Was Money In The Bank Any Good?

As the dust settles on the Money In The Bank Pay Per View we are left to reflect on a strange event for the WWE. There is no doubt there were some strong matches. But with competition on the horizon in the form of AEW, the WWE needed to smash this event out of the park. Did they accomplish that?

money in the bank: the card

It was a handsome looking card. Unlike recent events, it seemed like quite a lot of the matches had some actual build. The matches between Joe and Mysterio, Rollins and AJ and the feud between Charlotte, Lacey and Becky all seemed to have some actual heat which made money in the bank a much-anticipated event.

The good, the bad and the ugly

There were several matches that stood out and we will get to them later. The opening event was the women’s money in the bank match. As you would imagine it was a spot fest. There were some interesting moments such as Carmella faking an injury and Mandy Rose being carried up the Ladder by Sonya Deville. It was a solid match but didn’t contain any real surprises.

For a large part of the show after that the theme seemed to be referee botches. One of them, in the Samoa Joe Versus Rey Mysterio match, may have been a work. It was a frustrating work too as the pair have great chemistry and it could have been a classic. The referee didn’t see that Joe’s shoulder was about a foot of the canvas and made the three count anyway.

The referee botches didn’t stop there either with the referee breaking a count because Shane made the ropes in a “non-DQ” cage match. The later when Lacey had Becky pinned for a four count and the ref seemingly chose to ignore it. If it isn’t building to a referee related storyline then the WWE needs to sort their refereeing team. Especially in light of the huge botch at Wrestlemania. It isn’t really good enough and made the show confusing.

Stealing the show

In one of the best bouts in the WWE this year Aj Styles challenged Seth Rollins for his recently acquired Universal title. You had to think that two of the most technically proficient wrestlers on the roster would put on a great match. They didn’t flatter to deceive. The pair put on a clinic in a balanced match that had you believing that it could have gone either way. The highlight probably being the styles clash counter to the curb stomp. One of the most epic counters since the RKO/curb stomp between Orton and Rollins.

Bayley is money

Bayley hasn’t exactly been booked well in the past 12 months. That said I don’t think anyone would have argued she wasn’t a safe pair of hands for the Money In The Bank briefcase. The story had her cash in and win Charlotte’s title. But there was tension as the audience weren’t exactly sure who she was going to cash in on. This was a terrific bit of storytelling, but I was left thinking how much cooler it would have been if she had opportunistically taken the easier route versus Becky.

The men’s money in the bank

This was always going to be an overbooked spotfest and so it proved. However, it has to be said that it was executed flawlessly. There were seemingly no botches and the seven men that took part all shone. Even Baron Corbin looked like a star with a chokeslam so good it would have had Kane nodding in approval. Any of the seven men involved could have claimed the gold and it probably would have been hailed as a masterpiece. Bray Wyatt could have stolen it and it would have been hailed as booking genius. Brock Lesnar came and stole it and the WWE universe took a giant steaming deuce on it. Poor form.