Yet another WWE pay-per-view was presented this past Sunday. This time it was Smackdown Live’s turn to host their brand-exclusive event, Money In The Bank.
It was certainly a newsworthy show and has got wrestling fans talking all over social media, but not all publicity is good publicity.
So has the WWE Universe responded so vocally to Money In The Bank because it was good, or because it was bad?
#1 Good – Men’s Money In The Bank match
Beginning on a positive note, the Men’s Money In The Bank match, which main evented the show was a great match.
The action was fast, furious and chaotic throughout and kept the audience guessing as to who would leave with the briefcase.
Ultimately it was Baron Corbin who earned himself the Money In The Bank contract, but it wasn’t just him that benefitted from this match. Sami Zayn in particular had a great performance and will hopefully continue to build on this recent momentum.
Also, WWE heavily teased a future feud between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura which got the St. Louis crowd off their feet. This main event match was just about enough to send the fans home happy, despite a fairly disappointing show overall, which we’ll get into later.
#2 Good – Usos vs New Day
Arguably the only other PPV-worthy match from Money In The Bank was the Tag Team championship match between The Usos and The New Day.
These two teams appeared to have great chemistry from the promos prior to MITB, and that translated to the in-ring action in this match. This was another tough match to call and the multiple false finishes suckered the fans in every time.
It was a very good first match in what looks set to be a series of matches between The Usos and New Day.
#3 Good – Lana wasn’t terrible
On a show that was bereft of many high points, a match that could be said to have over achieved was the Women’s Championship match.
This was mainly because Lana wasn’t terrible, so that’s good…I guess.
She wasn’t outstanding by any means and is clearly still learning the ropes, but the match was fine for the short time that it lasted and wasn’t the car crash it easily could have been.
With that being said, Lana is nowhere near the level of Smackdown Live’s other female talents and I expect her to drop out of the title scene fairly quickly.
#4 Good – Mike & Maria Kanellis
Another tentative ‘Good’ point from Money In The Bank was the return of Maria Kanellis and the debut of her real life husband Mike Bennet, now performing under the name of Mike Kanellis.
While it was an uninspiring debut for the married couple, anyone that has followed Maria since she departed WWE in 2010 knows that she has vastly improved since then and has done some good work in the likes of ROH, NJPW and Impact wrestling.
I hope that WWE have some plans for Mike and Maria Kanellis as I feel they could help flesh out Smackdown Live’s mid-card scene.
#5 Good – Good crowd
Despite Money In The Bank being a lacklustre show for the most part, the crowd in attendance remained fairly enthusiastic throughout.
They were invested in the action and participated at the right moments, particularly when their hometown hero, Randy Orton, came out for his WWE Championship match against Jinder Mahal.
Unfortunately, the liveliness from the crowd was not rewarded in this Championship match as Orton and Mahal put on a fairly dull contest.
#1 Bad – Mahal vs Orton
It’s fair to say that prior to becoming WWE Champion, Jinder Mahal was yet to have a truly great match in WWE during his two stints with the company.
It’s also fair to say that this is still the case, Mahal vs Orton at Backlash was passable and their Money In The Bank followed an almost identical formula.
The WWE Championship match this past Sunday was one of the most unimaginative in recent memory and did neither man any favours. The finish was almost exactly the same as Mahal and Orton’s previous bout, Orton took out the Singh brothers, which allowed Mahal to take advantage of the distraction to pick up the win.
This was another dull match and unfortunately, the finish suggests that the feud isn’t over,
#2 Bad – Fashion Police
As good as Breezango has been in recent weeks, nobody cared about their impromptu match against The Ascension at Money In The Bank.
There was another decent edition of Fashion Files which led to the match, but having Konnor & Viktor be revealed as the mystery attackers, who alos destroyed Breezango’s office a couple of weeks back, was yet more uninspired booking on WWE’s part.
Smackdown Live’s tag division has improved in recent weeks, but this was a low point. It would have been far better to have American Alpha revealed as the attackers, at least have Jordan and Gable do something!
#3 Bad – Tepid tag finish
Although, as I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed The Usos vs New Day match, the finish was disappointing.
The Usos eventually decided to walk out and lose by count-out, yet retain their Tag Team Championships. This was an okay finish in this specific case as it furthers the feud between them and the New Day, but I can’t be the only one that is sick of these screwy finishes.
It’s particularly annoying when it happens on pay-per-view, these shows are meant to be the pay-off and yet, in this case, the Tag Team Title match ended up being more of a transitional bout until we get the pay-off further down the line, which is fine, but please come up with a more imaginative way of doing this.
#4 Bad – Bland Womens’ MITB match
On to the most talked about match of the night, the first ever Women’s Money In The Bank match.
Before we get on to the finish of the match, it has to be said that the action during the bout was fairly bland. There were no memorable moments to speak of, Charlotte hitting a corkscrew dive onto Natalya and Tamina was probably the highlight of the match.
There were no ladder spots, no high-risk moves that will be remembered for years to come, it was just a very run of the mill ladder match which didn’t live up to the pre-match hype.
As for the finish…oh boy!
#5 Bad – Ellsworth wins?
James bloody Ellsworth, WWE’s resident killjoy. That’s who the ‘powers that be’ decided to stand tall at the end of the inaugural Women’s Money In The Bank ladder match.
This was supposed to be a significant moment in the rise of Women’s wrestling, yet it was a man that unhooked the briefcase at the conclusion of the match.
Why? It doesn’t make sense. All it does is put heat on Ellsworth, it does nothing for the Smackdown Live Women’s division.
Also, perhaps I’m reading into things too much, but ending the match with a man literally looking down on the female talents and handing the winner the briefcase seems like some not so subtle trolling from WWE.
Either way, this decision seems to have left a sour taste in everybody’s mouth and the first ever Women’s Money In The Bank will be looked at with disdain while fans are left to wonder what might have been.
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