Money in the Bank Review

On the Kickoff Show, R-Truth beat King Barrett because Barrett is a jobber. Anyway, to open the main show we got the actual Money in the Bank match. It started fun with a brawl and everyone trying to win which was cool. Coming into the match, I said that this was one of the weaker fields in this match's history and that proved right. I'm not saying this was bad but it wasn't up to par with past ones. Roman Reigns spent a lot of time outside, looking like he would pull a Royal Rumble again, where he barely performs and wins. He got close to winning only for Bray Wyatt to appear and take him out. So there goes a feud that Bray will lose yet again. Sheamus came in and went for the briefcase but Neville nearly stopped him. Sheamus knocked him down and retrieved the briefcase. He was the second best choice to win behind Reigns. I don't know if he'll win the belt down the line, but I'm also not a big fan of the idea behind Reigns/Bray. The match went about 21 minutes and was good, not great. ***1/4

Time for the Divas division to get some shine as Nikki Bella defended the belt against Paige. On the main roster, the best matches all year from Divas have been between Nikki Bella and Paige. One on Main Event and one on Raw. The Divas matches on PPV when involving Naomi were just flat out not very good. Here, Nikki and Paige did very well with their time and put on the best PPV main roster Divas match of 2015. The Bellas pulled twin magic, but it backfired as Paige pinned Brie to win the belt. The pop was pretty big but then Brie pulled out her bra stuffing to reveal that she's not Nikki. Paige kicks her, Nikki sneaks in and hits the Rack Attack to retain after 11 minutes. Good match but a shit finish. Why was there no DQ called? How could Nikki win after the bell rang? There was no restart. It's just lazy and illogical. I don't mind Paige/Nikki continuing because it's the best Divas rivalry we can get right now, but this was a poor ending. **3/4

Our third contest of the evening was for the Intercontinental Championship. Ryback defended against Big Show in a match that was really hard to care about. I'm not as against Ryback with the Intercontinental Title as some people are, but his first defense should not be against Big Show unless it's just to have Ryback Shell Shock him impressively. The Miz came out beforehand to cut a promo on Ohio and these two guys. He sat at ringside and after a few minutes of a dull match, he jumped in to cause the disqualification. I don't even know what's going on with the IC Title division right now. This was a TV finish that was used on PPV and I am not at all a fan. *1/4

On a show with two big time ladder matches, none is bigger than Owens vs. Cena II. John Cena was in rare form tonight, busting out moves that I've never seen him do before, even using Yoshi Tonic. Owens got to do the five moves of doom and they played off their first match. My only gripe with the match was there were a few too many false finishes on big moves. While it makes both guys look like supermen, it also hurts the moves being done. Even with that though, this was still a really good match. Cena was able to even the score as expected and wanted to raise Owens' hand out of respect after. Owens did so, only to kick him out of the ring and destroy him with the apron powerbomb. They went just under 20 minutes and despite losing, Owens looked great and left with both titles. Another great match between these two, though not as good as their first encounter. ****

The Tag Team Titles were defended next as Xavier Woods and Big E took on the Prime Time Players. Obviously from the photo I used, the Players captured the belts. I don't get this move. I like them, but there was barely any build for this. I get that New Day didn't have the advantage they would normally have, but still. I don't think I would have taken the belts off of New Day when they're one of the best acts in the company currently. The match itself was kind of just there and kept rather short at just about six minutes. It was an acceptable match, but nothing noteworthy except for the title change and to show that Titus O'Neil is kind of a beast. **

Before the final match, Seth Rollins got a major pep talk backstage from Triple H. This led to our main event, which got 36 minutes. I didn't expect that much but they did well with it. This was not the high spot ladder match that we've become accustomed to. It was a brutally smart ladder match, in the same vein as Rock/Triple H from SummerSlam 1998. I was happy about that because it's not something we've seen often. There were big bumps like Dean being powerbombed into the barricade and Seth powerbombing him onto ladders and chairs. Dean had his leg worked on but he didn't sell it enough for my taste, running around like a madman still. The end came as Seth and Dean both pulled the belt down, but the match was awarded to Seth. I appreciated that Seth actually looked vicious and won with no outside bullshit in a great match. ****. In the end, I'd give this show a middle of the pack score. I don't think it was very good but it's hard to give a bad score to a show that had two four star matches. It was a good in ring show with some shoddy booking decisions. 6/10.