WWE Raw Results: Biggest Winners, Losers and Moments from August 28

The August 28 episode of Raw set the stage for the upcoming No Mercy pay-per-view on September 24 and introduced the WWE Universe to several feuds and matches they can expect to engulf programming over the next month.

John Cena and Roman Reigns signed the contract Monday night for their epic encounter at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, but not before unloading on each other with shoot-style insults that had the internet buzzing.

Brock Lesnar issued a short, sweet warning to Braun Strowman ahead of their Universal Championship match at the event, while Nia Jax fractured her friendship with Alexa Bliss, leaving the new Raw women's champion lying to close out the broadcast.

Unfortunately for Finn Balor, he learned his program with Bray Wyatt is far from over. Former Bullet Club teammates Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows shared the same disappointing returns from WWE Creative, losing a match that made little sense logically.

On a night in which the moving pieces of WWE's flagship show began fitting into the puzzle that is No Mercy, those aforementioned Superstars were the night's biggest winners and losers.

Winners: John Cena and Roman Reigns

A series of insults that fed into the smart marks' narrative of both John Cena and Roman Reigns highlighted an explosive contract signing between The Big Dog and the franchise player Monday night, generating excitement and creating legitimate buzz for their No Mercy match.

Cena took shots at Reigns' promo abilities and labeled him a corporate John Cena ripoff.

Reigns fired back, referring to his peer as a part-timer and burier of young talent.

Had the promo played out in front of a red-hot, internet heavy audience, the reaction to the verbal punches would have been greater than it as in front of the traditional Southern wrestling fans in Memphis, Tennessee. With that said, social media was abuzz with heavy discussion as to whether Cena or Reigns was right or wrong.

Fans were talking about a main event program featuring the two most polarizing Superstars in WWE history and will continue to do so as long as Creative can continue putting them in situations where they can lob verbal pipe bombs at each other ahead of their titanic clash inside Staples Center.

Loser: Finn Balor

When Finn Balor donned the face paint of The Demon and defeated Bray Wyatt at SummerSlam, their rivalry should have come to an end.

Instead, Wyatt turned up Monday, eliminating Balor from the Battle Royal to determine the No. 1 contender to The Miz's Intercontinental Championship, reigniting the program and ensuring another showdown occurs, presumably at No Mercy.

Balor should be moving onward and upward, not resuming a rivalry that has done nothing for him to this point.

Unfortunately, working with Wyatt has been somewhat of a kiss of death in 2017. His ring work, besides his WWE Championship victory and subsequent work with John Cena and AJ Styles, has not been good, nor have the stories that accompany it.

Balor has gained nothing from working with him, and another match in Staples Center only serves to prolong a story that already reached a suitable and satisfying conclusion a week ago.

Winner: Brock Lesnar

When the typically cool, calm and collected Brock Lesnar yanks the microphone out of his advocate Paul Heyman's hand, it is clear The Beast Incarnate has been triggered. That was the case Monday night on Raw when the universal champion looked intently into the camera and warned No. 1 contender Braun Strowman, "What he means is...Suplex City, bitch."

There were no frills, no exquisite or overly long explanation of his motivations for their upcoming match.

Lesnar issued a warning that was short, sweet and to the point. That he rarely speaks on the microphone portrayed to the audience the gravity of the situation. There is no playing around, no overconfidence.

Strowman put The Beast down twice and at No Mercy, and Lesnar fully plans on returning the favor.

While Cena and Reigns took a different approach elsewhere on the show, Lesnar proved that sometimes the less said, the more effective.

Loser: Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows

Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, former Raw tag team champions, filled the role of tackling dummies for Cena and Reigns Monday night.

A long-running team which has found success in both Japan and the United States, the duo was booked incompetently by Creative on this week's show.

Despite their experience, they could not overcome a "team" of Superstars who, just moments before their match, were hurling personal insults at each other ahead of a massive pay-per-view showdown.

Anderson and Gallows were booked not to take advantage of the dissension that existed between them but, rather, to fall to the superteam in another poor excuse of WWE utilizing its tag team talent to their full potential.

Fans of Southpaw Regional Wrestling know how entertaining the heel tandem can be. Why WWE has not capitalized on that entertainment factor or used their past as key members of Bullet Club to push them beyond what they have is one of the great mysteries in today's WWE.

Serious or humorous, the team has earned so much more than what they are routinely given by a company unaware of the strength of their performances both in the ring and beyond the mat. 

Winner: Nia Jax

The on-screen friendship between Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax came crashing down Monday night, quite literally, as the latter left the new Raw women's champion lying after a blockbuster main event.

Bliss had just won her fourth women's title from Sasha Banks, clean in the center of the ring, when Jax made her way to the ring squared circle to celebrate with her buddy. Hoisting her onto her shoulders, she trotted Bliss around the ring before dropping her flat on her back and making her intentions to challenge for the title clear.

Jax waited and waited for her opportunity to challenge for the title. No longer willing to sit back and wait her turn, she seized the moment and will no look to wrest the title away from a woman she has traveled the road with since Little Miss Bliss came to Monday nights in the Superstar Shuffle of this past spring.

A constantly improving in-ring performer, it is time for Jax to prove she is a championship-worthy competitor and, more importantly, break the monotony that has engulfed the women's division on Monday nights by taking the emphasis off Bliss, Banks and Bayley's never-ending series of matches.