Prior commitments caused this review to be late, but regardless, I managed to avoid spoilers and it seems like this show was something worth talking about. So I’m watching this show 8 hours after everyone else did and I am doing so blind. Let’s see what we got!
Damian Priest def. Shinsuke Nakamura, Ricochet, Santos Escobar, LA Knight, Logan Paul and Butch – Money In The Bank Ladder Match
First, in regards to the actual match, I thought it was very, very good by Money In The Bank standards. This field of participants isn’t the most laden with top tier star power, but everyone worked hard and there was some creative spots to help carry the match along. Of course, the white hot London crowd giving them extra juice helps out a great deal. I’m kind of disappointed we didn’t get any ladder breaks, though. It appeared that there were two instances where the ladder was supposed to break. First, Logan Paul’s splash on Damian Priest and then Ricochet’s springboard 450.
Maybe the ladder was supposed to break, maybe not, but I felt like if they had gone clean through, it would have more impact. What I’ll also say is that Ricochet/Logan Paul spot was……interesting. I immediately said “Holy sh*t”, but the “holy sh*t that was such an incredible spot”, but rather “holy shit I hope Logan Paul’s neck is still attached to his body. It looked rather ugly watching it in real time, although I get the point of what they were trying to do there. They didn’t land clean when they were pushed off the ladder onto the ropes, and I don’t think they fully reset before doing the dive. I appreciate the effort, and it was a car crash, but I think they could have done something more on the safer side because it looked rather unnecessary. Hope everyone’s okay from that.
Now, the bigger issue (well, not really an “issue”). The winner, Damian Priest. I dig it. It seemed like the two choices were either LA Knight or Logan Paul coming into the match. LA Knight is th proverbial crowd favorite, the flavor of the month, and the new star every fan believes should be in line for a push because he’s been getting consistent reactions from crowds. And then there’s Logan Paul, the non-WWE WWE superstar that’s a wildcard because of WWE’s propensity to leverage the social media presence of celebrities and teasing Logan Paul becoming a world champion is exactly the kind of out of left field thing WWE would do with Vince McMahon’s increasing influence backstage these days.
But Damian Priest’s name rarely came up as a potential winner. Even though he has been one of WWE’s most consistent performers this calendar year. I remember WWE posted a video from Backlash about Rhea Ripley talking about how each member of Judgement Day had a match at WrestleMania except Damian and that his WrestleMania was his street fight at Backlash against Bad Bunny. While that was an entertaining match, I’m sure he would have liked to have performed on WWE’s biggest stage. While he didn’t get that opportunity this year, perhaps the prospect of becoming a World Champion might be the next best thing, and I can honestly say he’s completely deserving. This also clearly sets up potential conflict within Judgement Day with Finn Balor challenging for a World Title. We’ll see, but to start the night, a real high-octane ladder match. ****1/4
Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez def. Shayna Baszler (C) and Ronda Rousey (C) – Undisputed Women’s Tag Team Championships
I can dig a Ronda/Shayna feud, as some have been clamoring for it for a while. That’s fine. My question, as it always has been with the women’s tag team division, is who are Morgan and Rodriguez’s challengers? The women’s tag team championships are heavily redundant and an ever revolving door of makeshift tag teams that don’t really do anything of value with the championships until another, better makeshift tag team takes the championships away. Seriously, do we remember that Charlotte and Asuka were tag team champions once? Didn’t they just compete over the women’s championship the other night? So the win itself means relatively little to me.
The match itself was okay. Liv makes a believable damsel in distress. Shayna turning on Ronda in that manner did take me off-guard in the moment, so there’s that. Otherwise, this was a passable match that you couldn’t have missed on an episode of RAW. **1/2
Gunther (C) def. Riddle – Intercontinental Championship
Basically, an extended squash, which I’m okay with. Gunther is one of the few superstars operating on a different plane than everyone else, and as he closes in on breaking the record for the longest Intercontinental Championship reign of all time, it’s imperative he looks as strong as possible. I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get a proper match between these two because I really felt like they would have killed it. But with Riddle selling a barefoot ankle injury, there’s no way Gunther should have had too much difficulty putting him away, so I’m fine with that to be honest.
