WWE Money In The Bank General Discussion & Reviews

[Jack-Hammer]

As of right now, the MITB ladder match and WWE Championship rematch have been announced for the show. Next week on SmackDown Live is a Fatal Fiveway elimination match between Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Carmella and Tamina with the winner facing Naomi for the SD Women's Championship.

Keep all discussion of MITB in general in here and no spam posts please.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

It looks like they're postponing Rusev's return. The angle was straight forwad: give me a championship match at MITB Shane O'Mac or I'm not coming to Smackdown.

I expected Rusev to be in the MITB match. So I really don't know what they're planning with him. Also it looks like Cena will be absent from the PPV. John Cena's name is synonymous with the MITB for me.

In 2011 he had a 5-star match with CM Punk. Next year, he won. The year after that, he had a nice feud with Henry going into the PPV. The year after that he became a 15-time world champion. In 2015 we had the champion vs champion match, Cena vs Owens. And of course last year we had the first ever, Cena vs Styles match.

So Rusev is a big question mark. Cena is a big question mark.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

It looks like they're postponing Rusev's return. The angle was straight forwad: give me a championship match at MITB Shane O'Mac or I'm not coming to Smackdown.

Well, he didn't get the match so I guess he's not coming: there is a rumour that he and Shane are going to work a programme heading into SummerSlam as a means to get Rusev over as a big heel so I guess it makes sense if that is the direction they're headed in. I wouldn't be shocked to see him make an appearance at the show either, cutting a promo demanding a title shot for whatever the July SmackDown PPV is.

In 2011 he had a 5-star match with CM Punk. Next year, he won. The year after that, he had a nice feud with Henry going into the PPV. The year after that he became a 15-time world champion. In 2015 we had the champion vs champion match, Cena vs Owens. And of course last year we had the first ever, Cena vs Styles match.

So Rusev is a big question mark. Cena is a big question mark.

I don't think Cena will be back until he's good and ready to promote whatever he's doing for SummerSlam - so again, likely at or after the July PPV. I suspect he'll be next in line for a title shot following the Orton/Mahal programme, especially if Mahal is still champion.

 

[ShinChan]

I read somewhere that WWE might have a Money In The Bank briefcase match for women as well. I would really like that. Charlotte would be the favorite if she isn't challenging Naomi. Or Becky or Carmella. Won't be surprised to see Carmella win the title in the near future since WWE seems to be behind her for a push.

The only problem with the original MITB match is that I won't get my rematch between AJ Styles and Kevin Owens. But I can't really blame them since Smackdown isn't as deep as Raw in the midcard and upper midcard scene. You wouldn't want any jobber to be in this match so it's better to have some great and some good wrestlers in here. Looking forward to it more than Payback.

 

[Spencesc11]

I think the smart money on MIB would be Baron Corbin. WWE clearly wants to push him so why not have him win the briefcase. Then have Sami Zayn win the WWE Title at Summerslam from Mahal only to have Corbin cash in on him!!! That would give Corbin some sick heel heat going forward. Then you have Nakamura win the Title from Corbin down the road. Styles wins the Rumble next year. And then you have your Wrestlemania co-main event - Nakamura vs. Styles (WWE Title)

 

[Olan]

I read somewhere that WWE might have a Money In The Bank briefcase match for women as well. I would really like that. Charlotte would be the favorite if she isn't challenging Naomi. Or Becky or Carmella. Won't be surprised to see Carmella win the title in the near future since WWE seems to be behind her for a push.

I was looking forward to this match but it seems now to not happening. They are having an elimination match on SD to determine the #1 contender. Don't see how you can go to one to the other. Looks like they nixed the idea

 

[The Life Of Pablo Ren]

I was looking forward to this match but it seems now to not happening. They are having an elimination match on SD to determine the #1 contender. Don't see how you can go to one to the other. Looks like they nixed the idea

It can still easily be done. It's a 5 woman elimination match and only one of them can win. That leaves 4 "losers". They can certainly do a MITB with only 4 people, plus you still have Lana who has yet to debut and maybe even Summer Rae, that would make the traditional 6.

 

[Olan]

It can still easily be done. It's a 5 woman elimination match and only one of them can win. That leaves 4 "losers". They can certainly do a MITB with only 4 people, plus you still have Lana who has yet to debut and maybe even Summer Rae, that would make the traditional 6.

