WWE Raw’s Top 5 Segments: Monday Night Rollins

2. Gauntlet Match: Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins

Acting as the very first portion of this gauntlet match, old foes Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins got things off to a perfect start here with a really solid and competitive match. Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan of babyface vs. babyface bouts and even more so when it’s between friends but these two fought with more than enough aggression to quickly win me over. A big part of what makes this particular dynamic work so much in my mind is that there’s an actual history behind the standard ‘competitive action’ spots.

It isn’t just two guys fighting for bragging rights but instead a couple of rivals that know each other extraordinarily well, in-ring and out. To the main roster audience they were introduced as brothers and then clashed as bitter rivals. Rollins’ injury meant that those clashes weren’t as pronounced as other feuds though which means that their matches against each other still feel very fresh to me. The actual work itself is unsurprisingly excellent but what I loved here was all of the character work in-between, especially that initial stare-down just a couple of minutes in.

Considering what followed, the measured start here made sense and these two are more than over enough to slowly build things up anyway. The eventual finish was a great fit too, with Rollins smoothly catching a quick roll-up win on ‘The Big Dog.’ Roman’s response afterwards was quite tremendous too, almost an admiring show of frustrated respect. In fact it was similar to Seth’s reaction after Reigns eliminated him from the Royal Rumble, a quite underrated character moment in that memorable 30-man battle.

There’s a special dynamic between these two and for obvious reasons, this match was just a glimpse into it. There’s a genuine chemistry and history here that’s created something that feels real suited to an eventual WrestleMania main event, hopefully sooner rather than later too.