BRM Reviews WWE Money in the Bank 2016 (The Good, the Bad, and the Boring)

[Big Red Machine]

WWE Money in the Bank 2016 (6/19/2016)- Las Vegas, NV

KICK-OFF SHOW- we did even make it ninety seconds before someone (Booker) used the horribly annoying “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” cliché.

PICTURE OF LITA & RENEE’S NIGHT OUT- they’re wasting time showing us someone’s vacation photos. F*ck this. I’m just watching the matches.
Wait… the pre-show has Golden Truth vs. Tyler Breeze & Fandango? F*ck that. I’m not watching the matches on the pre-show, either.


MAIN SHOW:
FATAL FOUR-WAY MATCH FOR THE WWE TAG TEAM TITLES: The New Day(c) (w/Xavier Woods) vs. Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. The Vaudevillains- 6.5/10
Before this match started, we wasted time with not one but TWO promos. That being said, New Day was actually pretty funny for once. Woods made sure to claim that they were “the ELITE team in this industry,” which got loud boos. Speaking of funny, nothing anyone said here made me laugh anywhere near as hard as Michael Cole saying that Tensai “got a big head” after he and Anderson won a match in Japan.
Stuff happened. There was diving. A few teams got to tease victories. There was some awkward needs on the sequence leading to the finish with Gallows just kind of standing around and not doing anything for a while. I assume he was waiting for Cass to get into position for their spot. Also, JBL decided to refer to Bruiser Brody by his shoot name for absolutely no reason.

TOM PHILLIPS INTERVIEWS KEVIN OWENS- Jericho shows up. So does Del Rio. We’ve seen all of the guys in the MITB match bitching at each other for weeks now. Jericho invented the match, Del Rio keeps is the only one of them to have ever cashed in and won. Blah blah blah. Owens was GREAT, though. He even made fun of them for saying the same things. They didn’t even say anything new. Why is this happening on a PPV?

BARON CORBIN vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER- 5/10
Cole claims that this rivalry has been “raging.” Not the word I’d use to describe feud that didn’t even get mentioned on the go-home show. This got some “boring” chants early on and they were definitely deserved, but they managed to salvage it by the end.

DANA BROOKE & CHARLOTTE vs. BECKY LYNCH & NATALYA- 4.25/10


At this rate, this show will probably go down in history as “Night of the Horrendous Gear.”
Nattie and Becky hit the Hart Attack and didn’t even go for a cover afterwards. Can just imagine Bret and the Anvil sitting there watching this match and screaming “THEY’RE KILLING OUR FINISH!” And that sentiment isn’t wrong. At the least this probably would have been great false finish.
So they did stuff and the heals isolate Nattie and Dana does that arrogant “one foot on the chest pin” and Nattie kicked pretty darn quickly and I’m pretty certain I heard her shout “what you are you doing you little c*nt!” at Dana soon afterwards.
The match was pretty short for a women’s match on PPV nowadays. Charlotte pinned Nattie after Dana shoved Becky into Nattie and then Charlotte hit Natural selection. I don’t see how this progresses any sort of story.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- oh. That’s how it progresses a story.
Nattie snaps and attacks Becky. I know she’s been a babyface for a really long time, but unless you’re going to give her a monster heel push (which they obviously won’t with Charlotte being the top heel) I think it’s much better to keep her as the distinguished veteran babyface.

TOM PHILLIPS INTERVIEWS DEAN AMBROSE- awesome!

SHEAMUS vs. APOLLO CREWS- 4.5/10
They showed us a replay of a segment from last week’s Smackdown where Crew sucker-punched Sheamus while comedy characters laughed. What an asshole. Stuff happened. It resulted in a rather unsatisfying win for our babyface in his PPV debut.

GOOFY BATTLEGROUND COMMERCIAL- oh come on! How do you have a commercial with a bunch of people dramatically waving their own flags but not have Rusev in it?


AJ STYLES vs. JOHN CENA- 8.25/10
Yeah… that’s kind of the problem when the right finish to HUGE match like this is a run-in. I assume this will lead to a real separation between AJ and The Club setting up for a tag match at Battleground where Finn Balor will debut as the new leader of the newly re-christened Balor Club.