You know I feel like a dummy now. I kept thinking the match would be for the title, don't ask me why. But you are right of course.

 

[Spencesc11]

Best way to handle this situation???

Have the fatal 5-way end in a no contest and then the title match at MIB becomes a 6 way ladder match!!! That would be much more exciting than a 1 on 1 match anyway.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The card currently has four matches:

WWE Championship - Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton
WWE Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match - AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens
WWE SmackDown Women's Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Natalya vs. Carmella vs. Tamina
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship - The Usos vs. The New Day

Most of the best talent on the blue brand is occupied, so the rest of the undercard could be tough to fill up. To be perfectly honest, I'd rather they added a tag team MITB ladder match consisting of Breezango vs. The Ascension, American Alpha, The Colons and the Singh Brothers. Three MITB ladder matches and two championship matches would work just fine in my opinion as each match has meaning. Give each match a good amount of time and don't worry about filler matches like Tye Dillinger vs. Aiden English, put that on the kickoff show or something.

 

[GOOZEKING]

I feel like they are handicapping themselves with the men's ladder match. Instead of Nakamura, Styles, and Owens they should put Tye Dillinger, Rusev, and Luke Harper. Then have a great undercard match with Aj styles vs Kevin Owens and if it was up to me have cena come back and face Nakamura just like he did with styles last year.

 

[ShinChan]

I think that Rusev should surely have a match at Money In The Bank PPV if there are plans for him in the main event scene. I don't want another hotshot. Give him some momentum after returning from injury like a feud with Luke Harper or Tye Dillinger. Have him go over decisively and then he does need to be the World Champion.

 

[Dagger Dias]

This was a weird show. While it wasn't necessarily a bad show, almost every match had an outcome I disagreed with.... Nearly. Every. Single. Match. I can't remember the last time that happened. History was made tonight at Smackdown's Money In The Bank 2017 event. Let's take a look at what took place.

Pre-Show: The Colons VS The Hype Bros
Just another boring pre-show match. Hype Bros are back together and them winning here was fine. Mojo had the crowd going.

Becky Lynch VS Carmella VS Charlotte VS Natalya VS Tamina [Women's Money In The Bank Ladder match]
This going on first surprised me. By the time we got to the mens' match it made sense for that to go on last instead. Having the match that was guaranteed to make history go on first was an odd call. The first of MANY odd calls tonight, sadly. Ellsworth not only did not go through a ladder (he should have had at least one major ladder spot) but he controversially "won" the match for Carmella. What!? Shane should have come out and restarted the match with Ellsworth banned from the arena. Becky should have won. When trying to look at it from a positive note, the girls did a good job in a match where no one really knew what to expect. That and at least Tamina didn't win.

The New Day VS The Usos [Smackdown Tag Team Championship]
This was pretty good. I wanted New Day to win but nothing really to be upset about otherwise. New Day hopefully will win at their next attempt.

Lana VS Naomi [Smackdown Women's Championship]
Gosh this was a mess. We have a contender for worst match of the year, so far anyway, here. Lana needs lots of in-ring training. That or she should stick to being Rusev's manager. Carmella teasing a cash-in but then not going through with it was a bit dumb. With the likelihood of Shane and Bryan undoing her win with their announcement this coming tuesday, she should have cashed in while she had the chance whether that had been after this match or even on Talking Smack.

Jinder Mahal VS Randy Orton [World Heavyweight Championship]
This match surprised me and was much better than expected. The interference cost Randy the match AGAIN even after Jinder's guys had been banned by the ref. Saw that one coming. Jinder is slowly (emphasis on SLOWLY) growing on me as World Champion.

Ascension VS Breezango
Sure, why not. Ascension are apparently not going to be treated any better on Smackdown than they were on Raw. Breezango needed the win more I guess. Glad they still made it onto the card and that we are seeing them in more parodies of various police/detective shows.

AJ Styles VS Baron Corbin VS Dolph Ziggler VS Kevin Owens VS Sami Zayn VS Shinsuke Nakamura [Men's Money In The Bank Ladder match]
Match of the night by far. The whole thing with Corbin supposedly taking Shinsuke out of the match at the beginning had everyone at my PPV party guessing when Shinsuke was going to come back, after pretty much every big spot someone would say he was going to come back into the match at that point. A lot of action and mayhem here which made up for a lot of the rest of the show's content. I highly disagree with Corbin winning. Sami, Shinsuke, or AJ would have been better. Could be worse. At least it wasn't Ziggler.

