Dean Ambrose kicks off Monday Night RAW looking to continue what he started with Brock Lesnar two weeks ago challenging “The Beast Incarnate” to come to the ring and F5 him again. However, it was not Brock Lesnar that answered the call of “The Lunatic Fringe” but WWE Chief Brand Officer and principal owner of WWE Stephanie McMahon.
The Billion Dollar Princess then decided that she would hand Dean a rather unique F5 as she forced Ambrose to defend his Intercontinental Championship in a fatal five way against Dolph Ziggler, Stardust, Tyler Breeze & Kevin Owens. She went so far as to ban Dean Ambrose’s brother, Roman Reigns, from ringside and if he appeared then Ambrose would not be in the triple threat match this Sunday at Fastlane to determine the number one contender to WWE Heavyweight Champion Triple H at WrestleMania 32.
New Intercontinental Champion
When he lost the Intercontinental Championship to Dean Ambrose two months ago, Kevin Owens was hell-bent on regaining the title he sees as his but one man that Owens has had problems with over the last few weeks is Dolph Ziggler, who holds two victories over Owens over the last two weeks. This was a frantic match with five superstars in the ring the action was all over the place both inside and outside the ropes. All five participants in this match traded blows. Firstl, Breeze was only a whisker away from becoming the champion after he hit Owens with his trademark “Beauty Shot” but then Ambrose had Stardust in position for “Dirty Deeds” only to be hit with a “Zig Zag” which in turn led to a “Dirty Deeds” and then Breeze looked to capitalize by dumping Ziggler out of the ring which gave Owens the opening he needed to hit Breeze with a pop-up powerbomb to finally become a champion once again.
Verdict: A highly entertaining match which had some decent wrestling and this is WWE’s attempt to keep the WWE universe wondering about the triple threat match on Sunday at Fastlane and let’s hope they do not give Dolph Ziggler another feud with Kevin Owens which has become stale.
Ambrose is motivated & Owens is Owens
We then see Ambrose backstage and he is the interviewed by Renee Young about what had just happened as Ambrose lost the Intercontinental Title. He states that what just transpired is all the motivation that he needs ahead of Sundays triple threat match. Then Owens appears as smug as usual. He then shuns Ziggler who demands a title match at Fastlane.
Re/venge/Rocks
As The New day discuss their last encounter with Edge & Christian and appearing on “The Cutting Edge Peep Show” after Mark Henry left The New Day high & dry last week in the 8-man tag team table match, The New Day decided to send their powerhouse Big E to punish the big man for what he did last week. Henry gave a good account of himself during the match. Even with interference from Xavier and Kofi it seemed as though Big E was going to struggle but a trip into the turnbuckle would prove to be the turning point in the match and Big E missed the Big Ending but still came out on top.
Verdict: A rather pointless match with no real direction but once again the New Day on the mic was entertaining as they looked to Fastlane
Brie looks ahead to Fastlane
Bryon Saxton was set to interview Brie Bella about the last few months and the heartbreak of seeing her husband Daniel Bryan retiring not even a week ago and her carrying on the Bella name in the absence of her sister Nikki, but of course not even two sentences into the interview and WWE Divas Champion Charlotte and her father WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair came to the ring and began to belittle Brie saying she will only end up being nothing more than a nurse for her injured husband. But the plucky challenger channeled the ability of her husband as she hit a flurry of YES Kicks on Charlotte which had Ric scrambling to pull his daughter from the ring.
Verdict: This whole segment builds up the Divas Championship match quite nicely as the animosity between the two became even more heated and the tribute to Daniel Bryan was a nice touch with the YES kicks.
Another Phenomenal Performance
AJ Styles took on The Miz in a return match from SmackDown a fortnight ago. The Miz tried a pre-match attack on the “Redneck Rookie” but Styles would end up having the last laugh as he kicked out of a Skull Crushing Finale and then proceeded to lock in the calf crusher to make Miz submit. AJ then challenged Chris Jericho to a match a Fastlane to settle their score. Jericho is going to make Styles sweat it out till SmackDown to give him the answer.
Verdict: Another thoroughly enjoyable match involving AJ Styles and once again it’s the more unique offence that triumphs and to his credit Miz put in a good show as well and Jericho was good on commentary as well as WWE made the right decision with this program for Styles.
Has Summer Rae’s Paige turned?
In the battle of the two returning Divas, it was Summer Rae that walked away with a huge upset victory as Paige could not capitalize on her advantage and she was caught in a roll-up which led to Summer Rae stealing a win on her return to WWE.
Verdict: This just seemed like a filler match between two forgotten divas and this is sad because many believe that Paige was the one who kicked off the divas revolution.
The Big Dog & the Advocate
Over the last few weeks the focus has been on Ambrose’s confrontations with Lesnar, but Paul Heyman decided that it was time to refocus and called out former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns. Heyman attempted to get inside the head of Reigns by saying that either Reigns’ dream of gold or his friendship with Ambrose was going to be over after Fastlane, but this was not going to affect Roman who was then left alone in the ring only to be joined by The Dudley Boyz. They tried to attack Roman, but Ambrose made the save and Dean nearly planted Reigns with Dirty Deeds after the Dudley's retreated as a statement of how far he’s willing to go at Fastlane
Verdict: A good segment where Heyman tried the age old tactic of divide and conquer and what transpired once Ambrose got to the ring may have been a good ploy on Heyman’s part and this is building up nicely
Big Red Surprise for the Wyatt’s
The Main event of RAW was supposed to see Big Show square off with Braun Strowman but Luke Harper & Erick Rowan decided to get involved and the three attacked Big Show only for Ryback to attempt a save. Once again the Wyatt family began to dominate until Kane made his return to save the “Titans” and this sent the Wyatt family running.
Verdict: A segment that involves some heavy hitting is always nice to see now and then and it was nice to see Kane make a return to save Big Show and Ryback.
Overall Verdict
The go home episode of RAW before Fastlane was a decent program with a lot of action and it left the WWE anticipating who is going to be heading to the main event of WrestleMania 32 against Triple H. The Divas Championship match looks to be getting personal after the events of RAW. The Big E v Mark Henry match & Summer Rae v Paige were the only bad points on RAW
RAW was a solid 7.5/10
