Money in the Bank: WWE on Autopilot.

Recently, as you may have seen from my last review of Elimination Chamber, I've been a bit down on WWE because at this point in the year, usually from May to July, WWE switch in to autopilot mode. When this happens, it's just WWE getting by until SummerSlam to bring in more money than they'd get from a B-PPV like Payback. So, going into this PPV I expected nothing else and that's what we were given.

I didn't watch the Pre-Show.


Sheamus(w) v Neville v Kane v Randy Orton v Kofi Kingston v Roman Reigns v Dolph Ziggler (***)

This is the main reason of why WWE is on autopilot. Sheamus...Sheamus. Is this 2010? Since coming back he's had two weeks of being interesting because of his new look and 'gimmick' but when he won, you could have heard a pin drop. The fact that Sheamus went over instead of Reigns, Neville, Ziggler or even Orton is absurd. Don't get me wrong, the only reason I care is because we're likely going to have a Sheamus title run in the next year which is ridiculous because he hasn't been over enough to lead the company in years. He's just stale. Yes he can wrestle but so can a lot of guys, he has a severe lack of character. "Are you not entertained?" No, I'm not. The match itself was just an average Money in the Bank match with not many big moments. I don't understand why they didn't give Reigns the briefcase because he's way more over than Reigns and even if some of the crowd dislikes him at least it isn't overall ambivalence.

What is interesting is that Bray interfered and attacked Reigns which should lead to a decent feud but it's not like it'll be anything special although it SHOULD be.

Nikki Bella (w) v Paige (**1/2)

The story going in to this match was totally non-existent. The story they were trying to tell is that Paige is rebelling against the diva dictatorship of the Bella Twins which would be good and interesting if they actually built up the Bellas to be controlling or manipulative but literally a month prior to this match they were faces. Since then, they've done twin magic once and because of that Paige has been cutting promos about how they control the division and keep everyone else down. It's clearly obvious that there is no effort put into the division because if there was some kind of forethought maybe they would have gradually built Nikki and Brie to appear as keeping others down and actually make this mean something. However, this is probably the best main roster divas match I've seen in a while which sounds complimentary but in comparison, it's hardly great. The end of the match was just stupid. As soon as the referee noticed that it was Brie that was pinned instead of Nikki, the bell should have rang for a DQ. Anyway, why should we care about this if they obviously don't?

Big Show v Ryback (**)

This was moderate. The best part of the whole segment/match was Miz turning heel on the crowd after first appearing as a face. I don't really have much to say because this was so irrelevant to everything but I would like to ask the question: Why are WWE still protecting Big Show when nobody in the crowd cares? The absolute ambivalence that is shown towards him even made me question whether he'd still be on TV if he was 3 or 4 inches smaller and my conclusion, no he wouldn't be. All he is at this point is a spectacle but he doesn't even draw either. Anyway, this was what you'd expect it to be. Not good, just alright.

Kevin Owens v John Cena (w) (***3/4)

Again, Kevin Owens and John Cena achieve my Match of the Night award, which I'm sure is their sole purpose of putting a good show so that I will give them a positive review. I didn't think this match was as good as the first one but I think that's because the first one I was more excited for to begin with. As expected, Cena got his win back which I was a bit afraid that it would make Owens seem like every other heel in WWE, but, what happened after the match proved that he isn't. Cena at first put him over by saying he deserves to be 'here' and all that kind of stuff which Cena never did with Rusev or Bray. Then, after extending for a handshake, Owens attacked Cena and powerbombed him on the apron which will hopefully be what people remember most. As it was with the last one, this felt like the main event, the crowd was most invested in this and the back and forth match made it feel like it had such meaning. Great stuff again.

Prime Time Players (w) v The New Day

So, at this point it's fitting to tell you that I didn't watch Money in the Bank live because I was drinking with some friends, and when it came to watching it the morning after, I ended up napping through this match and because I didn't care at all about the result, I didn't go back to watch it. I can't see why PTP won this match when The New Day are actually over as heels and the crowd reaction to PTP winning was total ambivalence yet again. The tag division at the minute is so diluted that I have hardly any interest in any of the teams, especially with Tyson Kidd and Cesaro not on TV because of Kidd's injury. I feel like The New Day are a lot more entertaining than PTP as well and that the only entertainment in the group is if they are being chased, which they obviously aren't anymore.

