WWE Raw results and observations (12/08/14)

The final episode of Monday Night before the Tables, Ladders, Chairs and Stairs (Really, WWE?) pay-per-view doubled as the Slammy Awards and boy was it a hoot.

Actually, it was more or less just an another episode of Raw, but there were some noteworthy happenings from the show.

Before we dive into them, let's run the full match and Slammy results from the show:

- Seth Rollins def. Dolph Ziggler

- Kofi Kingston def. Goldust

- Natalya def. Charlotte

- Erick Rowan def. Luke Harper via disqualification

- Ryback & The Usos def. The Miz, Damien Mizdow & Kane

- AJ Lee def. Summer Rae

- John Cena def. Big Show via disqualification

Slammy results:

- Surprise Return of the Year: The Ultimate Warrior

- Shocking Moment of the Year: Streak ending

- Diva of the Year: AJ Lee

- LOL Moment of the Year: Damien Mizdow

- "This is Awesome" Moment of the Year: Sting's WWE debut at Survivor Series

- Match of the Year: Team Cena vs. Team Authority (Survivor Series)

- Extreme Moment of the Year: Chris Jericho jumping off the cage onto Bray Wyatt

- Superstar of the Year: Roman Reigns

For the full results, click HERE.

Now, with that out of the way, let's get to my highlights and observations from the show:

Roman Reigns looks to be the next in line

It was the WWE's last chance to sell people on the TLC pay-per-view and the biggest story coming out of Raw, in my eyes, was the fact that Roman Reigns somehow took home Superstar of the Year.

Firstly, that makes zero logical sense. Reigns didn't win any titles, probably had one big singles win and eliminated 12 people in the Royal Rumble 11 months ago. By the way, he didn't win the match.

Reigns somehow beat out Daniel Bryan, who was the shining star the first half of the year, and Brock Lesnar, who is the current, reigning, defending WWE World Heavyweight Champion, oh and by the way, broke The Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania.

It doesn't make any sense.

But it makes perfect sense if you're the WWE and you're trying to build Reigns as the man to eventually dethrone Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

As CM Punk said during Colt Cabana’s podcast, the WWE has been putting an emphasis on making Reigns look strong. I guess the WWE is using this Slammy as a springboard for the Royal Rumble and the rest of WrestleMania season.

Even the most well thought-out plans can change. Last year was a prime example of that. But it certainly looks like what everyone has thought for months — that the WWE has chosen Reigns to be its next big star.

Slammy Awards mean nothing

I don't know why I'm even surprised anymore by how little the Slammys mean. I mean, really.

The WWE has the fans vote on the WWE App just to give the awards to whatever helps further the storylines.

Now, I wouldn't mind that if they didn't have the fan voting. If they just announced winners, I wouldn't have a problem.

But there's no way the fans voted for Roman Reigns to be the Superstar of the Year. It simply didn't happen. That would have come down to Daniel Bryan and John Cena, so let's not kid ourselves.

But giving the fans the opportunity to vote, only to go with whatever you've planned anyway makes the entire thing a farce and a charade.

Maybe I shouldn't feel so strongly about it because people forget about this type of stuff in a couple of days anyway, but the WWE dedicates an entire three-hour show to it every year, which means we are supposed to care.

Dean Ambrose steals a smoky ambulance

Bray Wyatt messed up Dean Ambrose's throat on Smackdown, which sent him to a hospital. Apparently, Ambrose stole an ambulance, filled it with smoke and drove it straight into the arena, all while wearing a neck brace no less.

That's what we're supposed to believe at least.

I thought the visual of Ambrose standing in the ambulance was cool. I didn't understand the point of him wearing a neck brace, only for him to tear it right off, but I'll live with it.

The angle between Ambrose and Wyatt has underperformed so far, but not by a lot. I hope their match at TLC can over-deliver.

What is The New Day?

It's been two weeks and I have given The New Day a fair shake.

Unfortunately, I still don't know who they are or their purpose. Those vignettes leading up to their debut was nice, but they were vague and left a lot of questions.

For whatever reason, they haven't been given the chance to cut a promo on Raw explaining who they are and what they're about.

They're just three black guys singing, dancing and clapping along with the crowd for nothing at this point. Oh, and they all wear powder blue.

I'm a fan of all three guys and believe that they have a ton of potential, but I sincerely hope there's more depth to this trio than what we have been given thus far.

The Miz takes Mizdow's Slammy

The subtle friction between The Miz and Damien Mizdown continued Monday. First, guest host (and Philadelphia native) Seth Green offered Mizdow an acting part and not The Miz.

Then, Mizdow won a Slammy to which The Miz immediately took credit for. I would think that the duo would hit some serious friction a TLC, but there seems to be some tension building between Jimmy Uso and Naomi on the other side, which could keep The Miz and Mizdow together for a little while longer, which is a good thing.

Charlotte loses her Raw debut

I was actually kind of surprised that Charlotte lost to Natalya on Raw. Charlotte was specifically put on the show to help promote the NXT special this coming Thursday and has beaten Natalya on NXT in the past.

I think a win for Charlotte could have put some people that are unaware of NXT on notice about the product and what it has to offer.

But Natalya went over, albeit surprise fashion. Charlotte didn't tap out to the sharpshooter or anything, but she was still pinned.

I'm not sure if that helped NXT as much as the match between the fatal four-way participants did a few months back, but time will only tell on that front.