WWE Raw results (01/27/14): 5 observations from this week's episode

WWE is well on its way to WrestleMania and the wheels were in set fully in motion Monday night.

A night after the WWE seemingly thumbed its nose to its fans, it sort of made up for it Monday night at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.

Here are my five main observations from Monday night, plus some quick observations:

WWE acknowledges the fervor behind Daniel Bryan

Raw Monday night opened with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon boasting about how successful the 2014 Royal Rumble went.

Before they could boast too much, Daniel Bryan came out and confronted them about not being in the Royal Rumble match.

Bryan told the Authority that they've been holding him back for months and even got in the face of Triple H in an effort to get he wanted.

The promo Bryan cut Monday night should have happened months ago, but it finally came in Cleveland. Bryan finally looked as if he had enough of what the Authority was doing to him and was finally allowed to express some anger.

Triple H then brought out The Shield, which brought out Sheamus and John Cena to help even up the odds. Triple H then made a match where Bryan, Sheamus and Cena would go up against The Shield with the winning team earning spots in the Elimination Chamber for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

The match itself closes the show and ends with The Shield being disqualified, thus giving Bryan, Sheamus and Cena spots in the Elimination Chamber.

This is a welcome step in the right direction after the fans nearly revolted in Pittsburgh Sunday night. Bryan was instantly ushered into the spotlight Monday and it maintained all the way through the main event.

It's all in the details: Notice how he was the last one to make his entrance amongst his team for the match, even after Cena. Notice how the WWE cut to numerous crowd shots to capture the chants, which the Cleveland fans were off rhythm with all night. Cleveland couldn't quite get on the same page, but you all get an "A" for effort.

Did the fans force the WWE to call an audible and get Bryan back in the title picture? Or was this WWE's master plan all along? Either way, Bryan is back where he belongs — in the title hunt.

The Wyatt Family cost The Shield the main event

The reason why The Shield was disqualified Monday was because the Wyatt Family jumped on Cena, thus bringing about the disqualification.

This accomplished two things: Firstly, it kept the apparent Cena-Bray Wyatt feud going. Secondly, it now gives The Shield a reason to potentially have a six-man match against the Wyatt Family. The group would have a legitimate beef with the Wyatts since they cost them their chance at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

When will this match take place? I have no idea. It could happen at Elimination Chamber since it seems as though the WWE may save Cena-Wyatt for WrestleMania. Or the WWE could wait until WrestleMania and use Cena-Wyatt for Elimination Chamber.

Since none of the members of The Shield are in the Elimination Chamber match, I'll lean toward it occurring at Elimination Chamber — if it actually happens.

Brock Lesnar, Batista, Randy Orton interact with each other

I'm not sure if all three of them have ever been in a segment together, but it happened Monday night.

Randy Orton went to the ring to brag about defeating Cena at the Royal Rumble. Batista came to a chorus of boos and told Orton that it didn't matter who the champion was because he was going to take the title at WrestleMania.

This brought out Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman, who said when he first came back that he was the self-anointed No. 1 contender.

Heyman said that Lesnar gave the Authority two options: either give him a title match against Orton Monday or give him a match against Batista for his title shot at WrestleMania Monday as well.

Heyman and Lesnar saved the segment, as it wasn't going anywhere with just Orton and Batista. They also added intrigue.

Counting Orton, there are four spots already taken in the Elimination Chamber, which leaves two left. Lesnar destroyed Cody Rhodes and Goldust later in the show because the Authority didn't acquiesce to either of his demands. That means Lesnar is short on patience and is probably going to want his title shot sooner rather than later in storyline.

Could Lesnar get his shot at the Elimination Chamber? I would assume he would, but he may demand a one-on-one match. He didn't want to enter the Royal Rumble, why would he want to enter the Chamber. Maybe since it's for the title it may be more enticing.

Batista is guaranteed his title shot at WrestleMania, but I just can't seem him going against Orton in a one-on-one match for the title. It would essentially be a match between two heels and no one would want to see it.

We've never really seen a Lesnar-Batista match, so could that be the WrestleMania main event? I could see WWE pulling the trigger on that and I believe Lesnar would get cheered during the match.

This segment opened a lot of doors as to what could happen over the next few months. My best guess coming out of all of this is that Orton's days as champion are numbered.

Batista is a bigger heel than Randy Orton

I'm almost certain this wasn't the plan when Batista signed on to return, but it is that way now.

Orton has been the positioned as the biggest heel (and coward) in WWE since August. He's been in the main event of six consecutive pay-per-views, all of which as the heel.

But in only three weeks Batista already garners more heat from the fans than he does. Granted, this is due to a number of things, mostly because Batista won the Royal Rumble and not Bryan. Batista also didn't do himself any favors by flipping off the fans in Pittsburgh either.

I don't who it is a bigger indictment of. Is Batista just that good at being a natural heel? Or has Orton been booked so horribly as a top heel over the last six months that people no longer have interest in him? I lean toward the latter.

The Usos continue their roll

The WWE is making it a point to make the Usos look good over the last couple of weeks and I have no problem with it all.

It looks as if that they're in line to receive a tag team title shot at some point. If they indeed receive one, it should be against the New Age Outlaws and they should win.

The Outlaws weren't given the titles to have a lengthy run with them. They were given the belts to drop them to younger tag team that could use the rub. I guess WWE wants that team to be the Usos and it makes sense, in my opinion.

The tandem put on good to great performances week in and week out and its nice to see them be rewarded for their hard work.

Side notes: CM Punk was absent from Monday's episode of Raw. So was Kane for that matter ... Naomi (Trinity) pinned AJ Lee for the second straight week. WWE is seemingly still building her up for a title shot … Seth Rollins took a pretty hilarious spill over the guard rail during the opening segment … Goldust did a modified version of the Canadian Destroyer, which is quite the accomplishment given his age … Zeb Coulter slapped Jack Swagger to motivate him. It seemed to have worked because The Real Americans won their match … WWE aired a couple of promos for the WWE Network, including ones for the "Monday Night War" and "WrestleMania Rewind" shows … Road Dogg looked like he got busted open after taking Goldust's modified Canadian Destroyer … WWE announced that Christian will make his return on Smackdown.

Correction: Roman Regins indeed broke Kane's long-standing record for eliminations in a single Royal Rumble. He posted 12.