What happened after Raw went off air? - 25th Oct 2016
Tonight’s episode of Raw followed a consistent theme of Chris Jericho hunting for the list, and his tensions with best friend and Universal Champion Kevin Owens continued, while Seth Rollins constantly tried to foil the pair.
We saw a contract signing that confirms that history will be taking place between the two women Charlotte and Sasha Banks inside Hell In A Cell, we saw the Raw Tag Team Champions get an upset, we saw Enzo & Cass do their sing-along without a mic and more.
However, United States Champion Roman Reigns and his rival Rusev did not make an appearance on television in the arena. They were both shown only in a prerecorded video. However, the two did come out at the end of the night and squared off merely 5 days before their Hell In A Cell bout. It appears that majority of the crowd had left by then.
Roman reigns vs rusev #rawminny #darkmatch #WWEMinny pic.twitter.com/sLD8iWRr0H
— Gwood0101 (@gwood0101) October 25, 2016
The dark main event no one really wanted. #RAW #WWEMinny pic.twitter.com/X7kp7CPpGr
— David Stegora (@DavidStegora) October 25, 2016
Roman Reigns defeated Rusev with a spear to close the show.
Here is the video package that Rusev and Roman Reigns were featured in from the show, here’s the video featuring Rusev:
Here’s the video featuring Roman Reigns:
Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer, who turned 57 yesterday, was quite surprised at the way the feud between the two was playing out:
Holy shit the guy who scripted Rusev's promo never learned the difference between a face and a heel promo.
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) October 25, 2016
It’s no surprise that people feel Reigns is miscast in his role(as they always have felt that he would be a better heel), but here, the case stands out even more so. Looking at it from a storyline perspective, Rusev was always fighting for Lana’s honour and had done nothing prior to provoke Roman Reigns into attacking him:
In the outlook of everything regarding this feud, a neutral eye would call Rusev the babyface and Roman Reigns the heel. However, like many a time, simply being a foreigner makes certain characters heels. And as always, fans are cheering Reigns’ opponent more than they are cheering The Big Dog himself.
It is likely that their feud will culminate at Hell In A Cell, after which the two will likely part ways, and Roman will move on to his next opponent and Rusev his.