WWE Monday Night Raw Takeaways: Where’s Brock Lesnar?
By Glenn Moore
This week’s edition of WWE Monday Night Raw contained a lot of stretching. No, not the kind of stretching you do before competing, but the kind you do when you fail to elevate storylines or create fresh matchups.
Mix in the fact that you did not hear from WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar or his manager Paul Heyman, and you are left with an episode of Raw that fails to live up to a show following Night of Champions.
Here are my 5 takeaways from last night’s episode:
1. Why would The Authority stop a potential John Cena-Dean Ambrose match?
The Authority (WWE.com)
This doesn’t make sense. John Cena and Dean Ambrose are the biggest thorns in The Authority’s side and they were about to lock horns to start Raw. If you are Triple H, why would you stop that?
Wouldn’t you let them beat each other up and then come out and pick your battle? Instead, Triple H stops the match before it even happens and gives the opportunity for Cena and Ambrose to get the upper hand in a brawl on the stage.
I know. You needed to have Cena and Ambrose work separate matches to fill the three-hour show. But when you sacrifice being logical with filling time, you leave fans scratching their heads.
2. Has Dean Ambrose gotten his revenge yet on Seth Rollins?
It’s been almost four months since Seth Rollins turned his back on The Shield to join The Authority. And for almost four months, Ambrose has attacked Rollins all over the building. Ambrose is one of the best on the microphone and in the ring, but this is getting old.
They have had their matches, but with Rollins putting Ambrose on the sidelines after performing a Curb Stomp on cinder blocks, wouldn’t you want Ambrose to get his revenge when he makes his return this week?
Instead, you have the same thing over and over. Ambrose gets close to taking Rollins out, but Rollins gets away. Unless this ends in a cell at next month’s pay-per-view, it’s time to move on.
Also, raise your hand if you didn’t think Ambrose was in the box? That’s what I thought.
3. Where were Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman?
With Brock Lesnar the champion and his part-time schedule, we won’t see him every week on WWE programming. But when you have a finish to WWE Night of Champions with outside interference and Lesnar being one second away from losing the title, I would hope to hear from the champion the next time.
Nope.
No word from Lesnar. No word from his manager, Paul Heyman.
Clearly Cena and Rollins will be tangled in a feud. So where does that leave Lesnar? Who will be his opponent at Hell in a Cell? Just because you don’t have a program set up with the champion, doesn’t mean you can’t tape something with him to get his thoughts on retaining the title. That’s the whole reason why I would tune into Raw. To find out what the champ has to say.
Miz and Damien Mizdow. (WWE.com)
4. What’s next for Dolph Ziggler, The Miz and Bray Wyatt?
The WWE Intercontinental Championship used to hold prestige and usually meant you were next in line for the WWE Championship. Not anymore.
With poor booking and the title exchanging hands faster than a Dolph Ziggler ‘Zig-Zag’, it’s lost the luster of years past. But Ziggler and The Miz have at least brought some excitement surrounding the title. After last night’s match, where do the two go from here?
One man that wasn’t on Night of Champions and Raw was Bray Wyatt. The most-over guy in the WWE has fallen off of WWE TV as of late and stuck with no program. This is the perfect time for Wyatt to reemerge and start a feud with Ziggler for the title.
I love the Damien Mizdow gimmick. He’s played it perfectly being The Miz’s stunt-double. But these two could start a feud with The Miz blaming Mizdow on his loss Monday night and have some really great matches. Do it.
5. Same old thing with Randy Orton
We’ve seen Randy Orton take on Cena over and over and over. It’s old. And when you have that match as the main event of Raw, I wanted to change the channel.
I don’t blame Orton though. He’s one of the best workers in the business. But he’s stuck.
The list of possible guys to feud with is short. He’s just coming off a sub-par feud with Chris Jericho, but now, the former champion is stuck doing The Authority’s dirty work. He’s better than that.
It will be interesting to see what creative does with Orton in the coming weeks. He was left to the side as Ambrose, Cena and Rollins stole the spotlight to end the show.
More thoughts: No more Total Divas segments…Rusev has been booked strong, time to move him up the ranks…Ambrose jumps into a moving car, but won’t follow Rollins into the crowd?
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