Midway through Monday's edition of Raw, as Sami Zayn wandered into Mick Foley's office and incurred the wrath of Stephanie McMahon via phone, I, like many others, went through a number of different stages in a hurry.
Upon hearing he'd have to qualify for the Royal Rumble, while everybody else just said they'd be in, caused some gritting of teeth, and having the match against Seth Rollins was another tall hurdle to leap. But when it was made clear that Rollins would be putting his own spot on the line, I openly agonized over Zayn's presumed exclusion from one of the biggest events of the year.
By the conclusion of a tremendous Zayn-Rollins match, it became clear that I had no idea what I was talking about. As the Philadelphia 76ers once put it, sometimes you have to trust the process.
The Zayn-Rollins match anchored an incredibly solid signoff into the Royal Rumble -- and the tease of Triple H after so many months of absence served as the perfect mechanism to light a serious fire under the Triple H vs. Rollins rivalry that has sorely needed a kick to it. Having Triple H (or Stephanie, via a proxy) cost him the match against Zayn to take away Rollins' clear path to WrestleMania via the Royal Rumble is exactly the right way to remind fans of what Triple H cost Rollins when he laid him out with the Universal championship on the line against Kevin Owens. It's also a big deal for Zayn, who picks up another huge victory and a feather in his cap for what it took for him to even reach the Rumble match.
Before we get into the other notable moments from Monday night -- and there were some big ones -- the match itself merits serious recognition. The stakes felt real, and the execution of each and every big spot ultimately felt like it would have fit right into the main event of almost any pay-per-view event around. With any luck, we'll get to explore the strong in-ring chemistry Rollins and Zayn have together further somewhere down the line.
The closing segment of the final Monday Night Raw before the Royal Rumble got off to a rocky start as Goldberg busted his forehead open before he even left the backstage area. He was further flustered by a fan doing his best Hulk Hogan impression by tearing his shirt wide open as Goldberg made his entrance to the ring.
But when he got rolling, and Paul Heyman eventually came out, it felt like something big was about to happen. An unannounced Brock Lesnar appearance followed, and after stalking around the ring, Lesnar actually stepped up and walked into the firing line -- ready to face off with Goldberg for the first time since his loss at Survivor Series.
Before we got a taste of what these two might do, though, there was another surprise to come: a gong, a blackout, and an instantaneous appearance from The Undertaker. With just seconds to go before the broadcast signed off, you had three of the biggest names in wrestling history sending the crowd into an absolute frenzy as the broadcast faded to black
The moment of having three of the biggest names in the history of professional wrestling was undeniably cool. While the inner child in all of us hoped there would be some kind of scrap before the Royal Rumble, it makes all the sense in the world to hold off on true physicality until the event, considering the age of each superstar and the desire to try to gain a few more WWE Network subscriptions in the process. Could they have gotten a little closer? Sure. But with so much uncertainty over the outcome of the Royal Rumble, the hype train picked up a lot of steam in the final pre-Rumble moments of Raw.
Hits and misses
It's unusual for the Universal championship to get pushed this far down, but the continued Groundhog Day vibe surrounding the trio of Owens, Chris Jericho and Roman Reigns getting one of its last gasps and everything else that happened throughout the show conspired to bring it to this point.
Reigns opened the show and promised victory against Owens, then Owens and Jericho came out to respond. Sound familiar? This time around, Owens and Jericho had two weeks of successes to draw upon, with Owens pointing out that, for all of the people who went through tables via powerbombs from Reigns and the shield, he was the only one who could say that about Reigns.
At the end of the day, the pair of confrontations fulfilled their purpose. Owens got Jericho into trouble by promising Reigns his rematch for the United States championship, and Reigns looked as strong as ever in a win by DQ by overcoming both men. He locked Owens inside the cage, putting over that element of the match, and the outcome for Sunday feels very much up in the air.
With Rollins robbed of a meaningful purpose at the Royal Rumble, and the late addition of a No-DQ stipulation in the Universal championship match, we may yet see some shenanigans as Jericho hangs high above the ring. When the dust settles at the end of the night Sunday, the paths of Reigns, Owens and Jericho will become much clearer -- and the faster they can break off from each other, the better off each of them will be.
Charlotte Flair and Bayley were once again involved only in a talking segment, and as a result, we got very little women's wrestling. There was a single women's match that lasted less than 30 seconds in a three-hour show. It's clear they backed themselves into a corner with Sasha Banks playing up her injury (though she got some revenge and a shot at Nia Jax on Sunday), and with Alicia Fox seemingly tied exclusively to the cruiserweights, you're kind of stuck with Jax having no one to work with. Here's to hoping that the recent surge of women's signings by the WWE and rumors of a women's tournament are signs of an eventual wave of reinforcements. And maybe, some day in the distant future, Emmalina will finally debut.
Luke Gallows vs. Cesaro set the stage for a second match on the two-hour Royal pre-show (the Banks-Jax match being the first) as the Raw tag team titles will be defended with two referees overseeing the action (and setting the stage for more chicanery).
Two solid cruiserweight matches, between the six-man tag team match and the one-on-one between Rich Swann and Noam Dar. It was a nice win for Mustafa Ali, who got the pinfall in the first match, and his reverse 450 is never not awesome-looking. It's interesting times in the world of 205 Live, and I think it'll be wide open after Sunday's Neville vs. Swann match sorts out the top of the cruiserweight division for the near future.
We got some vintage New Day in the lead-up to their eight-man tag team match with Enzo & Cass, Rusev, Jinder Mahal, Titus O'Neil and Braun Strowman. They complimented Lana in a respectful, yet hilarious, way and seemed to have the upper hand in every way until their faces dropped when Strowman was revealed as the final member of the heel team.
It was a solid match for what it was, but it was all just leading up to Strowman tagging in (by smashing Mahal in the head, mind you), destroying Enzo, and then getting his weekly monster face-off with the returning Big Show. It's incredible to see what kind of shape the big man is in these days, and few can dwarf Strowman the way that the Big Show does. Not coincidentally, Big Show was announced as an entrant in the Royal Rumble match Monday evening via social media. In addition to all of the surprises in the build-up to Sunday (including the crazy misdirection of Rollins losing his spot), it seems like we know far more of the Rumble lineup going into the match than usual. Big Cass and Rusev also threw their names into the hat, and I'm sure we'll get one or two more names added on Tuesday -- giving us more than two-thirds of the field before all is said and done. It will ultimately make any potential surprises feel that much more of a big deal.
Move of the night
Rollins' pedigree on the ring apron. There were a lot of great spots and close calls in the tremendous match between Zayn and Rollins, but the move that certainly would have ended things if it wasn't for Triple H's music was a thing of beauty. Few guys sell the violence of a move better than Rollins and Zayn, and it was picture-perfect execution as fans ate it up, desperately lamenting Zayn's fate, as he was seemingly kept out of the Royal Rumble. It was the perfect exclamation point to a tremendously well-executed match and overarching concept.