For what we got, it was really solid, with Gunther using his overwhelming strength and exploiting the injury and Riddle spending all match long trying to improvise. It was pretty neat, which makes me wonder what an actual match would have looked like. Oh well, at least we know we’re getting a proper match between Drew and Gunther at Summerslam. ***
Cody Rhodes def. Dominik Mysterio
I think everyone was pretty much just waiting to see if Brock was going to lay a beatdown on Cody after the match and it didn’t happen, cause I didn’t really care too much for this match, inoffensive as it was. Another squash, nothing more to say. Trust me when I say I’m not being lazy. There’s just not much to break down. Cody is better than Dominik and Rhea is Dominik’s mami. **1/4
Cena loves London. That’s cool.
IYO SKY def. Trish Stratus, Zoey Stark, Becky Lynch, Bayley, Zelina Vega
“Representing the Judgement Day….BAYLLLLEYYYYYYY. Next, representing Damage CTRL, IYO SKY!” That was hilarious. But maybe with the tension between Bayley and Sky increasing, that could have been intentional. Who knows. Anyways, I thought this was a pretty solid ladder match in its own right, with some more creativity than the men’s ladder match. I especially loved the whole bit at the end where Bayley tried to screw IYO and she just gets her lick back just like that with the handcuffs. Usually, you’ll see the person that screws the teammate in the match win it, but IYO wasn’t waiting, and I loved it. Trish Stratus also taking bumps like the one she took by Becky was pretty gnarly. And how about that Code Zero by Zelina?
Another thing that helped this match along were the various storylines that were taking place in this match, as you essentially had two tag teams in Bayley/IYO and Stratus/Stark, and I think them bearing it out in the match itself helped it flow along nicely. Don’t think it was anything over the top, but it was more or less on the level of the men’s ladder match, perhaps marginally lower. ****
Seth Rollins (C) def. Finn Balor – World Heavyweight Championship
I’m judging this match based on the matches I’ve seen these two engage in before. If you watch some of their battles in 2018, you’ll see what I mean. This was a very good match, but didn’t quite reach the level that I was looking for. I think the heat segment could have been done a little better, and I also think the ending was rather predictable and kind of anti-climatic. The seeds for the Priest/Balor tension were planted weeks ago when Priest accepted Rollins’ challenge and insisted that the Judgement Day remained, and we saw it bear out here.
Other than that, all we really got was perfectly acceptable wrestling. Seth Rollins has arguably been WWE’s best in-ring competition this year, so he’s set a rather high standard for himself. He had another solid outing here, but I wasn’t blown away or anything, likely because of all of the extra stuff integrated into the match. ***1/2
The Usos def. Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa
Loved every bit of this. And I do mean every bit of this. Well, technically the second half of it anyway. The first half of the match was kind of slow and plodding, especially with the segments of Solo working over Jimmy, but once we got the hot tag, it was non-stop action from there, and it was just balls to the wall intense and dramatic. If there’s one thing the Bloodline know how to do, it’s tell a damn convincing story.
I liked how The Usos did things that caused Roman’s reign to continue, such as the low blow kickout that cost Finn Balor about 2 years ago. And The Usos kicking out of the double pin was pretty shocking. As the match got to the finish, it became abundantly clear that The Usos were going to win, but I wasn’t believing Roman was getting pinned until I saw it, and then I saw it.
What has made Roman’s run as champion impressive is that he essentially held two championships. He held the physical WWE Universal Championship, and then there’s the title of not having been pinned. So there’s essentially a double allure in defeating Roman. Tonight, he lost one title, and coming at the hands of his left and right, I thought was perfect. Roman and Solo are two formidable individuals, but The Usos have been doing this long before The Bloodline was a thing, and they showed Roman and Solo that they were more than just half the Bloodline. They’re one of the standard bearers of the tag team division for well over a decade, and have proven themself against any foe.
So overall, it was a dramatic match, and honestly, a lot of it was manufactured by the crowd, but it was still a main event that delivered. If the first half of the match transitioned into the 2nd half a bit quicker, I’d go higher here. ****1/4
Conclusion:
Can’t say I’m dissatisfied, really. The ladder matches were pretty solid, the matches in the middle got to their point quickly and the main event delivered to an extent. I’ll say the World Title match did disappoint me a little bit considering the hype going into it, but it was still okay. Overall, I’d give this one a thumbs up. But strangely enough, I don’t think I’d watch it again except to see maybe Roman get pinned.