Why the f*ck are they putting Swerved commercials in the middle of my PPV?!

MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH: Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro vs. Alberto Del Rio- 9/10
All of the crazy bumps and cool spots that you expect from a six-person ladder match, plus a story that allowed the hate-filled rivalries and of Zayn vs. Owens and Ambrose vs. Jericho to shine, and also an extremely hot crowd. I think this just beats out Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin for the coveted “Ladder Match of the Day” award.

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Rusev(c) (w/Lana) vs. Titus O’Neil- 3.75/10
Titus got shined up a bit but Rusev cut him off and beat him up… and just kept beating him up until he made him tap clean in front of his children on Father’s Day. Then he went over to said children and cut a promo where he rubbed it in their faces. Now that’s a f*cking heel!

WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Roman Reigns(c) vs. Seth Rollins- 8/10
This was an extremely strange match, but in a way that has been very in-keeping with all of the strange decisions WWE has made with Seth Rollins’ return. In this match, Roman was playing the heel. He was the one who was doing he trash-talking and while showing off how much stronger he was than Seth, setting up SETH as the one who got to make a valiant comeback. Then, towards the end, they did a spot where doctors came out to check on Roman existed purely so that we could have a ref bump so that Roman could get a visual pin and would be protected in this loss. Yes, a loss. Seth won the title here, completing his journey and returning from injury to reclaim the title that he never lost. The match was awesome and quite exciting, but it had this very strange feeling to it.

WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Seth Rollins(c) vs. Dean Ambrose- no rating, BAD segment.
So Dean Ambrose, who is supposed to be a babyface and could have cashed in at any time (like, say, joining the Seth vs. Roman match at the beginning) decided to wait until after Seth had wrestled a grueling almost half-hour world title match in order to cash in. Not only did Dean choose to take advantage of Seth while he was tired, but Dean had the sound guy play his music to divert Seth’s attention to the entrance way so that Dean could come out from the crowd and attack Seth FROM BEHIND, WITH A WEAPON. Then he hits Seth with his finisher and steals (and I really do mean “steals”) the title that Seth put months of rehab into finally winning back. Why am I supposed to like this guy?
Michael Cole attempted to justify this by declaring it to be “the ultimate payback,” but I’m not sure what this is even payback for. Surely if there were something that Dean hated Seth so much for, he wouldn’t have stood there joking with him for twenty minutes on his stupid talk show on Raw just six days ago. I assume they are building towards the long-awaited Shield three-way, but there were MANY better ways to do this (especially if you don’t want Dean to come off like a heel).


This was pretty much a three-match show. Those matches all delivered so I can’t say that this wasn’t good show, but I do kind of feel like most of the other matches were a waste of time (especially the women’s match and the tag title match). Obviously this show would have been better if certain other matches hadn’t started and/or ended in such a disappointing fashion (Ziggler vs. Corbin and Crews vs. Sheamus in particular) but the stuff I came to see was all excellent and there did feel like there was actual progress (and/or a blow-off) in one or two undercard feuds, so as I said above, I’m still quite happy with this show (aside from the ending).

[NWK2000]

I know you're not high on Ambrose but I'm VERY eager to see how they proceed with a babyface champion that will actually get a pop. Also I've always sort of seen Dean as someone who's an asshole to everyone,, so I thought the cash in fit.

Also I was super impressed by Corbin/Ziggler. I can say without hesitation that Corbin has top heel potential. I believe 100 percent of his offense.

[Serujuunin]

I'm super stoked that Ambrose is champ. Yeah, I can see the Triple Threat coming a mile away but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy what I have while its here. And I'm really REALLY hoping that Rollins will be a face and Roman will finally make the turn he so desperately needs.

All in all, interesting ending.

[KILLdozer]

Am I the only one that thinks Stephanie will strip Ambrose of the title because "you can't have a lunatic for a champion... especially a self proclaimed one."

Didn't we already go there though with the US a ways back and even those counseling slots?

New day must be stopped. We need a "NEW DAY" where these fuckin' ass clowns are no longer champions ...

Crews got WAAAAAYYYY too much of a shine though... kickin' out of White Noise from the top ? Just because they want him to look good and he really hasn't earned shit since comin' up.

