WWE Rumors: The Rock's Return on Monday Night Raw and Dean Ambrose's Continued Ascension

I had the opportunity to attend Monday Night Raw this week at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Ordinarily, I would jump at the chance to attend an episode of Raw, as my experiences have largely been positive. But to be honest, the WWE product has been so down lately that I decided to save my money and my time. In fact, I was proud of my decision.

I invited a friend over to watch the show with me, and for two hours, we both knew we had made the right decision. We got particularly boastful about our wise choice to stay home when Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb started smashing wine bottles off each other's behinds.

"Man, good decision we made," he said to me as Lana and Rusev did their usual anti-America schtick in the background.

"I know. We would have been so angry if we had to sit through this live in pers-"

IF YA SMEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!

"SON OF A #&#*@#^*@#*&@^#@*&^#*&!!!!!!!"

For 20 minutes, we regretted our decision because The Rock made a surprise return to confront the pro-Russian athlete. There was almost zero indication The Great One could show up, except for some rumblings that he was in New York City. But this was truly an electric moment, as it tends to be when The Rock returns.

Amazingly, some people had the temerity to call this segment a burial of Rusev because he didn't even get to land a punch on The Rock. But that's exactly how it should have unfolded. Rusev is great, but The Rock is a legend, and Rusev benefitted from just standing in the same ring with him and taking insults for 15 minutes.

On SmackDown this week, The Rock and Triple H will have a backstage confrontation and tease a WrestleMania match between the two. Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports WWE is planning a match between the two longtime rivals at WrestleMania 31 in Santa Clara, California. This would certainly be a match that tickles the nostalgia of any wrestling fan over the age of 25, but Mania is a long way off from now.

The other major development on Raw was the continually amazing performance of Dean Ambrose, who seems to get better every week. He started the show by casually sidling up to Seth Rollins in the crowd and proceeded to beat him up. Later on, he went out to the ring to call out John Cena for getting in his way. Each man said they had no problem dropping the other if it meant getting to Rollins. As Cena stared down Ambrose, the Lunatic Fringe offered a response only he could.

"I'm kinda hungry." And with that, he decided to go to Coney Island to get a hot dog and ride the Cyclone.

WWE then went the extra step of actually showing Ambrose getting on the Q train and leaving, even though it was painfully obvious this was taped earlier in the day. And all my fellow native New Yorkers immediately called B.S. on the fact that Ambrose somehow wound up at 7^th Avenue in a matter of minutes, rather than just walking downstairs to the Atlantic Avenue stop. But I digress.

Ambrose showed up at the end of the night with a hot dog cart (and much like JBL, I have no idea how he got it back from Coney Island) to attack the Authority. And oh how amazing it was. He had ketchup and mustard in holsters on his hips and posed like a Wild West cowboy before he fired them all over Randy Orton and Kane. He dumped sauerkraut on his enemies. He used tongs on Rollins' crotch!

The attack fit Ambrose's character well. He's an ass kicker, yes, but he's also a guy who would look at a hot dog cart and think, "Yeah, I can use this to assault my enemies."

To top it all off, we finally got some confirmation about the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. Ambrose and Cena will square off for the chance to fight Rollins inside the cell later in the night. It would make much more sense to pit Ambrose against Rollins in the cell, as the crowd would likely eat the match alive if Cena gets into the main event.

What did you think of The Rock's return and Ambrose's performance? What do you think will happen at Hell in a Cell? Let us know in the comments section.