WWE Monday Night Raw results and observations (04/13/15)

The WWE took its band of superstars overseas this past week for a tour of Europe, which was why Monday's episode of Raw emanated from the O2 Arena in London.

Without the entire roster at its disposal, the WWE presented yet another wrestling-heavy show.

While I'm never one to complain about a wrestling-heavy program, it doesn't help the program when not a lot of things of consequence occurred over the course of three hours.

If I'm going to take up my entire night watching a three-hour wrestling program, it should be quite eventful. This show wasn't, but such is life.

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of what took place, here are the full match results:

- WWE United States Championship – John Cena def. Bad News Barrett

- Paige wins battle royal to become No. 1 contender for WWE Divas Championship

- Lucha Dragons def. The Ascension

- Randy Orton def. Cesaro via disqualification

- Randy Orton def. Tyson Kidd & Cesaro

- Dean Ambrose def. Adam Rose

- Stardust def. Fandango

- Seth Rollins def. Kane

- Damien Mizdow def. The Miz

- Ryback def. Luke Harper via disqualification

- Dolph Ziggler def. Neville

Now, let's jump into my highlights and observations:

Randy Orton, Seth Rollins make some very 'extreme decisions'

I mean that title in a bit of a sarcastic manner because there really wasn't anything inherently extreme about the decisions Randy Orton and Seth Rollins made Monday night.

Both Rollins and Orton took part in matches Monday where if they won, they would get to choose a stipulation for their upcoming WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at Extreme Rules.

Since both of them won their respective matches, they both choose a stipulation — or as WWE called it, an "extreme decision."

Rollins' "extreme decision" was that the RKO was banned from being used in the match because disqualifying a move is so extreme.

Orton decided that the match take place inside of a steel cage, which is more on the extreme side than banning someone's finishing move, but with WWE's recent history with cage matches, I'm not expecting a whole lot in the way of extreme.

However, I could be wrong. Both men are very capable performers and I'm sure Rollins will use his athleticism to come up with something creative during the match. But their decisions Monday night didn't get me anymore excited to see the "extreme" encounter between these two at Extreme Rules.

Russian chain match for Rusev-John Cena

Another stipulation that was made official for Extreme Rules was that John Cena will defend his WWE United States Championship against Rusev in a Russian chain match.

The stipulation was decided after Cena successfully defended the United States title against Bad News Barrett, only to be attacked from behind by Rusev.

Lana then appeared on the stage signifying that her and Rusev are on seemingly good terms and to announce the stipulation.

I understand the concept of a chain match. It's more or less like a strap match where the opponents are locked into the same chain by the wrist, but to call it a Russian chain match seems kind of silly. What's so Russian about the chain they're going to use?

Regardless, I'm still on board with this feud and I'm looking forward to this match. Although the name is silly, I'm sure Rusev and Cena will put on a memorable performance.

Kane almost turned babyface

Remember when I mentioned that Seth Rollins won his match so that he could choose the stipulation for his match against Randy Orton?

Well, he barely won that match thanks to a merciful Kane.

Kane was scheduled to face Rollins in the match, but Rollins wanted Kane to take one for the team and lie down. Kane defied the WWE World Heavyweight Champion by beating up J&J Security and eventually choke slamming him.

Kane then signaled that he was going to deliver the tombstone, but calmed his nerves and pulled Rollins' arm over his chest so that he gain the pin fall.

In the midst of Kane's defiance, the crowd was going nuts. I myself wasn't because we've seen Kane turn heel and babyface way too many times for me to care at this point.

But I must admit that his tease was effective because the crowd did get into the story that was being told. Once he turns back into a face, the crowd will be pretty hot for it.

Naomi made sense, which made her a heel

When it came to Naomi Monday night, there wasn't any pump faking. She went all the way and went heel after losing the divas battle royal to Paige, who is now the No. 1 contender for the WWE Divas Championship.

Naomi took offense to the fact that she wasn't simply anointed the top contender after beating champion Nikki Bella the last two weeks and took out her frustrations on Paige as she cutting a promo in the ring.

