t know what is.

If you like matches that end in shenanigans than this match is for you. There is no way we are going to get a clear winner here. It can go one of two ways: Mr. McMahon gets knocked out and a real referee makes the count for a Reigns win, or there is no winner at all and we get a Triple H run in. The fact that Sheamus’ rematch is on RAW speaks volumes; it essentially means Reigns doesn’t have a challenger for the Royal Rumble. Look for the new world title contender to be revealed in some manner during RAW this week. Even money says it is Triple H.

Kevin Owens is fresh off of destroying both Neville and Dean Ambrose. It will be interesting to see if Owens’ continues his streak of attacking them both. Owens wants the Intercontinental title from Ambrose and is still hung up on the fact that Neville won the Breakout Star of the Year Slammy award. This will most likely lead to a triple threat for the IC title at the Rumble. Will Ambrose or Neville be able to extract a modicum of revenge from the rampaging Canadian Destroyer Kevin Owens?

The New Day has essentially run afoul of every tag team in the division. Last week they ended up in singles matches against both members of the Lucha Dragons. Sin Cara looks to have suffered a serious shoulder injury, so it is unclear if there will be another altercation between the Dragons and New Day. The Usos are still lurking, as well as the Dudleys. The New Day are painting themselves into a corner here. Look for another team to join the fray here, maybe the Prime Time Players. There may be a massive tag team turmoil match at the Rumble, just to solve all of the tag team issues in one fail swoop.

John Cena made his long-awaited return to RAW last week. After goading Alberto Del Rio into putting the United States title on the line (not sure why he had to, seeing as how he is due a rematch, but whatever semantics be damned), Cena won the match via disqualification. It took the entire League of Nations to put Cena down. After the match, The Usos and Roman Reigns make the save and fight off the league. Well, ok the Usos got the crap kicked out of them, but Reigns fought off the League single-handedly. There is no way the John Cena/Alberto Del Rio issue is over, but after saving Cena’s bacon, Reigns and Cena engaged in a long stare down.

Could this be a sign of things to come? Reigns doesn’t have a challenger after his inevitable victory over Sheamus. Will Mr. McMahon sic Cena on Reigns? In some cases, it's better to have the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

RAW will air Monday at 8 P.M. EST. Stay tuned to VAVEL USA's continued coverage of RAW, Smackdown and all things pro Wrestling

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