WWE Monday Night Raw results and observations (8/21/17): John Cena, Roman Reigns go face-to-face

Raw this past Monday night, like the brand in general, was a mixed bag.

There was a good opening segment and a couple of entertaining tag team contests, but there are still multiple issues that are keeping Raw firing on all cylinders despite all of the ingredients being there.

Before I dig into my full analysis, here are the full match results from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.:

- Brooklyn Street Fight – Enzo Amore def. Big Cass

- Nia Jax def. Emma

- Elias def. R-Truth

- Gran Metalik, Rich Swann, Cedric Alexander & Mustafa Ali def. Drew Gulak, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari & Noam Dar

- Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose def. The Hardy Boyz

- Finn Balor def. Jason Jordan

- John Cena & Roman Reigns def. The Miz & Samoa Joe

Braun Strowman to challenge Brock Lesnar at No Mercy

It only took one segment to find out what the main event of No Mercy is going to be and I have a feeling the title of the pay-per-view will be quite fitting for Lesnar's Universal title defense against Strowman.

Strowman earned the title shot after not only his strong showing at SummerSlam Sunday, but also after he attacked Lesnar in the opening segment Monday night.

After Strowman laid waste to Lesnar, he held the Universal title belt high in the air to signify that he is not done chasing the championship.

Fans and pundits alike will fantasy book how this match should play out in the weeks leading up to No Mercy, but I could not care less.

I am simply here to see Strowman and Lesnar tear each other a part and treat their surroundings similar to how the Power Rangers treat Angel Grove — with reckless abandon.

I do not care who wins this match. I do not care how the match is won. All I care about is seeing destruction.

I want to see Godzilla versus Mechagodzilla, Megazord versus Goldar. You catch my drift?

Cena-Reigns encounter was a bit weird

While Strowman versus Lesnar will be a battle of monsters, there was an interesting interaction Monday night between Cena and the man chosen to eventually supplant him, Reigns.

Why did Cena even have an interaction with Reigns in the first place? Well, if you recall, Cena is a free agent. At least he has been a free agent since returning to television back on July 4.

Although he was billed as a free agent, he has only appeared on the brand that drafted him last summer — Smackdown Live — since his most recent return.

That was until Monday night when Cena appeared at the request of Raw general manager Kurt Angle. Cena took the opportunity so he could go face-to-face with Reigns.

Reigns got into the ring with Cena and things got a bit weird. At least to me they did.

For one, Cena was overly humorous about all of this, which I don't think helped the situation one bit.

This was supposed to be the first real encounter between WWE's top two stars and Cena essentially treated as if it was a joke. If he were actually funny, I probably would let it slide a little bit.

Unfortunately, he wasn't and I thought it just brought down the significance of what we were all witnessing.

Reigns was his usual brooding self and brought up the social media interactions between he and Cena, which have been quite contentious.

I think WWE thought that this segment would create some type of magical moment where the fans showcased their desire these two go at it. In reality, I don't that is what happened at all.

As special as that should have been, it came off as just another pair of WWE superstars in the ring talking to each other. It simply did not feel that special.

Thankfully, The Miz came out with his entourage and salvaged this segment that was falling short of expectations by cutting one of the best promos of his career. I mean he was on fire.

But while The Miz was spilling his guts out on the microphone, Cena stood there with a that crap-eating grin on his face, not taking a word of what anyone was saying seriously.

When Cena gets serious and is not trying overly hard to be funny, he can be damn good. But when he is playing the role of comic relief, he does not excel.

Cena managed to stop grinning and offer The Miz a chance to face he and Reigns in a tag team match.

Cena assumed The Miz would pick either Curtis Axel or Bo Dallas to be his partner, but the Intercontinental champion never got a chance to make a decision.

That is because Samoa Joe made it for him. Joe angrily walked to the ring and straight up told The Miz that they were teaming up.

But even with Joe's intensity, Cena was having a grand old time. That was until Joe attacked him and a brawl ensued.

For whatever reason, Reigns and Cena got along long enough in the main event to come out victorious, but all of this begs the question of what is WWE looking to accomplish here?

Is WWE looking to put Reigns against Cena at No Mercy? I guess that could be the case. What I hope isn't the case is Cena's sudden need to crack jokes.

Alexa Bliss invoked rematch clause for next week

A match that we know is happening for certain next week is Sasha Banks defending her Raw Women's championship against Bliss.

Bliss brought up the fact that although Banks has won the women's title four times, she has never successfully defended it. Not one time.

While that does not sound like good news for Banks, three of her four title triumphs occurred on episodes of Raw, not pay-per-view.

Big Cass hurt his knee

The worst part of any wrestling show is when someone suffers a very real injury, and that is what happened to Big Cass Monday.

Cass was having yet another match against Amore when he went for a big boot. Amore ducked out of the way, which sent Cass tumbling out of the ring.

Cass landed awkwardly and injured his knee. Cass hobbled back into the ring and tried to mount some office, but could barely put any weight on his left leg before it gave out.

The referee quickly halted the match and awarded it to Amore.

The extent of Big Cass' injury is unknown as of this writing, but he is scheduled for an MRI Tuesday, according to WWE.com.

This could not have come at a worse time for Big Cass, as he was in the midst of the biggest push of his career to date.

The angle Big Cass was involved in was not all that enthralling by any stretch of the imagination, but it was an indication that WWE had high hopes for the Queens, N.Y. native.

It would be a shame if a major injury suddenly derailed that. Hopefully for Big Cass' sake, the injury was not as serious as it looked.

Vaughn Johnson has a podcast with Nick Piccone called the Straight Shooters on WildfireRadio.com. Check it out here HERE.