Posts Tagged ‘Money in the Bank’
Live Reactions – Elimination Chamber 2015 – Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose for the WWE Championship
Last up is the WWE Championship match that we could have been having last fall had Rollins won the title when he tried to cash in at Night of Champions instead of keeping the title on Brock Lesnar for that many months with only a couple of title defenses.
Before that though, they are announcing a rematch between John Cena and Kevin Owens in two weeks at Money in the Bank. They’re also announcing Neville, Dolph Ziggler, Roman Reigns, Randy Ortn, Kofi Kingston and Sheamus as the participants in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match.
Ambrose outwrestles Rollins in a series of chain wrestling holds to begin the match. Rollins takes a long walk outside the ring to regroup. Surprisingly, Ambrose doesn’t do the typical dive out to the floor and wipe everybody out spot. Rollins back in the ring and he turns the tables and gets in a few good shots before Ambrose goes back on the attack. After a bit, Ambrose ends up in the Tree of Woe while Noble distracts the referee. Rollins climbs up over Ambrose and hits a Double Footstomp to the face, breaking Ambrose free from the Tree of Woe. Rollins dangles Ambrose part way out of the ring and beats him up on the apron from the floor. Rollins with a Snapmere and kick to the back and a cover, but Ambrose quickly kicks out. This has been a much more slow and deliberate match than I expected from these two to this point. Rollins with a wear down hold. Ambrose battles back, but ends up eating the turnbuckle. Rollins get a near fall. Rollins with a unique Elbow Smash, tries a couple of pin attempts off it, but nothing doing. J & J distract the referee some more, Rollins continues to methodically and slowly beat up Ambrose. Very slow and deliberate still in this match. It’s not bad by any means, but it’s not really either of these guy’s style. Things pick up now as both men fly off the ropes at each other with a Double Crossbody Block attempt and both men are down as the match slows back down to a crawl. Trading near falls, more chain wrestling. Ambrose ducks a kick and goes for an Atomic Drop, but instead slams Rollins face first into the mat with it. Another new innovate move thrown in tonight. Everybody is trying new things and putting on a very good show tonight. Now we get the spot where Ambrose knocks Rollins out of the ring and there is a HUGE Suicide Dive that knocks both men over the announce table and into the announce team’s laps. They had to land and then dive over the announce table, so the move wasn’t really all that good, but it’s not really possible to do that move and go over the announce table that far away. Not sure why they tried it.
Back in the ring, Rollins stacks Ambrose up, but the referee catches him with his feet in the ropes. Ambrose rams Rollins into Mercury who was up on the ring apron and rolls him up for a near fall. Superkick on Ambrose for a near fall. The fight goes out to the floor and Rollins hits his Turnbuckle Powerbomb spot into the barricade instead of the corner. Back in the ring, Rollins covers him, but Ambrose kicks out. Rollins off the top with a Flying Knee Smash to the side of the head and covers him for another near fall. Rollins with a big Reverse DDT for another near fall. Rollins beats on Ambrose in the corner and badmouths him and then charges in with a Flying Forearm Strike in the corner. Rollins slaps Ambrose around a bit and continues to taunt him. Another Forearm Smash in the corner, but Ambrose no sells it and follows Rollins back across the ring and smashes him in the corner. Tornado DDT on Rollins and covers him for a near fall. More back and forth, Rollins goes for a Flying Knee Strike from the top rope, but Ambrose dodges into a Pendulum Clothesline off the ropes and Rollins does a full rotation to land on his face. Ambrose covers for a near fall. Ambrose off the top with his Flying Elbow Drop / Crossbody on a standing opponent for another near fall. JBL promises to eat his hat if Ambrose leaves with the title. Ambrose setting up for Dirty Deeds, but J & J cause a distraction, allowing Rollins to Thrust Kick Ambrose in the gut. Rollins dives out to the floor, tackling Ambrose into the table. Quickly back into the ring for another Pendulum Clothesline spot and Ambrose knocks everybody down and goes up to the top turnbuckle, but instead of diving onto Rollins in the ring, he dives out to the floor and wipes out Kane and J & J all in one go. Rollins out after him and Ambrose hits another Pendulum Clothesline off the ring apron. Back in the ring, Ambrose up top, dives at Rollins, but Rollins pulls the referee in the way and Ambrose takes out the referee. Rollins goes for the Pedigree, but Ambrose counters. Rollins up top for the Phoenix Splash, but Ambrose rolls out of the way. Dirty Deeds and the cover, but the referee is out. Second official comes out and makes the three count.