Naomi then verbalized her anger during a backstage promo after the segment. The funny thing is that Naomi didn't talk about becoming a mean person. She simply spoke about logic, which apparently makes her a heel in WWE storylines.

Naomi made a very good point. Her point was that she pinned Nikki Bella, the current Divas Champion, twice in the last two weeks, which should have made her the logical No. 1 contender for the title. Instead, she had to compete in battle royal, which all but nullified her two victories.

Naomi even asked Byron Saxton at one point, "Do wins and losses even matter around here?" The answer is obviously no, but the craziest part is that the Naomi character asked a question that people have been asking themselves about the WWE in real life for quite some time.

We've seen numerous times where a person can go out a win 12 matches in a row, but a person that attacks the champion is handed the next title shot. It doesn't make sense in real life and it doesn't make any more sense in the pre-determined world of the WWE.

Despite asking this very logical question and making perfect sense, Naomi will probably move forward as the bad guy in this equation, which makes perfect sense if you go by WWE logic.

More Roman Reigns-Big Show stuff

For the life of me, I do not understand why the WWE believes that pairing Roman Reigns with Big Show will do anything to help him at this point.

We've seen these go at it what seems like 256 times since the start of the year and I don't see anything Reigns has noticeably gained from it. I'm sure Reigns is learning from Big Show during the matches, but this program is not getting him anymore over, which should be the ultimate goal in the end.

If anything, it makes people want to change the channel because are so tired of seeing Big Show in the ring. Plus, beating Big Show doesn't nearly as much as it did … 20 years ago?

I mean everyone has beaten Big Show during 16 years with the WWE. Everyone. Beating him isn't going to elevate Reigns in the fans' eyes. It isn't going to make the fans like him more, so why keep doing it? I don't understand it.

Reigns accomplished more by being thrown around the ring by Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania than he has in any of his victories over Big Show.

Ziggler-Neville put on athletic showcase

What I would love to see more of are matches between Dolph Ziggler and Neville. As expected, these two put on an athletic showcase.

As far as the outcome of Ziggler beating Neville, I don't have a problem with it. It's not like Ziggler squashed him. Neville got in plenty of offense and lost only by slipping on the proverbial banana peel.

What the WWE is hoping to accomplish with Roman Reigns and Big Show it is actually accomplishing with Neville. He's going out there with established stars and benefitting from it.

Now, he's proved the last two weeks that he can hang with the "big dogs" on the main roster, but now it is time for him to show everyone that he can win again and do so against someone more formidable than Curtis Axel. He's lost the last two weeks on Raw and although the matches helped him, you don't want to give the fans a constant visual of this guy losing.

The Ascension are descending fast

While Neville seems to be on the way up the proverbial totem pole, The Ascension continued their rapid descent (get it?) down the card. Monday night was just another example of it.

Back in January, The Ascension was comparing themselves to the Road Warriors and squashing opposing teams, including The New Age Outlaws. On Monday, they lost in relatively quick and uneventful fashion to the Lucha Dragons.

While I was never the biggest Ascension fan, they had some potential as a dominant tag team, but from the moment they got the call to the main roster, they were doomed with shoulder pads and face paint. That was before they ever had one match on Raw.

Now, they're just there. They're just there in purgatory like many others on the WWE main roster not named John Cena, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. I guess you could throw Daniel Bryan in that mix, too, but not many others.

Summer Rae involved in Mizdow-Miz angle

For whatever reason, the WWE gave away yet another match in the Damien Mizdow-Miz angle, but the people in charge shook it up this week by inserting Summer Rae into the feud.

While she's currently siding with Mizdow, something tells me she's going to turn on him to side with cast mate in the new Marine movie. It's just a hunch on my part.

Dean Ambrose-Luke Harper feud happening

The Lunatic Fringe and Luke Harper are embroiled in a feud that started back at WrestleMania when Harper power bombed Dean Ambrose through a ladder.

Their fighting for pride, but they may also fight over who can exclusively wear the tank top and jeans combo in the ring.

Fandango Fandagoed again

No words necessary.