Random Network Reviews: WWE Money in the Bank 2010

WWE Money in the Bank 2010
July 18th, 2010 | Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri | Attendance: 8,000

The first Money in the Bank match took place in 2005 at WrestleMania 21. For the next few years, fans looked forward it because multi-man ladder matches with championship implications are all kinds of fun. After doing the biggest MITB ever at WrestleMania XXVI, featuring ten men, WWE gave MITB its own Pay-Per-View, with matches for a shot at the top titles on both Raw and Smackdown. This show also took place during the much hyped Nexus angle, so their presence loomed over the event. It was the first annual Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View.

As usual, the opening video package is great. The provided voiceover work is great, talking about the importance of the match while highlights of various Money in the Bank matches play. Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Matt Striker are on commentary.

Smackdown Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Kane def. Big Show, Christian, Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, WWE Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston and Matt Hardy in 26:18
An interesting mix of styles in this one. Everyone goes after Show and Kane but get fought off by the big men. Show sends Kane packing but can’t climb. He’s too big and the rungs break. Ladder match vets Christian and Matt both come close to winning only to stop one another. Ziggler takes an early big bump on a hip toss off the ladder. Christian and Hardy seem to have control because of their experience, while Show and Kane keep getting taken out by multiple people. After a few close calls on some winners, Kane is back and big boots McIntyre onto the announce table. Kofi takes him out with a baseball slide into the ladder and hits Trouble in Paradise on Drew. Since they’re feuding, Kofi isn’t done. He climbs a ladder and BOOM DROPS him through the table! Show starts dominating folks and looks super winded. Show brings out a massive reinforced ladder. It’s so big he can’t even bring it in on the first few tries. In an ironic twist, Cody takes him out with a tiny ladder to the leg. Kofi returns by springing onto the giant ladder, only to get taken out by a dropkick and Cross Rhodes. Show climbs his ladder but Kane knocks him off and sends him outside. Everyone else buries Show under a bunch of ladder. Ziggler and Kane do battle for the briefcase and Ziggler locks in a sleeper. Kane breaks it by ramming his head into the ladder and then tosses him over the top. It’s awkward as Dolph’s leg gets horribly caught in the ropes. Kane fights Cody to the entrance and throws him into a money truck. Christian and Matt knock each other off the top, opening the door for McIntyre to get up. The crowd senses he’ll steal it but Kane returns to Chokeslam him off and retrieve the briefcase. I dug the psychology here. The competitors had to figure out how to get past Show and Kane, Christian and Matt were the vets, Kofi provided the athleticism and the heels like McIntyre, Cody and Dolph were cunning in their attempts. A bit long as I think the MITB sweet spot is 15-20 minutes but still a strong opener. ***¾

Sheamus is interviewed about helping John Cena on Raw when the Nexus attacked. He said he’s sick of the Nexus but also wanted Cena at 100% because people made excuses for his wins over Cena in the past.

WWE Divas Championship: Alicia Fox (c) def. Eve Torres in 5:52
This division was in trouble in this era. Alicia Fox as champion is a bad decision. The crowd completely dies at the sight of these two. To their credit, they try but neither is any good. Alicia slams Eve’s lower back into the apron and drags her by the hair for a near fall. Eve rallies to no fanfare. Even commentary doesn’t seem interested. She hits a running knee and standing moonsault for two. Alicia gets her knees up on Eva’s somersault attempt and it looks brutal. She hits her horrible scissors kick to retain. Some points for effort and for the limited back work to play into the finish but that’s all the praise I can muster for this. ½*

Backstage, Jack Swagger yells at his mom on the phone. On Smackdown, he stood by why his dad got beat up by Kane. Swagger’s Smackdown run in 2010 was bad. They took away everything that made him fun during his ECW stint in 2009.

WWE Unified Tag Team Championship: The Hart Dynasty (c) w/ Natalya def. The Usos w/ Tamina in 5:53
Seeing the Usos here, you’d never think they would go on to become a very over tag team in a few years. They’re so bland. Smith starts for his team. The Usos weather an early storm and work the heat on him. They use offense inspired by both Rikishi and Umaga. Kidd getting the hot tag is interesting because though he’s the smaller guy on his team, he has better offense. His hot run ends when the Usos use a blind tag to score on an assisted Samoan drop for two. The Usos pay homage to Jimmy Snuka and just when the Hart Dynasty for a Sharpshooter, Tamina gets on the apron. Natalya deals with her by using a body slam outside. Smith is surprisingly the one to win with the Sharpshooter. Solid tag team wrestling. With more time and a more invested crowd, I believe they could have truly impressed. **½