Overall Thoughts
Ok, this was a really weird show. I would have changed several of the match outcomes. Just about all of them in fact. Becky should have won the Women's ladder match and cash'ed in on Lana who would just barely have defeated Naomi, meaning Becky should be a 2 time Smackdown Women's Champion right now. The New Day should be the Smackdown Tag Team Champions. I would have had Jinder retain without a distraction. Last but not least, Sami would be Mr Money In The Bank right now. Other than the results it was fun to watch. Smackdown still ended up having the better show out of the two brands this month. Watch the two ladder matches if you missed this show, the womens' one for the sake of history and the mens' one because it was the best match on this show. Perhaps the Women's Championship match too just to see how bad it was. Not sure where they go from here with Corbin having the briefcase and Jinder still being the World Champion.... I'm certainly interested in the announcement Bryan will have regarding Carmella's controversial win. Fun show, just really weird calls all night long regarding the results.

Dagger's 2017 WWE PPV Rankings
1. Wrestlemania 33
2. Money In The Bank 2017
3. Elimination Chamber 2017
3. Royal Rumble 2017
4. Backlash 2017
5. Payback 2017
6. Extreme Rules 2017
7. Fastlane 2017

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Nothing bad to say about this show. I was entertain throughout the show. From the women MITB match that made me want to see where they take this story to the breezengo throwaway match, everything had a purpose and it was just wrestling match for the sake of having wrestling match like raw tend to have on their ppv.

For me this was one of the strongest brand only ppv this year.

 

[The Perfect Max]

I've seen some people get salty at some of the choices made on the show. I mean, one guy was getting upset and claiming he would never ever watch WWE again because they didn't let the fans sing along to Shinsuke Nakamura's music. I guess some people need to get a grip. It worked well to get the heat on Baron Corbin and it meant that when Shinsuke didn't win the match, there is a storyline reason that retains his credibility (for the benefit of particular cry babies, that is. Most understand sometimes you've gotta lose).

I'm in two minds about the women's ladder match. It simply wasn't all that good in my opinion, although the actual Women's Championship match was much worse. But it's good to see the women are getting a go and perhaps more exposure to these matches will improve their quality. Although, my opinion might be influenced by the almost genius, yet amazingly stupid decision to have James Ellsworth effectively win this match. Remember, this will go down as the first women's MITB ladder match. And that's how it ended. I will let this play out before I make some final conclusions on how I feel about this, but for now, I don't know. Carmella could have still won the match, but Ellsworth should have been brutalized I think. But, we shall see.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

We can spin this any way we want, but the first Women's Money In The Bank Match was won by a man. Whether we like it or not, it was a joke ending. There was nothing that creative about it, and I'd argue it was the laziest finish that it could have had. If any other modern sport or television show had a guy achieve a goal for a woman it would be shit on by just about every social media/news outlet. But it's wrestling, so hur hur. To set it in perspective, it would be like if Alex Riley had won the MITB for The Miz - with the addition of WWE treating Riley like a comedy jobber. We hear about how it's a new age in women's wrestling, but when given the ingredients to do something special in the first match of its kind, here comes a man to solve the problem. I really want Shane McMahon to set this straight, being the fair General Manager and all. I doubt they'd care though, or they wouldn't have done it to begin with. It's in the history books now.

Other than that, I thought the show was fun, if not a little weird. The Women's MITB did take the air out of the room here though, so yeah. Naomi retained. Guess that's a positive.

 

[The Life Of Pablo Ren]

Other than the fact that WWE set women back about a century, I was again happy with the show we got. This is the deepest into the year we've gone in quite some time where I can honestly say I've liked every PPV WWE has put out.

