WWE Raw results (07/07/14): 10 observations from this week's episode

Raw this past Monday got off to a very hot start, but the WWE grinded all of the momentum from its opening segment to an inexplicable halt over the course of the show.

As a result, we received a show that I believe was above average at best. Before we dig into my observation and highlights, let's run through the full match results from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada:

- The Wyatt Family (Luke Harper & Erick Rowan) def. The Usos

- Rusev def. Rob Van Dam

- Randy Orton def. Dean Ambrose

- No. contender match for United States Championship - Alberto Del Rio def. Dolph Ziggler

- Sheamus def. Damien Sandow (Bret Hart)

- Chris Jericho def. The Miz

- AJ Lee & Paige def. The Funkadactyls (Namoi & Cameron)

- Kofi Kingston def. Cesaro

- Bo Dallas def. El Torito

- John Cena def. Seth Rollins via disqualification

Now let's delve into the details of what took place Monday night.

Raw started off hot for once

I have literally lost count of how many times Raw has opened with The Authority walking hand in hand to the ring, especially recently. It's happened for the last month at least.

The WWE changed things up this week, but that was only because The Authority supposedly wasn't in the building, so they really didn't have a choice.

Instead of watching Stephanie McMahon and Triple H canoodle their way to the ring, the show started with a Roman Reigns promo. Reigns' promo wasn't really going anywhere until he responded to the Montreal fans chanting, "Cena sucks!"

He told the fans that they were "damn right" that Cena sucks, especially when he was in the building, which instantly got the fans on his side and made a sort of average promo better. After Kane interrupted him, he called the demon a word that rhymes with witch and the two began brawling.

When I say brawl, I mean brawl. Kane and Reigns fought all around the arena. They eventually made their way back into the ring when a bunch of agents attempted to break up the melee.

One of the agents, Fit Finlay, caught a spear from Reigns, which was just collateral damage from the chaos between him and Kane.

Talk about a hot start to the show. This was a much needed change from the usual, "Welcome to Monday Night Raw!" from Stephanie McMahon every…single…week.

We don't need to be welcomed to Raw every week. We turned on the show for a reason. We already know what it is. Just get to the action. When The Authority comes out every other week and does a 20-minute talking segment, it bores the crowd right from the start of the show.

You start the show hot, the crowd stays hot and maybe other segments could benefit from a hot crowd.

The Wyatts, The Usos have a very good match

A prime example of what I just talked about was the opening match on the show between The Wyatt Family and The Usos.

The match itself was very entertaining, but it definitely didn't hurt that the Montreal fans were still buzzing from the opening segment.

I guess since The Wyatts beat The Usos clean again we could expect another match between the two teams for the WWE Tag Team Championships, maybe at Battleground.

Did Randy Orton have to beat Dean Ambrose clean?

While I had no issue with The Wyatts beating The Usos clean in the middle of the ring, I had a bit of an uneasy feeling about Randy Orton beating Dean Ambrose with a clean finish.

It's not that I think Ambrose should have beaten Orton clean, I just think that if Orton was going to beat a rising star like Ambrose, he should have done it by performing some underhanded tactic to have Ambrose look better in defeat.

The match was very entertaining, but I'm not so sure Orton should have won it cleanly. I didn't necessarily hate it, but I didn't necessarily love it either.

Dean Ambrose thwarted Seth Rollins again

Ambrose didn't stay down long, as he lived up to his promise of thwarting every one of Rollins' attempts to cash in the Money in the Bank contract.

After Rollins had a good match with John Cena in the main event, he stumbled upon an opportunity to cash in the contract on an injured Cena.

For the second week in a row, Ambrose came out of nowhere to put the kibosh on the proceedings.

I really like this Ambrose-Rollins feud. It's the feud with the most heat right now in the WWE. It's a personal issue between two guys people want to see go against each other. You couldn't ask for much more.

Nikki Bella, Alicia Fox have brutal match(?)

This was probably the lowest point of the show by far. Notice that I didn't place this among the match results. That's because according to WWE.com, it never officially happened.

We just got a segment of nothingness. I'm not sure whom to blame. I think Nikki Bella and Alicia Fox did what they could, but the idea of the segment just didn't enough meat to it for it to really get over to the fans.

The fans didn't feel any sympathy for Nikki Bella, besides the fact that she had to take part in such a horrible segment. And Fox didn't get any heel heat from it. I know the purpose of it was to advance the story between Brie Bella and Stephanie McMahon, but the idea and the execution was just poor, in my opinion.

The Funkadactyls explode!

A story involving the Divas that has some juice to it is the breakup of the Funkadactyls. After a match where Cameron had rather apply lip-gloss than tag into the match, the two women began fighting after the match.

Cameron isn't really good in any area (besides looking good), but she has a natural swagger as a heel. It just fits her. The same can be said for Naomi as a babyface.

Naomi is further along than Cameron in the ring, but I think these two could be very productive on the WWE roster.

Fandango distracted Dolph Ziggler with dancing

Apparently, Fandango's hips do lie.

They lied to Dolph Ziggler Monday night, as he was somehow distracted by Fandango gyrating on the announcer's table during his match against Alberto Del Rio.

The momentary distraction cost Ziggler the match and a shot at the United States Championship. I guess a man giving more than 10,000 people a table dance would distract me, too.

Bret Hart punches Bret Hart (Damien Sandow)

WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart made an appearance in Montreal Monday night, the site of the infamous screwjob back in 1997.

Hart talked about how if he had one more match, he would want to work that match in Montreal. Hart gave a pretty impassioned promo before Bret Hart interrupted him.

Actually, it was Damien Sandow dressed in full Bret Hart regalia, including his signature pink-and-black tights. Sandow said some funny stuff and was punched in the face by the real Bret Hart for his troubles. There wasn't much more to this segment.

Kingston upsets Cesaro again, is saved by Big E

For the second week in a row, Kofi Kingston squeaked out an unexpected victory over Cesaro. This may be Kingston's first winning streak in months, maybe even years.

But also like last week, Cesaro attempted to destroy Kingston. He was cut off at the pass, however, by Big E, which got this reaction from Xavier Woods.

Draw your own conclusions. If Mark Henry and Farooq come back soon, we know what's going to happen next.

Bo Dallas bulldogs El Torito

I don't why, but seeing Bo Dallas land his bulldog finishing move on El Torito was probably the funniest moment of the night.

Just the sight of Dallas trying to navigate the middle rope to land the move was hilarious to me. I literally laughed out loud. Am I a bad person for that?