RAW kicks off with Seth Rollins and the Authority gloating over trouncing Brock Lesnar. Nice shout out to Jamie Noble who was legitimately injured last week, he gets a nice crowd chant. In a goofy segment, Rollins doles out new Apple Watches and sends Kane on a trip to Hawaii. Didn’t realize Rollins was loaded now.
Very heel-ish lead in to RAW. A tad long and drawn out, but we are meant to hate these guys.
Big Show squashed Mark Henry in a few minutes following two consecutive KO punches. Miz was at ringside for commentary, then suddenly has a match with Ryback. Miz gets himself counted out.
As this point, the opening talk segment was longer than the first two matches. Yeesh. In fact, the next match, Paige defeats Alicia Fox in a match which featured more wrestling than the last two.
Action picks up in a major way. John Cena comes out for his U.S. Open Challenge for the title. Kevin Owens comes out to tease, but instead introduces Cesaro, wearing an armband with “Kidd” written on it. Very classy. Cesaro and Cena have an amazing match, although we know Cena is not losing the title tonight, there were moments of forgetting and entertaining the possibility of Cesaro getting a win somehow. Cesaro hits his over-the-ropes superplex, the Cesaro Swing, and numerous uppercuts. Cesaro readies for the win, until Owens returns to Powerbomb both Cesaro and Cena, attacking Cesaro first in order to cost Cena the win.
Smart move. I dig it.
Bray Wyatt with another creep-factor-10 promo on Roman Reigns. Loving it.
We follow this up with a great eight-man tag pitting the Lucha Dragons and the Prime Time Players up against The New Day and Bo Dallas. I like the chemistry with Dallas and the New Day. Titus is the one who gets the hot tag, cleans house, and then hits his sit-out spinebuster-bomb for the win. I love seeing Titus being put over.
Next segment sees Dolph Ziggler and Lana verbally fight off Summer Rae and Rusev, which inevitably turns into a catfight.
Backstage, Dean Ambrose is talking to some Terminator statues, and Roman Reigns walks in. He gets Reigns angry and rage-fueled.
Neville and Sheamus are next up, and put on a great match. This time, Sheamus gets the win with a big Brough Kick. Neville gets better and better, and we clearly see he is fully capable of wrestling a long match, and is not just a spot-spot-spot guy.
In an interesting bit, Jack Swagger returns to action, jobbing to King Barrett. The former messenger of bad news now demands all opponents bow down to him. Barrett and Swagger chase each other around the ring, Barrett tricks Swagger, and eats a Bull Hammer for it.
Main event time! Reigns cleans house early on by bashing everyone with Superman Punches. Even the injured Jamie Noble manages to get some ring time. This match being no DQ saw a kendo stick being used, however the interference by Bray Wyatt, temporarily incapacitating Reigns allows for The Authority to massacre Dean Ambrose. It gets worse as Reigns attempts small retribution, however is overwhelmed, and once again slaughtered by Bray Wyatt.
Overall, a good show. Sluggish start to the program, but kicked up pretty nicely half-way through. Good wrestling, less talking. No Brock Lesnar tonight, but that was to be expected.
Big push front-and-center for the “unified Authority.”