The Tag Team Championship match was probably my favorite of the night. The Breezango/Ascension stuff was really the only dull part of the show but I'm very happy to see Breezango still getting a spotlight on them, so despite what we got it was still a plus for me.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

1. Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - From an overall perspective, I was disappointed in this match as I was simply expecting more. The fact that the match only went about 12 minutes and James Ellsworth actually being the one who retrieved the briefcase severely undercut the "historic" applications and hype of this match. I didn't really have any problems with Carmella getting the win, I just wasn't at all happy with how it happened. As I said, Ellsworth is the one who climbed the ladder, got the briefcase and gave it to Carmella and it's one of those instances where a company goes for more of a surprising moment by making use of some strange technicality at the expense of common sense; it's something that every company, though WWE in particular, does every so often. In this case, the technicality is that even though Ellsworth retrieved the briefcase, Carmella was the first woman to hold it. I'm hoping that Bryan & Shane void the decision on SmackDown Live and make another women's MITB match to main event tomorrow night's show. **1/4

2. WWE SD Tag Team Championship: The Usos vs. The New Day - I really enjoyed this match because both teams not only worked hard, but this match did away with the usual formula for tag matches. There were several really good near falls in the second half of the match and the fans were heavily invested in the match from bell to bell. I didn't mind the ending at all, though I kind of wish the match had just spun out of control with both teams just brawling on the outside for a double count out. The Usos skipping out, however, did put heat on them as heels and it's too soon for them to drop the titles. Plus, New Day has only just returned to television as part of the blue brand so it was also too soon for them to lose via submission or pinfall really. This feud will continue over the next few months, probably with a rematch at the next ppv in which the Usos win before ultimately dropping the titles to New Day at SummerSlam. ***3/4

3. WWE SD Women's Championship: Naomi vs. Lana - This wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, but it wasn't good either. Lana needs more work, something I'm actually glad to say that she herself admitted via Twitter after the match last night, as you could tell that Naomi was really slowing herself down so Lana could keep up. I'm of the opinion that if Lana wants to be a wrestler, then the best thing for her would be to send her down to NXT so she can really get all the development inside the ring she needs. She's got charisma and she most definitely has sex appeal, but this match showed that she's not really ready for prime time and I'm glad that they didn't put the title on her as she's not ready and, frankly, she doesn't deserve it. *3/4

4. WWE Championship: Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton - I enjoyed this match more than their previous outing. Jinder is slowly, and I repeat slowly, coming along as you can see that he's more confident in the ring and it showed during his bout last night. This was a more methodical paced match, but it told a good story and it was cool seeing all the various legends sitting around ringside. Another thing I'm glad of is that they didn't have the legends interfere or beat up the Singh Brothers or anything along those lines. There was some interference from the Singh Brothers as they put Jinder's foot on the bottom rope after he was hit with an RKO and the ref expelled them from ringside. As they were leaving, they decided to beat up on ol' Bob Orton and, naturally, this caused Randy to go apeshit as he proceeded to beat the piss out of both of them; putting one of them through the announce table with an RKO was a cool spot. Orton could've been counted out but the ref gave Orton some latitude considering that the Singh Brothers were assaulting Orton's father, and this ultimately set up Jinder recovering and hitting his finisher for the win. There weren't any "holy shit" or "this is awesome" chants, but I don't find them necessary for a match to be good. ***1/4

5. Tag Team Match: Breezango vs. The Ascension - I was initially interested in this match as I thought it might possibly be some new team debuting or maybe another team repackaged. Once I saw it was the Ascension, however, I immediately tuned out. Went to the bathroom, fixed a snack and the match was over. Don't know what happened, don't really care. NA

6. Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - I really enjoyed this match as they were able to do enough to make me wonder if the expected favorite wasn't gonna be the winner and there was the carnage that you come to expect from this sort of match. Baron Corbin jumping Nakamura from behind during his entrance was a nice touch to garner heat and fits with Corbin's character. You knew that he'd be back eventually and this is part of what made me think that Nakamura might win. Big props to Ziggler, Styles and Owens as they took the biggest bumps of the match, especially Owens. They didn't get too crazy with the spots, but they delivered what is needed to ultimately make these matches successful. We also saw our first taste of Styles vs. Nakamura during this match, something the like crowd was very much interested in seeing, once Nakamura made his way out and spent the first several minutes cleaning house. Ultimately, Baron Corbin gets the briefcase at the 30 minute mark and I've got no complaints really about him winning. I might be wrong, but I sense that there could be a threeway feud over the US title with Nakamura and Styles chasing Owens that culminates in a triple threat match at SummerSlam. ****

final Thoughts - It wasn't the best MITB ppv of them all but the WWE Championship, Tag Team Championship and men's MITB matches made the show successful and enjoyable. I was just plain disappointed in the women all around last night, though it's not entirely their fault. The historic implications of the first women's MITB match was undercut by technically, and I know how much WWE likes to play with these little technicalities sometimes, James Ellsworth winning the match and simply gave the briefcase to Carmella and the fact that the match was less than 12.5 minutes. The Women's Championship match wasn't the trainwreck I figured it'd be, but it did show that Lana needs more work. The filler tag team match was just that and really shouldn't have even been on the card while the men's MITB match ended the show on an overall high note.

