WWE Monday Night Raw results, observations (10/05/15): It is indeed a New Day
The road to Hell in a Cell officially kicked into high gear Monday night, and while nothing earth-shattering occurred, there were a couple of noteworthy happenings.
The show was decent, but more than likely not good enough to cause even a slight uptick in viewership numbers, which have hit record lows for WWE in recent weeks.
If there's one positive to take away from the show, it was that I didn't walk away from my television hating myself for putting myself through three hours of torture. I've done this before. It wasn't pretty.
With that said, here are the full match results from Monday Night Raw at the TD Garden in Boston:
- Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose & Randy Orton def. The Wyatt Family
- Sheamus def. Neville
- Natalya def. Paige
- Kevin Owens def. Sin Cara
- Dudley Boyz def. Kane & Seth Rollins via disqualification
- Team B.A.D def. Team Bella
- WWE United States championship – John Cena def. Big E
The New Day stands tall
The final segment of almost every episode of Raw since WrestleMania has involved some combination of Seth Rollins, The Authority, John Cena, Kane and even Brock Lesnar.
While I have no complaints about Lesnar, seeing the rest can get very old, very fast. And while Cena was in the final segment Monday night yet again, he was joined by The New Day, a breath of fresh air in that particular spot.
Big E was the second member of the trio in as many weeks to answer Cena's U.S. Open challenge, and the two partook in a pretty entertaining main event. But the noteworthy thing in this segment was that despite the best efforts of Cena, The Dudley Boyz and even Dolph Ziggler, whom The New Day took out before the match, the entertaining trio stood tall to end the show.
This accomplished a few things for WWE. First, it provided something different. It's that simple. Instead of seeing the same old stuff we've seen for six months, we got something else for once.
Quite frankly, The New Day has earned the spot. It's not like WWE put the group in that spot just for the sake of shaking things up. The New Day has been the proverbial MVP of Raw for probably two months now.
Second, it actually made The New Day look like the bad guys. The New Day can be so entertaining that it can become hard for fans to actually boo them. Why would you want to boo a group of men making you laugh with hilarious antics?
But the final segment of Raw was devoid of antics. It was simply The New Day flexing its collective muscle — or tricep meat — to put everyone on notice that they are not to be played with.
Last, it made the Tag Team champions look strong. It has been a while since the tag champions actually meant something let alone looked strong in a main event.
Stephanie McMahon stands tall over everyone
No one, including The New Day, can stand taller than Stephanie McMahon.
That is a problem.
I've written (whined and complained to a degree) on numerous occasions about how the use of a heel authority figure is a tired storyline that WWE has relied upon for probably 10 years too long. I think the company is at the point that it couldn't even imagine trying to structure a program without the presence of one.
But one of the many side effects of a heel authority figure is that the focus is often removed from the wrestlers and onto the authority figure. It's even worse when said wrestlers cower in the mere presence of one. A prime example was Monday when The New Day attempted to include McMahon in their antics, but she was having none of it, and to show this, she talked down to them, essentially threatened to fire them, and then put them in a tag title match against the Dudley Boyz.
What did The New Day do? Look like sad puppies. They didn't even raise their voices.
What did that accomplish besides announcing a title match, which could have been done in at least a dozen different, more productive ways? It accomplished very little outside of reminding everyone that no one can touch McMahon.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention her show of love for the New England Patriots earlier in the show. Look, I get it, McMahon is a Patriots fan in real life and, to many outside the New England region, that makes her an even bigger heel. But she was in Boston, right smack in the Patriots' back yard. A true heel looks for any way possible to needle a crowd. A true heel looks for every opportunity to get under people's skin, but McMahon isn't a true heel in that sense.
She's this new hybrid character WWE has promoted lately that does evil in one segment and good in the next. A prime example of the good is giving the Dudley Boyz another shot at the WWE Tag Team championship.
While layered, intricate characters work for television, such as The Walking Dead, it's kind of weird in professional wrestling/sports entertainment. On shows such as The Walking Dead, the writing and overall narrative are much more consistent, allowing for those layered characters to shine.
A consistent, quality narrative is certainly not one of WWE's strong suits. Plus, wrestling generally works at its best when people are cheering and booing, not being indifferent.
Even though Rick Grimes can be a ruthless killer, he's still an overall good guy because he shows good qualities such as loyalty, bravery and leadership. People aren't wondering whether he's good or bad.
When it comes to McMahon, they do.
Summer Rae proposes to Rusev
For what this segment was, which was mindless television, it was good.
Was it the best thing for a three-hour program based around wrestling? No, but in a vacuum there was some entertainment value in Summer Rae proposing to Rusev.
The video package was hilarious and the fact that Rusev said yes, but only under the condition that he would go through with it when he wins another championship is kind of intriguing, right?
This story seems as if it might never end, but Monday's was one of the few entertaining chapters.