HOLY CRAP! Ambrose is the Champion! NEW CHAMPION! But now the original referee is back up and says he’s disqualifying Rollins. Ambrose wins by DQ. Dusty Finish. Dammit. Now they try a beat down on Ambrose, but Reigns comes out to make the save. Reigns and Ambrose clean house and Ambrose hoists up the title. Ambrose grabs a mic and declares that since he won the match, he’s taking the belt. Ambrose and Reigns leave through the crowd with the title and Ambrose says the new champ is buying the beers. However, it won’t be official. Very entertaining nonetheless. They got me with the damn Dusty Finish. But still, a very entertaining end to a very good Pay Per View. This might end up being the best WWE Pay Per View of the year. WWE certainly didn’t drop the ball tonight.
Payback Preshow Live Reactions – WWE Championship Fatal 4-Way
The match starts off with the announcers reminding us every 30 seconds that Seth Rollins does not have to be pinned to lose the championship. However, they also tell us repeatedly that Seth Rollins has to pin somebody to keep the title. Reigns takes everybody down with a dive over the top rope early. As we go on with Rollins on the short end of a 2-on-1 beatdown from Reigns and Ambrose, Kane decides to start helping Rollins out. Kane and J & J triple team Orton out on the floor with Rollins taking advantage of Kane’s help to work over Ambrose in the ring. Reigns is overselling Kane throwing him into the barricade out on the floor. Rollins gets several near falls on Ambrose while Orton and Reigns rest on the floor. Ambrose battles back and hits Dirty Deeds, but Kane Chokeslams him. Orton and Reigns get back in the action and now Orton and Rollins carry the action in the ring while Ambrose and Reigns rest. Orton hits a Superplex for a near fall. Nobody ever wins with a Superplex, yet everybody acts surprised when somebody kicks out of one. Everybody fights it out on the floor now and they set up the table to put somebody through the table. Now the three former members of the Shield temporarily unite and Triple Team Orton and Triple Powerbomb him through the table.. Rollins then hugs Reigns and Ambrose, but they laugh and smile and then take turns pummeling Rollins. They then set up the spanish announce table for somebody to go through it and Kane saves Rollins from being put through it. Ambrose fights off Kane and rams him into the ring post. Reigns puts Rollins on the table. Ambrose and Reigns then Power Bomb Kane onto Rollins on the table, but the table doesn’t break. The crowd chants for one more time and Ambrose and Reigns give them what they want and do the spot over and this time the table crumples in a heap. Ambrose and Reigns say there is nothing left to do but fight it out among themselves and so they get back in the ring and start fighting it out, trading punches. Reigns gets a near fall on a Powerslam and goes for the Superman Punch, but Ambrose counters into a Schoolboy for a near fall. Reigns hits the Superman Punch and makes the cover, but Ambrose kicks out at the last second. Awesome that the match continues, but it seems like the first Superman Punch never puts anybody away. Ambrose blocks the Spear. Reigns counters out of Dirty Deeds. Ambrose goes for the Pendulum Clothesline off the ropes, but Reigns ducks and goes off the ropes and hits the Spear, but Rollins makes the save on the cover. Reigns beats up J & J some more and throws Rollins back in the ring where Ambrose is back up. Superman Punch on Rollins. Pendulum Clothesline on Reigns. Dirty Deeds on Rollins. Cover, but Kane pulls Ambrose out by the boot. Kane knocks Ambrose and Reigns down with the stairs. Kane Chokeslams Reigns on the stairs. Orton hits Kane from behind, knocking him into the post. Orton goes for the Rope Hang DDT on Rollins, but J & J break it up. RKOs to both members of J & J. Rollins comes off the top rope, but Orton catches him with a Powerslam. Orton hits Rollins with the Rope Hang DDT and goes on the hunt, calling for the RKO. Rollins back up and Orton goes for the RKO, but Rollins counters and shoves Orton at Kane and Orton hits Kane with the RKO. Rollins hits Orton with the Pedigree and covers him for the three count.
