"The New Era": Monday Night RAW (5/2/16)

Now that Payback, the "first PPV of the New Era," has past, Monday Night RAW showed no signs of slowing down as they geared up for their 2nd PPV this month, Extreme Rules, which is a mere 2 weeks away. Unfortunately, the episode was a mix of rushing storylines and long segments. The results can be found here.

The major highlights were:

• Shane and Stephanie agreeing to work together to run RAW. She even presented Shane with a newly framed old photo of him and their dad that was crushed by Vince as a way to make amends.
  
  
• The siblings were interrupted by Kevin Owens who once again invokes his rematch clause for the IC title, only to get interrupted by Cesaro. Shane gives them a match (with Miz and Maryse on commentary). It resulted in a no contest once Miz interferred and Sami Zayn showed up. Zayn is now eyeing the IC title.
  
  
• Enzo's accident and concussion diagnosis was addressed by New Day. As a result, the Vaudevillains were awarded the match and will be facing against the New Day for the Tag Team Championship at Extreme Rules. The Vaudevillains got a heated reaction, proudly taking credit for Enzo's accident. The Dudleyz came out and said the tournament should just be restarted to find anther contender while Cass came out to declaring that he's going to avenge his family, resulting in an 8-man tag team match. Big Cass and The New Day defeated The Vaudevillains and the Dudleyz.
  
  
• Emma and Becky had a match! The two were originally suppose to have matches leading up to Payback but for some unexplained reason, their feud was put on hold (they feuded only through Twitter) and were never put on the card. Emma got a win over Becky with a freaking Michinoku Driver. WWE is clearly protecting Sasha, she hasn't had any televised matches on RAW or Smack Down in a while.
  
  
• A last-minute battle royal match was set up to determine who would be the #1 contender for Kalisto's US title. Notable faces included Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas, former League of Nations trio, Damian Sandow, and the return of Titus O'Neil. Notable absences were Heath Slater, Jack Swagger, and Ryback. Rusev and Ryder were the final 2 and, seeing how Kalisto's a face, Rusev emerged as the #1 contender. The reason why Ryback was not included  was due to ongoing contract disputes. It looks like Ryback will be joining Barrett on leaving WWE once their contract is up this summer.
  
  
• Stephanie was a guest on the Ambrose Asylum and said that he can ask her anything. Even though Ambrose saw through Stephanie's nice girl act, he agreed to have her on his show. Ambrose's "investigative journaling" eventually broke Stephanie and she decided to undo Shane's changes and cancel his show on the spot. Just as he taking his leave along with his beloved potted plant, Mitch, Stephanie announces that she was also bringing back The Highlight Reel, prompting Jericho to make a surprise entrance. Jericho one-upped Ambrose with The Codebreaker. And if that wasn't bad enough, Jericho took Mitch and slammed him unto the back of Ambrose's head. Twitter and r/SC were pretty upset.
  
  
• The now infamous (ok, not really) Chicago Screwjob was addressed. Not only that, referee Charles Robinson was addressed onscreen as "Lil Naitch," a nickname that was only used by online wrestling fans. Natalya was upset about screwed over and ended up doing a sharpshooter on Ric Flair. After the segment, Stephanie talked to Charlotte and Ric about setting up a rematch, this time making it a submission match to decide if the Figure Four or the Sharpshooter was superior. Also, Stephanie has banned Ric from being at ringside for the match.
  
  
• The main event saw Roman Reigns and The Usos vs As Styles, Gallows, and Anderson. The alignment of faces and heels are blurred, thus making their motivations completely understandable. In the 6-man tag team match, Not-Bullet-Club emerged victorious over Roman Empire. Gallows and Anderson gives a chair to Styles to take out an exhausted Reigns but he refuses to. The Usos takes the chair instead to attack Styles, resulting in Gallows and Anderson attacking them. Styles finally uses the chair to take out the Usos, which is the only thing Reigns sees when he recovers. He angrily Superman punches Styles, sets up the announcer's table and powerbombs Styles through it.

After breaking it down like this, there really was a lot of progress made, it was just a chore to get through 3 hours. I have to admit it that I'm liking this new storyline that Reigns is caught up in. It doesn't involve the Authority and the conflict is internal, or in this case, a faction that was made famous at NJPW who is now on the main roster. Extreme Rules appears to be having some Payback rematches and new matches being set up. Prepare for more stipulations! 

Speaking of which, looks like Ambrose is the poster boy for Extreme Rules! It doesn't mean he's main eventing a match or is the primary focus though. The Wyatt Family was the main focus for Payback but due to Wyatt's injury, they were unable to change the promotional materials, which is why the art direction is all about spooky woods instead of the shattered glass motif from the video packages. I found that odd considering they were able to quickly change the Toronto network special "March to WrestleMania" to "Roadblock" featuring Ambrose and HHH. With the Ambrose Asylum cancelled and Mitch killed off, hopefully Ambrose's feud with Jericho will be taken a lot more seriously.