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RAW rolled out of the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 12th as we head towards this year’s Royal Rumble. The show centered around the on – screen suspensions of Ryback, Erick Rowan and “The Showoff”, Dolph Ziggler, as John Cena made his way out to kick off the show.
Cena apologized to the three superstars, and picked on The Authority for being bullies. This led to Stephanie and Triple H making their way down to the ring, as they gave Cena one more opportunity to become the hero and save the day, as he was scheduled to face Seth Rollins in a Lumberjack match with the stipulation that if Cena won, Ryback, Rowan and Ziggler would be reinstated.
A second chance for Ryback, Rowan and Ziggler
Cena had to face Rollins, and beat him to give a second chance to Ryback, Rowan and Ziggler, who joined Team Cena at the Survivor Series last year. The team went on to beat Team Rollins which subsequently led to the firing of The Authority, but with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon back in power, John Cena once again had the onus of saving the day.
The Lumberjacks for the match were either those who were on Team Authority, or had beef with Cena at one point or the other. Cena nearly overcame the odds once again, but was knocked out by The Big Show, resulting in Rollins pinning Cena to win the match. This not only meant that Ryback, Rowan and Ziggler wouldn’t be reinstated, but also gave Rollins a head of steam going into their match at the Royal Rumble for the WWE World Heavyweight championship.
First name for the 2015 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony revealed
Hours before the show, WWE leaked the news of the first possible name to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year to TMZ, and since then, Randy Savage’s name has been trending worldwide on Twitter. WWE leaked the news in order to get more eyeballs to the show, as well as hype the Hall of Fame ceremony in a couple of months.
It was officially announced during the show that Randy Savage would headline this year’s class of WWE Hall of Fame, taking his rightful place alongside the likes of legends such as Bruno Sammartino and Andre The Giant. It was also revealed during the broadcast that he will be inducted by none other than “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan – someone who shared a long history with Randy Savage.
Dean Ambrose’s evaluation goes awry
After the first match on this week’s show, Stephanie McMahon called Dean Ambrose to her office, and told him that he would be evaluated by a doctor because of his questionable behavior a la Daniel Bryan and Kane during their run as a tag team. Ambrose would be then evaluated for the rest of the show, and his participation in the Royal Rumble match depended on how he performed in his evaluation.
During the course of the evaluation, Ambrose was subjected to various tests, but by the end, the roles were reversed as Dean was seen evaluating the doctor. Post the segment, Dean was involved in a confrontation with Rusev in the ring. After The Authority made the match official, Dean was beaten down in the corner by Rusev, forcing the referee to stop the match. At the end of the segment, Rusev laid Dean out with a superkick, putting his participation in the Rumble match in jeopardy.
Daniel Bryan’s opponent for Smackdown! revealed
Daniel Bryan is set to make his much anticipated return to the ring on Smackdown! later this week, but first, he was on RAW to talk about his participation in the Royal Rumble match. Bryan told the fans that he will win the Rumble match and headline WrestleMania once again, but was interrupted by Stephanie McMahon.
Stephanie revealed that Bryan would face an old nemesis in his return match, and called out Kane, who not so long ago tombstoned Bryan on the steel steps. Kane tried to do the same thing once again, but Bryan unleashed on the monster, sending him retreating to the back, and then celebrated with the fans to end the segment.
The contract signing for the WWE World Heavyweight championship
The official contract signing for the WWE World Heavyweight championship match at the Royal Rumble PPV concluded this week’s episode, as Heyman accompanied the champion, Brock Lesnar. Heyman and Rollins took turns in trading shots at each other, while Cena chimed in with his two cents. After the signing, Lesnar took Cena and Rollins down with German suplexes, but with The Authority at ringside, things quickly turned around for the challengers.
Rollins took Cena and Lesnar down with a Curb Stomp, as Mr. Money In The Bank celebrated with The Authority to end the show. Rollins’s victory against Cena and him standing tall over Cena and Lesnar sends a strong message to the champion and the former number one contender, as we get closer to one of the most anticipated PPVs of the year.
