Tonight’s installment of Money In The Bank comes to you LIVEEEE from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. You know, usually I’d try and be optimistic, but after the absolute bloodbath the NXT roster left in their wake at TakeOver, all the main roster can do is just try and hope for the best. MITB is a bloated card that could almost be cut in half, but we’ll just have to see what happens.
Preshow
Match #1: The Bludgeon Brothers vs Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson- Smackdown Tag-Team Championships match
I mean, I’m not head over heels excited about this one but I love everyone involved so why the hell not. I’d rather see this on the main card instead of Roman/Jinder or Cass/Bryan if it meant they got some time to play. Harper and Gallows pounding away at each other is something I can get into.
Winners: The Bludgeon Brothers
Main Card
Match #1: Roman Reigns vs Jinder Mahal
At this point, this belongs on the preshow. No one in the right mind believes that Roman, the guy who beats almost everyone all the time, is losing to a guy who was only enhanced by a championship run that overstayed its welcome. If it was anyone else I’d be like “Oh, maybe that’s why they’ll do it”, but they’d be nuts to feed Roman to Jinder if they are indeed doing Roman/Lesnar again at Summerslam.
Also, this feud has been boring. No offense.
Winner: Roman Reigns
Match #2: Daniel Bryan vs Big Cass
This belongs on the preshow too. We’ve already seen this match, where Bryan made Cass tap out clean, so there’s no point in this program continuing. However, they have insisted on pushing it down our throats for some reason, having Cass cost Bryan opportunities at the MITB ladder match on multiple occasions when clearly that’s a spot he should be in at this point. WWE loves 50/50 booking, so I would not be surprised to see them attempt, and fail, to build up Cass further by having him beat Bryan.
Winner: Big Cass
Match #3: Carmella vs Asuka- Smackdown Women’s Championship match
Really though, Asuka is only challenging Carmella because everyone else is either occupied or not ready for the opportunity. While Carmella has improved, there’s almost no way Asuka will get all that great of a match out of her. It seems like a foregone conclusion that she’ll walk out with the title easy, which would be REALLY underwhelming considering everything she had to do to get to Charlotte and her title at Mania only to fall short, but something tells me she won’t. Wouldn’t you want her to beat someone on Charlotte’s level for that title instead of some cop out win against a girl she would have squashed in three minutes a few years ago in NXT?
Winner: Carmella via shenanigans
Match #4: Seth Rollins vs Elias- Intercontinental Championship match
This match will be one of the few saving graces of a card with generally no real interest behind it. Seth and Elias, particularly the former, are easily two of the most if not the most over guys in the company right now. Rollins is for sure on the roll of his career, but having him fall to Elias here would be an excellent way to get him into the Universal Title picture. Lesnar/Rollins at Summerslam has been talked about, but Lord knows that plan lasted for two seconds before Vince crossed it out and went back to Roman/Lesnar.
Winner: Elias
Match #5: Ember Moon vs Sasha Banks vs Natalya vs Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch vs Alex Bliss vs Naomi vs Lana- Women’s Money In The Bank Ladder match
I’m not as excited for this one as I should be. Maybe because Ruby Riot isn’t in it. Hmmmmmm
In all seriousness, I’m not worried about them at all after last year, even though the inaugural women’s ladder match wasn’t perfect. Ember, Sasha and Naomi will shine brightest, but I don’t think any of them will end up the winner. There have been rumblings that Natalya could win in order to spark some sort of feud with Ronda down the line, but I really hope they don’t throw the match away over that. While I think the Natalya/Ronda story will be important in Ronda’s growth, I don’t want the MITB contract, something that could really help elevate someone, given to someone who is essentially fodder for a bigger picture.
If it’s me, I give it to Becky. It’s been a long time coming, and WWE have continued to not utilize her the right away just to spite the fans.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Match #6: Bobby Lashley vs Sami Zayn
Here’s a match that I’d be really excited to see 99% of the time, but because of the absolutely embarrassing, horrid buildup to it, I’m almost going to have a hard time separating it from the match itself. Lashley has proven to be pretty bland since returning the night after Mania, but that shouldn’t be news to anyone, as he’s always been bland. Sami has had to carry this program through, but with the worst writing imaginable. I’m sure he’ll carry Bobby to an excellent match as well, bumping around like a lunatic in order to really sell Lashley’s strength and athleticism, but they really killed the whole vibe of this.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
Match #7: Bobby Roode vs Kevin Owens vs Braun Strowman vs Finn Balor vs Rusev vs The Miz vs Samoa Joe vs Kofi Kingston, Big E OR Xavier Woods- Men’s Money In The Bank Ladder match
First off, I’m REALLY hoping that the New Day member included in the match is Big E. Sure, there’s already a few big men in the match already, but I wanna see what he can do, alone, in that situation. I think he’d thrive.
As for the rest of them, this has the potential to top NXT’s ladder match from TakeOver: New Orleans. It’s really interesting, because Finn Balor is really the only out of the bunch that really fits the mold of a ladder match specialist, but then you have Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe, who have not touched each other since their brief encounter in NXT years back, but who could really be the catalysts, the leaders, in this scenario. Braun Strowman has seemed unstoppable leading up to this moment, and as interesting as a Strowman cash-in would be on Lesnar, I don’t think they need to give him a second huge accolade, the first being the Greatest Royal Rumble win, in the span of a month and a half.
For me, it’s down to Samoa Joe and Finn Balor, as it could really benefit both longterm, but I think it’s got to be Joe. He can terrorize the Smackdown champion, whoever it may be after tonight, with the contract, becoming the face of that brand in the process.
Winner: Samoa Joe
Match #8: Ronda Rousey vs Nia Jax- RAW Women’s Championship match
I think people are getting too butthurt about Nia “bullying” Ronda throughout this program. Ronda is still a face who doesn’t really know how to express herself adequately on the mic in the professional wrestling sense just yet, and up until this thing got going, Nia was also a face. One who finally took the prize she had deserved by the friend who had been holding her back for so long. How boring of a feud would it have been if it had all been friendly bs? The build to Nakamura/AJ at Mania wasn’t thrilling for that exact reason.
I’d feel really bad if Nia lost the title on just her second defense of it, but putting Ronda on a rocketship and having her take it all right away could be a smart move business wise. It could also back her into a corner she’s not ready to get out of yet, as she still does have so much to learn. A feud with Natalya over the title is a given, but they should build that up for it to have a real effect on people/
Winner: Ronda Rousey
Match #9: Shinsuke Nakamura vs AJ Styles- Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship
The Last Man Standing match is designed perfectly for the heel to win, automatically. If a face wins, they just had their opponent down for a 10 count, which should signify the end of a feud right there. As much as I would have loved to see Shinsuke win a world title by standard pinfall or submission, they very well might have him do it in this fashion, but they’re going to have to be dramatic about it. I don’t want him standing there over him the whole time, because then that kills any chance of AJ getting a shot at redemption.
Not that anyone really wants to see AJ get that shot after how much this program, which should have been incredible, has somewhat floundered. A year ago it was sacred, and now we’ve seen it way too many times with seemingly no end in sight. It’s very frustrating, but we can only hope that the pull the trigger on Nakamura here, because if they don’t, they never will.
Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura
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