[KILLdozer]

So I'm watching this shit now and this Amore is actually goin' around sayin "a certified G!"

Oooohhh and I just noticed the other one's FUCKIN' shirt sayin' it as well.

All this ridiculous shoutin' and shit talkin' though just made me realize that sooner than later these two dudes are gonna really need the titles or they're gonna be in touch of looking like nothing more than loudmouths with delusions of grandeur.

[KILLdozer]

Yeah....all the more confirmation I needed that new day must end and go their own ways...goooo their own waaayyy.

Wtf is a fuckin' booty-o?

If you're a fan of the show "Supernatural"... you'll know that "I don't understand that reference."

[KILLdozer]

Well that tag finished was just ridiculously and blatantly choreographed and absolutely did nothing but kill all suspension of belief... there was literally NO reason he shouldn't have sent E out of the ring or at least dropped him when Anderson had him pinned...then he just stood and watched as E finished him off... while waiting for Cassidy.

[Big Red Machine]

I'm super stoked that Ambrose is champ. Yeah, I can see the Triple Threat coming a mile away but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy what I have while its here. And I'm really REALLY hoping that Rollins will be a face and Roman will finally make the turn he so desperately needs.

All in all, interesting ending.

I'm not saying the triple threat idea is bad. I just think this was a terrible way to build to it because it makes Dean look like such a heel.

[KILLdozer]

I'm super stoked that Ambrose is champ. Yeah, I can see the Triple Threat coming a mile away but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy what I have while its here. And I'm really REALLY hoping that Rollins will be a face and Roman will finally make the turn he so desperately needs.

All in all, interesting ending.

I'm not saying the triple threat idea is bad. I just think this was a terrible way to build to it because it makes Dean look like such a heel.

Dean Ambrose technically is a heel. He doesn't really care about what's right or wrong at times and makes no indications to show he's a face.

Plus ... he's crazy. Of course he doesn't do things right or wrong because he technically wouldn't know the difference. He's not a good guy and he's not a bad guy... he's just THE crazy guy. Idk why you're really expecting someone like him to really toe that line so hard.

[KILLdozer]

Yeah. That's exactly what Natalya said. Very professional and mature. Then I believe she was shouting something else when they had her in the corner. Something about "I always..."

If that was her and not just those two within the match.

[KILLdozer]

Then Natalya's crying after the loss. Yeah-me that's the tough woman we've always seen.

[KILLdozer]

Unless they sell it as "I snapped heat of the moment and didn't realize what I'd done until it was too late."

...then she shouldn't of backed up after the attack.... more so a "stand over with disgust " would have been better.

[Big Red Machine]

Here is how I'd get to the triple threat match:

Dean wins MITB, but he is laid out backstage by a mystery person (who will be revealed to be Seth)
Roman beats Seth but no one notices that Seth’s foot is on the rope. This forces Shane and Steph to give Rollins a rematch at Battleground which Roman once again wins, but not before Seth gets a visual pinfall after a ref bump. This leads to Steph giving Seth a rematch the next night on PPV which ends when Dean shows up and lays them both out with the briefcase for a double DQ, but he doesn’t cash in MITB (and the announcers make a point of wondering why).

The next week we get a confrontation between Dean and Roman where Dean explains that he attacked both Roman and Seth because he wasn’t sure who attacked him at MITB, but logic dictates that it was probably one of them. He points out that he didn’t cash in MITB on Roman when he could have because he didn’t know for sure and it would be unfair of him to steal the title from Roman like that if it turned out that Roman wasn’t the one who attacked him (and thus stole a title shot from him).

Roman is offended that his best friend thinks he would attack him from behind and they have a fight. Rollins runs in and lays them both out, then makes fun of them for fighting each other when he was obviously the one who took Dean out. He also steals the MITB briefcase. From here we build to Summer Slam with Seth facing Dean in a Ladder match with the MITB briefcase on the line, while Roman will defend the WWE World Heavyweight Title against Cesaro (who we have been building up very strong for a while now). Dean beats Seth in their match and Roman beats Cesaro clean to retain in what should be both an excellent match (I’d go so far as to give them at least a good half an hour) and also REALLY piss of the smarky New York crowd.

