WWE Monday Night Raw results and observations (05/25/15)

The Memorial Day edition of Monday Night Raw was quite eventful despite the holiday.

Since it was a holiday, this is going to be a bit of a shorter version of the recap this week. There will still be some thoughts and observations, but not quite as in-depth as usual.

Before I jump into those, here are the full match results from Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., which hosted its final WWE event Monday:

- Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns def. Seth Rollins & Kane

- Rusev def. R-Truth

- Ryback def. King Barrett

- Neville def. Stardust

- Sheamus def. Dolph Ziggler

- WWE United States Championship – John Cena def. Zack Ryder

- Tamina def. Paige

- The New Day def. Lucha Dragons, The Ascension, Primetime Players, Tyson Kidd & Cesaro & Los Matadores via disqualification

With that out of the way, let's jump into my highlights and observations:

Officer Dean Ambrose

The overarching story of Monday's show was that Dean Ambrose had to sign the contract for his WWE World Heavyweight championship match at Elimination Chamber before the end of the night or else he would not receive his title shot.

The Authority said they gave him his title shot under duress last week and still didn't feel as though he deserved a shot at Seth Rollins and his title.

In order to see to it that Ambrose didn't get a chance to put his name on the dotted line, The Authority concocted a plan to get him arrested and spend the night in a Long Island jail.

Their plan obviously backfired, Ambrose showed back up to the arena with a police wagon, beat up The Authority with the help of Roman Reigns and signed his name on the contract.

I don't know why he had to go through all of that, but it made for some entertaining moments on an episode of Raw. Plus, anytime Ambrose is behind the wheel of a vehicle, it makes the angle totally worth it.

Ambrose stood tall Monday, but it all but cemented the fact that he's not winning the title at Elimination Chamber.

Seth Rollins pinned again

The biggest problem I had with the Dean Ambrose-Seth Rollins angle from Raw was that Rollins was pinned yet again.

Rollins has been pinned so many times since he became WWE World Heavyweight champion that I'm starting to believe it has to be some type of record because this is ridiculous.

Every other promotion, including WWE's very own NXT protects its champions. NXT Women's champion Sasha Banks isn't just pinned on a random episode of television. Neither is Ring of Honor World Television champion Jay Lethal. Why? Because it wouldn't make any sense, not to mention it weakens the title and the person holding it.

To see how other promotions make their champions special, only for the most popular show in all of wrestling makes their champions look like chumps is disheartening.

Rusev Bulgarian again, almost had Lana

The Bulgarian Brute is once again representing his home country as he walked to the ring Monday night with the Bulgarian flag.

But that wasn't the main story. The main story was about what he didn't have with him when he went to the ring Monday, and that was his former valet Lana.

Rusev attempted to mend fences with Lana and patch things up between the two, which worked. Lana was ready to take him back until Rusev demanded she said three magical words: "I was wrong."

How great is that, huh? What a guy this Rusev is

Lana quickly went back to being angry at Rusev and told him that he doesn't own her.

I love Lana and Rusev as a pair, and fought kicking and screaming for them not to break up, but this angle is actually growing on me. Maybe it's because I have a feeling that it's not permanent. That Lana and Rusev will indeed reunite soon and all of this was a clever ruse.

I hope so, at least.

Again, I thought both Lana and Rusev played their roles very well Monday, especially Rusev, who has shown me a lot since breaking away from Lana. He seems comfortable with his promos and goes all-in when he throws those temper tantrums.

Zack Ryder gets a chance

Since Raw was taking place on Long Island, the WWE threw the fans and Zack Ryder a bone by having him challenge John Cena for the United States championship.

Despite being in front of his home fans, Ryder was still barely competitive in the match. Sure, Cena gave him a lot of offense, but Cena didn't work the match as if he was in any real danger.

Poor Ryder. His shining moment on Raw in 2015 is being in a competitive squash against Cena.

Kevin Owens catches John Cena napping

After the United States championship match, however, NXT Champion Kevin Owens, who was sporting some new ring gear, caught John Cena napping and hit him with the pop-up power bomb.

I can't say enough how excited I am for this match.

Paige drops first match back

For whatever reason, Paige lost her first match on RAW since returning last week.

Why would that happen? You're building her toward a Divas championship match and she lost to someone that's not even involved in the match.

That simply didn't make sense to me under any circumstances.

Ryback, Neville still selling injuries

What makes perfect sense was both Ryback and Neville were still selling their recent injuries on Raw.

That shouldn't be a big deal, but the concept of selling injuries has become lost on the people in charge at WWE in recent years.