WWE Monday Night Raw results and observations (3/13/17): Triple H slays Seth Rollins

WWE saved its strongest content for the final segment Monday night, but it wasn't enough to salvage what was an overall dull episode of Raw.

I figured WWE would be hitting on all cylinders this week after putting forth one of Raw's best efforts of 2017 last week. It turns out I was wrong.

This show was littered with disqualification finishes, segments that seemed to drag on longer than they had to and a couple of things that seemingly came out of nowhere.

Despite the show's shortcomings, there were some positive aspects I took away from it.

Before I go into my analysis, here are the full match results from the final WWE event at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit:

- Sasha Banks def. Dana Brooke

- The Brian Kendrick & Tony Nese def. T.J. Perkins & Akira Tozawa

- Chris Jericho & Sami Zayn def. Kevin Owens & Samoa Joe via disqualification

- Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs. Sheamus & Cesaro ended in a no contest

- Roman Reigns def. Jinder Mahal

- Austin Aries def. Ariya Daivari

- Big Show def. Titus O'Neil

- Bayley def. Nia Jax via disqualification

Seth Rollins came ready for a fight

The final segment of Raw had a lot of moving parts, but the part I wanted to focus on first was Rollins.

Rollins made a surprise appearance at the end of the show so that he could get his hands on his arch nemesis, Triple H.

Rollins limped to the ring with the help of a crutch, but before getting into the ring, Rollins held up the crutch and dropped it, signaling that he didn't need it.

He then jumped into the ring and began fighting Triple H with seemingly no ill effects on his knee. That was until Triple H got a hold of Rollins' crutch and wacked him across his injured knee with it.

Rollins sold it as if the knee had just suffered irreparable damage while Triple H stood over him soaking all of the jeers from the Detroit fans.

From a creative standpoint, I loved this segment, as it got some needed heat on Triple H. Triple H has become sort of a darling to the hardcore fan base in recent years due to all of the work he has done with NXT.

But when Triple H struck Rollins in his knee, the fans, including the die hard ones, were not enthused to say the least.

Most importantly, however, this segment did show that Rollins might not have been as hurt as originally thought.

If Rollins was severely injured, I highly doubt WWE would be using a segment like this to write him off television. In fact, he wouldn't even be on television. He would be home nursing his injury.

The fact that he got physical looked like a good sign to me.

What is next for Mick Foley?

The entire reason Rollins even confronted Triple H was because the WWE executive was about to do bodily harm to Raw general manager Mick Foley.

For the duration of the show, Raw commissioner Stephanie McMahon was in Foley's ear telling him that he had to fire a member of the Raw roster in order to show that he was a capable leader.

At the end of the show, Foley had made his mind up, and the person that he wanted to fire was Stephanie McMahon. The commissioner reminded Foley that he was not in the position to fire her, but Foley insisted, saying that she was essentially a cloud of negativity hanging over the brand.

Stephanie McMahon verbally eviscerated Foley, which brought out Triple H. Triple H gave Foley a thorough tongue lashing as well before dismissing him from the ring.

Instead of walking out of the ring, Foley whipped out Mr. Socko and used it on Triple H, but Stephanie McMahon thwarted him with a low blow.

This then brought Rollins. While Rollins and Triple H fought each other, Foley lied in the corner and didn't engage in any more physicality.

With all that he did Monday night, I have to believe that there will be severe consequences coming Foley's way in storyline, right?

I honestly thought that he was going to fire himself, but since he did not fire anyone, he essentially defied Stephanie McMahon's orders. On top of that, he stuck a dirty sock down her husband's throat.

Foley has announced that he will eventually be taking time away from WWE to undergo hip surgery, so it is a only a matter of time before he is removed from his general manager post in some way.

The question I have is how will it happen?

Shawn Michaels warns Roman Reigns

Another surprise appearance on the program was from WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, who interrupted Reigns while he was calling out The Undertaker.

Since Michaels is very familiar with The Undertaker, especially at WrestleMania, it was easy to tell where this segment was going.

I can pretty much sum up this segment in one tweet.

But one thing that did stick out to me was how Reigns handled himself on the microphone with Michaels.

Michaels warned Reigns that The Undertaker was already in his head, as Reigns was distracted during his match against Mahal by The Undertaker's famous gong.

Reigns won the match anyway and shrugged off Michaels' notion that The Undertaker was in his head. Reigns said that the only question he hears is what is it going to be like when he is in the ring with The Undertaker.

Reigns answered his own questions by saying that The Undertaker should be thinking about what it is going to be like to be in the ring with him.

Michaels essentially pleaded with Reigns to understand what he was getting himself into, but Reigns was not trying to hear it. Reigns all but all but mocked Michaels for The Undertaker retiring him at WrestleMania 26 and followed that up by saying that he was going to retire The Undertaker at WrestleMania this year.

I thought this was the most comfortable Reigns has ever looked on the microphone and it just so happened to occur when he was oozing with arrogance.

Just when it looked like Reigns had took a step toward the dark side, Braun Strowman came out of nowhere and knocked Reigns into next week, firmly putting him back in the role of babyface in the distress, for another week at least.

Reigns will face Strowman next week in a rematch of their encounter from Fastlane.

Big Show vs. Shaquille O'Neal not happening

For almost a year, it looked like Big Show was penciled in to face Shaq in what could be one of his final WrestleMania appearances.

However, things between both WWE and O'Neal have been falling a part of the last month or two and the chances of the match actually taking place had been fading by the day.

Well, the chances faded away completely Monday night when WWE quickly announced that Big Show was going to enter the Andre the Giant Battle Royal with the hopes of winning it for the second time.

The match between Big Show and Shaq would not have been great, but this wasn't going to be about work rate. This was about creating a spectacle. On one side you would have had one of the largest athletes in the world in Big Show.

On the other side you have one of the most recognizable sports figures in the world in Shaq.

It doesn't get much bigger than Shaq — literally or figuratively. WrestleMania being in Orlando only made the match more sensible since that is where Shaq started his NBA career.

Despite all of that, it won't happen. I honestly feel kind of bad for Big Show. That could have been his last shot at a big match at WrestleMania.

He has not been hesitant to say in interviews that his career is winding down. It was obvious that this match would have been one of his last hurrahs as an active performer and it would have been a cool way to go out, especially when you consider his other mainstream match took place in Orlando back at WrestleMania 24 when he faced Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Instead of the big match and the big payday, Big Show is being lumped into the battle royal for the fourth year in a row.

Brooke had enough of Charlotte Flair

In an odd set of circumstances, Brooke finally stood up for herself against Charlotte, making the split between the two official.

It was inevitable that Brooke and Charlotte were going to go their separate ways at some point, but this felt a little out of nowhere.

WWE had teased dissention between the two in the past, but didn't follow through on it to this extent. WWE had done nothing to plant the seeds recently that Brooke was finally going to bow up to Charlotte.

When she did, however, the fans in Detroit were into it and even chanted Brooke's name. As far as where Brooke goes from here, that is anyone's guess.

Tag titles to be defended in triple threat at WrestleMania

Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows thought they were slick when they interfered in the No. 1 contender's match Monday night.

I guess they don't watch WWE television enough because whenever villains attack both sides of a No. 1 contender's match, the sitting authority figure at the time always makes it a triple threat match.

So there you have it, Anderson and Gallows will defend their titles against Amore/Big Cass and Cesaro/Sheamus.