The PPV began with a tribute to Dusty Rhodes, a man many revered for his passion for the wrestling industry and his instinct as a mentor and a sports entertainer. Be it the art of cutting a promo or creating a spectacle like Starrcade or War Games- Rhodes was known to be a major influence on young and old performers alike.
The PPV began with a tribute for the American Dream.
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If you’ve watched the Stone Cold Steve Austin podcast with Paul Heyman, you may remember Heyman talking about his first lengthy promo and Dusty Rhodes’ reaction to it. He told Heyman what he did was fun but ‘Where’s the money?’
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Were you able to sell what you were speaking about?
Where the money lies
In retrospect, Money In The Bank may well go down as a fun PPV but in more ways than one it sold some ideas.
It sold the fact that Kevin 0wens, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt are going to be part of an undisputable future.
Ambrose and Rollins walked into a dulled down audience who had seen some very entertaining bouts earlier, the prime one being Cena vs Owens. And how could anyone be expected to follow that? But Rollins and Ambrose did and despite a relatively poor build up, they let their match do all the talking. These two men just can’t have a bad match.
It was an evocative image to see these two stand in the ring facing each other, as still as death, and then look at the championship hanging above which they both, rightfully, thought belonged to one of them.
The main event
The poor build up sort of overshadowed the significant nature of this bout.
The main event was another chapter of how great this rivalry between these two has been. This was their fifth main event together and their fourth one on one battle in the main event. The match had a slow pace to it which was accentuated by the many brutal attacks. Rollins was more brutal than he’s ever been in this match where he was on his own without his stable members looking out for him.
Ambrose did everything he could and came off looking like a fighter than the lunatic everyone on TV calls him. He made everyone care for every time he looked like he won’t get up. The powerbombs he took and the assault he went through looked quite violent in execution.
He still made it to the top of the ladder until he fell and Rollins won. It was like tossing a coin. It was all a matter of chance. It all ended in one fleeting moment.
Nobody lost. Both looked strong.
Owens Vs Cena- The Rematch
Owens went move for move against the face who runs the place. The NXT Champion looked like he’ll conquer Cena again. He looked like Cena’s equal. There was no need of the term veteran to describe Cena when compared to Owens or vice versa. The story between them is unlike anything Cena’s had over the years. And that’s fascinating considering Owens is just a month into the main roster.
WWE also did a wise thing of not having Reigns win something that he was expected to win. Instead, getting him into a program with Bray Wyatt is the best thing going forward for both those guys. Wyatt got instant heat for interfering what was a perfectly good ladder match. Reigns finally looked like he deserved to win the briefcase but not making that happen actually helped, at least in the long run it will.
But mostly, it’ll be worth watching where this story between Ambrose and Rollins is going. It’s certainly not the end.
