Money in the Bank Review 06/19/16

Hello Misfits! It’s only been hours since Money in the Bank went off the air and damn was it ever an unforgettable event. I enjoyed the show top to bottom and the ending didnt have me mark out just once but twice. I never watched the kick off show, but from what I heard the two matches on the kick off weren’t must see or anything. I saw clips from the Fandango/Breeze match, and to be honest I think there is room for comedy in wrestling and it looked pretty damn funny. Anyway, Ill be kicking off my MITB review straight from the main show. I ended up being 5-5 with my predictions and that was not including the surprise ending.

Money in the Bank comes live from Las Vegas and it sold out crowd.

WWE Tag Team Championship Fatal Four Way
The New Day (C) def. Enzo & Cass, The Vaude Villans & The Club
in 8:22 via pinfall.
The promos before this match from Enzo & Cass and the New Day were great. New Day insulted every team in the match and it was actually pretty funny. I think I actually chuckled out loud when they compared Enzo and Cass to Han Solo and Chewbacca. They also threw a shot at the Bullet Club by referring to themselves as the “elite” team of the wrestling world. The match quickly broke out into an all out brawl. Every team had chance of being in charge. There were times it looked Enzo and Cass or the Club were going to win but in the end the New Day retained their tag team titles to continue their historic reign. This was a great way to open the show. It was fast paced, hard hitting and super entertaining. There were a lot of cool spots and sequences during the match. There was an awkward moment during the finish, where I think Cass came in too late which kind of made Gallows look silly just staring at Big E carrying his tag team partner Gallows on his shoulder. Kofi pinned Aiden English for the victory. Overall it was pretty fun match to watch and really showed the great state the tag team division is in right now.
Rating – ***1/4

– Kevin Owens was being interviewed by Tom Phillips when he was interuppted by both Chris Jericho and Alberto Del Rio. This was a really funny and entertaining segment. Kevin Owens and Jericho were hilarious and Del Rio being involved in the promo made it even better. Check it out if you missed it.

Baron Corbin def. Dolph Ziggler
via pinfall
The blowoff (hopefully) to the Corbin and Ziggler feud. Is it me or is Ziggler starting to look and act more and more like Shawn Michaels. If you replaced the skulls on his tights with hearts, they pretty much looked like HBK tights. Anyway, the match wasn’t bad but it wasn’t amazing either. It was just a good wrestling match. Ziggler is great in the ring and great at making other wrestlers look good, thats a fact. Corbin is a big dude and relies more on his power, which he utilized both his size and power during this match. There was one spot where it looked like Ziggler tripped but they recovered from that quickly with a dope deep six. In the end Corbin wins after hitting a “End of Days”.
Rating – **

Charlotte & Dana Brook def. Natalya & Becky Lynch
via pinfall.
Charlotte and Dana came out rocking this brand new red gear. Charlotte looked great and I really liked the new red robe and stuff. I wonder if when she turned babyface again in the future, if she’ll continue with the robes and stuff. Becky Lynch and Natalya came out to great crowd reactions. The match itself was decent but nothing special. Charlotte, Becky and Natalya did great but Dana still hasn’t grown on me. There was funny part during the match when Natalya was trying to make the hot tag to Becky. Natalya got so close to Lynch that she couldn’t move any closer or it would seem silly if she didnt make the tag so she kind of swarmed around in that one spot until Charlotte finally made it back to the ring to pull her away. In the end a distraction from Dana while Charlotte was in the sharpshooter, led to Natalya release the hold only to be caught with a natural selection and pinned. I wasn’t expecting Charlotte and Dana to go over so it was surprising, however not as surprising as what happened after the match. Natalya out of frustrations I could only assumed attacked Becky Lynch from behind. Yet, another one of Becky’s friends have turned on her and its really intriguing stuff. However, that really killed my idea of Becky and Nattie being the first ever Women’s Tag Team Champions. Hmm..I guess it could still happen, if they were forced to team.
Rating – *1/2

– There was backstage interview with Ambrose who talked about the Money in the Bank and the main event for the night. It almost like there was a hint here that Ambrose was gonna win the ladder match and then cash in tonight. I swear I felt it.

