A shock WWE return!
A Money in the Bank beefcase cash-in!
And I WON MINE AND LUKE’S PREDICTIONS BY ONE POINT!
I’m Oli Davis and the jacket lives on for another month!
And please do click the ‘i’ above my head to vote for what you thought of the show - where
you can choose from In Awe, Cor, AVRAWGE, Poor and Bore - as I review Money in the Bank
2018 ...in about 4 minutes.
The Bludgeon Brothers quickly beat Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson on the pre-show, with decent
action for the amount of time they were given.
Despite Big Cass being covered in sexy, sexy body oil (you ain’t never gonna catch me,
Daniel Bryan managed to make him tap for the second pay-per-view in a row.
Speaking of feuds that need to go away forever, condemned to the darkest, deepest pits of
damned wrestling storylines, an eternity of pain and suffering for programs that actively
hurt their characters.
Segue!
Bobby Lashley beat Sami Zayn with three delayed suplexes.
Nobody cared.
Seth Rollins retained against Elias next in a curious match.
After a lacklustre opening for a Rollins bout, the action went up a gear for the final third,
which Seth eventually won by hooking the tights.
He cheated, but the commentators played it up as a mark of respect on Seth’s part,
that he had to resort to dirty tactics to overcome Elias.
GREAT UNDERSTANDING OF HOW MORAL PRINCIPLES WORK, COACHMAN!
By the way, the commentary throughout the night was new levels of terrible.
The Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match was a polished affair that never quite pulled
me into the action.
The spots were mostly inventive and well performed, but it often felt like the ladies were going
through choreographed moves rather than believably having an in-ring encounter.
Everyone got a chance both to shine and be hip tossed onto a ladder, though, and the
winner came as a genuine surprise - mostly because she hid for most of the match.
The only heel in there Alexa Bliss unhooked the beefcase.
More on that later.
Booooo!
Boooo!.
Roman Reigns beating Jinder Mahal never stood a chance in Chicago, with the crowd ruining
the bout with Mexican waves and unrelated chants.
Which is a shame, as Sunil Singh being miraculously healed from his injuries to attack Roman was
rather fun.
Reigns beat up the wheelchair-bound Singh - for WWE to unironically transition into
a Special Olympics segment right after.
The finish for Carmella successfully retaining against Asuka was almost as awkward as the
in-ring action that preceded it.
Someone dressed in Asuka’s robe and mask appeared on the apron - a feat so surprising,
it distracted Asuka for about 17 minutes.
Some say Asuka still stands there, staring into the middle distance to this day.
It was revealed to be a returning James Ellsworth, which - to quote a Luke-ism - is fine.
It’d been a pretty underpar pay-per-view by this point, but, for a change, WWE loaded
the backend of the show with its best matches.
First up was a terrific Last Man Standing bout between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura.
The hardcore spots and blood feuding were slightly undermined by Ciampa and Gargano’s
weekend-stealing intensity from the night before, but the match was still very enjoyable
with Kinshasas onto announcer’s tables and a Styles Clash off the steel steps.
AJ won with a Phenomenal Forearm off the top rope through the announcers table outside.
A very fun match, but a finish that poses the question: where does Nakamura go from
here, after losing all six times he’s gone for the WWE title on the main roster?
There’s an argument for Nia Jax vs Ronda Rousey going on as this show’s main event
- it was the most heavily promoted match going in, the one with the most mainstream interest,
and it had an awesome finish that made sense and ingeniously protected everyone involved.
The in-ring action was pretty good too, with Nia really getting over her power moves through
Rousey’s brilliant selling, and Ronda’s strike and submission offence having real
fire.
But just as Rousey had the winning arm bar almost locked in, Alexa Bliss attacked both
women with her freshly won beefcase, and cashed it in on Nia to become the new Raw Women’s
Champion.
WWE found a way to not have Ronda win the title too early, and to not derail her momentum
for losing - and the Bliss cash-in makes sense with her Jax feud through WrestleMania.
But while some were hoping for Rusev and Lana to be Mr and Mrs Money in the Bank, the end
of the night saw another Mixed Match Challenge couple get the beefcases, Alexa and Braun
Strowman.
The Men’s ladder match was 20 very fun minutes of carnage - mostly built around everyone
taking out Strowman, and then Strowman no selling the offence of seven top WWE wrestlers.
Which is a great way to push Braun, especially because he was the one winning, but it does
give Raw a significant problem.
The only two credible opponents for Strowman now are Brock Lesnar, who’s never around,
and Samoa Joe - who had the other best showing in this match - but he’s on SmackDown.
The last three matches were very enjoyable, but that does still leave seven others that
were below average to boring - half of which could’ve easily taken place on the go-home
Raw or SmackDowns.
And because WWE went for quantity over quality, Money in the Bank 2018 is a low AvRAWge.
NXT TakeOver: Chicago was much better, which you can watch our review of by clicking the
video onscreen now!
And give us a subscribe to keep up to date with all the latest backstage wrestling news!
I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.