Grade: B

 

[Aeon Mathix]

MONEY IN THE BANK 2017 (SMACKDOWN)

I stopped watching the show right before the WWE Championship match mostly because I just wasn't interested in seeing Jinder retain. My buddy and I started playing video games after we both discussed that we would just tune in Tuesday to see Baron Corbin's victory speech. All that being said I did watch it through this morning so I could get a review going.

Women's Money in the Bank Match: Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch vs Natalya vs Tamina vs Carmella

This was pretty garbage for the most part. I don't even remember the ladder being used other than Tamina getting hit a couple times. Pretty weak match overall with it being the first ever and you would think the girls would go out and try to tear the house down. That didn't happen here. Everyone knew Carmella was going to win with James Ellsworth stealing the briefcase which wasn't the most thrilling ending and left the crowd pretty flat. I can't stand the guy and haven't since his "main event" run with Styles and Ambrose all throughout the fall last year. I get that it was funny once or so but man did they drive that into the ground. Just not a good match with a lame ending.

Rating: **

Smackdown Tag Team Championship: The Usos (c) vs The New Day

I have seen these two teams face each other probably a hundred times and after a certain point with any feud you get burnt out. I'm pretty sure the Uso's were faces back then, but even with the teams switching positions it wasn't the most interesting. Not a bad match, but rather dull considering the repetitiveness. I was really pulling for the New Day as I have just never been entertained by the Usos. Let New Day take them at the next pay per view (or the one after, I could easily see this going about 3 more pay per views because WWE just loves running the same match into the ground) and have American Alpha come out of their cave after Bane broke their backs to have a great series with New Day for the titles.

Rating: **1/2

Smackdown Women's Championship: Naomi (c) vs Lana

I've made it no secret to the fact that I thought splitting the women's and tag divisions was idiotic considering the lack of depth in each. I mean who was on Raw that could fight for the title? Oh that's right we had Charlotte vs Sasha for about 20 matches for half a year all built around a rematch clause. There was also about 5 or 6 women on smackdown competing for one title. I will give credit in that they are adding more now with quite a few NXT prospects coming up in the future that should actually qualify each show having an actual division. Lana impressed me here and held her own rather well. Naomi never has been the greatest in ring worker but she never had that much of a reason to be until the Women started mattering. I was hoping Carmella would cash in after Lana won turning her face in the process. The crowd loves them some Lana and there could be money to be made in her being a face. She will get it in due time though.

Rating: **1/2

WWE Championship: Jinder Mahal (c) vs Randy Orton

Like I said at the start, I turned the show off before this match happened as it sounded boring and not something I felt like sitting through. Everyone knew Orton wasn't going to get the title back though it probably would have been a better option. Jinder isn't tanking as champion and there isn't anything I could say about the guy holding the title that hasn't already been said but man alive is he just uninteresting in every way. There's nothing about him that sets him apart. Average in ring work, barely average mic work, just nothing that excites me about him. At least with Orton we could have got some Shinsuke or Styles title action going over the summer and know it would have been good. All that said, just an average snoozefest of a match that was to be expected. With almost the same exact ending from Backlash to boot!

Rating: **1/2

Not going to bother with Breezango and the Ascension.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Baron Corbin vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs AJ Styles vs Dolph Ziggler vs Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens

Nothing we haven't seen before but to be fair, there have been so many over the years that it's hard for the wrestlers to come up with ways to keep it interesting. Everyone knew Corbin was winning and hopefully he shows more character development and I can actually see him as a World Champion. I would have preferred Owens winning as the promos would have been gold and the briefcase would have fit perfectly with his character. Plus he is about 100 times more interesting than Corbin. Standard Money in the Bank match with nothing really noteworthy. It's amazing to think that Ziggler has been around more than a decade in this company. I will never get the appeal of him.

