For some strange reason, Mark Henry and Big Show are getting a WWE Tag Team Title shot. I know the tag team division is thin but this should have been non-title. Anyway, The Dust Brothers did their usual thing and I was surprised to see that this got more than ten minutes. Show and Henry look like they're on the verge on victory but, shocker, Henry turns on Big Show and lays him out with the World's Strongest Slam. Cody, I mean Stardust pins Show and they retain. Henry continues the attack but it's hard for me to care because we've seen Henry and Show turn heel and face more than anyone not named Kane. It would make a good drinking game actually. I'm sure Big Show went backstage and cried about it.
Michael Cole informs us that we're going to hear from Roman Reigns via satellite. There are a million internet jokes about him doing what his cousin, The Rock does, so I'll shy away. However, Cole says he's the man known as the Juggernaut, which is laughable because NEVER has Roman Reigns been called that. Reigns cuts a short promo about how he's coming for Seth Rollins when he returns. Meh. It's time to see Alicia Fox vs. AJ Lee in the tiebreaker. Paige is on commentary because that's all this feud has become. One girl wrestles, the other is on commentary and interferes. Wash. Rinse. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. Conquer...nevermind. AJ wins in about three minutes and, post match, Paige attacks Alicia and calls her the worst best friend.
John Cena feels the need to address everything that happens in life as he comes out to discuss being the new number one contender. Interestingly, he never comes out to address Nikki Bella and her need to have children. Whatever. He says that he won last night because HE FEARS NOTHING AND REGRETS LESS. It's nearly every Cena promo ever. He is cut off by Stephanie McMahon. It makes me sad that Stephanie has become more of a background player as of late. She owns the fans and Cena before telling him that he should join the Authority. He declines and out comes Triple H. He doesn't say much except that at Survivor Series we will see Team Cena vs. Team Authority. They dare Cena to find people who have the guts to take them on. Good segment, cool match idea, but it ran too long.
The Usos stepped into the ring for a tag team match against The Miz and Damien Mizdow. Nothing of note really happened here except that Mizdow is still the MVP of the show right now. The Usos win as Mizdow continues to do everything that Miz does, but better. In the back, Corporate Kane heard a rumor already that Dolph Ziggler might join Team Cena so he challenges him tonight. Hulk Hogan comes out and is the WWE's walking billboard. He plugs the Susan G. Coleman stuff and John Cena. It's nonsense.
Bo Dallas comes out and is all smiles before he issues an open challenge. FEED. ME. MORE. Ryback returns to a pop and completely annihilates Bo Dallas. It's cool to see that he's coming back as a face and I'd be intrigued by a mid-card push for him. This was a cool welcome back and I'm glad the fans haven't forgotten about him. Dean Ambrose cuts a promo on the announce table about going to hell last night, loving it and then meeting Bray Wyatt there. He attacks his opponent for the night, Cesaro, but the match never begins. He takes him out and then Bray appears on the titantron in a creepy butcher's apron. He says that the world wasn't made for the two of them but he still doesn't explain much. It was a cool visual though.
A recap of the Nikki vs. Brie match is shown before Nikki goes one on one with Naomi. Much like AJ/Fox earlier, this was a completely basic Divas contest. It was short and not too bad. Nikki forced Brie to trip Naomi up, leading to a Nikki Bella win. Next, Dolph Ziggler met Kane in a non-title match. Dolph has been doing rather terribly in non-title matches recently the, with the WWE's penchant for protecting Kane for some ridiculous reason, I funny expected Kane to win. Instead, we get a match that went about thirteen minutes and was won by Dolph. Nice surprise. It still baffles me that Kane is in good shape but has bad matches.
Time for the big main event as John Cena, the number one contender, takes on the man with a guaranteed title shot whenever he wants, Seth Rollins. Man, this was given a TON of time and stole the show. I do have to question something though. The entire month of October saw Dean Ambrose and Cena battle it out and be desperate to face Seth Rollins, even meeting in a match themselves. Ambrose won that, but Cena gets a match with Seth for free the following night. Seems odd and not consistent with the storyline of the Authority protecting the future. With that out of the way, you should go and watch this match. Possibly the best match on Raw since Ambrose/Rollins back in August. It ends via DQ because Kane always has to get involved. Dolph ran out to even the score before the entire locker room emptied with guys vying to be on Team Cena or Team Authority. A huge brawl ends the show.
Overall, this was a solid episode of Raw. I enjoyed this and once again, the show has cut back on the nonsense filler. We no longer have pointless matches featuring Los Matadores or Adam Rose. Everything served a purpose and I appreciate that. Plus, we didn't get a TON of rematches. None of the matches were terrible and I'm looking forward to seeing Team Authority and Team Cena get picked. Should be fun. 7.5/10.
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