WWE Raw results and observations (10/13/14)

WWE went with a minimalist approach to Raw this past Monday.

A lot of the things that has dragged the show down for more than a month were left off this week's episode.

Things such as extremely long talking segments, horrible acting from the Bella Twins and unfunny comedy were left off the show. Even the celebrity involvement was kept to a minimum.

What we got instead was a show that was to the point and an overall improvement from this most recent run of shows.

Was it great? I don't think so. Were there some lulls? Yes, but that's merely par for the course in the era of three-hour shows every week.

Before we delve any deeper, let's run through the full match results:

- John Cena & Dean Ambrose def. The Usos, Goldust & Stardust

- AJ Lee & Layla def. Paige & Alicia Fox

- Randy Orton def. Dolph Ziggler

- Seth Rollins def. Jack Swagger

- Rusev def. Big Show via disqualification

- The Miz def. Sheamus via count out

- Brie Bella, Natalya & Naomi def. Brie Bella, Cameron & Summer Rae

- Contract-on-a-pole match – Dean Ambrose def. John Cena

With that out of the way, let's get into the details of what took place at Philips Arena in Atlana:

Awkward ending to the show

You didn't ready that last match result wrong, it actually Monday instead of at Hell in a Cell.

It hasn't even been a full week since Triple H announced that John Cena and Dean Ambrose would face each other in a contract-on-a-pole match for the right to face Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell, and already those plans have changed.

Why? I have no idea. I'm no overly upset about it, but it does go to show how quickly the WWE can change its mind on a day-to-day basis, even when it comes to pay-per-view matches.

The match, however, left a little to be desired. It's not really the faults of Cena and Ambrose. They did what they could, given the circumstances, but they were sort of hampered by the fact The Authority got involved.

As soon as Randy Orton, Rollins and Kane got involved, the match just became awkward and clunky. That's because Ambrose, who hadn't tried to grab the contract despite many easy opportunities to do so, suddenly took advantage of one out of nowhere.

The whole thing was just anti-climactic. It became even more awkward with the Cena and Ambrose just standing side-by-side in the ring at the end of the show after all of the tension they built up the last couple of weeks.

While I'm not overly upset that this match isn't going to occur on pay-per-view, I do believe it could have been better executed there than it was here.

Randy Orton wants to be the consolation prize

When I read that the loser of the Ambrose-Cena match would get to face Orton at Hell in a Cell as some sort of consolation prize, I figured The Authority would force Orton and his eventual opponent into such a predicament.

Instead, Orton volunteered to be the consolation prize, which makes zero sense to me. Here's a guy that's been World champion about a dozen times, has been in the main event of WrestleMania, a former Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank winner and he's simply willing to be the consolation prize? That doesn't make much sense to me.

Moving forward, Orton will now face Cena inside of a Hell in a Cell. Why, just because? And the WWE wonders why people don't get as excited about the match as they used to. It's because they just throw random people in there and expect people to get excited about the encounter.

The match between Rollins and Ambrose deserves to be in the Cell, Orton and Cena does not.

Then we got Cena, who has been inexplicably chasing Rollins around for the past month, inexplicably forgetting all about him and immediately turning his attention to Orton.

I guess Cena has a terrible short-term memory because he just forgets all about things he was just doing.

But one thing for the fans to ponder is which one of these Cell matches will close the show? While the Rollins-Ambrose match deserves to close the show, the WWE may go to old faithful in Cena and have him and Orton end the show.

If the WWE does go with Cena and Orton to close the show, that would be a huge mistake on its part. The company has spent months building up the match between Rollins and Ambrose/Cena that it would it be a waste of time if it wasn't the main event of Hell in a Cell.

Randy Orton-Seth Rollins have a little friction

The two members of The Authority took part in a little game of one-upmanship during their respective matches on Raw.

After Orton defeated Dolph Ziggler, Rollins jumped into the ring and hit him with the curb stomp, to the chagrin of Orton.

Orton returned the favor, however, during Rollins' match with Jack Swagger, where he hit Swagger with an RKO right in front of Rollins.

I'm not sure if this is going to lead to an Orton face turn, but I am intrigued in seeing where this is going.

Randy Orton hits another crazy RKO

Randy Orton must have received an early copy of WWE 2K15 because he hit a video game-like RKO on Ziggler Monday night.

Orton managed to catapult Ziggler into the air and catch him with an awe-inspiring RKO to end the match and bring the Atlanta fans to their feet.

Dolph Ziggler is on a losing skid

The Intercontinental Champion's run of momentum has come to screeching halt recently with a clean loss to Rusev on Smackdown and another clean loss, albeit in spectacular fashion to Orton Monday night.

For the life of me I do no understand why the WWE does this. Being the Intercontinental Champion should mean something other than being king of the mid-card.

It should not mean that the holder of the title should be losing matches in clean fashion on your main shows. If it does happen, it shouldn't happen that often. It's happened to Ziggler twice in less than a week.

Dolph Ziggler has a pretty good throwing arm

When Ziggler takes his shirt off before his matches, he usually tosses it into the crowd for some fans (usually grown men) to fight over.

One Monday, he decided to throw it at Cesaro, who was sitting at ringside doing commentary. Ziggler's toss had some mustard on it and was seen on camera.

While Cesaro no-sold it, John Bradshaw Layfield sold it all with his face. The look on JBL's face when that shirt came flying over was absolutely priceless.

The Rusev-Big Show match was pretty entertaining

I wasn't expecting a whole lot from Rusev and Big Show, but it's safe to say that they exceeded them Monday.

Not only did the two men work hard, but the fans in Atlanta bought into almost everything they did.

The ending wasn't fantastic, I think Rusev probably should have gone over Big Show clean, but it didn't completely ruin the match like a lot of interference endings do.

Brie Bella pins Nikki Bella

We've had to suffer through the feud between Brie Bella and Nikki Bella for weeks now, only to see Brie Bella finally get one over on her sister in a six-(wo)man tag team match?

But wait, there's more. Apparently, these two will face each other in a one-on-one match (finally) at Hell in a Cell, where the loser has to be the winner's [word that rhymes with witch] for a month.

It's a stipulation only a Bella could love.

Bray Wyatt gets his own vignette

After seeing vignettes for Luke Harper and Erick Rowan the last couple of weeks, we got one for the leader of The Wyatt Family, Bray Wyatt.

Wyatt's was just as ominous as the other two, but he specifically ended the promo by saying, "It's coming." We've seen that on a pregnant woman's stomach in the other videos, but now Wyatt is saying it as if something or someone specific.

All I know is that the WWE needs to make these three men as menacing as these videos, because these videos have done more for their characters than anything they've done on television during the last six months.

The Authority pulls a "Trading Places" bet

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon pulled out a reference from the classic comedy "Trading Places" with their bet on the opening match.

The power couple placed a wager on a whether Cena and Ambrose could get along during the match. The two did get along, which meant McMahon won.

Her reward: one dollar, just like Mortimer and Ralph Duke.

Celebrities were kept to a minimum

After an embarrassing showing from the Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb last week, the WWE kept the celebrity involvement to a minimum Monday.

Todd Chrisley was mere a fan sitting at ringside with his sons. Nene Leakes, on the other hand, was involved in a backstage segment and was at ringside during the diva's match, but it was a lot better than seeing middle-aged women smash wine bottles over their butts.