Seth Rollins (w) v Dean Ambrose (*** 1/2)

This was good but not great. I enjoyed the story that was told with Seth having to go it alone and because of that he seemed to become a lot more calculated in his offence, attacking Dean's leg. This match was given a lot of time (according to wiki, over 35 minutes) and because of that it seemed to take on the right pace as the momentum built and built instead of just having near fall after near fall which has become the WWE go to for a good match. The problem with this match, and with the last match they had, at no point did I feel like Dean was going to pull it out and win so because of that, a lot of the tension was missed. I think that's why Owens and Cena topped this for Match of the Night because even during the match it wasn't like Ambrose came that close to winning a part from the end which as soon as they got up there I felt was predictable.


So all in all, nothing in this PPV actually seemed to progress any storyline except for Owens/Cena and Rollins/Ambrose. The rest of the night was pretty dull and it's pretty obvious that WWE are just 'getting by' at this point until Brock returns and they can actually have some sort of excitement outside of the Cena/Owens segment. WWE's monotony at this point is saddening to say the least. I'll just leave this now because I don't want to bore you as much as this PPV may have.

R.I.P The American Dream, Dusty Rhodes.

Dusty Rhodes is an icon of wrestling. His work as a performer, a wrestler and a part of the creative team has led to inspire so many wrestling stars and fans of today. Unfortunately, I am not old enough to have seen Dusty perform in his hay day but I am not ignorant of how big of a star this man once was. There is no doubt that without his impact on wrestling and because of his look, modern wrestlers such as Kevin Owens and Bray Wyatt would find it much harder to break out despite their talent, his contribution to modern day wrestling doesn't end there as he always gave back to the business he loved so much by being the leader of the NXT writing staff. The impact of his work will truly be felt in wrestling for decades to come. Today, the wrestling community mourns the loss of one of the most inspirational wrestlers ever and with that, my thoughts are with Dusty's family at this hard time.

R.I.P Dusty Rhodes. A Man, a Father, a Husband, a Hall of Famer and an Icon. Thank you.

Elimination Chamber: One Spark in a Dark Dark Night.

Going into this special event it has to be said that I wasn't really expecting much in comparison to others that I had seen online. I just felt that since the first few Elimination Chamber matches, none of them seem to live up to the hype whether it be because of the PG nature of the programming or just simply because the psychology is off, which we'll get into later. This will be a match by match review of the night and then I'll leave with some overall thoughts at the end. Also, I won't be covering the Pre-Show because nothing really happened to note.

(Disclaimer: This may or may not be as positive as my usual reviews)

Tag Team Elimination Chamber Match for the Championships - The New Day (W) (**)

From the start this match felt like just such a bad opener. My main criticisms of this match, other than the psychology, are the actual teams that took part in it. Firstly, The Ascension have been treated as nothing but a joke since debuting earlier this year so putting them in this 'serious' match made it feel underwhelming before the bell even rang. Moreover, Los Matadores, who've literally made no impact since they debuted (god knows how long ago) were in the match which added more to this sense of total meaningless. This match was obviously just hot shotted and thrown together randomly in the space of two weeks which is fine but why not include Mandow and Axel OR Harper and Rowan. Both of them teams are more over than The Ascension and Matadores.

I enjoyed the fact that all three of The New Day entered the match but what really made me annoyed (and always does) is that they appear to treat El Torito as anything other than an actual human being when they continue to note on commentary it's just a guy in a suit. First of all, in every match the Matadores are in, Torito can interfere as and when he pleases while in this match specifically he was allowed to be in the Chamber and take part in the match. When he does this on RAW it's never seen as a DQ which is ridiculous to me. How, in 2015 they continue to do this without anybody calling for the fact they are discriminating against smaller people. It's absurd.

Anyway, to add to how much the combination of teams underwhelmed me was the way they were all utilised. The Ascension, who as I've just noted, have been treated as jokes for months run through Los Matadores (which is okay because they've never done anything) and Lucha Dragons which legit have potential to draw money because of their masks and wrestling style. This, mixed with the fact that the wrestlers don't seem to understand the rules to the Elimination Chamber match made this harder to enjoy for me. Moreover, there was numerous times that pins were broken up by an opposing team which if left for the referee to count the 3, would have indeed benefitted the person breaking up the count. Unfortunately, this seemed to be a prominent theme of the night.

However, what I did like about this match was the spots that happened. Kalisto falling from the roof of the Chamber onto the majority of the guys in the match was a great spectacle. Also, I really enjoyed Torito jumping from the top of a pod onto Cesaro and hurricanrana-ing him which looked great. Another great spot was Sin Cara's Senton Bomb from the top of a pod which was definitely worth seeing.

Another thing, which I haven't seen anyone point out is that Cesaro was rolled up by Darren Young out of nowhere which gives the impression that Cesaro and Kidd will continue to chase the New Day for the titles and by doing that, will still be screwed out of their fair chance at regaining the championships. This is probably the only good storytelling part of this story that I could see because the rest seemed to be just a spot fest.