Apollo Crews def. Sheamus
via pinfall.
In this war against the New Era, Sheamus takes on Apollo Crews. This was another solid wrestling match. Apollo did some impressive stuff for a guy his size, however anyone who has seen him wrestle in the independents or on NXT wouldn’t be so surprised with Apollo’s ability. Sheamus also held his own and looked like he had it in the bag but when being in a state of shock that he only got two count, Apollo gets a pinfall victory by rolling Sheamus up.
Rating – **

AJ Styles def. John Cena
via pinfall.
In one of the most anticipated matches we thought we would never see in a squared circle, we had AJ Styles and John Cena face each other for the first time ever. The crowd was electric for this match and everyone’s expectations were high. I know I was getting hyped for the match just from the video package before the match. However, the problem with having high expectations is that its hard for anything to really live up to them. The match wasn’t great or a 5 star classic, but it was good. I feel like our expectations and the finish changed how we perceived it. The match started off slow and they made Styles look strong. It was almost as if Styles did he research and watched some Cena matches because he was always a step ahead of Cena and having the perfect reversal for all of Cena’s usual offence. The match picked up and went back and fourth for a bit, but it just never hit third gear. There was a spot I think where Styles was meant to catch Cena and hit the Styles Clash but it didn’t follow through and it ended up being a pretty cool looking power bomb. There was some more back and fourth between the two and some near falls. Cena finally hit the AA but during the struggle to do so, the referee got knocked down. Gallows and Anderson made their way down to the ring and took out Cena with the Magic Killer and dragged Styles on top of Cena. The ref got back up and counted the three, and AJ Styles was your winner of this dream match. There were some high spots and cool moments but by no means was this classic match. It was a good match but it was not one of Cena’s or Styles best matches. I wasn’t a fan of the interference finish, and I would have rather seen Styles win clean. However, he is a heel and I do suspect a rematch for next months Battleground. Imagine a Elimination Chamber version of War Games featuring The Club against Cena and two partners of his choosing. I know thats not going to happen but it would be cool. Regardless, this was match was good but it couldn’t live up to our expectations.
Rating – ***1/2

Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Dean Ambrose def. Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Alberto Del Rio & Chris Jericho
when obtaining the Money in the Bank briefcase.
When was the last time there was a one on one ladder match on the main roster? I was just curious, if you have the answer comment below. This is the match that the PPV is named after and one of the most anticipated matches of the year. To be completely honest, Ive slowly become less of a fan of multi man ladder matches because there is a lot of time where guys are just knocked out of the ring laying around doing nothing and the psychology factor that makes wrestling an art is thrown out the window. However, when it’s fun to watch, its fun to watch and this match was certainly fun to watch. Of course, it’s a lot of what you expected with the high spots and cool things you can do with ladders. A lot of spots stood out to me but I’m not going to share all of them, you should just watch the match. There was one spot that really stood out to me and that was when Zayn hit the Michinoku Driver on Kevin Owens right onto a ladder. It just made you cringe watching from home. The suspense that anyone could win at any moment was there and every superstar made winning seem super important. Everyone involved in this match had the spotlight on them hitting some of their signature and some creative offence at some point, which was cool. I was really pulling for Owens and the WWE must of known many people were because they made it seem like Owens had the win until Ambrose appeared last minute knocking Owens off the ladder to win. I really was looking forward to Owen’s being Mr. Money in the Bank but considering how the night ended, Ambrose winning made total sense. If you wanna watch a fun match full of spots and chaos with some of the WWE’s top talent, check this out.
Rating – ***

