Views From The Turnbuckle: In Person Money In The Bank Review, Live Notes And More

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of WrestlingInc or its staff.

As the title implies, I was in attendance for tonight's show. It was my first time witnessing a Money in the Bank match live and in person, and it was a wholly entertaining show. That being said, it wasn't a show without it's flaws.

Ladder Match for WWE World Heavyweight Championship: John Cena vs Randy Orton vs Kane vs Roman Reigns vs Sheamus vs Bray Wyatt vs Alberto Del Rio vs Cesaro- *** (3 stars)

In the most predictable way imaginable, WWE decided to go the safe route and put the title back on John Cena. Honestly, you can't really fault WWE too much for making the decision to make Cena the world champion. Their financial situation has been rocky to say the least, and their other top babyface is out indefinitely with an injury. They felt like they needed to go back to their golden boy in order to get things back on track, and that is what they did.

While I can't fault them for making Cena the champion, I can certainly fault them in the way they went about it. WWE knew coming into the show that they were making a decision that was going to be perceived as a pretty boring, run-of-the-mill championship match victory for Cena. The least they could have done is to come up with a creative and exciting finish. Instead, WWE opted to go the most boring way possible, having Cena hitting his finisher on Orton and Kane and then triumphantly marching up the ladder to grab the title belts, refusing to allow any of his competitors to tug on his Super-Cena cape. One of the things that make the MITB matches so enjoyable is the creativity that takes place during the matches, and with the title on the line, with two belts up for grabs, there was a lot they could have done with the finish of the match. Instead, WWE elected to go a route that appeared to require about 10 seconds of serious thought, in hopes that the fans would buy into it.

The real star of the match ended up being Randy Orton. In addition to a rare blood sighting in WWE, Orton carried the match, in as much of a way as one can carry an eight man ladder match. Orton was dominant, fully throwing on the mask of the ultra-heel, inciting the crowd and flashing his world-class ring psychology. One of my favorite moments of the night was when Orton executed the RKO to Cesaro off of the ladder. Yes, the spot was epic, but what really impressed me was Orton's reaction to the move. After he hit the RKO, he just stared into the camera with an extremely slight grin of satisfaction. It was if he was saying to the crowd that in the act of marking out over the move, "Yeah, I know how good I am, moves like that are just everyday occurrences for me." One of the many things that makes Orton different from Cena is that while Cena often runs around and acts like a cartoon character, Orton's mannerisms are much more subtle and mush less contrived. Orton has struggled with being a sometimes inconsistent performer, but there are times, like tonight, where he reminded everyone how great he can truly be.

The match itself was decent, but with so much potential, it might be seen as a failure by some fans. The fact that the match featured more grounded, older wrestlers, meant that it didn't stand a chance when compared to a match like the previous ladder match when it came to high-spots. The only chance it had in outdoing its predecessor was have a greater sense of drama, and except for Orton's antics, it didn't really achieve a great dramatic level. Another thing that I believe hurt the match was that it had 8 men in it. As a fan, it is kind of hard to truly focus on the match properly when you have Bray Wyatt's character, Cesaro and Heyman, Orton, Kane and Triple H, Roman Reigns trying to break through the glass ceiling, and whatever Cena is doing. Throw in Sheamus and Del Rio and it is just difficult to fully comprehend everything that is going in and outside of the ring. I think the earlier match proved that having 6 men in the ladder match is the perfect amount.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Seth Rollins vs Jack Swagger vs Kofi Kingston vs Dolph Ziggler vs Rob Van Dam vs Dean Ambrose- ****1/2 (4.5 stars)

By far the match of the night and perhaps the match of the year from WWE. For starters, it had just a great assortment of high spots, which is exactly what the fans expect to see in a MITB match. Guys like Rollins, Ambrose, Kofi, Ziggler and even RVD were all willing to take some really sick bumps tonight, and it paid off wonderfully. Swagger wasn't as athletic as the other guys, but he did really well as the lone power man in the match, and kept rising back up from the outside like a zombie, stopping another wrestler from a clear path to the championship. The movement of the night for me, was when Kingston was pushed off the ladder, but bounced off the top rope into a front flip onto a bunch of wrestlers on the outside. It was just beautiful to watch in person.

In drama, the match also rated very highly. Ambrose and Rollins carried their storyline into the match and right from the get go, it was their show. Ambrose and Rollins were phenomenal in integrating their rivalry into the context of the match, and pulled off the always good; Guy gets injured, taken to the back, comes back later in the match to stop rival from winning, formula. In addition to the Rollins vs Ambrose feud, all of the workers in the match did a great job in making the crowd believe that literally anybody could win, even when in reality, one of two guys was going to win the entire time. There was a moment in the match for each competitor, where they really looked like they were going to win the briefcase. For a moment, all logic and rationale left my body as I saw Kofi Kingston climb the ladder and put his hand on the briefcase; I really thought that he was going to win. He didn't of course, but the point was that there was a moment in that match where I actually believed that it was going to happen, which is 100% what makes a good ladder match.

Honestly, the thing that kept this match from being a perfect, 5 star match, was the finish. I'm fine with Rollins winning the title shot, but why on earth did Kane have to come out and get involved? It just seemed so unnecessary for Kane to have to come out and screw Rollins. Why couldn't Rollins have just assaulted Ambrose with the chair, hit him in the arm, and won the match without any help. All the heat would have gone to Rollins and not to Kane/The Authority, and everything would have worked out fine. Kane was going to be involved in the main event anyways, helping out Orton, so why did he have to run in and stop Ambrose? Just overbooking by WWE.

