WWE Monday Night RAW: 27th January 2014 - 5 talking points

After a disappointing Royal Rumble, WWE made up for all the criticisms they received by giving the fans an exciting episode of Monday Night Raw. An episode that saw a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match announced for the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, The New Age Outlaws defended their newly won titles, Brock Lesnar added some more names to his list of victims, Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler returned to action and a great tag team main event that hinted towards a feud between two of the biggest factions of the WWE.

1. Daniel Bryan is finally in a WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match

Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins

It was the opening segment and The Authority announced that Randy Orton will defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship inside the Elimination Chamber, but were interrupted by Bryan who sarcastically told the crowd that they shouldn’t chant for him because those chants aren’t liked by The Authority, the crowd in turn chanted louder.

Bryan then told the pair that he won’t leave the ring until they don’t put him in the Elimination Chamber Match, forcing Triple H to call The Shield, who attacked Bryan until Sheamus and John Cena made the save.

It was announced that Bryan, Cena and Sheamus will face The Shield in a tag team main event match with all the members of the winning team getting a place in the Elimination Chamber match. The team of Bryan, Cena and Sheamus won the match and the Elimination Chamber slots via disqualification as they were attacked by The Wyatt Family who also left The Shield fuming. So, the fans are finally getting what they wanted: Daniel Bryan in a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match.

2. Brock Lesnar has joined the battle to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Brock Lesnar, Batista and Randy Orton

Randy Orton and Batista were doing an in-ring segment where the Royal Rumble winner promised to walk out of WrestleMania as the Champion, but soon they were interrupted by Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar with the former demanding Brad Maddox a Championship match between Orton and Lesnar or a clash between Batista and Lesnar, neither of these happened for the night and The Rhodes Brothers paid the price for it.

This segment indirectly hinted towards Lesnar’s participation in the Elimination Chamber Match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and also gave the much needed spotlight to the Unified Championship, and made Lesnar emerge as a serious challenger to win Orton’s title at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. It looks like that the fight for the Unified Championship is finally on.

3. Dolph Ziggler and Sheamus finally returned to action and… to the old winning ways

Dolph Ziggler

The returning Ziggler faced Miz in a match that was billed as “The Battle of Cleveland,” (because both of them are from Cleveland, and they were wrestling in front of the Cleveland crowd) with Ziggler winning the match with the help of the Zig Zag.

It was good to see Ziggler return back to the winning ways after suffering another concussion, and this win over Miz might just be the beginning of a much-deserved run in the WWE for him.

Sheamus, too, returned to action after suffering an injury 7 months ago, he along with John Cena fended off an assault on Daniel Bryan by The Shield earlier on the show. Later, he was involved in the 6-man tag team main event match, where he teamed up with John Cena and Daniel Bryan to face The Shield, with the winning team getting the places in the Elimination Chamber match. Sheamus and his team won the match and the Elimination Chamber slots.

4. Where was CM Punk?

CM Punk

After Kane cost Punk a win at the Royal Rumble, fans were expecting to see what happens next in this Kane/Authority and CM Punk angle but neither Punk nor Kane showed up on Raw.

Fans were actually shocked to see one of WWE’s top superstars missing on an episode of Raw. This was the only (but major) drawback of this, otherwise great, episode of Raw. Hopefully, we’ll see Punk on this week’s Friday Night SmackDown, else CM Punk’s fans are going to blast at the WWE.

5. The Shield are heading towards a feud with The Wyatt Family

The Shield

This is what every fan wanted to see since Wyatt Family’s debut in July. In the Raw main event match, the Wyatt Family attacked Bryan, Cena and Sheamus and cost all three members of The Shield a place in the Elimination Chamber match. “The Hounds of Justice” took out their frustration on the announce table after the match.

It looks like The Shield will be going after the Wyatt Family for what they did to them, and the fans will finally get to see a match between two of WWE’s biggest factions right now. Another good thing that comes along with this feud is that The Shield aren’t going to break up now. With all of these things happening in the WWE, we can surely look forward to the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.