Rollins retains the championship and while I thought there was a chance he would lose it and get it back before SummerSlam, tonight didn’t really feel like the night and it wasn’t as Rollins does in fact retain the title going into the Elimination Chamber in 2 weeks. However, he will likely have to defend the title in the Elimination Chamber and then 2 weeks after that, it’s Money in the Bank. He’s not going to have any easier of a road storyline wise than he’s had already, but it should be interesting. At least with the Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank matches, we know that we won’t be getting all the false finishes like we did tonight. Best performance of the night was from Imagine Dragons, who weren’t even in the building, but their song :Friction” and the promo packages that WWE built with it were very cool.
2013 – The Best and Worst of the First Half
So, I know we’re actually a couple of weeks over the first half of the year, but last night we wrapped up the WWE’s 6th Pay Per View of the year out of 12, so this seems a more fitting place to give out awards for the Best of the First Half of 2013.
Best Pay Per View Match – Undertaker vs. CM Punk @ Wrestlemania 29. When this match was first announced, I thought there was a decent chance that Punk could be the one hand-picked to end the Streak, but as the program advanced week to week with Punk getting the better of Undertaker at each and every turn and seeing none of Undertaker’s legendary mind games, it became painfully obvious that Punk was going to be just another victim because there was no chance that Undertaker would get punked week in and week out and then have the streak end all at once. I think it’s pretty clear that if the Streak ends, it’ll be the last match that Undertaker ever wrestles. It’s poetic and would follow the trend set by Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels of glorious Wrestlemania exits. That being the case, with the program set up as it was, there was no way that was the last run we’d see from Undertaker and thus he pretty much was guaranteed the win in my mind. However, that didn’t take away from the quality of their match at Wrestlemania one bit. Punk was at his best psychologically, flashing humorous expressions and hitting the high spots at just the right time to make up for Undertaker’s declining mobility. The image of Undertaker sitting up while locked in the Anaconda Vice and turning the Big Evil glare onto Punk and Punk’s reaction is one of my favorite takeaways from this year’s Wrestlemania. That and Zeb Coulter’s hilarious reaction when Swagger tapped out to Del Rio in the World Heavyweight Championship match.
Best Free-TV Match – John Cena vs. CM Punk – Raw (February 25) – Just an all around great performance, right up there with their match at Money in the Bank two years ago. It’s probably one of the top five matches of Cena’s career. It’s the only time I can remember Cena ever attempting a Frankensteiner and sure, he didn’t do it very well, but the guy went for it. That’s one of the most exciting attempts at a move done by a big guy since Big Show, as The Giant in WCW, last attempted a Moonsault or Brock Lesnar going for the Shooting Star Press at Wrestlemania 19. I used to think Edge was the only one who could bring out the very best in Cena, but Punk does it even better. The two of them have had at least two and perhaps three of the top 10 matches of the last two years (at Money in the Bank in 2011 and this match for sure, plus maybe Night of Champions last year despite the non-finish).
Best Rivalry – Daniel Bryan vs. The Shield (and anything else in his way) – Daniel Bryan has kicked things up to another notch this year during his “weakest link” storyline, putting on the most entertaining matches and some of the most entertaining segments night in and night out over the past 2 months since Team Hell No lost the WWE Tag Team Titles to The Shield at Extreme Rules. And if the rumors are true, he’s managed to parlay the great showing he’s had this year into a SummerSlam WWE Championship Main Event match against John Cena. Goat mode has been activated and there is no stopping it.
Best Performer – Daniel Bryan – (See Best Rivalry) Honorable Mention to CM Punk for easily the 3 best matches of the year so far (vs. Cena on Raw, vs. Undertaker @ Wrestlemania and vs. Jericho @ Payback)
Most Underrated – Antonio Cesaro – In a very short time he went from a dominant United States Champion to a yodeling afterthought. He was consistently posting great matches against The Miz, which I’ve come to expect as a very hard thing to do over the course of Miz’s career, so Cesaro deserves all the respect in the world for that. I don’t know why they decided to stick him with Zeb Coulter now because Cessaro is also pretty darn good on the mic and doesn’t really need a mouthpiece and for that storyline they should have used another actual American to team with Swagger, even though Cesaro does have the Very European, Uber-American thing going for him. Damien Sandow was easily my favorite to win the Money in the Bank Ladder Match last night and I’m very glad he did. His mic skills over the past year or so have surpassed even those of the CM Punk and his overhyped “pipe bombs”, of which there have been few and far between since his infamous Vegas promo. However, if Sandow wasn’t going to be the one to win, Cesaro was easily my second choice of who I would have liked to have seen win the briefcase and become a guaranteed future World Champion.
