By Graham "GSM" Matthews

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns Interrupted Stephanie McMahon

One by one, The Authority has been eliminated. From Big Show disappearing to Kane getting kicked out to Seth Rollins get injured to Triple H getting attacked, we're down to only Stephanie opening Raw by herself, which can sometimes be a good thing. She's untouchable when she's not emasculating whoever she's in the ring with and instead is on her A-game. That was the Stephanie we saw here and Reigns was better than he usually is. It was nice to see someone stand up to her for once, but shouldn't he have been concerned with his family (The Usos and Dean Ambrose) getting punished? From a storyline standpoint, hopefully he saw that coming otherwise it looks like he only cares about himself.


Kane def. Bray Wyatt by Disqualification

We haven't seen Kane since Survivor Series, yet he returned to Raw here and the commentators didn't make a big deal about it at all. Not that they needed to, but at least offer any explanation where he's been for the past month. The match went all of a minute before the rest of The Wyatt Family got involved and caused the match to be thrown out. The Dudley Boyz and Tommy Dreamer making the save afterward wasn't exactly an intriguing hook going into the commercial seeing as how many fans thought we saw the blow-off to that feud last week.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ECW Champion Christian, Kane and The Great Khali def. The Ruthless Roundtable

Khali returning alongside Kane made absolutely no sense. If you can recall, Khali was taken off TV to begin with at the hands of Kane in early September. Although they had a common enemy in The Ruthless Roundtable according to Christian, it was still stupid. If nothing else, the match was effective in further teasing tension among the members of The Ruthless Roundtable. It wasn't long after that they officially went their separate ways.


Kofi Kingston def. Cody Rhodes by Disqualification

With Kingston being fresh off his loss to Randy Orton at TLC the night prior, WWE dropped the ball by not having him speak on this show. Even if he didn't win an award, it would have helped him big time to talk about the loss even if it was brief. This match certainly didn't do him any favors, but at least Evan Bourne coming to his aid set up the subsequent tag team match going into the commercial break.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

World Tag Team Champion CM Punk def. John Morrison in a Semifinals Match in the Intercontinental Championship Tournament

It's strange how Punk and Morrison had horrible chemistry (for the most part) when they feuded in 2007 yet all of their subsequent encounters were relatively above-average. None of the matches on this show, including this one, were given a ton of time, but they had a fun little match in the small amount of time they were allotted. Both Morrison and Punk were tag team competitors at the time, but it made sense for Punk to advance after he dropped the World Tag Team Championship a few weeks later to Morrison and The Miz at a house show. The commentators mentioning how the last tournament Punk was involved in was King of the Ring where he was beat by Intercontinental Champion William Regal in the finals was a nice touch.


Randy Orton Challenged Triple H and Batista to a 3-on-2 Handicap Match

How Orton wasn't in the running for 2008 Superstar of the Year was beyond me. Yes, I'm well-aware the Slammy Awards are kayfabe and fan voting wasn't even implemented yet, but Orton had a better year than a few of the other candidates. He was WWE Champion for the first four months and formed The Legacy, more than can be said for Batista. That aside, this was a brief yet effective promo from Orton that set the stage for the night's Handicap match.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Seth Rollins def. Dolph Ziggler

Have these two ever had a bad match? This was on par with all their past bouts. It may not have been a show-stealer, but it was a fun opening and an entertaining exchange between Rollins and Ziggler. I would've rather liked to see Ziggler keep his momentum going strong with a win here, but surprisingly enough, Rollins hasn't won a match in a while, so I was fine with it. Ziggler didn't lose cleanly, either, so he loses nothing from this.


Kofi Kingston def. Stardust

I still question the decision to make The New Day lose in their Raw debut last week. The crowd couldn't have cared less when they came out. Kingston was directionless as a singles guy, sure, but at least he was over. The crowd wasn't receptive to him here which was unfortunate. The match was what it was. It's nice to see another feud in the tag team division that's not over the WWE Tag Team Championship. The New Day is not off to the best start, but I'll give it more time before calling it a bust.