Rating: ***

Overall thoughts:I didn't really have much to say about the show just simply because...well there isn't much to say. Everything we all thought would happen did in fact happen and there were no surprises minus Mike and Maria showing up which means hey there might be another woman joining the division! I didn't have high hopes coming into this pay per view and just kind of goes to show how stupid the single branded pay per views are. Neither Smackdown or Raw are the most interesting shows to watch right now but that's to be expected as the summer months and falls months are just a holding pattern every year until Summerslam or the Rumble season. Easily skippable show and you can probably just tune into the next pay per view and see most of the same matches like Usos vs New Day that might actually matter and aren't just there to buy creative time.

Overall Rating: **

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Something really bugged me after reading alot of the fans and wrestling journalist reacted to the finish of the women's money in the bank match. Why does this ending get so much negativity from the fans and journalist. Really, like Tony schiavone would say on his podcast, it's a show, it's not real, stop taking everything so seriously all the time.

Why i say that is quite simple, i think there's a clear double standard happening here in my opinion. Because it's was a women's match, it wasn't o.k. to have a heel to go and help the person he's with yet if another women's that's wasn't in the match like summer rae would have done this instead of Ellsworth, Nobody would have said a thing and everybody would have said how great the story is.

In my opinion, this was the perfect way to help Carmella and ellsworth get heel heat. Have him screw the whole division over by giving the briefcase to carmella. It made fans talk about the match and i'll bet that everybody that's bitching about this finish right now will tune in on tuesday to see what's going to happen which is what the finish was done for.

I read a lot of fans saying how this was the worst thing to happen to the women's division and they're not treating them seriously by doing this finish and a lot of other feminist stuff. That's bullshit in my opinion, they created something that's really rare in today's wrestling and that's controversy and it made this something that fans will remember more then if you would have done a clean finish because with everything that's been done with this match over the year, you need something like that to happen to stand out from the lot and that's the perfect way to start the tradition of the women's money in the bank. If they do this type of ending every year that's another story but for the first time, i think it made total sense and will make the women's segment on smackdown the most interesting segment of the show because you have created a lot of buzz around this.

I really would love wrestling fans especially those that love to give their thought on the internet to stop taking this so seriously all the time and just take WWE as you would take any other type of entertainment. The WWE product isn't about serious wrestling and having competitive matches, it's about telling story and making fans want to see what's going to happen next and that's what this angle is all about. This help the smackdown women's division way more then having a clean finish and it's sad that a lot of fans just don't get it.

 

[Dagger Dias]

This help the smackdown women's division way more then having a clean finish and it's sad that a lot of fans just don't get it.

No, this did not help the division. Did it generate attention? Sure. That's not the same thing as HELPING the division. Having a male obtain the briefcase in a match where all the official competitors are female is an insult to the historical moment that the win should have been. If Carmella was picked to win, fine. The problem is not Carmella winning. It's HOW she won. Had Ellsworth helped Becky or Charlotte I would still be as much against it as I am with how it played out. The win for a historic "first ever" match for the women was, quite literally, handed to her by a man. Ellsworth should have been banned from ringside by Shane or the match should have been restarted. Granted it's not as horrible as Santino dressing up like a girl to win a womens' battle royal at Wrestlemania, but it's still an insult to the division and all the improvements that the women have made to have the match end this way. A clean finish may be boring to some, although it would have been better than this. Controversial wins have their place when they are beneficial, however not here. It was a very bad decision.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

No, this did not help the division. Did it generate attention? Sure. That's not the same thing as HELPING the division. Having a male obtain the briefcase in a match where all the official competitors are female is an insult to the historical moment that the win should have been. If Carmella was picked to win, fine. The problem is not Carmella winning. It's HOW she won. Had Ellsworth helped Becky or Charlotte I would still be as much against it as I am with how it played out. The win for a historic "first ever" match for the women was, quite literally, handed to her by a man. Ellsworth should have been banned from ringside by Shane or the match should have been restarted. Granted it's not as horrible as Santino dressing up like a girl to win a womens' battle royal at Wrestlemania, but it's still an insult to the division and all the improvements that the women have made to have the match end this way. A clean finish may be boring to some, although it would have been better than this. Controversial wins have their place when they are beneficial, however not here. It was a very bad decision.

