By Will Señar
Monday Night Raw kicks off with Seth Rollins walking down the ramp. It was a usual opening segment where a wrestler talks about what happened in past shows.
John Cena and Dean Ambrose came bursting into the Barclay’s Center to attack Rollins.
Rollins gets away, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon come in to announce the main event which would be a two-on-three handicap match between the teams of Ambrose and Cena against The Authority.
The first match saw Dolph Ziggler team up with the Usos against Cesaro and the Dust Brothers (Goldust and Stardust). The match started with Goldust throwing one of the Usos on the steps before the match even started. They had control over the match and the fans let it know early that they were behind one man, Ziggler.
It felt like Ziggler would not even get a chance to participate but when he finally got tagged in, the crowd erupted. The match saw exchanges from both teams with the Usos picking up the win after a triple super kick and a superfly splash from the top rope.
It’s always nice when people cheer for Ziggler, letting WWE know that people want to see him succeed. It’s a bit similar to how Daniel Bryan reached the top of the ladder.
Raw had Kathie Lee and Hoda guest host Raw and the crowd kept booing during the segment. They try to drown out the heckles by upping the volume of Adam Rose’s music. These moments just take away precious opportunities from actual wrestlers where they can build their storylines. I understand that these things are done to promote the show to a new audience but it just seems like these guests promote themselves while actually hurting the program.
Just when we think the program has hit its low, WWE decides it’d be a great idea to let two little people wearing costumes, a bull and an alligator, wrestle a match and have their superstars stand ringside and do nothing until they get embarrassed by being hit in their nether regions. The crowd goes on to chanting profanities throughout the segment, letting the WWE creative team know that this is not what they want to see in WWE programming.
Rusev and Lana make their way to the ring and cut a promo about how Russia is superior to the United States. And in a moment that surprises everyone, The Rock makes his way to the ring. It’s amazing how they were able to make this a surprise considering how difficult it is to keep things from leaking because of social media. The Rock comes out to electrify the Brooklyn crowd and goes on to punch Rusev to force him to leave the ring.
For three years, every October, the WWE has partnered with the Susan G. Komen Foundation in support of breast cancer research. In a touching moment they paid tribute to the breast cancer survivors they invited to sit at ringside.
The main event handicap match turned into a one-on-three match when Dean Ambrose, in a previous segment, left the arena to get hot dogs because of his frustration with Cena. So Cena had to face the three members of the Authority on his own but won via disqualification. They proceeded to beat him down until Dean Ambrose made his entrance with a hot dog-cart. He saves Cena and they celebrated a bit until Triple H made his entrance.
Triple H announce that on the upcoming Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, Cena will be facing Ambrose and the winner will get the chance to face Seth Rollins in a hell in a cell match. Ambrose follows the announcement by kicking Cena in the gut and giving him a DDT, receiving a huge pop from the crowd to close the show.
