RAW Opens With The Authority, Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan & Seth Rollins
This week’s show kicks off with The Authority making their way to the ring. We see the entire roster watching on a monitor from backstage. Stephanie McMahon kicks things off on the mic welcoming us to Monday Night Raw.
Triple H and Stephanie McMahon go on to gloat about the New England Patriots winning the Super Bowl on Sunday night. HHH makes a joke, talking about how there’s so much controversy regarding the Patriots winning that a “#CancelNFLNetwork” campaign was started.
From there, they go on to talk about their own controversy, which leads to them showing footage from the Royal Rumble. We see Roman Reigns getting help from The Rock in eliminating the final participants in the 30-man Rumble match.
Back live, HHH talks about Big Show and Kane getting involved in the Rumble after they were eliminated was unsportsmanlike, which he says is much like the Seattle Seahawks. He says he doesn’t have a problem with them as much as he does with The Rock.
HHH goes on to talk about Sting sticking his nose in their business and promises to deal with them in their one-on-one, face-to-face confrontation at the upcoming WWE Fast Lane pay-per-view later this month.
The two switch gears and go back to the Rumble controversy, questioning who would have really won the match had The Rock not interfered.
Before they can continue, they are cut off by Roman Reigns’ music. Reigns makes his way to the ring through the crowd. He immediately gets in Triple H’s face and asks if he’s really going to take his Royal Rumble victory away from him. Reigns and HHH remain face-to-face, staring each other down until Stephanie McMahon finally jumps in between them.
As Steph talks, HHH and Reigns keep leaning to the side to look at each other. Steph finally gets Reigns’ attention when she says he doesn’t deserve to main event WrestleMania because of what happened at the Royal Rumble.
Before anything else happens, Daniel Bryan’s theme hits. The crowd explodes with “Yes!” chants and general noise as the leader of the “Yes! Movement” makes his way down to the ring. When the music stops, the pops grow even louder and then a thunderous “Yes! Yes! Yes!” chant breaks out.
Bryan tells Reigns he can relate, as The Authority screwed with him for a long time. He says if they wanna talk about controversy, he feels it’s controversial to strip him of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and never give him a rematch for the title.
As HHH tries to talk to Bryan, they are interrupted by Seth Rollins’ theme music. Rollins comes out with Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble. The trio makes their way down to the ring. Before they can say anything, we head to a commercial break in the middle of this segment. That was odd! Regardless, RAW returns after this break.
We return from the commercial and the first thing we see is Rollins entering the ring and saying, “Live TV, eh?” He laughs and then tells Daniel Bryan that Brock Lesnar would eat him alive. Rollins says Bryan got hurt and that’s no ones fault but his own. He welcomes Bryan to the deep end, where the big boys play.
Rollins turns his attention to Reigns. He says Reigns wouldn’t even be the number one contender if he didn’t get help from The Rock. Rollins says if anyone deserves to main event WrestleMania 31 and get a one-on-one match with Brock Lesnar, it’s Mr. Money in the Bank. Before Rollins can finish, Reigns warns him, telling him if he gets any closer, he’s going to knock him into next week.
Triple H says The Authority always listens to the WWE Universe. HHH and Steph whisper something in each others ears off-mic. HHH says they have a change of plans. Tonight in this ring, it will be Daniel Bryan vs. Seth Rollins. The winner goes on to face Roman Reigns at Fast Lane. The winner of that match goes on to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
HHH leaves the decision up to Reigns if he wants to accept those stipulations. After a lengthy delay, Reigns finally says screw it and says he’ll beat all of them up, noting that he’s always been on his own. Before the segment wraps up, HHH tells Reigns to stay in the ring because he’s in action next. With that said, Big Show’s theme music hits and the big man makes his way down to the ring. We head to a commercial break.