Let me just ask you something then. If they would have replaced ellsworth by summer rae and done the same thing, would you be as upset with the ending of the match?

Personally, I loved to ending because it help carmella's character. Carmella as always been the boss and ellsworth will do anything to help her get what she wants. It make the story more interested then if you would have done a clean finish,

 

[Dagger Dias]

Let me just ask you something then. If they would have replaced ellsworth by summer rae and done the same thing, would you be as upset with the ending of the match?

Personally, I loved to ending because it help carmella's character. Carmella as always been the boss and ellsworth will do anything to help her get what she wants. It make the story more interested then if you would have done a clean finish,

If Summer replaced Ellsworth then I would be significantly less upset, though still disappointed that Carmella didn't do it 100% on her own. Like I said in my other post, controversial finishes have their place. Having a man HAND a win to the winner of any kind of "first ever" match for female competitors, is a bad idea no matter how you look at it. Carmella would have benefited more from Ellsworth having been banned from the ringside area for this one. It being the first match of its kind deserved a better ending. I've seen far worse things so I'm hardly in boycott mode here or anything like that. I just think there are better routes they should have taken here.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

It's your right, that's what's fun with wrestling, everybody as a different thought on it. Some fans don't like the finish of the women's mitb ladder match because it wasn't a clean finish and some fans love the ending because they see the bigger picture

I like it because it made sense with the personna that carmella is. The carmella character is the type of character that will do anything to get what she want, even using ellsworth to win and this what the perfect exemple of what that character is all about. Now I'm interested in seeing where this goes. It got my attention a lot more then if they would have done a clean finish.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Something really bugged me after reading alot of the fans and wrestling journalist reacted to the finish of the women's money in the bank match. Why does this ending get so much negativity from the fans and journalist. Really, like Tony schiavone would say on his podcast, it's a show, it's not real, stop taking everything so seriously all the time.

Even scripted shows get scrutinized also. I mean that's why TV shows have the "Jump the Shark" moments where people just had enough of the show after a specific moment that turns people off. So I don't see why WWE being a show excuses itself from having a bad finish.

Also If this was the finish of the 3rd or 4th Women's MITB match then it would be fine. Problem is this was a "historic moment event" and they did three things
1.) A joke finish where a Woman who is part of the match doesn't even climb up to grab the briefcase
2.) A man (and a jobber) pretty much winning the match so despite having a Women's Revolution they just showed a male jobber being better than the Top women wrestlers in Smackdown
3.) Carmella winning the 1st MITB match, who was the last prepared to be women's champion.

Basically imagine if in the first MITB match at WM21 if Simon Dean was in the MITB and won it. It would have killed the gimmick. Or if the first KOTR on PPV if Barry Horowitz attacks Bret Hart before the finals and is inserted in the finals and wins the match and becomes the 1993 KOTR.

This was the first Women's MITB match and to book the finish like it did makes it even harder for fans to take the Snackdown Women's division seriously.

As the the entire PPV it was pretty lame not so much in the work rate of the talent here. Heck even the Women's MITB match was realy good until the ending killed it. I'd even argue I actually enjoy the women in this environment more than the men at times since they rely on less spots than the men.

Problem with this PPV is the finishes were pretty horrible. The Women's MITB match, the tag titles match, and the Men's MITB match.

Corbin and Carmella are MITB winners in their respective matches and both were the least ready to be Champions and that least over so that was disappointing. Heck Corbin lost his last two PPV matches, what kind of momentum is that?

The men's finish was strange because they had Nakamura get attacked before he could enter the ring then popup near the end clear house and yet doesn't win the match. If you were going to do that you better make him win if not then don't do it.

Though a positive is the match was the AJ Styles vs. Nakamura staredown if the WWE didn't already that crowd should tell you this match needs to be saved for WM33, if the WWE somehow doesn't save this for WM then I give up.

But hey at least we can now consider Greg Gagne a legend lol

So let's keep track on the Smackdown happenings
The #1 contender for the Women's Title at MITB was someone who isn't even an active wrestler
The WWE Champion, prior to winning the title last month, was a jobber for most of his WWE run
The Women's MITB winner is Carmella, who is kind of a joke in the women's division.
The Men's MITB winner has not won a PPV match since December last year.