wrestling / Video Reviews
Random Network Reviews: Money in the Bank 2014
Loading...Money in the Bank 2014
June 29th, 2014 | TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, Massachusetts
A few months into the WWE Network era of Pay-Per-Views, the WWE had reeled off several strong big events in a row. There was probably a bit of pressure to keep that trend going. The WWE was also fresh off of pulling off a ballsy heel turn for Seth Rollins and splitting up the Shield. Normally, the Kickoff Show would have a match, and I’d review it, but here there was only an appearance by the recently injured Daniel Bryan. Due to his injury, the WWE World Heavyweight Title was held in abeyance and the main event of the evening would give us a new campion. This would be the fifth Money in the Bank event.
A rather generic video package starts things, focusing on the WWE World Heavyweight Championship Ladder match that headlines the show. It then moves to some hype for the Money in the Bank match. Clips of each competitor in both matches are seen. Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and JBL are the commentary team as always. They’re almost never good.
WWE Tag Team Championship
The Usos (c) vs. Erick Rowan and Luke Harper
Less than four months into their first run as Tag Team Champions, the Usos weren’t the stale duo that they are some two years later. Harper and Rowan come out to their theme but with “He’s Got the Whole World” playing at the start. The WWE were in full “LETS BEAT THIS INTO THE GROUND UNTIL ITS NO LONGER COOL” mode with that. There’s a quick beginning and Harper impresses everyone with a nice dropkick. Lots of tags from the heels early. Seriously, whoever had the idea of splitting these guys later in the year should have been fired on the spot. The Usos get hot with double teams on Rowan. One of them dives off the barricade, but struggled to climb it, so it lessened the cool factor. Jey Uso starts to take the heat and I only know which Uso it is because of Michael Cole. Jimmy gets the hot tag and does hot tag things. He busts out Samoan drops and does the Umaga ass attack that Cole ALWAYS calls wrong and says “shades of Rikishi”. You buffoon. Jey gets caught by Rowan outside, so Jimmy flies to take him out. Inside, there is a very close near fall on a Jimmy school boy before Harper gets one on a sitout powerbomb. Harper then does his own flying outside, taking out both Usos back to back in the coolest moment of the match. Harper is all kinds of awesome. Rowan tries to fly but gets stopped by the Usos after they take out Harper. They hit a double superplex on Rowan, followed by a top rope splash from both and retain.
Winners and Still WWE Tag Team Champions: The Usos in 13:13
That was a great opener. The crowd was red hot for all of the action, which never stopped. Luke Harper was the star of the show and it’s a shame he and Rowan never got a run with the belts. The teams had great chemistry and everything clicked here. They would manage to best themselves a month later. ***¾
A recap airs of the shocking Seth Rollins heel turn that destroyed the Shield. It leads into a solo Dean Ambrose promo in the back.
WWE Divas Championship
Paige (c) vs. Naomi w/ Cameron
Paige’s Divas Title run saw her defend the belt against Tamina and Alicia Fox on PPVs and people wonder why the crowd didn’t care about it. Naomi beat Paige in a non-title match on Main Event two weeks prior. Early on, the girls are very even, even trying the same move at points. Paige takes a pretty big back bump off of the apron. Like an idiot, Naomi seems content with a potential countout win. I don’t think she understands how title matches work. Naomi actually hits her usually terrible cross body and tries to wear down Paige. They both fall off the top and to the floor in an ugly moment. Back inside, Paige pulls a Doink and locks in the stump puller. Cameron laughs at her partner being in pain. Naomi fires up but the crowd doesn’t really seem to care. She hits the Rear View for a near fall. Paige gets her knees up on a split legged moonsault before Naomi counters the PTO with a hideous inside cradle. Paige is ready to counter next, stopping the move that she lost to previously and hitting the RamPaige to win.
Winner and Still WWE Divas Champion: Paige in 6:57
I wanted to like this more than I did. Both girls worked hard and actually some solid ideas for counters and spots. Some of them spots didn’t come off well though and both girls appeared to be a bit sloppy. The dead crowd didn’t help either. **¼
We get some words from the Pre-Show panel, which features the lovely Renee Young, Christian, Booker T and lame ass Alex Riley. This is followed by “Money in the Bank: By the Numbers”.
