The feud with Evolution took its first misstep this week thanks to an out-of-sync Evolution promo and the intoxicated return of Ric Flair causing more confusion than impact but The Shield themselves had a good week. Their promo backstage before the Raw main event was a good one which each member of the group taking a different approach in aiming their point at their opponents, something that is smart with a break-up expected to come some time in the next 12 months. The match between Reigns and Orton was a decent enough contest given the fact that it was simply there to initiate the group brawl. The Shield members sold their beating well and the comeback was hot for that reason. Reigns once again got to Spear the boss and the group looked like they can easily hold their own against the legendary stable. Technically they also got a rub from Flair before the match but it was delivered in such a fashion that it was a non-factor really. Dean Ambrose was "forced" to defend his United States Championship for the first time in months in a Fatal Four Way match to close SmackDown. He came out of this blatant numbers game from The Authority looking strong in singles competition which is the first time in a while, even more so with his fellow Shield members being banned from ringside.