Best Pay Per View – Payback – This event was one I had pretty much written off, but it really had a lot going for it. The 3 Stages of Hell WWE Championship title match between Cena and Ryback exceeded my expectations and was actually probably the best Pay Per View WWE Championship Match of the year so far, but that’s not saying a whole lot unless you give a lot of credit to the Twice in a Lifetime Cena vs. Rock rematch at Wrestlemania, which just didn’t do a whole lot for me after already seeing it the previous year and knowing that for certain Cena was going to win and get his all important “redemption” when they should have just had him beat Rock last year and ended it there instead of continuing to drag it out for what is probably going to be a Wrestlemania Main Event trilogy. On top of that, you can debate which of Punk’s matches (vs. Cena, vs. Undertaker or this one) was the best, but undoubtedly Punk vs. Jericho on that night was one of the best 3 matches of the year at the very least. On top of that, Del Rio shockingly (to me anyway) won the World Heavyweight Championship back from Dolph Ziggler in a match that just like Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 13 flip-flopped the two, simultaneously turning the heel into the face and the face into the heel by showcasing the guts of the injured heel who was already getting huge reactions from the crowd long before that point. Poor Ziggler now has 2 World Heavyweight Championship reigns, one of which went for 69 days, and he still has never successfully defended the title. However, he put on a good show despite carrying a title for 10 weeks without defending it or even being on Television for half of his brief title run. On top of all of that, Daniel Bryan continued to put on a great show in the WWE Tag Team Title match and for the first time in a long time WWE put a watchable women’s match on the Pay Per View, between Kaitlynn and AJ, even though the program leading up to it was like a very watered down version of Trish and Mickie. There wasn’t really a stinker match on the card, though Dean Ambrose vs. Kane did let me down a little bit, but that’s mostly because I don’t believe disqualifications and non-finishes have any place on a Pay Per View. If you want to put that kind of finish on Raw, go right ahead because we aren’t shelling out $50-$60 to watch it, but if you are going to charge that much for people to watch a Pay Per View, you have an obligation to deliver better than that cheap ass crap to help you promote the next Pay Per View that you’re also going to charge $50 or more for. It’s no wonder WWE has such a problem with internet piracy. I know that they have a lot of deserving workers who need Pay Per View revenue to help cover their salaries, but when you’re ripping off fans at $50 a pop every month, you deserve to be ripped off yourself. It’s called karma. Especially when I believe that you could cut Pay Per View prices down to $10-$15 and sell the show to 4-5 times as many people and make the same amount of profit. Pay Per View buy rates and profits are down purely because, in the words of Jimmy McMillan (the guy from The Rent Is Too Damn High Party), the prices are too damn high.
Worst Match – The Rock vs. CM Punk @ Royal Rumble – Those two just didn’t feel like they had any chemistry to me at all. Moves seemed disjointed and poor Bret Hart was in attendance in the back after participating in the Fan Access panels that weekend and giving Del Rio a rub on his way to the ring, and Bret had to watch The Rock absolutely butcher the Sharpshooter. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if The Great Khali could apply a better Sharpshooter than The Rock. He certainly couldn’t do any worse than The Rock. And to top it all off, they did one of those crappy interference finishes followed by restarting the match only to have the real finish occur less than 15 seconds after restarting the match. It was a nice moment in the career of The Rock and a niece piece of nostalgia for the fans, but it was a god awful stinker of a match.
Best Fan Reaction – Finally stopping the Goldberg chants – Next on the list of stupid crap to quit chanting is the What chant.
Worst Fan Reaction – Fandangoing – Just stop it. The dude has a smaller move set than John Cena, of whose “5 moves of doom” you all love to bitch about so much. Stop it now. Shame on you New York fans for starting that junk.
Most Overrated – Fandango – (See Worst Fan Reaction) Shame on Chris Jericho for being willing to job to absolutely anybody at any given time and thus giving this bozo credibility (I’ve taken to referring to Fandango as Wiener Breath most of the time due to his level of suckitude). Have some standards, please, for the love of all that is holy.
