Money in the Bank Review

Hello! It's another PPV Review- and there's no time to waste, let's jump head first into the complete cesspit that was Last Night.

Pre-Show: R-Truth v King Barrett
I said a few weeks ago that the only reason they had Barrett win the King of the Ring was to make him drop the Bad News thing that was getting over- and I was wrong, it was also to make him look like a complete idiot week-in week-out. Considering what happened last night I'm semi-convinced Sheamus is on the Creative team and after Barrett made fun of Sheamus for his Antler King of the Ring gimmick he went "I'll show him". It's annoying as well because while I don't watch the Games of the Thrones I sort of know what it's about and they could have made Barrett a really cool, relevant "king" based off of it. The actual match itself was decent for what it was- and Truth is just naturally entertaining so it sort of works going forward, but there's no way Barrett should be in that position in the first place.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Right. I'm not 100% against Sheamus' win last night I'm just going to throw it out there, while I would have preferred Kofi or even Roman the potential for Sheamus vs Brock is in the back of my mind- and depending on style's you love to see that will either be your Match of the Year or one of the contenders, I've said repeatedly since Sheamus came back that I love pure Heel Sheamus who comes in beats the hell out of people and leaves- does that mean I wanted him to win Money in the Bank? No.

I was happy up until it became clear who was going to win because I called the Bray attack on Roman- and while it's obvious who's going to win the feud it's good to see they're giving Bray something to sink his teeth into Promo wise again and the motivations for the feud will be interesting. The actual Match was- well it was interesting, not necessarily to say it was good though. I think these Money in the Bank matches are hurt to no end just because you're comparing them to the matches that preceded them at Mania and these Multi-Man matches just feel like one person at a time does their stuff before getting taken out rinse and repeat, and it takes away the chaotic and unpredictable feel for these Money in the Bank matches. I'm not saying I'd like more spots or anything- just make it more chaotic like a multi-man ladder match should be.

The finish was "interesting"- there was just a palpable switch in the crowd where the finish just sucked the life out of it, which makes putting the match on first even more of a stupid decision. So, it could have gone better in short.

Nikki Bella v Paige- Divas Title
Up until the finish these two had me mildly interested- which by Divas Standard is a feat in and of itself. Paige's promo before hand saying she was going to do it for Dusty had me convinced she was going to win. Babyfaces shouldn't make promises that they can't keep- and when they "Swear to God" or as Paige did say she was doing for it Dusty that's a similar thing, the example that's fresh in my head is when Rock swore to god he'd beat Punk, that confirmed- if it hadn't already that Rock was winning because if a Babyface fails to live up to their promises then they just look awful. But the finish for this match was just awful and well and truly burst the Balloon that was ever so slightly rising as a result of the match. I think I summed it up best last night when I said if there was a way to sum up the standard of the Divas Division at the minute it's that. I'm not even going to give you a rant on the topic because it's simply not worth the energy.

Big Show v Ryback- IC Title
This match had such a limited time-frame of what would already be a slow-paced match there isn't really anything of note to talk about other than the finish. I said in my Predictions that I didn't think there'd be a 1,2,3 finish because we had the Shellshocked on Monday and I was proven right- I don't always mind DQ Finishes- I just think because of people's general mood at this point of the PPV everyone was getting fed up with the Bad Finishes, but now I've slept on it I don't really mind the DQ finish because it creates an interesting dynamic for the Triple Threat that'll inevitable follow and Miz's involvement means we won't get a full painfully slow match.

John Cena v Kevin Owens
This PPV was generally bad bordering on offensive, but wow did this match deliver. I said in my Review a couple of weeks ago that something was missing to make it a 5* match- whatever that was be it the crowd or something just clicking last night's match was the lightning in a bottle all the wrestlers go out there for every night. I make the odd Cena joke but it's always dripping in sarcasm because while I hate his character and his general stale persona he is always putting on at least one MOTY contender every year- and by my reckoning he's been in two this year and we're only half way through. It's getting to the point where Cena really is the Benchmark for all of the young talent coming through in that if they can't have a good match against Cena then maybe they aren't really all that because Cena has great chemistry with such a diverse range of wrestlers. While going into the match I would have obviously preferred Owens won, this match got Owens over as much if not more so than if he'd won. Cena hit Owens with all of his best shots- and even brought out new moves like the Sunset Flip Powerbomb and Owens kicked out of it all, to the point where Good Guy John was arguing with Chioda.

The stuff that happened after the match took this match as a segment to Perfection. I was afraid for a second that Owens was just going to accept the Handshake and go back to NXT knowing he gave it his best. Instead we got Owens Powerbombing Cena onto the edge of the ring which is going to be great for the I believe 5 week build they have between now and Battleground. I think it'll be something along the lines of Cena costing Owens the NXT Title at the July 4th thing before they move Owens fully up to the Main Roster and they hopefully Main Event Battleground for the US Title- because their feud up to this point is deserving of it.

Primetime Players v New Day- Tag Title
This is when I completely lost it with this PPV. The highlights of the last few months have been Cena's Open Challenge/Owens Feud and The New Day- and not really much else. So of course they had New Day drop the Belts to the PTP who have only looked good for approximately two and a half weeks. It's not that I don't like the PTP- but the New Day are streets ahead of the PTP and should have kept the belts for a little while longer at least.

Seth Rollins v Dean Ambrose- WWEWHC
This whole thing including entrances and post match went for pretty much 50 Minutes and I was engaged the whole time. Ladder Matches have a tendency to become Spot-Fests and lose the storytelling aspect, Spot-Fests are fine but you'll never get a truly great match that is a Spot-Fest. This on the other hand had great ring psychology to it from the start- and aside from the Finish Rollins looked great- and for the first time really since he won the Belt he looked like a legitimate champion- and guess who Predicted that would happen, Yup. Wrestling God. The finish was a good way to go in terms of protecting Ambrose- but I don't think it would have necessarily been a bad move to have Ambrose end the match buried under the Ladders and Chairs because he'd been killed for the best part of 30 Minutes of the Match so I don't think it would have hurt Ambrose for Rollins to simply get the Belt. I understand the Never Give Up story they told with Ambrose- but there's a point when Never Giving Up just turns to completely no-selling the brutality with which Rollins had approached the match and Ambrose with. I'm not saying it crossed that line- but it got really close.

The little interview they did after had Cash-In written all over it, and as I've been saying for a while I think they're angling for Trips against Seth- but I'm interested to see how a returning Brock fits into that equation.

Thanks for reading as always, this whole PPV just felt really sterilised and clean which just isn't good enough- despite the PPV having one- arguably two Match of the Year contenders the PPV left me completely cold- but hey, the next PPV is in a week so hopefully they address it all. No, but seriously we have five weeks until Battleground with the only real detour being the July 4th special so hopefully we get answers to a lot, and I mean a lot of unanswered questions posed from Last Night. Anyway, thanks again for reading- stay tuned for the RAW Review tomorrow and beyond if everything goes to plan I'll have something to announce soon as well, and I hope you join me on Twitter for RAW tonight- if we all ignore what happened maybe New Day will get the Belts back- Yes, I'm very SOOOOOOOWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHH.