So I’m faced with an impossible choice. Game 7 or Money In The Bank. I chose the latter and kept track of the score on Bleacher Report. Game 7’s tend to give a lot of mini heart attacks.
The New Day (C) def. The Club, The Vaudevillians and Enzo Amore and Big Cass – WWE Tag Team Championship (Fatal Four Way)
The outcome wasn’t really in question, but I wanted to see how WWE would execute this match. Normally, tag team title matches involving multiple teams are normally well executed. This one, well, I wasn’t really feeling this. There was some sort of sloppiness to the match that I didn’t like. A lot of the moves weren’t crisp, the timing of some moves were sort of out of sync, and Enzo and Cass should technically be champions since there was a 3 count. It wasn’t downright horrible, and I think that this was the wise choice to begin the night’s festivities, but it just didn’t click to me. Las Vegas seemed to think this was awesome for some reason, though. Whatever. **
Baron Corbin def. Dolph Ziggler
The crowd pretty much did the work for me, here. BORING. I’m convinced Corbin and Ziggler know each other’s personal lives at this point with how much time they spend with each other in the ring. This should have been scrapped last month, but WWE just HAD to have this match right? What are they going to have on the Summerslam PPV? An iron man match? Hopefully this is the very last we see of these two. No flow to this match. Literally nothing to see here. Match sort of got going towards the end, but didn’t amount to anything. I’ve rarely seen a former World Champion degraded to this level. Now this feud is finally over……until they meet tomorrow. *
Charlotte and Dana Brooke def. Becky Lynch and Natayla
Oh yeah, this is shaping up to be the best MITB in history, right Cole? This would pass as a RAW match, but again, this wasn’t anything special. I don’t know if WWE is trying to lull their crowd to sleep before the 3 important matches of the night, but if they are, it’s not working. There some good spots and Becky’s comeback was good, but other than that, nothing really over the top. Can we just get to the important stuff already? But Natayla is on the dark side now. Um, yay? **1/4
Apollo Crews def. Sheamus
I do not get the match placement with WWE tonight. We have yet to get to a match that matters at this point. Anyways, again, I just felt a RAW vibe here. It wasn’t bad or anything, but it was just…..well, there. The win is good for Apollo, because Sheamus does have some credibility as a former world champion, and hopefully this will give him momentum going forward. Otherwise, there wasn’t anything special about this match. Looks like to this day the almighty roll-up of doom is still very effective. You can carry on. **1/2
AJ Styles def. John Cena
Cena typically brings the goods at MITB, and I was looking forward to another classic with a world-class athlete. I thought these two had great chemistry and was building up to something great. Early on, they were playing up AJ’s superior wrestling and how Cena couldn’t gauge his movements until he slowed down the pace with his typical comeback moves. The reversal from the AA to the Calf Killer was also very impressive because it was done all in one motion. For all the filler, essentially that we got up to this match, I thought this should have gotten more time. When Cena wrestled guys like KO or CM Punk in recent years, they got time to build up to great finishing sequences. But, ahem, that finish? The one that a baby could have called out? Very lame finish. Now it is no secret that The Club was going to come out anyways, because as we all know, contracts and promises mean zilch in WWE. However, just to end the match with their run-in finisher and end the match like that after the crowd was getting hot and getting to the great stuff sort of blew off a lot of steam for me. It was sort of like when Brock Lesnar was kicking Cena’s ass at Extreme Rules four years ago but won after a chain shot to the head and an AA. There’s no doubt this feud is continuing to Battleground, and possibly Summerslam, so I’m sure that there will be much to be said about this. As for this match, while it wasn’t the amazing match of the year candidate that I wanted, it was still a very good match between these two athletes. However, it was a let-down in a way. An abrupt finish and it could have used more build-up. Oh, and by the way, JBL’s commentary during this match? Poo. ****
Dean Ambrose def. Sami Zayn, Chris Jericho, Cesaro, Kevin Owens and Alberto Del Rio – Money In The Bank Ladder Match
I anticipated Ambrose would win, no matter how much I wanted Kevin Owens to come away with the victory. Anyways, this was one of the better MITB ladder matches that I’ve seen. They had nice creativity with the ladders, and Alberto Del Rio, someone who I expected to be a non-factor had a lot of the better spots in the match. They integrated their wrestling moves with the ladders and I thought that it was a good sight to see. How about that Driver by Zayn to KO to the ladder? I mean, damn man? You want to kill him? Ambrose winning makes the Shield triple threat now all but inevitable, but as for this match, it was greatly played. There was brutality with the ladders, every man played their role well, and while it probably won’t be remembered as the better ones, this was a very good ladder match. ****
Rusev (C) def. Titus O’Neil
This was really just an extended RAW fight. Titus really never had a chance and everything was a formality. Considering how much filler there was tonight, my eyes were burning when I saw this, because each minute this match dragged on I wanted to rip my hair out because we knew who was winning. This was okay, and nothing more. I did LOVE Rusev going to Titus’ son after the match and rubbing it in his face on Father’s Day. See, that’s a heel for you right there. No political correctness. Moving on. **
Seth Rollins def. Roman Reigns (C) – WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Dean Ambrose def. Seth Rollins (C) – WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Okay, between this and Cleveland winning the championship, this was a lot to digest so let me break it down the best way I can. From what I was watching, Reigns/Rollins was LOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG. I mean, the PPV went about 30 minutes past 11. And a camera angle showed a lot of empty seats if my eyes didn’t betray me. About the match, while I thought it could have been a bit shorter, it picked up in a big way with a tremendous amount of near-falls. This was probably their best one on one matchup, but the big surprise, of course, was Seth winning. And winning cleanly. Someone can fact check me on this, but I think that’s Roman’s first clean loss in a singles match in his career. Of course, throughout the match, they were teasing Roman turning heel with his out-of-the-ordinary brutality and trash talk. Seth’s resillency was that of a face and I believe the turn has come full circle. WWE never ceases to amaze me that they can shock us at any time. Seth Rollins going over Roman clean was highly unprecedented in his first match back. It just seemed unrealistic that Roman would drop the belt to the man who he had to beat to validate his reign, and it just sets Roman back a bit here. And the bigger shock, of course, is Dean finally getting the rub as WWE Champion. Seth Rollins defeated Dean Ambrose in a ladder match for the belt last year at this PPV. It’s amazing to see everything come full circle now. It was amazing to see live. I was trying to juggle this and watching the end of the game, but it was amazing to see Dean cash in and turn the tables on Seth, no matter how much I may not like Ambrose. So now all three members of The Shield have won the WWE Championship. It looks like this trio-feud may last into Summerslam, but it’s interesting to see who will come out on top after this episode. Props to WWE for pulling the trigger on Dean. He’s paid his dues. As for the match, it was long, but it picked up in a big way towards the end. ****
Conclusion:
Here’s the thing. Would I watch this PPV in its entirety again? Hell no. Far too long to get to the good stuff and that first hour and a half was pure fluff. I would think WWE would do something along the liens of having the ladder match in the first hour, Cena/Styles in the second and Roman/Rollins to even things out, but we must do things the complicated way. It was hard to get into the matches because WWE foolishly decided to have all the matches not a lot of people care about stacked on top of each other essentially. It sort of messed up the flow for me, but it didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the three main events. All were at least four stars in my opinion, so that’s good enough for me to reccommend this show on purely that basis. But only watch for those three matches. Nothing else worth seeing here. Sorry Cole, but this was not the best MITB of all time. Until next time. Oh yeah, and THE CAVS ARE THE CHAMPS BABY!!!!