United States Championship
Rusev (C) w/Lana def. Titus O’ Neil
via Sumbisson.
Damn, did Lana look fine or did Lana look fine? This was another one those matches that wasn’t bad, it was a really good technical match but at the same time it wasn’t a classic by any means. Titus brought the fight to Rusev, but in the end Rusev is victorious making Titus tap out with the accolade. There isn’t much to say about this match besides it was great little break between two big matches and the main event. The highlight of the match was when Rusev cut a quick promo after the match wishing Titus’s kids who were at ringside a Happy Father Day, after mocking them about their dad being a loser. Quality heel stuff. This is the Rusev I missed.
Rating – **1/2

WWE World Championship
Seth Rollins def. Roman Reigns (C)
via pinfall.
The match everyone has been wanting to see on a big event but never could due to injuries was finally happening. I’m aware they’ve wrestled at live events, on Raw and on Smackdown but never on a big event. The uncrowned champion and the current champion raged war to find out who the real champion really is. The crowd was hyped for this match as well, with that same electric feel. This match had to be the best match of the night. If anyone says Roman can’t wrestle, really needs to check out his matches from the past three or four PPV’s while he was champion. These two brought their A-game and it was great to see Rollins back in the ring for the first time since November of last year. This match had all the elements of a great match. The storytelling was great, there were false finishes, near falls, new moves introduced to both of their offences and the crowd was involved in the match. If there was one match I would come back to watch from this event, it would most likely be this one. I highly recommend this match to anyone who wants to see a wrestling match filled with suspense and cool maneuvers. If you’re a huge Roman or Rollins fan, you must definitely watch this match. When Rollins picked up the win after the pedigree it was almost surreal. I actually did not think WWE was going to give up on Roman Reigns and his reign this soon after Wrestlemania, but it happened. Rollins got hurt…Rollins return…Rollins was redesigned, rebuilt and he reclaimed the title he never lost. I really enjoyed this match.
Rating – ****1/4

Money in the Bank Cash In
WWE World Championship
Dean Ambrose def. Seth Rollins (C)
One could easily have predicted that when Ambrose won the Money in the Bank match there was chance he could cash in during the match between his two former Shield teammates (I did on Twitter), but no one was for sure…until it happened. Dean Ambrose’s music hit as Rollins was celebrating with the title, and as Rollins waited for Ambrose to come down the ramp but Ambrose came from the crowd and hit Rollins in the head with his briefcase before officially cashing in his MITB contract. One Dirty Deeds later and Ambrose is finally the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. I mentioned earlier this year around Road Block (check out the Road Block review) that Dean Ambrose would be the WWE Champion by the end of 2016, and boy I was not wrong. There has been a handful of mark out moments this year. There was Style’s debuting, Shane returning and now this.Not only did Ohio win the NBA finals with the Cavs beating Golden State but now Ohio got another win with their hometown boy Dean Ambrose winning the WWE Title. It’s crazy to think all the Shield members have now won the WWE World Title and not only that, but on this particular show they all held the title within the same half hour. The Shield rules the WWE Universe.
Rating – Not rateable.

Final Thoughts
This PPV is worth a watch if you missed it. I consider it to be one of the best PPV’s of 2016 thus far. If you include the kick off show, this event had everything you’d want from a wrestling show. The Vegas crowd was loud and involved when necessary which always elevates a show. There was no Stephanie or Shane McMahon drama on this show, which I enjoyed because they can overshadow the matches at times and it leaves you wondering how they’re going to react tomorrow on Raw. Speaking about Raw, this show left you with so many reasons to tune in tomorrow. What is next for the Shield members? How will the Dean Ambrose celebrate becoming champion? How does Cena react to Styles cheating to beat him? Why did Natalya attack Becky Lynch? Who’s next for Charlotte? There is so much more to speculate about. Overall, if you want to watch a show that gives you great wrestling, fun matches, spot fests, suspense and drama, Money in the Bank 2016 won’t let you down. Remember to watch wrestling without these high expectations and you’ll continue to see the beauty in what they do produce.

Final Rating – 8.5/10

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Let me know your opinions and feelings towards Money in the Bank.