"ROMANWINSLOL": Monday Night RAW (10/26/15)

Now this was an enjoyable episode of RAW. It had direction, it had storyline progression, and best of all, it had so much wrestling. The main objective for the show was to find a #1 contender for Rollins' World Heavyweight Championship, which was way better than Rollins getting a random monthly opponent like John Cena, Sting and Demon/Corporate Kane. The winners from last night's HIAC would enter in a small tournament and the winners from those matches would face each other in the main event. Although it was damn obvious who win and get the title shot against Rollins' , it doesn't take away that a majority of the matches were refreshingly entertaining. Here are the math results:

• Roman Reigns defeated Kofi Kingston (w/Big E)
• Kevin Owens defeated Cesaro
• Team Bella defeated Team PCB
• Alberto Del Rio (w/Zeb Colter) defeated Neville
• Sheamus, Rusev, and King Barrett defeated Ryback and The Dudley Boyz
• Dolph Ziggler defeated Big E (w/Kofi Kingston)
• Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens, Alberto Del Rio, and Dolph Ziggler

There were 2 things I was not happy with. First was the only Divas segment that saw a reunited Team PCB vs Team Bella. It wasn't the match that was bad, it was the writing for Charlotte and Becky. They suspect Paige was the one who hurt Natalya, who hasn't been seen since the attack, but they still take her back. Team Bella won the match (Becky took the pin) and then Paige made her heel turn official by beating up Charlotte and Becky. Now that Nikki's no longer after the title, it makes sense for Paige to be Charlotte's next opponent. As much as I dislike the Bellas, Nikki has somehow come out looking great in this Divas Revolution, while Charlotte is quickly showing how much limited and sloppier she is outside of NXT. Sasha Banks, Tamina, and Naomi were not even present ringside; they only showed up for the Susan G. Komen segment. All these women need to go solo. Grouping them weekly is like Teddy Long levels of nightmare booking.

The second thing I wasn't happy with was seeing a bored-looking Ambrose in yet another backstage segment with Reigns. Ambrose gives him a pretty good pep talk, telling him to forget all the times he was this close to winning in Wrestlemania and Money in The Bank and focus on taking the World Heavyweight Championship, which is now right in front of him. One small difference between his brief segment from HIAC and last night's promo was that Ambrose was looking noticeably indifferent right after Reigns left. Was this some type of foreshadowing? Or him appearing annoyed at being flown out for another quick backstage segment? Ambrose's only in-ring appearance was for the Susan G. Komen segment, where he appeared along with a portion of the roster and the breast cancer survivors, led by Titus O' Neil. And boy, you could tell that he really didn't want to be there. I guess that rumor about Ambrose getting a push is not happening after all because they're strapping that rocket on Reigns instead.

The main event with Owens, Del Rio, Ziggler and Reigns was pure wrestling with great spots and sequences. Just as Owens was setting up Reigns for a pop-up powerbomb, Reigns executed his Superman punch in mid-air, knocked him out, and pinned Owens. The San Diego crowd was eating it all up. Reigns has definitely earned the title shot, and it only took him nearly half a year to get better on the mic, work on his stamina, and finally connect with the fans. The only thing that I didn't like about this was that Reigns looked strong, like Super-Cena strong, throughout the night. It was obvious that he would win but at least they made it look like he earned it.

Tonights' taping for Smack Down! will have a Halloween theme and no matches have been announced yet. It might be a good thing to make it a surprise, just like the #1 contender tournament match was announced less than 2 hours before the show started. This was the first time in a long while that a post PPV RAW was actually good and I hope they keep this level of unpredictability for the next 3 weeks.

For fuck's sakes, give Ambrose something to do.