WWE Monday Night Raw featured the return of John Cena after missing the show for one week. Despite missing Raw the week before, it was announced that Cena had decided to use his rematch clause and challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Title at Night of Champions 2014.
Cena was booked strong on Raw, cutting a promo and looking strong heading into the rematch. This portrayal, barely selling the beating that Lesnar gave him at Summerslam, was said to be all written and put together by Vince McMahon. Apparently the worry was that Cena looked too weak, and that one week of being off TV was plenty.
In addition, the taped promo with Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar was originally scheduled to air on the September 1, 2014 edition of Raw, but was moved up to August 25th.
Another small change was made at the last minute on Raw. Rusev vs. Swagger was not on the original Raw script, and instead Cesaro was booked against Swagger for the US Title shot. This was changed to RVD vs Cesaro when the decision was made to change to Rusev vs Swagger. Both versions involved Swagger jobbing and later being taunted backstage by Bo Dallas.