Adam Rose vs. Damien “Paul Revere” Sandow
Yes, this was during Sandow’s imitation phase. Sandow is aggressive but gets back dropped onto the Rosebuds before the bell. I’m pretty sure this is Rose’s PPV debut. Sandow goes for his old Elbow of Disdain, but because he’s Paul Revere, shouts “THE ELBOW IS COMING!” I laughed harder than I probably should have. Sandow actually controls most of the match before missing a second rope moonsault. Rose hits the Party Foul for the 1-2-3.
Winner: Adam Rose in 4:16
While I understand showcasing Rose, this didn’t belong on the PPV. Nobody cared about it. Only positive points go to Sandow’s THE ELBOW IS COMING moment. *
After hearing from Dean Ambrose earlier, we now get promos from the other five participants in Money in the Bank.
Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger w/ Zeb Colter vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Seth Rollins
Since the Shield split angle just happened earlier in the month, the focus of this is Ambrose and Rollins from the start. Ambrose is out last and attacks Seth to get things going. They get Kofi’s first athletic spots out of the way as he runs up the ladder to attack RVD, followed by a Boom Drop onto Swagger on a ladder. Dean knocks him off of the ladder, which he turns into a dive onto his opponents. After a bit, we see Kofi and Dolph fight atop a ladder and pull each other’s hair to come down. Not the most badass moment. As RVD works over Seth, I sit here and wish we got a legit PPV match between them. RVD goes on a bit of a streak of offense for a bit, but his big Frog Splash spot is stopped by Seth and he takes a massive powerbomb from Swagger. Ambrose steals the show with an INSANE superplex off of the ladder. Seriously, Dean folded on it. The other guys get to do some stuff before it comes right back to Dean and Seth fighting atop the ladder. Dean hurts his shoulder and is taken to the back by medics, though he is pissed off about it. Seth thinks he has an opening and ends up with Kofi atop the ladder. Kofi back drops him off and onto a ladder bridged between their ladder and the top rope. It was another sick bump by Seth and the fans totally buy into a possible Kofi win. Dolph cuts that off though. This allows the four other men to do some cool spots, including a Zig Zag onto a ladder. Rollins picks up the pieces and takes Dolph out with a chair. Ambrose returns and destroys him with a chair. Just as Dean gets near the briefcase, Kane interferes to ruin all of the fun, chokeslamming and tombstoning him. With Kane standing guard, Seth climbs and pulls down the briefcase.
Winner: Seth Rollins in 23:14
One of the better Money in the Bank matches ever. I love that there was a focus to the match and it did a masterful job of furthering the awesome Ambrose/Rollins angle. The other four guys all got their opportunities to shine as well. Seth took some massive bumps and was absolutely the right choice for a winner. ****¼
The whitest black man alive, Byron Saxton interviews Randy Orton about the main event. Orton says he has the best chance to win and claims that Seth needed a lot of help to win and he doesn’t.
Goldust and Stardust vs. Rybaxel
Two weeks earlier, Stardust debuted as the new partner for Goldust in a win over Rybaxel. Axel debuts a singlet as he tries to match his partner. He gets in next to no offense against either Dust brother. Goldust ends up taking the heat but you can pretty much hear a pin drop for Axel’s offense. My buddy is a huge Ryback fan and was in attendance for this. He starts a “feed me more” chant that Ryback addresses with an “I’VE STILL GOT IT”. Stardust gets the mild tag and does some unique twists on typical Cody Rhodes offense. Ryback tries for the Shell Shock but Stardust counters into the Cross Rhodes. Axel breaks the pin, but collides with Ryback and Stardust rolls up Ryback to win.
Winners: Goldust and Stardust in 7:33
Clear filler match. Like the Rose one, it was put here to showcase a new character. There was nothing technically wrong with the match, it just had next to no heat. **
There is an interview backstage with Fandango. Layla and Summer Rae show up and they kind of fight over him while discussing Layla’s breasts and Summer’s legs. Yup.