Nikki Bella (c)(W) v Paige v Naomi (*)

I don't even know where to start with this match. A lot of my criticisms of this match are criticisms of the 'divas' division in total which I'll hopefully get round to writing another blog about so I'll just focus on this match. First of all there was too many botches to count which made this unbearable. In particular, Naomi botched a inverted frankensteiner which just took me out of the match completely. My criticisms of Naomi is mostly why I like Nikki which @MaxwellRBR (of the RBR podcast which I'd really recommend) summed up totally on Twitter; "Why do I like Nikki Bella? Because she keeps shit simple, tells a story and doesn't try to do stupid shit that she can't do". My main criticism of this match is that it told no story at all and I'm just glad that Nikki retained because any other outcome at this point would have been ludicrous.

Kevin Owens(W) v John Cena (****)

As if I even have to say this but MATCH OF THE NIGHT. Cena is great. We all know that unless you're one of them people blinded by whatever you're blinded by, but what made this match so great was that it wasn't your typical Cena babyface match where Cena is beat down for 20 minutes only to hit his comeback and win. This match was the opposite and it needed to be. For the 20 minutes that the match lasted it was back and forth between the two as they traded blows and moves. Owens at one point even hit an AA on Cena to get maximum heat. A part of the match which I loved was the tease of the package piledriver on Cena which was then transitioned into a throw of some kind, it's hard to describe with words. I have only one criticism of this match and that is that Cena kicked out of the first Pop-Up Powerbomb. I feel like because this is the first time we've seen it on official WWE TV, the move should have been kept strong and beat Cena with just one. Other than that the negatives in this match really lack and of course the peak came in the finish. Owens winning is good for WWE, good for the fans and good for him of course. If I'm not mistaken, he's the first person to beat Cena on his debut ever so here's hoping that this is going to have even more impact than Cena's debut against Kurt Angle. This was by far the peak of the night and the best match although it didn't necessarily have the stiffest of competition. Great stuff.

Neville(W) v Bo Dallas (**)

This match was nothing particularly special as it acted as the filler match between what seemed like the hottest part of the night and leading into the 'main matches'. It was just an average match really and the predictability that Neville would win meant that this was nothing more than just filler. Cool Red Arrow to end it but Neville should have been in the IC match.

The Intercontinental Championship Elimination Chamber -  Ryback (W) (*)

This was the worst match of the night. Rusev being injured meant that Mark Henry took his place which as I had earlier predicted, was disappointing and worse than having Rusev in. From the outset this was just boring and criticisms of psychology were even more prominent in this match than the prior one as Mark Henry broke up pins. In a singles Elimination Chamber match, nobody, unless storylined, should be breaking up other pins or submissions, it makes no sense. I can't even write about anything I liked other than who actually won. Botchamania will have an absolute field day when looking at this match, you could probably get a full episode out of it. Ziggler's multiple botches and his continuous need to go for a jumping DDT despite failing the majority. This was just a total snoozefest and by far one of the worst Elimination Chamber matches in it's history.

Ryback winning however is the silver lining. The Big Guy has deserved a championship run of some kind and recently, at least in my opinion, his promos have been on point. He seems to have become a lot more comfortable and seems to be more confident when saying things. I also think he's hilarious so the more of The Big Guy, the better.

Dean Ambrose (W) v Seth Rollins (c) (***)

This was decent but it wasn't the best match the two have had in recent memory. Perhaps ironically, what took it away from this match for me was that I couldn't see Ambrose in any capacity winning so I watched mostly ambivalent to what was happening. One thing that this match did though was expose Ambrose' lack of move-set. Literally, the match was all Rollins Move followed up by an Ambrose lariat followed up by a different Rollins move followed up by a rebound lariat etcetera etcetera. The lack of Ambrose winning believability really hindered my enjoyment of the match and I was slightly shocked when the finish came until I remembered the ref bump. Another thing was the disappointment of the previous match made me ready to tap out on this show before this match even started so when giving it 3 stars I'm trying to be objective.

The finish was that Ambrose got the pin but the ref bump prior to it meant he won by DQ. I wasn't disappointed with this as I probably should have been but it made me a bit mad because it was such a poor way to end a poor PPV. Moreover, I think I'm still burnt out on all these finishes since the Bryan storyline which was over a year ago now so if this is going to continue I'm pretty sure I'll lose interest in both of these guys.


Overall, the PPV was pretty poor. With one really solid good match that I felt progressed the company, there has to be some room for positivity. However, with a terrible crowd and an even worse card of matches in places, this whole event was underwhelming and lack lustre. I'm going to give this event a 4/10 which I even think is pretty generous because I have very little interest in watching RAW tonight (although I probably still will).