WWE RAW Review, Feb. 22: 5 takeaways

Five things to take away from the Feb. 22 episode of WWE RAW

WWE RAW was live from Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI on Monday, Feb. 22, one day removed from the debacle commonly known as WWE Fastlane 2016. With the main event of WrestleMania 32 set as Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose on Sunday night, the road to the biggest show of the year began on RAW on Monday night.

The show started off on a tremendous high with the return of Shane McMahon and the announcement that he will be facing The Undertaker at Mania in a Hell in a Cell match. Moreover, there were good segments with Lesnar and Ambrose, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte, and then a confusing ending to the show with Triple H and Roman coming to fisticuffs.

Rather than giving a blow-by-blow of a three-hour show with troublingly small amounts of wrestling on it—something that would be grueling for everyone involved—let’s just look at the five biggest takeaways of the night in regards to the matches, segments, and the winners and loser from WWE RAW on Monday, Feb. 22.

Best Match of the Night:
AJ Styles and Chris Jericho vs. Social Outcasts (Heath Slater, Curtis Axel)

You’re not alone if you never expected to see a Social Outcasts match be called the best match of any show, but there was very little wrestling on WWE RAW from Detroit on Monday night, so there wasn’t a great deal to choose from. Throw in the fact that at least half of those matches weren’t any good and the pool gets even shallower.

That being said, I enjoyed the quick squash match with AJ Styles and Chris Jericho teaming up and going over the Social Outcasts. Styles and Jericho really have tremendous chemistry together that they showed in their matches against one another and showed again in this match. While I don’t want to see them together at WrestleMania 32, seeing them in RAW segments like this is quite enjoyable.

Worst Match of the Night:
Ryback, Big Show and Kane vs. The Wyatt Family

This…this was not good. Why WWE thought it would be a great idea to run back one of the worst matches from the Fastlane pay-per-view with Bray Wyatt replacing Braun Strowman is beyond me, but the quality of the match really didn’t change much at all. I’ll give them this, at least they gave the Wyatt Family—Bray specifically—the win:

However, the point of this match seemed largely to be to get half of a heel turn for Ryback and keep the Wyatts in relative obscurity. That’s just begging for indifference at every turn and that’s never a good thing.

Biggest Winner(s):
Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose

The segment between Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose really began before WWE RAW ever did with Lesnar attacking Ambrose earlier in the day and sending him to the hospital. That of course set up the segment on Monday night, which was fantastic in terms of how it made both men look exactly the way that they need to in the buildup to WrestleMania.

Lesnar looks like the unhinged, unapologetic monster that will wreck anyone and everything as Dean looks like the picture of perseverance that is every big if not more unhinged than Brock. Their segment made both of them into the characters that they need to be for their program to work going into Mania, obviously making them winners for the night.

Biggest Loser:
Roman Reigns

You certainly could say that Stephanie McMahon and Vince McMahon were the big losers on Monday night after what happened in the opening segment, but it’s hard to find someone in a more problematic position than Roman Reigns and call him a loser coming out of WWE RAW (and Fastlane for that matter).

Reigns is supposed to be going into WrestleMania 32 as the babyface challenger to Triple H and he was met with loud boos on Monday night in Detroit just as he was after winning at Fastlane. Sure, there are female fans who whistle and scream for him, but the reaction is so obviously not positive as a whole that it’s overwhelmingly frightening that he’s supposed to carry the main event of Mania as a good guy. WWE RAW only worsened those fears. I mean he got booed when he got the upper hand after Triple H attacked him.

This is bad, bad news for Reigns and WWE.

Best Moment:
Shane O Mac Returns

Honorable mention certainly goes to Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar setting their match for WrestleMania and to Jim Harbaugh being Jim Harbaugh at WWE RAW, but there’s no other choice here except for the return of Shane McMahon:

There was rampant speculation around the Internet as to something big happening to open the show that was going to blow fans away and WWE delivered. Not only did they bring back one of the most underrated and beloved figures in the company’s history after a six-year absence, but also brought him back to have a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania with The Undertaker with control of WWE RAW hanging in the balance. That’s major in every way and the return of Shane O Mac should have everyone giddy with excitement because he’s incredible.