Views From The Turnbuckle: MITB Review, Normally Good PPV Takes A Hit

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Behind the Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania and Summerslam, Money in the Bank has been consistently the best show each year from WWE. The MiTB match is always a fun attraction, but more often than not MiTB has managed to have a great supporting card as well. Tonight, it just felt like everything was a little bit off. It wasn't the worst PPV of the year from WWE, but compared to the average MiTB event, it did feel a little disappointing.

Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins: ***1/4

Both men worked really hard and took some hard bumps (those were some hard ass bumps that Ambrose took) and it was ladder match, no matter how many times you see a guy fall off a ladder it is never NOT entertaining, but overall it just fell flat. An issue I believe was that due to the PG attitude, and this is the only real problem I think PG poses, there is a limit onto what guys can do in hardcore style matches. Since WWE runs a bunch of gimmick PPVs all year, you see A LOT of these hardcore matches, so the bumps and the spots get repetitive. It didn't help that Ambrose has been wrestling almost exclusively in hardcore matches over the last year or so, so many fans are a little tired of seeing Ambrose get hit with stuff.

The finish was a good way for Ambrose to save a little face, but it should have been used to make Rollins stronger. If the goal of the match was to get a legitimate win for Rollins, they chose a pretty bad finish for it. The end of the match felt anti-climatic and the crowd hardly made any noise about it at all.

John Cena vs Kevin Owens: ****1/2

A worthy successor to their first instant classic, this match was arguably better but I figure it ranks about the same. It was very similar in that in incorporated a lot of near falls and each man's finisher was kicked out of multiple times, so you never really knew if a guy was going to kick out or not, which adds a level of suspense that most WWE matches lack. I figured going into the match Cena was going to win because WWE really likes to even out the wins and losses for their talent (ironically the only person this rule doesn't seem to apply to is whoever is facing John Cena) and since Cena lost at the last event, he was destined to pick up the victory tonight.

This was probably the most ambitions we will ever see John Cena work in the ring, as he attempted to match Owens' versatility. The results were mixed, the reverse suplex and electric chair drop looked good, the springboard stunner and the leg-trap sunset powerbomb not so much. The finish was fine, especially Owens refusing the handshake and laying Cena out in the end, although I could have lived without the announcers faux solemnness.

The word "burial" will get tossed around concerning what happened with Owens tonight, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Owens controlled a good portion of the match, got a ton of big moves in and kicked out of two Attitude Adjustments. Just because he got his shoulders pinned down for the three count does not mean he was buried, he just lost tonight. Remember, it was Owens and not Cena who walked away from the ring under his own power.

Personally, I think Owens should have won the match. The idea of Owens being the one guy that Cena somehow cannot defeat is more interesting than their series being evened at one win apiece. However, WWE has given us no reason to not expect more entertaining segments and matches between these two men in the near future.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match: ***

WWE made a lot of mistakes in this match, the first being that it shouldn't have been the opening match for the show. I understand that WWE wants to get the crowd going early with an important match, but by the end of the night it seemed like an afterthought thrown onto the card, not the match that the PPV was named after. It was also apparent that the Tag Team Championship match had a hard time getting the crowd going because WWE sandwiched it in between the two most anticipated match on the show. I think if they swapped those matches in order it would have been better off for both matches.

The second mistake I think they made was randomly having Bray Wyatt show up and cost Roman Reigns the match. It is okay if WWE feels like Reigns isn't ready to have the briefcase (and later the championship) right now, but is that really the best they could do? Bray Wyatt? Bray Wyatt just failed to beat Roman Reigns two weeks ago on Raw, despite the fact that Reigns had already wrestled two physical matches that night AND Wyatt received help from The Authority, Reigns buzz-sawed his way through Wyatt in under ten minutes. That was only two weeks ago! If Wyatt can't beat him under those circumstances it is reasonable to expect he can never beat Reigns. It's just bad booking.

Lastly, there is Sheamus coming out of the pack and winning the MiTB briefcase. The most exciting part of this match was once it was made clear that Reigns wasn't winning the match, it seemed like every other guy in the match had a legitimate shot to win it. Sheamus picked up the victory, which wasn't the worst idea, but it still has some holes. Since returning as a heel Sheamus has more flavor to him than when he was a colorless face, but even so he hasn't necessarily set the world on fire since his return. A so-so feud with Dolph Ziggler and a loss to Ryback at Elimination Chamber doesn't exactly scream "World Champion" so it will be interesting to see how they build him up following his victory.

The match overall still gets three stars just because it is a multi-man ladder match where the stakes are high, and there is always going to be fun to watch guys get RKO'd off ladders and a bunch of guys taking crazy bumps.

Ryback vs Big Show: *3/4

If the plan was to have Miz just interfere, which you could see coming from a mile away, why couldn't this have just taken place on Raw? As the WWE Network makes PPV's less and less important, WWE is comfortable with wasting matches like this on PPV that would normally take place on Raw. For the future, I think WWE should give Miz the championship and let him run with it. He is arguably the best wrestler WWE has when it comes to cutting promos and his in-ring work is passable.

Prime Time Players vs The New Day: **

I'm very disappointed to see the Prime Time Players take the championship off of The New Day. I have nothing against PTP, they are a solid face tag team, but The New Day was really finding its stride as champions and I feel that they were entitled to a longer reign. I loved their opening promo where Xavier Woods almost cracked, but Big E was able to reel him back in. They can work in the ring and they get the best reaction, face or heel, out of any team in the division. The good news is that the Tag Team Championships are not really important enough for WWE to be scared of changing the title back and forth, so it is likely The New Day regain the titles in the near future, which will only enhance their heel credentials.

Paige vs Nikki Bella: *3/4

The match was mostly a mess. Nikki Bella just isn't entertaining to watch in the ring. Her moveset is boring and she has the charisma of a field mouse. WWE allowed them to have some false finishes and let finishers get kicked out of, but even so the match dragged on too long, leading to a predictable finish. WWE really wants Paige to chase Nikki for the championship, which is fine because the fans probably like Paige more than any other Diva, but I don't want to see them wrestle any more. I don't understand why they don't call up any of the NXT woman. The division really needs some fresh bodies that can work, and they have several women in development that are ready for the main roster, yet they have women like Charlotte twiddling their thumbs down in NXT while fans are forced to watch Nikki and Brie pretend to be each other for the 10,000th time.

Like I said earlier, MiTB has been a great event for WWE for years now, but tonight WWE didn't really bring it like they have in the past. Not only was the MiTB below average by its lofty standards, the supporting matches on the card were also not up to its usual standards. There was one excellent match with decent booking, and then the rest of the matches left something on the table and involved questionable booking decisions. Hopefully with five weeks between MiTB and the next PPV, WWE can improve on their established storylines and get the machine humming headed into Summerslam.

You can follow Jesse Collings on Twitter@JesseCollings