Tag Team Title Match: The Usos vs Erick Rowan and Luke Harper- **** (4 stars)

A thoroughly enjoyable match with a lot of false finishes and good back and forth action. The Usos were very over with the crowd, as where Harper and Rowan, and all four guys did what they did best in the ring, coming up with a really, really strong match to open the show. I was actually really glad that The Usos won, because they are still really popular, they are exciting in the ring, and hopefully they will have more matches against Harper and Rowan.

One thing that was wrong however, was the theme music for Harper and Rowan. Instead of getting the weird harmonica playing of "He's got the whole world" the fans were treated to just some generic hard rock music while Harper and Rowan came into the ring. I hope this isn't a long term plan for these guys, and that Jim Johnston will come up with something better quickly.

Diva's Title Match: Paige vs Naomi- *1/2 (1.5 stars)

There were some decent spots in the match, but overall it was a really uncomfortable match to watch. At times it seemed like they were calling the match entirely in the ring, except neither one of them knew any of each other's moves and they ended up just kind of bumping into each other. The high-impact moves by both women were pretty much canceled out by the multiple botches, including the awful superplex attempt.

Stardust and Goldust vs Rybaxel- ** (2 stars)

A match that had very little going into it other than a chance to see Stardust again. The gimmick wasn't very over with the crowd and the match was just your typical tag team match. The Rhodes brothers came so close to breaking up, but right now it looks like they are better than ever. Cody has a great future as a face, and while Goldust has served an important role, I just don't see the long term effect of Stardust.

Rusev vs Big E- *3/4 (1.75 stars)

The match was pretty much ruined for any fan in live attendance because before the match began, Rusev's flag was lowered down into the arena, making sure that it was to be unfurled at some point after the match. Rusev's gimmick is starting to catch on, and after a big win over Big E, it's very important he takes the next step in his climb, say a feud with a more established face, such as Sheamus or RVD. The match itself was pretty lame, just two big bulls running into each other over and over again. I'm okay if we never see another matchup between Rusev and Big E.

Adam Rose vs Damien Sandow- DUD (0 stars)

This is what I was talking about when I mentioned that WWE just rolls out random matches on PPVs for no reason other than to take up some time. Rose's theme song was over, but Rose himself was not, as it was made clear as soon as the bell rang that the fans were not interested in the matchup. Sandow has fallen to the bottom of the WWE's pecking order, and a loss to Adam Rose just solidifies that status. I honestly think that there were not 25 people in the Garden tonight that were genuinely excited for that match.

Layla vs Summer Rae- -** (-2 stars)

This is a match that ended up being worse than I thought it was going to be. 4 minutes of sloppy brawling and an anti-climactic finish that will hopefully put this dreadful storyline out of its misery. The way it has unfolded has actually been like a really, really, really, really, really bad version of the Seth Rollins vs Dean Ambrose feud, with Summer attacking Layla at random intervals. To top it all off, the feud actually made no logical sense, other than to show that Summer Rae is an idiot. If Fandango was such a crappy boyfriend (which he clearly was) why did Summer care that he dumped her for Layla? Why would she want to get back together with him? It honestly feels like I'm watching a teen drama on The CW instead of WWE.

Overall, the show had some really good moments, and it was much better than the last PPV I saw live (Survivor Series '13). Still, this PPV suffered from a huge drop-off between the high points of the show and the low points. While the World Title match, the tag team title match, and the MITB matches were all very entertaining, everything else was really weak. After seeing an awesome MITB with guys doing all sorts of crazy spots, how is the crowd supposed to be jazzed up for Summer Rae vs Layla, or Adam Rose vs Sandow? I really wish WWE would do a better job in making sure that every match on the card matters, and not just push the spotlight on the top two or three matches.

Here are some interesting notes I took about the live crowd:

- The show was a legit sell-out, and tickets are the secondary market were much higher than face value. I ended up paying $140 for $100 seats, which is very unusual for a wrestling show in Boston.

- Daniel Bryan got a massive pop for his promo during the pre-show, and I would say that at least 90% of the audience was doing the "Yes" chant.

- When Bray Wyatt came out for his match, the lights went completely out in the arena as they always do for his entrance. However, almost everyone in the arena had their cellphone held up, so even though there was not a single light on in the arena, you could still make out the ring and Sheamus and the ref and the ladders because there were so many cellphones out. I don't know how this came across on television, but it was surreal to see it live.

- Roman Reigns got a huge pop from the crowd for his entrance, and was extremely over with the Boston fans. Even though he didn't really come close to winning tonight, WWE management must feel very confident in Reigns because he got such a great reaction from the audience.

- Cena's title victory was met with the typical fan response, with about 40% of the fans for Cena, while the remaining 60% booed him. As soon as he grabbed the titles, a large amount of fans quickly headed towards the exits, neglecting to watch Cena celebrate in the ring. Cena's father was in the front row for the show, like he is at all WWE events in the area.

- After the main event, nothing really happened and everyone walked to the back. Roman Reign's music played for some reason. Alberto Del Rio was helped to the back by an official, so he may have suffered a legit injury during the match.

- During the Rusev vs Big E match, event officials became very aggressive in taking away CM Punk signs. They took away and ripped up several signs right in front of fans. When a fan asked why they were doing this now, a security guard said "WWE just told us now to do it." One fan was asked to hand over his sign, but the fan refused to do so. Security tried to take it from him anyways, but the fan ripped up his own sign and scattered the pieces everywhere and yelled "This is f****** bulls***!" The fan was escorted away by security, but the fans in his section were clapping for him as he left. A sign that was probably visible on TV that read "Vladimir Putin Rulez" was taken away by security as well.