We build to Night of Champions with Dean going off and doing something else while Seth petitions Steph for another shot at Roman. His last title shot did end in an Ambrose-caused double DQ after all, so he should still be owed one. Steph says she’ll think it over for a week.

On the second Raw Steph comes out to give Seth his answer… and she’s not alone. Triple H is with her. They cut a promo on Seth basically saying that he has failed to beat Roman three times in the past two months so they don’t see why he should get another title shot. Instead, Steph says she is giving Hunter he title shot due to his rematch clause, and at Night of Champions, the greatest champion the WWE has ever known will show Seth how it’s done.

Seth beats his opponent at Night of Champions while Roman beats Hunter clean. Seth now gets on Hunter’s case for losing and we build towards Seth vs Hunter at Survivor Series, which Seth wins clean.

We also keep putting Roman against fan favorites who we know the crowd will be really angry if he beats, and he finally starts to lose his cool with the crowd, culminating in a heel turn while Seth winds up as a babyface as a result of feuding with Hunter. Seth winds up winning the Rumble to set him up against Roman at Mania. After the February PPV, Dean declares that he wants in, too, so we get Roman vs. Seth vs. Dean for the title at Mania.

[Big Red Machine]

I'm super stoked that Ambrose is champ. Yeah, I can see the Triple Threat coming a mile away but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy what I have while its here. And I'm really REALLY hoping that Rollins will be a face and Roman will finally make the turn he so desperately needs.

All in all, interesting ending.

I'm not saying the triple threat idea is bad. I just think this was a terrible way to build to it because it makes Dean look like such a heel.

Dean Ambrose technically is a heel. He doesn't really care about what's right or wrong at times and makes no indications to show he's a face.

Plus ... he's crazy. Of course he doesn't do things right or wrong because he technically wouldn't know the difference. He's not a good guy and he's not a bad guy... he's just THE crazy guy. Idk why you're really expecting someone like him to really toe that line so hard.

I don't think we're are supposed to think that Dean is actually a lunatic as in he is incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.

[KILLdozer]

That's the biggest classing of a lunatic though.

[KILLdozer]

If he's so crazy you can't really expect him to care.

[KILLdozer]

Here is how I'd get to the triple threat match:

Dean wins MITB, but he is laid out backstage by a mystery person (who will be revealed to be Seth)
Roman beats Seth but no one notices that Seth’s foot is on the rope. This forces Shane and Steph to give Rollins a rematch at Battleground which Roman once again wins, but not before Seth gets a visual pinfall after a ref bump. This leads to Steph giving Seth a rematch the next night on PPV which ends when Dean shows up and lays them both out with the briefcase for a double DQ, but he doesn’t cash in MITB (and the announcers make a point of wondering why).

The next week we get a confrontation between Dean and Roman where Dean explains that he attacked both Roman and Seth because he wasn’t sure who attacked him at MITB, but logic dictates that it was probably one of them. He points out that he didn’t cash in MITB on Roman when he could have because he didn’t know for sure and it would be unfair of him to steal the title from Roman like that if it turned out that Roman wasn’t the one who attacked him (and thus stole a title shot from him).

Roman is offended that his best friend thinks he would attack him from behind and they have a fight. Rollins runs in and lays them both out, then makes fun of them for fighting each other when he was obviously the one who took Dean out. He also steals the MITB briefcase. From here we build to Summer Slam with Seth facing Dean in a Ladder match with the MITB briefcase on the line, while Roman will defend the WWE World Heavyweight Title against Cesaro (who we have been building up very strong for a while now). Dean beats Seth in their match and Roman beats Cesaro clean to retain in what should be both an excellent match (I’d go so far as to give them at least a good half an hour) and also REALLY piss of the smarky New York crowd.

We build to Night of Champions with Dean going off and doing something else while Seth petitions Steph for another shot at Roman. His last title shot did end in an Ambrose-caused double DQ after all, so he should still be owed one. Steph says she’ll think it over for a week.

