Roman Reigns Returns, Makes Survivor Series Challenge

After just under a month off the road due to an illness, Roman Reigns made his anticipated return to RAW on Monday evening.

Stephanie McMahon opened the show, and she was not happy with Kurt Angle. McMahon, who has been absent from WWE television for several months herself, went through a laundry list of problems that she has had with Kurt Angle’s performance on RAW.

She listed the fact that SmackDown has now gotten the better of RAW twice through invasions on Monday night, probably to set-up a RAW invasion of SmackDown tomorrow night. She also mocked the fact that Jason Jordan was the fifth member of Team RAW announced last week versus SmackDown announcing John Cena as their fifth member.

Angle defended himself, mentioning that he plans on breaking Shane McMahon’s ankle in the match at Survivor Series (prompting McMahon to ask, “What do you think this is, the 1990s?”). He challenged Shane to start the match with him “if he has any balls.”

Just as McMahon teased firing Angle and removing him from Team RAW, The Shield’s entrance music came on. They made their entrance through the crowd, with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose first coming out and then Roman Reigns entering the view slowly behind them. Reigns got a nice reaction from the live crowd.

Immediately, Stephanie McMahon noted that Angle hasn’t even booked them in a match for Survivor Series. She asked Reigns where he has been, prompting Reigns to flip the question and ask her where she has been. He noted the last time she was seen, she was being put through a table (in Rollins’ match with Triple H). This caused Rollins to back away with a funny look on his face, and Reigns noted that it was actually Stephanie’s husband who put her through the table.

The Shield closed the segment by challenging the New Day to a match at Survivor Series and noted that Angle will remain part of Team RAW where he can do some considerable damage to Shane McMahon.