Notable Superstars Missing from the Card
Note: This is not a full list of everyone on the roster who is not scheduled for the show. It excludes some people who wouldn’t have normally been expected to appear on the show for some fashion, such as some jobbers, injured talent, etc.
Miscellaneous Raw Superstars = Akira Tozawa, Angel Garza, Cedric Alexander, Damian Priest, Drew Gulak, R-Truth, Shelton Benjamin and even Jeff Hardy simply failed to qualify for a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match.
Bray Wyatt = After his loss at WrestleMania, The Fiend has been out of the picture. I don’t anticipate his return here, but I do think he’ll be back for SummerSlam in some fashion.
Elias / Jaxson Ryker = These two had a strap match that could have ended their feud. Instead, WWE has kept it going with Elias walking away from his tag team match with Cedric Alexander. Someone either decided to drag it out because they have something else in mind to reach when there are fans, or they have nothing else to do and figured copying and pasting it, stretching it out a little longer, and avoiding the extra work was better than finding a new story for both of them. My guess is we won’t see a proper conclusion and it’ll just fade away eventually.
Lucha House Party / Mace and T-Bar = Simply put, they’re a tag team and not even the champions are on this card, so why would this lesser feud be given a spotlight?
Humberto Carrillo / Sheamus = These two had their United States Championship match on Raw, rather than taking up a spot on the pay-per-view.
Jinder Mahal = I fully expect to see The Modern Day Maharaja make an appearance on this show to screw over Drew McIntyre by interfering in the ladder match.
Mansoor / Mustafa Ali = This reluctant mentor/protege angle is interesting, but it’s not a hot enough story to dictate taking up a spot on this show. However, there’s a chance it could be added as a kickoff match in some fashion.
Randy Orton = Conspicuous by his absence, The Viper didn’t compete in his scheduled Triple Threat match in an attempt to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match. Riddle took his place as best he could, but Randy’s still been missing in action. Whether this was planned to excuse his participation on the event itself or something else came up that stopped Orton from being able to compete in recent weeks is completely unknown at the time.
Doudrop and Eva Marie / Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler = These four Superstars failed to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match. That’s about as reasonable of an explanation for their absence on the card as possible.
Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose = This team has been feuding with Natalya and Tamina. So what do they do? Well, naturally, they just randomly announce Nattie and Tamina as being in the ladder match on Twitter with no reasoning behind it, then draft Mandy Rose to NXT (prior to the draft, mind you) without ever doing the women’s tag title match. What the hell???
Dirty Dawgs / Alpha Academy / Street Profits = Montez Ford has been MIA for some reason. Meanwhile, the other teams just haven’t been doing anything noteworthy enough to justify putting them on this card. It’s far from something to go nuts about.
Apollo Crews (and Commander Azeez) = WWE has very clearly had no direction for the Intercontinental Championship for nearly two months and is just waiting until fans come back, or possibly even the draft after SummerSlam, to get something situated. In the meantime, Crews is hanging around with nothing to do, as he’s beaten everyone within his title hunt.
Cesaro = Personally, I think it’s a mistake he’s not in the ladder match. WWE probably thinks Seth Rollins is a bigger deal for the marquee because he’s a bigger name. I happen to think Cesaro would provide a better participant for the quality of the match and that he’d be someone the fans would get behind, so they’d be more invested in the winner.
Baron Corbin = He’s on a downward spiral. Of course he had to lose his Money in the Bank qualifying match. If he won it, it wouldn’t have made any sense with his story.
Sami Zayn = Conspiracy or not, Zayn was taken out and beaten down by Kevin Owens in their Last Man Standing match. That should write him out of the picture for a little while. At the very least, it explains his absence.
Slapjack = He hasn’t been seen since supposedly being traded over to SmackDown.
Bianca Belair / Bayley / Carmella = Bayley suffered a torn ACL, forcing her out of the planned I Quit match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Instead of figuring out a solid replacement for Bianca Belair, WWE just pulled Carmella from the ladder match and said she’ll fight Belair for the title on the SmackDown television episode.
Reckoning / Mia Yim = Just like Slapjack, she’s yet to be seen since the breakup of RETRIBUTION.
Sasha Banks = Since losing the title, she’s been away for whatever reason. My guess is we won’t see her return until the show after this event to set up a match for SummerSlam.
Shotzi Blackheart / Tegan Nox / Toni Storm = These three just joined the SmackDown roster. They could have theoretically been in the ladder match or fought Belair, but WWE decided “nope” for whatever reason.
Continue to the next page for Heat Index.
