Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Money in the Bank/RAW recaps



OK, so Money in the Bank is in the books.  We have a new WWE World Champion, a guy you may have heard of already, and a new Money in the Bank contract holder.  And after RAW last night, we have a new Diva's champ that you may have heard of before.  There were also a few matches announced for the next pay per view show, Battleground.  And a few guys returned after being away for a while.  A lot to dig into, for sure.

Money in the Bank

All in all, it was a good show in my opinion.  The opening match between the Wyatts and the Usos for the tag team titles was a great opener to the show.  I was surprised at the ending because I had the Wyatt's winning the titles here, but that's not anything to be upset over.  I do still think that the Wyatt's will eventually be getting a run with the belts, though.  The other announced matches were good as well.  The Diva's title match was as good match for them as there's been in a while.  Paige is really good in the ring and Naomi did a good job as well.  Paige winning was no surprise here.  The Money in the Bank contract match was excellent, as everyone involved pulled off some exciting spots and Seth Rollins getting the win with help from Kane.  Kane screwing Dean Ambrose over and helping Rollins win was the right finish, and played well into the main event match.  There were four unannounced matches, mostly filler like Damien Sandow jobbing to Adam Rose and the Rhodes Brothers beating Rybaxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel).  Big E Langston and Rusev had a rematch to last month's better than anyone expected showdown, and again it was better than expected with the same finish.  All this led up to the Main Event, of course.

Your opinion of the Main Event, and the show itself, depend largely on how you feel about John Cena.  If you're a Cena hater then you hated the way it ended and probably didn't like the show itself.  I get that but please, just stop.  Cena winning was the most sensible move.  You had a vacant title because of the injury to Daniel Bryan and you had a match full of people who were obviously not winning (Kane, Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus) or are going to be champ one day but need a better buildup (Reigns, Wyatt, Cesaro).  That left Randy Orton and Cena, and Orton just had the belt earlier this year.  Now you wanted one of the new blood to walk away as champ instead of the tried and true Cena.....really?  Between the Money in the Bank contract cash in, the looming challenge of Brock Lesnar, and Bryan's eventual return who ever walked out of this event as champ is not having a long run as champ.  If you're pining for Reigns, Wyatt, or Cesaro do you really getting a hotshot title reign that's likely to end at Summerslam or soon after?  If you're a Reigns fan do you really want to see him get KOed in a few weeks by Kane and pinned by Seth Rollins?  You want to see Bray Wyatt or Cesaro jobbing at Summerslam to Cena in the main event?  Didn't think so.  Suck it up and live with it.  Cena won't be champ long anyway.

RAW

RAW brought everything and the kitchen sink Monday, and in a good way.  Two matches were announced for Battleground: a Fatal Four Way Match for the title between Cena, Kane, Roman Reigns, and Randy Orton, and an over the top rope battle royal to fill the now vacant Intercontinental Title (champ Wade Barrett is hurt again and will be out for some time).  This is really unfortunate for Barrett; he was injured between WrestleMania 27 and 28 when he was ready to take off and now just when his Bad News Barrett persona was catching on.  Injuries can totally derail your career, just ask Dolph Ziggler.  We also saw the return of the Miz....which was promptly interrupted by the return of none other than Chris Jericho.  Jericho laid out Miz in fun fashion but was then attacked by the Wyatt family, setting up a likely match involving he and Bray or a six man between the Wyatts, Jericho, and the Usos.  I just hope this isn't 'Job Jericho out for three months to put guys over' like the last time he was around.  Jericho is my favorite Attitude Era wrestler and it burns me up when they do that to him.

The other big surprise was the return of AJ Lee, and her immediate regaining of the Diva's title in the same fashion that she lost it to Paige.  I guess the Paige experiment is done for now.  She's very good in the ring, and they pushed her hard with wins over almost the entire Diva's roster, but she really wasn't getting over with the fans.  AJ is so putting the belt back on her is good for the time being.  I hope the two get a good series of matches going, because they can both work.  The Divas division looks to have some potential for good work over the rest of the year, but we'll see.  They have to get some real storylines going for RAW and Smackdown to set up the matches.  Same problem they always have.  Five minutes or less on each show just isn't going to cut it.

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