On the second Raw Steph comes out to give Seth his answer… and she’s not alone. Triple H is with her. They cut a promo on Seth basically saying that he has failed to beat Roman three times in the past two months so they don’t see why he should get another title shot. Instead, Steph says she is giving Hunter he title shot due to his rematch clause, and at Night of Champions, the greatest champion the WWE has ever known will show Seth how it’s done.

Seth beats his opponent at Night of Champions while Roman beats Hunter clean. Seth now gets on Hunter’s case for losing and we build towards Seth vs Hunter at Survivor Series, which Seth wins clean.

We also keep putting Roman against fan favorites who we know the crowd will be really angry if he beats, and he finally starts to lose his cool with the crowd, culminating in a heel turn while Seth winds up as a babyface as a result of feuding with Hunter. Seth winds up winning the Rumble to set him up against Roman at Mania. After the February PPV, Dean declares that he wants in, too, so we get Roman vs. Seth vs. Dean for the title at Mania.

No...just no more Triple H. Not at all.

[KILLdozer]

I've realized maybe I should've done this as one continuous post, or my own review, but fuck it. Most discussion and activity we've had in forever, be it one topic or anywhere...in fact, I've without doubt brought forth more conservation myself alone than the rest of you combined lol.

I just noticed John Cena is so hard that he carries his colors and slogan around in his back pocket on a rag... bitch please.

[Big Red Machine]

Here is how I'd get to the triple threat match:

Dean wins MITB, but he is laid out backstage by a mystery person (who will be revealed to be Seth)
Roman beats Seth but no one notices that Seth’s foot is on the rope. This forces Shane and Steph to give Rollins a rematch at Battleground which Roman once again wins, but not before Seth gets a visual pinfall after a ref bump. This leads to Steph giving Seth a rematch the next night on PPV which ends when Dean shows up and lays them both out with the briefcase for a double DQ, but he doesn’t cash in MITB (and the announcers make a point of wondering why).

The next week we get a confrontation between Dean and Roman where Dean explains that he attacked both Roman and Seth because he wasn’t sure who attacked him at MITB, but logic dictates that it was probably one of them. He points out that he didn’t cash in MITB on Roman when he could have because he didn’t know for sure and it would be unfair of him to steal the title from Roman like that if it turned out that Roman wasn’t the one who attacked him (and thus stole a title shot from him).

Roman is offended that his best friend thinks he would attack him from behind and they have a fight. Rollins runs in and lays them both out, then makes fun of them for fighting each other when he was obviously the one who took Dean out. He also steals the MITB briefcase. From here we build to Summer Slam with Seth facing Dean in a Ladder match with the MITB briefcase on the line, while Roman will defend the WWE World Heavyweight Title against Cesaro (who we have been building up very strong for a while now). Dean beats Seth in their match and Roman beats Cesaro clean to retain in what should be both an excellent match (I’d go so far as to give them at least a good half an hour) and also REALLY piss of the smarky New York crowd.

We build to Night of Champions with Dean going off and doing something else while Seth petitions Steph for another shot at Roman. His last title shot did end in an Ambrose-caused double DQ after all, so he should still be owed one. Steph says she’ll think it over for a week.

On the second Raw Steph comes out to give Seth his answer… and she’s not alone. Triple H is with her. They cut a promo on Seth basically saying that he has failed to beat Roman three times in the past two months so they don’t see why he should get another title shot. Instead, Steph says she is giving Hunter he title shot due to his rematch clause, and at Night of Champions, the greatest champion the WWE has ever known will show Seth how it’s done.

Seth beats his opponent at Night of Champions while Roman beats Hunter clean. Seth now gets on Hunter’s case for losing and we build towards Seth vs Hunter at Survivor Series, which Seth wins clean.

We also keep putting Roman against fan favorites who we know the crowd will be really angry if he beats, and he finally starts to lose his cool with the crowd, culminating in a heel turn while Seth winds up as a babyface as a result of feuding with Hunter. Seth winds up winning the Rumble to set him up against Roman at Mania. After the February PPV, Dean declares that he wants in, too, so we get Roman vs. Seth vs. Dean for the title at Mania.

No...just no more Triple H. Not at all.

Not even to do two clean jobs?

[KILLdozer]

No lol. I'm sure I wouldn't actually really mind him seeing him but the thought of him is another story.