Big E vs. Rusev w/ Lana
Lana does her whole anti-America promo beforehand. Big E comes out waving the American flag. He was just Intercontinental Champion two months earlier and this would be the start of his fall from relevance before New Day saved his career. He is in full preacher mode. I like that their past match comes into play quickly as Rusev has Big E’s signature spear scouted and blocks it. Rusev charged into a Samoa Joe like STO from Big E. On his second try, Big E hits the spear off of the apron. The crowd knows the outcome isn’t in doubt, but seem awake for this match. Inside, Rusev takes back control and Lana is all like “CRUUUUSSHH!” He puts on the Accolade but Big E fights. He nearly breaks the hold, but comes up just short and submits. The breaking of the Accolade would be saved for John Cena nine months later.
Winner: Rusev in 7:18
Solid match between two solid performers. While the fans were somewhat into it, I think it would have been better if they bought Big E as a viable threat. The match was hard hitting, accomplished what it had to and didn’t overstay its welcome. Probably the best Rusev match up to this point. ***
Some rapid fire segments come. The Pre-Show panel talks about unimportant stuff and the Pre-Show Daniel Bryan segment is recapped. Then the Bella Twins are hanging out in the back when Stephanie McMahon comes up to them. She talks shit about Brie being a quitter before Brie shows of her new Galaxy phone. She was watching a video of Stephanie being thrown into a pool of brown shit by Vickie Guerrero. When she shows the video to Steph, it magically transitions to our screen. Who set that awful segment up?
Layla vs. Summer Rae
Fandango is the special referee since he broke up with Summer via Twitter and replaced her with Layla, only to still flirt with Summer. The girls have a catfight, with the occasional flirt with Fandango thrown in. The fans start chanting “CM Punk” as Layla beats up Summer. They go through some awful exchanges, some of which are too baffling to explain. Layla wins with a high kick and the old LayCool theme plays to warm my heart.
Winner: Layla in 3:06
I usually like both girls but this was really bad. Everything was sloppy and none of the drama from the angle even came into play. Summer and Layla would be teaming up against Fandango within a few weeks, rendering all of this moot. DUD
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Ladder Match
Alberto Del Rio vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Cesaro w/ Paul Heyman vs. John Cena vs. Kane vs. Randy Orton vs. Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus
Bray Wyatt is pretty much the crowd favorite in this one. Triple H and Stephanie sit at ringside for the festivities. Also, Kane comes out last for some reason. This is more crowded than the earlier match and the chaos shows. Everybody goes to war and Cena gets taken out by Bray. They give Roman and Bray a stare down like it’s a big deal, but boy it was run into the ground the following year. Reigns and Sheamus take out Kane and set up two ladders. Reigns has a bigger one but Sheamus is tall enough to make up for it. Everyone gets knocked off because of Kane. Kane is supposedly there to help Orton win and he lives up to that early on, holding a ladder while Randy climbs. Reigns breaks that up because he enjoys cock blocking. The ladder falling on Orton busts him open. Lots of fast paced stuff and the crowd pops hard for Cesaro uppercutting Cena. He and Sheamus end up hanging from the titles. Cesaro knocks him off hard but falls on his own without bringing the belts down. An angry and wounded Orton brings out the biggest ladder of the night and everyone tries climbing it while stopping one another. It looks nuts. Sheamus goes on a spree where he gets his shit in. He and Cesaro fight atop a ladder before the all-powerful Reigns tilts it over. There was a third ladder set up in between the rungs of that one, so they don’t fall all the way over. Cesaro hangs from his forearm and it looks bad. Bray gets revenge on Cena for the past few months of booking with a suplex onto a ladder. A few more spots come and Reigns takes out Orton with a spear and superman punch. Reigns also hits Del Rio, Wyatt, Cesaro and Sheamus with various moves. That opens the door for a big face to face with Cena. Surprisingly, Reigns wins out with a spear but falls victim to Orton’s backbreaker. When Bray hits Orton with Sister Abigail, the crowd loses their minds but Del Rio stops his ascension. Finisher barrage time, including a sick pull down off the ladder uppercut from Cesaro and a pull down RKO. Reigns stops Orton and reopens his nasty cut. Kane cock blocks Reigns and Orton climbs up. Cena hits the AA on Kane and then one to Orton onto Kane before climbing up and winning his fifteenth World Title.
Winner and New WWE World Heavyweight Champion: John Cena in 26:28
Honestly, while this wasn’t bad I found it to be a disappointment. There were a lot of really solid spots but it went on for far too long and never really clicked for me. It seemed to just be guys making sure they got their spots in without any real structure. ***