Worst Choice – Fandango going over on Jericho @ Wrestlemania – It’s usually a good thing for a veteran to put over the young talent and I applaud Jericho’s selflessness in being so cool about jobbing to anybody and everybody, but I reiterate for the love of all that is holy, please have some standards Chris.
Best Choice – Zack Ryder – For accidentally kicking Fandango in the head wrong and giving him a concussion, thus allowing Curtis Axel to replace him at Payback, thus saving the world from the disaster that is Fandango winning anything of importance, such as the Intercontinental Championship.
Worst Announcer – Still Michael Cole – Forever and always Michael Cole. You know why. Enough said.
Best Announcer – JBL – He might not have actually been a wrestling God, but he is definitely a commentary God. Bobby Heenan is still my all time favorite commentator, but JBL is easily the runner-up.
The Return of Rob Van Dam
Everybody right now is super excited that Rob Van Dam is returning to the WWE at Money in the Bank on July 14 in Philadelphia. It’s great news and he should put on a hell of a show, but is he going to be on the road day in and day out or is he going to wrestle a schedule similar to that of Brock Lesnar?
I think he pretty much has to be working a limited schedule based on past experience because we are all well aware of his exploits in the field of recreational marijuana. It’s what had him moving out the door back in 2006 when an arrest along with Sabu. RVD was the WWE and ECW dual champion at the time and the incident led to him promptly dropping the two titles on back-to-back nights almost 7 years ago to the date to Edge and Big Show respectively.
If he comes back full time, I think it’s only a matter of time until he faces and weed-induced suspension under the WWE’s Wellness Policy and maybe gets himself shuffled right back out the door. A limited schedule, meaning limited travel and limited wear and tear on his body probably lessens that possibility. And sure, he’s only 42, but he’s been a professional wrestler for almost a quarter of a century now (24 years, he was a 7-year veteran before debuting in ECW in 1996) and a light schedule is never a bad idea for a guy that has been wrestling that long.
And for those of you that want to point out that after Jack Swagger had his weed-related issues, he still got to compete in a title match at Wrestlemania and continue working for another couple of months afterward, I think he got very lucky on that count because the arrest was enough for him to be suspended immediately under the Wellness Policy in lieu of a positive drug test. However, being that WWE had already started building toward the Fox News type of storyline with Swagger and World Champion Alberto Del Rio and not having anybody else that they could fit in there and have that kind of supposedly edgy storyline, it feels like they deferred letting the ax fall on Swagger until after that storyline had run it’s course. Notice, he hasn’t been around since Extreme Rules almost 1 1/2 months ago. Maybe it’s kind of convenient that he “got injured” now when he was probably destined for a few months on the bench anyway. So, I wouldn’t be too inclined to think that the treatment of Swagger is a sign that RVD’s drug violations, should they come up again, wouldn’t be an issue. However, I’m sure that all of that was discussed with him before he agreed to come back.
But where does he fit in after Money in the Bank? I’m just going to go ahead and assume that he does not win the match that they are billing as “Money in the Bank All-Stars” against CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Kane and Christian. Four guys are coming into that match having already won a Money in the Bank briefcase (Daniel Bryan, Kane, Rob Van Dam and CM Punk twice) and I think if anybody is going to be another repeat winner, it will either be Bryan or Punk and not a guy who has been working for another company for the past 3 years and has proven to be unreliable in the past. My best guess for what happens to RVD is that he gets sucked into a rivalry with the Shield. The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Kane, Sheamus, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston, Ryback and John Cena stuff has pretty much been done to death and they are surely moving on and RVD might be an ideal target for the so-called “Hounds of Justice” to make even more of a name for themselves after they seemed destined to get a serious downgrade in competition and wrestle teams from the fledgling tag team division like The Usos regularly now. I kind of expect them to select a new big-name target soon and Rob Van Dam on the night he makes his return to WWE just feels like the direction this would go next for them logically.
While I would greatly enjoy seeing RVD match up against guys that are going to give him guaranteed great matches like CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler – I’m intrigued at the possibility of seeing him work against some new blood as well and we’ve already seen that The Shield, Seth Rollins in particular, can put on great matches against guys that fly around the ring a lot like Daniel Bryan and RVD both tend to do. And just maybe RVD can bring along a couple of other ECW alumni, even for one night only, to take on The Shield at SummerSlam. RVD, Sabu & Tommy Dreamer vs. The Shield? It’s not out of the question.