WWE Monday Night Raw results and observations (04/20/15)

The WWE was back to its normal touring schedule Monday after spending the last week or so in the United Kingdom, and it seemed like there was still a little bit of jet lag with the company during the most recent edition of Raw.

With the Monday's show being the last meaningful opportunity to sell people on Extreme Rules and the WWE touting the return of Triple H, I expected a little more from the show.

Instead, we got a program that wasn't necessarily bad, but it wasn't necessarily all that good considering it was the final episode before a pay-per-view. It kind of dragged on and it was just sort of there.

But what the heck, the WWE Network is free for new subscribers anyway, so maybe the WWE may believe that it doesn't have to go all-out in promoting Extreme Rules.

Before I delve any deeper into this week's episode, let's run through the full match results from the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y.:

- Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper ended in a no contest

- The New Day def. Lucha Dragons

- Fandango def. Curtis Axel

- Naomi def. Brie Bella

- Sheamus def. Zack Ryder via disqualification

- WWE United States Championship – John Cena def. Kane

- The Miz def. Damien Mizdow

- Ryback def. Adam Rose

- Seth Rollins def. Dolph Ziggler

With that out of the way, let's run through my highlights and observations from the show:

Randy Orton RKO's everyone

The running theme throughout this week's edition of Monday Night Raw was Randy Orton hunting down WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins ahead of their match at Extreme Rules.

Since the RKO is banned from that match, Orton said that he was going to RKO anyone he sees during the show and eventually work his way to Rollins.

Well, Orton kept his word, as he delivered the RKO to multiple people throughout the show, including a rather entertaining one to Heath Slater in catering.

Eventually, Orton caught up to Rollins and gave him an RKO that left all of the fans feeling good about his chances heading into Extreme Rules.

Although the outcome of this particular aspect of the angle between Orton and Rollins was highly predictable, it was still pretty entertaining to see Orton deliver the RKO from literally out of nowhere. He would literally come from outside of the frame to catch someone slipping. The entire angle kind of harkened back to Steve Austin delivering stunners at a rapid pace during the "Attitude Era."

What is equally as predictable is the outcome of the match between Orton and Rollins this coming Sunday, which will more than likely end with Rollins somehow retaining his title. Orton standing tall at the end of the show Monday all but cemented that.

WWE dropped the ball The Miz-Damien Mizdow feud

While predictable, the feud between Randy Orton and Seth Rollins has made sense for the most part.

However, that is not the case when it comes to the program between The Miz and Damien Mizdow.

For months, the WWE slowly built up the act of The Miz and his stunt double Mizdow and then methodically built tension between the two, which would eventually lead to some type of eventful blow off.

Well, that did not happen.

Instead of having a satisfying conclusion to this feud that leaves both men in better shape moving forward, we got another run-of-the-mill match between them with the most predictable heel turn in years from Summer Rae. All of the good WWE built up ended up coming down with a whimper Monday night.

No pay-per-view match, no memorable conclusion, just a forgettable segment to help promote a movie that's going straight to DVD.

I tend to relate some of the things I see in professional wrestling to football and I'm going to do so again here. When it comes to this feud, it feels like the WWE broke off a long run from its own one-yard line and after running nearly the length of the field, it fumbled the ball inside the five and watched it roll through the back of the end zone for a touchback.

That's what it feels like to me because the WWE had something good here and it simply fumbled it away the last three weeks.

Firstly, Mizdow should have won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania. Secondly, The Miz and Mizdow should not have had their third match against each other in as many weeks. Their first match should have been saved for Extreme Rules. A feud with this much crowd investment deserves that stage. Instead, we'll get Luke Harper going against Dean Ambrose in a four-week angle. Meanwhile, a six-month angle between The Miz and Mizdow finishes up on an episode of Raw in Albany.

What a waste of good creative this was.

Even worse, neither guy has really benefitted from this outcome. The Miz will not get elevated because of his victory over Mizdow. He just goes back to being a mid-card act except he has a woman on his arm now.

As for Mizdow, what you do with him now? He loses at WrestleMania, he's lost to The Miz multiple times over the last few weeks and he looked foolish for trusting Summer Rae. How do you salvage all of that and turn into a person that people will still care about?

I'm not so sure you can at this point.

Kane inches closer to face turn, becomes gatekeeper

In a scene reminiscent of the original Ghostbusters, Kane was named the gatekeeper for the steel cage match between Randy Orton and Seth Rollins at Extreme Rules.

Let's just hope he doesn't go looking for the key master or else we all may be in some serious trouble. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man may not be too far behind.

But I digress.

Kane's task as the gatekeeper is to guard the door so that anyone that wants to jump into the cage during the match will have to go through him. The only problem is that Kane and Seth Rollins continue to have friction, which leads me to believe the only person that will wind up in that cage is Kane himself.

I would say that I'm surprised that the WWE would essentially give away the fact that Kane will wind up in the cage, but I'm really not. There have been countless cage matches in the WWE lately where people easily found their way into a structure that was designed to keep them out.

Although I'm not all that interested in Kane's 267th babyface turn, I must admit that the crowds are getting more and more into him.

New Day are No. 1 contenders, continue heel ways

One week after The New Day started their heel turn, they defeated the Lucha Dragons to become the No. 1 contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship.

What a difference a couple of weeks make?

I'm a fan of all three members of the trio, but them as babyfaces simply didn't work. Maybe in 1991 it would have worked, but not in 2015. But now they are heels and they've seemed to embrace the role. The even cheated to win Monday and it was a great way to reaffirm the fact that they are turning.

The only thing I'm scratching my head about is their match at Extreme Rules, which is against Cesaro and Tyson Kidd, who are also heels.

But I wouldn't worry too much because the fans in Chicago are going to side with the tag champs, making them the de-facto faces there.

Rusev-John Cena have another good outing together

I've liked almost everything I've seen from John Cena and Rusev (except that stupid lawyer that one time) and Monday night was just another example of the fine work these two have done over the last couple of months.

After defeating Kane to retain his WWE United States title, Cena was attacked by Rusev, who eventually put Cena in the accolade with a chain wrapped around his face.

The move looked brutal and it looked great on television. I was already looking forward to their third encounter and after Monday, I'm looking forward to it even more.