"Make Roman look strong": Monday Night RAW (10/19/15)

The go-home show of RAW was chocked full of legends and superstars. This was WWE at its most desperate, bringing in the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin doing an intro for Undertaker and getting interrupted by Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman as the opening segment. Unfortunately, the rest of the show couldn't sustain that energy and the rest of the 3 hours was full of 6-man tag team matches and average matches. The main event was originally set to have Dean Ambrose vs Luke Harper and Braun Strowman in a career suicide handicap match because Orton was suddenly MIA. Kayfabe reason is the Wyatt Family injuring Orton (again). Real story is Orton injuring his shoulder (again). Here is a breakdown of the matches, as summed up from /r/SC:

• The New Day def. John Cena, Dudley Boyz
• Nikki Bella and Alicia Fox def. Sasha and Naomi
• Seth Rollins def. Ryback
• Rusev, King Barret, & Sheamus def. Ziggler, Cesaro, & Neville
• Charlotte w/ Becky Lynch def. Brie Bella w/ Nikki Bella
• Kevin Owens def. Mark Henry
• Wyatt Family def. "Not the SHIELD" by DQ

There was one thing I had a major gripe with, and that was the blatant endorsement for ROMAN REIGNS in his match against Bray Wyatt at HIAC. Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair were brought in just to put Reigns over with the crowd and barely acknowledged Wyatt This was a stark contrast from last year's HIAC, where Mick Foley appeared to say hello to an old friend (referring to the caged cell that was looming over the ring) and he put over BOTH Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. Anyways, Reigns had a segment where he wanted to have a sit-down with Wyatt in the ring. He cut a promo that was less scripted was against a somewhat fearful-looking Wyatt. Here's where continuity went out of the window; Wyatt didn't even get to talk about this "prophecy" that he mentioned on Smack Down. He just showed up with Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman in their white sheep and black sheep masks, respectively. That's right, the original Wyatt Family member, Erick Rowan returned with no acknowledgement from the announcers except from the fans. Reigns proceeded to attack Wyatt with his chair and was seemingly surrounded until Ambrose ran into the ring. The main event was now Ambrose and Reigns vs. the Wyatt Family. Like Orton, Harper was also mysteriously MIA.

The Authority and Rollins are shown backstage, commenting on how Reigns is being dumb to jeopardize himself and Ambrose before HIAC. In comes Michaels with a simple solution; if Ambrose and Reigns need a partner, they can send their boy in. HHH and Stephanie were against it, saying Rollins just won a match against Ryback (his second clean win in weeks!) and that they both hate Rollins. Michaels insisted they do it anyways and to stop protecting him. Of course, this riles up Rollins, who said he'll join the 5 world-class athletes and be their partner, which garnered a MASSIVE pop outside. Nevermind that it didn't make any fucking sense for Rollins to join Ambrose and Reigns; for the second time this year since Payback, we were seeing a mini-Shield "reunion."

It was so hilarious to see Rollins and Reigns expressively riling up the crowd as they cheered for Ambrose in the ring. At one point in the match, Strowman took out Reigns, leaving Rollins to be the only one in the corner to make the hot tag from Ambrose. Rollins kept jumping up and down to get tagged in but just as Ambrose was making his way to the corner, Rollins feigns a knee injury, jumps down, and walks back up the ramp. Deja Vu. The match ended in a DQ when Ambrose resorts to using a kendo stick to take out Strowman as he did his death hug on Reigns. Post-match, Reigns came out strong as he took out all 3 of the Wyatt to rescue Ambrose (who, again, takes the most punishment in these matches) and spears Wyatt and Rowan.

Despite RAW being insanely stacked and getting a mini Shield "reunion", the go home show just didn't really do much to hype HIAC, which now fully consists of NoC rematches. Interestingly, 2 major changes were made to the card after last night. First, John Cena's US Open Challenge will be taking place there, which marks Cena's last appearance and hopefully him dropping the title to someone until his return in late December. Second, the kickoff match with Ambrose and Orton vs Harper and Strowman was pulled due to Orton's injury and Harper still being out for personal reasons and replaced with **inhales** Rusev, Sheamus, and Barrett vs Ziggler, Cesaro and Neville in a 6-man tag team match. Which means Ambrose is back to not having a match for HIAC (again!)