Wow, Time swooshes past us faster than we can even imagine.
It seemed like yesterday that we had Wrestlemania 36 and before we know it, it's Money in the Bank time. So, that means WWE has dished out another PPV and I'm going to write a review about it, to the best of my ProWrestling knowledge. I know I'm delayed by a few days, to be honest and I'm sorry for that.
Now, again, this is a PPV without any audience, mostly taking place at the Performance Center. It is again going to feel like watching a Christopher Nolan movie without Hans Zimmer's work in the background. But, we've got to learn to live with it.
(Wait, did I just compare a WWE PPV with a Christopher Nolan movie. Yikes, I'm sorry, Nolan.)
Let's jump right into it.
Match #1: Jeff Hardy vs Cesaro
Well, this went exactly as expected. Jeff Hardy vs Cesaro was every bit of "High flyer vs Powerhouse" that we could imagine. Their different wrestling styles made this a very good match to watch.
Cesaro took control of Jeff early on. The latter managed to get some offense in the match only to be subdued again by The Swiss Superman. Cesaro was in control for a major part of the match and he didn't look weak at all before the 28 year veteran Jeff Hardy. I was really happy about that. At one point, Cesaro hit a Gutwrench Suplex off the top rope, which was an absolute treat to watch. In the end, Hardy manages to overpower his opponent and win with the Swanton Bomb.
The match was rightly paced and went on for a proper time which is more than I could say for the Wrestlemania 36 kickoff matches. This one held my interest and made me care about the match in a splendid way. I was hoping to see Sheamus get involved in some form in this match, but he didn't.
The show begins and we're right into it.
The introductory video package was better than Wrestlemania 36, in my opinion. It managed to get me interested in what was about to take place next.
Match #2: The New Day (c) vs The Miz & John Morrison vs Lucha House Party vs The Forgotten Sons for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship
Before the match even began, Big E threw his jacket off which flew and knocked Corey Graves's headset off. For some reason, I found that really funny.
Kofi and Gran Metalik start the match and as expected they trade a bit of athleticism in the beginning. Metalik (Lucha House Party, in general) have started to grow on me and I was very much excited to see how they would fare in this match. And sure enough, Metalik and Morrison hit a spanish fly right on top of other competitors in a worthwhile spot. The former also spikes Steve Cutler of The Forgotten Sons with a tornado DDT as soon as the action returns to the ring. I found that spot worth mentioning too. The in-ring action was explosive during this match and like Michael Cole mentioned, it had a "frantic pace".
Big E finally hits the Big Ending on Metalik causing The New Day to retain the SmackDown tag team championship.
This match was really good. It set up the PPV off to a good start, giving it a good momentum to move forward. It seems like WWE would continue with a storyline between The New Day and The Forgotten Sons and I'm all for it. As long as they don't flush The Forgotten Sons down the toilet like they did with The Ascension, I'm okay with it.
Match #3: R-Truth vs MVP
This was basically a filler match. Before it begins, Truth tries to teach MVP how to do the Ballin' in what seemed to be a comedy, but it didn't really make me laugh. It made me smile though, I guess that counts.
Bobby Lashley makes his way out and it seems like he's taking MVP's spot in the match-up. He just tears through Truth and squashes him. Lashley is the winner.
Perhaps, the WWE is eyeing for Lashley to be managed by MVP and that wouldn't be a bad thing, in my opinion. Anything better than a screaming, cringe-worthy Lana by his side.
Match #4: Bayley (c) vs Tamina for the SmackDown Women's Championship
Tamina begins the match by mowing through Bayley in the beginning. But soon, the latter gets back in the swing of things and manages to work the leg of Tamina. The match is a little slower than the previous matches on the PPV.
I really appreciate how Bayley has managed to cultivate a bad attitude for her heel role. At first, I thought Heel Bayley wasn't a good thing but now I have developed a soft spot for her. Even in this match, her trash talking, asking for a time out and even at one point, pouring water on Tamina's face, were classic heel attitude and she is doing a good job out of it.
Sasha Banks helps Bayley retain the title. I expected their friendship drama to take the next step but it didn't. WWE is playing these cards slowly, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Match #5: Braun Strowman (c) vs Bray Wyatt for Universal Championship
Thankfully, we got a match between Bray Wyatt and Braun instead of The Fiend vs Braun. It is a good move by the WWE. That way, they have managed to keep both The Fiend and Braun Strowman safe from each other while also managing to go ahead with the wonderful story that these two have in their history.
