"Thanks": Monday Night RAW (2/29/16)

Last week's RAW saw Brock Lesnar beating down Dean Ambrose, who demanded a street fight match for Wrestlemania, HHH literally beating Reigns to a (fake) bloody pulp, and also the surprise return of Shane McMahon. It seemed like WWE was going into a new, gritty, and unpredictable direction on the road to Wrestlemania. And then we hit a "Roadblock."

Literally.

The previously named "March to Wrestlemania" Toronto network special was abruptly changed to Roadblock as of last night. Along with the name change, the main event also changed from HHH vs Roman Reigns vs Sheamus to... HHH vs Ambrose for the WHC. Let me repeat that: Ambrose, who lost at Fastlane to Reigns to be the #1 contender for the World title, was given a title shot by HHH, in what is basically a televised house show 3 weeks before Wrestlemania.

RAW was unsurprisingly terrible and disappointing in comparison to last week. Aside from the great interactions with Ambrose and HHH in the opening segment, Stephanie's incredible promo, and the ending segment with HHH beating Ambrose, a majority of the matches just happened. The results can be found here. The wins and losses didn't mean anything or didn't make sense. Why did Ziggler lose to Miz? Why did Kalisto (current US Champ) lose to Del Rio? Why did Owens (current IC Champ) lose to The Big Show? And how the hell did Sasha "pass out" from doing the sunset flip on Becky, resulting in a double-pin?! 

It doesn't make sense for WWE to focus on building up for a network special again. They did the same thing last year for the Brock Lesnar tour, where Big Show suddenly had to look strong a week before the Madison Square Garden network special before predictably losing to him. Ambrose vs HHH sounds great but it makes no sense for Ambrose to start going after HHH when he's already in a feud with Lesnar. So after this special ends in a predictable manner next Saturday, then they'll resume building up for Wrestlemania 32, which still only has 3 confirmed matches. Nothing has been announced for the Tag Team, Divas, US and IC titles yet. How they're going to sell the remaining 30,000+ Wrestlemania tickets is beyond me.

If there's anything important to note here, it's the difference in the crowd reaction to the main event from last week. Ambrose got laid out by the League of Nation. HHH comes to the ring and belittles Ambrose, who quickly pops up to punch him and starts wailing on in the corner. HHH retaliates with the pedigree and angrily grants him his title shot. Ambrose then crawls up to the mic that HHH dropped on him and said, "Hey, Hunter! Thanks!" HHH then throws Ambrose on the announcer's table and starts beating him up, though not as viciously as what he did to Reigns. The entire arena was booing at HHH and cheering for Ambrose.

Once again, there's that false hope that Ambrose might actually win the title. Seeing how it's a live show and HHH's first title defense in a long time, he ain't losting to Ambrose. Then again, the same was said for the NXT Championship match with Kevin Owens and Finn Balor for the Beast In The East special, and the title changed hands there. There's a serious booking dilemma and to be honest, I really don't care. Ambrose is in main event mode and WWE can't ignore the pop and chants he consistently gets, especially last night. When Reigns returns, it's not going to be pretty.

LET'S GO AMBROSE!