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WWE Monday Night Raw results and observations (10/24/16): Hell hath no fury like an apron power bomb

Thanks mostly to the return of Bill Goldberg, WWE scored a victory last week when Monday Night Raw saw an increase in viewership from the week prior.

It was actually one of WWE's most watched episodes of television all year.

How did WWE capitalize on that newfound momentum? By producing another sub par program that did very little into getting fans more exciting to see the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view this Sunday night.

Before I go into my in-depth thoughts, here are the full match results from the Target Center in Minneapolis:

- Enzo Amore def. Karl Anderson

- Cesaro & Sheamus def. The New Day

- Bo Dallas def. Curtis Axel

- The Golden Truth def. The Shining Stars

- Rich Swann def. Brian Kendrick

- Seth Rollins def. Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho

WWE puts final hype into Hell in a Cell main events

The one part of Hell in a Cell WWE did a fair job of hyping was the most important part: the triple main event.

Yes, WWE is hyping its trio of Hell in a Cell matches at the pay-per-view Sunday night as a triple main event and like I said earlier, I thought WWE did a fair job of putting final hype into them.

I'll start with the WWE Universal title match because it was the feud that closed out Monday's show.

Up until the end of the night, WWE hadn't done much in the way of getting me more excited to see Rollins face Owens for the Universal title inside of a Hell in a Cell.

I say that because WWE spent the night's opening segment attempting to be funny by having Rollins steal the List of Jericho, which made Jericho quite upset.

While WWE succeeded in making me laugh, none of it fit the tone of a rivalry heading into WWE's most dangerous match.

Things really didn't get serious until after the main event, when Owens power bombed Rollins onto the ring apron. That was the most heat that has been put into this rivalry since it began the night Owens won the Universal title.

Other than the apron power bomb, I wasn't all that enamored by how WWE has told this story.

However, I did enjoy the contract signing between Sasha Banks and Charlotte for their Hell in a Cell match.

Raw general manager Mick Foley oversaw the proceedings and I thought did a good job of conveying how dangerous the match was and the fact that it shortened his career, but he also came off somewhat hypocritical because he is the one that signed off on the match to begin with and even said that Banks and Charlotte deserved to fight inside Hell in a Cell, as if it was some type of trophy.

In reality, that is true, but in storyline that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Only a couple of weeks later, he is suddenly so concerned about their safety and well being that he was on the verge of tears when talking about how long he has known Charlotte. That probably should have been his tone from the very beginning.

Despite that, I was glad WWE finally got away from only talking about how historic the match is and finally talked about the danger of Hell in a Cell. I didn't mind the historic talk the first week, but that's where it should have ended.

As for Reigns and Rusev, WWE did the only thing it has not been done with these two, and that was air pre-recorded promos from each man.

WWE has done everything else with Reigns and Rusev. They have had countless brawls, a ton of verbal exchanges and multiple matches. This seemed like the only thing left to do no matter how underwhelming it came across.

The List of Jericho is more over than the titles

I just wanted to give kudos to Jericho for making a list of names more prestigious than virtually every title in WWE and getting it over with the fans.

Jericho has been wildly entertaining during his most recent run as a heel and will only become an even bigger babyface because of it when the time calls.

Did WWE forget Brock Lesnar went to University of Minnesota?

Lesnar grew up in South Dakota, but won an NCAA wrestling championship while attending the University of Minnesota, which makes the city of Minneapolis a second hometown for him.

On top of that, Lesnar almost made the final roster of the Minnesota Vikings (who are currently 5-1 and just moved into a new stadium) back in 2004.

Needless to say, Minneapolis and probably the entire state of Minnesota loves Lesnar.

WWE knows this. Michael Cole even said Minneapolis was his hometown Monday night, which wasn't 100 percent correct, but whatever.

Despite knowing that Minneapolis is Lesnar country, WWE sent his advocate Paul Heyman out to the ring to attempt to goad the audience into chanting for Goldberg.

Heyman has performed magic with a microphone in his hand in the past, but even he wasn't enough of a wizard to pull this off.

Heyman said during his speech that every time the fans chant Goldberg's name, it upsets Lesnar. A small of the fans chanted for Goldberg, but the vast majority of them cheered for Lesnar because he's essentially one of them.

Heyman even said that half the audience was being ungrateful to the hometown Lesnar because they were cheering for Goldberg. That was nowhere near the case. As I said, the vast majority of the fans in the Target Center were big Lesnar fans and booed Goldberg every chance they got.

Sensing he wasn't receiving the desired reaction, it seemed as though Heyman abruptly ended the promo and left the ring with Lesnar.

Why WWE thought this was a good idea is beyond me. It was clear that it wanted Lesnar to get booed and for at least half the audience to cheer for Goldberg.

However, it seemed like WWE forgot about Lesnar's strong ties to the state of Minnesota and miscalculated how much it loves him, even when he is going up against someone as popular as Goldberg.

That simply didn't make any sense.

Cruiserweight title story is confusing

WWE is six days away from putting on another Cruiserweight championship match between current champion T.J. Perkins and the No. 1 contender, Brian Kendrick.

Kendrick took part in a match against Swann Monday night and being as though the title match is less than a week away, it would have made sense for Kendrick to win so that he carried some momentum heading into Hell in a Cell.

If you used that very sane logic, you were wrong, as Swann defeated Kendrick in clean fashion to I would assume put him in the title picture. I guess that couldn't happen any other way and it couldn't happen at any other time.

It apparently had to happen right before Kendrick is challenging for the title.

But it gets better, as Kendrick went backstage and begged Perkins to let him win the title match because he needs the victory much more than Perkins.

I'm not sure if Kendrick was supposed to come off as disingenuous, but it didn't seem that way. It looked like Perkins was supposed to take him serious. Kendrick's pleas fell on deaf ears, as Perkins turned him down.

But if you think hard enough you may remember Kendrick defeating Perkins in clean fashion only a couple of weeks ago to put himself in position to receive the title opportunity he has this coming Sunday.

Kendrick has proven he could defeat Perkins in the past, but he is suddenly begging him to throw the title match? Perkins was supposed to even consider doing such a thing for a guy that just lost clean to Swann?

I am so confused.

Braun Strowman tells Sami Zayn to shoo

Strowman and Zayn were supposed to have a match against each other Monday night, but it never happened because Strowman didn't believe Zayn was the competition he has been requesting for weeks.

When Zayn got into the ring for the match, he almost looked surprised he was even in there, which was kind of weird. Didn't Strowman know ahead of time he was going to face Zayn?

He then took the microphone and told Foley to get him some real competition, whih essentially meant that Zayn didn't meet his standards. Zayn took offense to that and attacked Strowman.

Despite his courage, Strowman tossed him into the barricade and walked away. Zayn got back into the ring and told Strowman to return and fight, but Strowman kept it moving and essentially disregarded Zayn.

I guess this scenario will keep playing out in various forms until Strowman has finally had enough of Zayn and fights him. In the meantime, get ready to see Zayn consistently provoke Strowman.

Karl Anderson loses yet again

The best part of this segment was Amore and Big Cass doing their usual pre-match promo without a microphone. The fans did the entire routine for them. They're so over they don't even need microphones.

That was very good, but the match was very bad. For whatever reason, Anderson is simply just another guy on the roster that apparently has zero credibility as a singles wrestler.

Losing to Amore and Big Cass shouldn't be an issue, but WWE has had them lose on numerous occasions as well in the past, defining them down to guys that don't win big matches or barely even any match.