The first thing that impressed me about this match (and all other Bray Wyatt's matches) was Bray's characterisation. They have made Bray Wyatt different from The Fiend which adds to the creepiness surrounding his gimmick. Even while making him different, they have also managed to book him strongly. That is a good piece of story writing.
Braun gets the upper hand in the match at first and tells Bray that he's not the same boy he used to be. Wyatt, then gains control and even shows a bit of pain while hurting Braun which can be attributed to the characterisation I mentioned before.
Strowman kicks out of Sister Abigail. He then wears the black sheep mask and seems to reconcile with Bray, causing the latter to cry out in joy. The Firefly fun house puppets cheer them on but Braun throws the mask down and stamps on it. He then hits the powerslam for the win, telling Bray that he did it all on his own.
A good match with good storytelling.
Match #6: Drew McIntyre (c) vs Seth Rollins for WWE Championship
Seth Rollins has debuted a new theme song for his 'Monday Night Messiah' gimmick. It doesn't seem very good but I'm pretty sure all of us will get used to it before this month ends.
Drew McIntyre draws the first blood in the match but Rollins steps up his game later on. He works on Drew's legs, screaming that it is his 'destiny' to be WWE Champion. We see some good execution of moves from both the wrestlers. Drew comes back into the match with his intense, hard-hitting style. He kicks out at 1 from some moves as the announcers hype his 'resiliency' and reminisce about how he kicked out of Brock Lesnar's F5 at 1 at Wrestlemania.
Seth hits a Superplex followed by a Falcon Arrow, which is my favourite move of his. Drew then launches him off the top rope in an impressive throw. It is followed soon by a Claymore which leads to Drew gaining the victory and retaining his championship.
These two have a fantastic in-ring chemistry and they have delivered what could be considered Match of the Night and maybe even a Match of the Year candidate. McIntyre and Rollins shake hands after the match, displaying a good sportsmanship.
Money In The Bank matches
Let me say this. It really was the most unique Money in the Bank match in history!!
With both the Women's and Men's matches happening at the same time, at WWE Headquarters, this match had plenty of action and fun-filled moments.
The men start fighting in the gym while we see Asuka dive onto the women from a higher floor. She then takes the elevator. We see special appearances from Stephanie McMahon, Bruce Prichard (as Brother Love), Doink the clown and John Laurinaitis during the match. Hell, we even got Paul Heyman and the boss, Vince McMahon himself. We get treated to a food war between the competitors of both the Women's and Men's matches with Paul Heyman witnessing it. AJ Styles is haunted by a poster of The Undertaker and even sees a room with his casket in it. Vince McMahon screams "OUT!" at Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles when they brawl inside his office, and later cleans his hands with hand sanitizer as soon as they leave.
(For those who want to know, yes, there is a Tyrannosaurus Rex Skull in his office.)
Finally we get to the roof where Asuka manages to grab the Women's Money in the Bank briefcase winning the Women's match.
Corbin then throws Rey Mysterio and Aleister Black off the roof (seemingly) and tries to get the briefcase and gets into a scuffle with AJ. They both end up taking the briefcase but, thanks to AJ's butterfingers and an interference by Elias, the briefcase falls into Otis's hands making him the winner of the Men's match.
A really worthy match with some good moments. Ofcourse, we didn't get to see men crashing from tall heights and smashing into ladders. We didn't get to see much action with the ladders, which is a disappointment. But the match made up for that, in my opinion.
Conclusion
This PPV was on par with Wrestlemania 36, if not better. It was certainly shorter than that and had some better matches.
I'm glad that WWE is putting good efforts to give us Entertainment during these trying times. I appreciate that. Especially giving us cinematic matches requires a lot more energy and creative process than just letting the performers perform in a ring. The fact that the company is ready to do that is admirable. I just hope that these cinematic matches don't get overdone and lose out their hype. (Frankly speaking, we have seen 4 cinematic matches in the past forty-five days.)
Overall, a really good PPV. Thank you WWE!
Keep giving us such good shit, Vinnie Mac!