World Heavyweight Championship: Rey Mysterio (c) def. Jack Swagger in 10:43
Jack Swagger’s poorly booked World Title run ended at the last PPV at the hands of Mysterio in a Fatal Four Way match. Mysterio comes in with an ankle injury at the hands of Swagger, so once he slaps on the ankle lock, Swagger should win. Swagger goes after the ankle and they play a game of cat and mouse early. Rey’s offense is wise enough to avoid a lot of things that would be done with a healthy ankle and when he uses it, he sells how much it hurts. Swagger focuses on the ankle with his offense, which I like. It makes sense. Rey is great at taking the power based parts of Swagger’s offense. Swagger hits the gutwrench powerbomb but Rey gets his foot on the bottom rope. Swagger has a super powerslam countered into a rana for a near fall. Swagger locks in the ankle lock but Rey reaches the ropes. He hits the Swagger Bomb and goes for the ankle lock again but Rey loosens his boot and it slips off. That surprises Swagger, leaving Rey the opening to roll him up and retain. Better than I expected. They told the story of Rey being in peril and Swagger looking more legitimate than his entire title reign. Rey sold well and the win was a nice tribute to Eddie while keeping Swagger relatively strong. ***½

Rey Mysterio’s celebration is cut short by an attack from Jack Swagger. Kane makes the save since he also believes Swagger might have been behind the attack on the Undertaker a while back, breaking up the ankle lock. Kane fights Swagger to the back and everyone thinks that’s it for the segment. BUT WAIT! Kane’s pyro goes off and he returns with the briefcase in hand. HE’S CASHING IN MONEY IN THE BANK!

World Heavyweight Championship: Kane def. Rey Mysterio (c) in 0:54
Kane hits the chokeslam and Tombstone, stopping in between to look at the crowd. Rey is helpless and loses the title. I dug this because nobody had ever cashed in the night of winning the briefcase. It also gave Kane a run with the title for his years of loyalty with the company. NR

Backstage, Edge and Chris Jericho trade barbs about Money in the Bank. Edge has cashed in twice before and Jericho created the match.

WWE Women’s Championship: Layla (c) w/ Michelle McCool def. Kelly Kelly w/ Tiffany in 3:55
All I remember from this feud was Layla calling her Smelly Kelly in a segment on Smackdown. The former Extreme Expose members collide. Kelly attempts to be aggressive but her offense looks terrible. She does the slowest victory roll ever as Michael Cole praises her athleticism. I like Layla trapping Kelly’s leg in the apron and beating on it. McCool gets involved and sits on the guardrail for no other reason than for Kelly to shove her off. McCool puts Layla’s foot on the ropes after Kelly hits her finish. Layla blocks a rollup and scores the win for herself. A dreadful match with the only positive being Layla’s apron spot.DUD

Raw Money in the Bank: WWE United States Champion The Miz def. Chris Jericho, Edge, Evan Bourne, John Morrison, Mark Henry, Randy Orton and Ted Dibiase w/ Maryse in 20:26
This was Randy Orton’s weird phase of wearing no wristbands. It looks dumb. Henry beats up everyone while Edge patiently watches from outside. Bourne gets the early highlights, including a nice rana on Edge. He’s built for matches like this. He takes the Orton DDT off a rung before Morrison starts taking people out with a ladder in the corner. Morrison, Edge, Jericho and Morrison all reach for it on two ladders until Henry shoves both over. Bourne takes him out by swinging with the ladder into him. With everyone down, Maryse gets in and starts climbing the ladder. She looks incredible. Commentary questions the legality of this, which is dumb since she obviously doesn’t count. Morrison brings her down and tries being gentlemanly by kicking her out instead of hitting her. Dibiase sneaks in and almost wins but John stops him. Henry starts dominating with slams for everyone, including one to Miz onto a ladder that Jericho was under. He’s stopped by a finisher barrage outside. Dibiase takes a nasty spill as Morrison and Jericho fight atop the ladder. Jericho get his leg caught, but Morrison is stopped when Orton pulls him down with an RKO. Bourne returns to hit the SSP on Orton as soon as he lands! The camerawork was perfect. Bourne gets his hands on the briefcase but Jericho hits him with it. Orton returns and ends Jericho with the RKO before shoving Edge off the top. He’s alone and the crowd eats it up. Miz sneaks in, knocks him off and gets the briefcase. Fantastic decision as Miz was one of the best runs of his career. This was about on par with the earlier ladder match for different reasons. This was less about psychology and more into spots but everyone brought something to the table and the pacing was great. ***¾

Miz cuts a promo to tell everyone that he continues to prove them wrong. It’s worth checking out because you feel the genuine emotion from the Miz, who worked his ass off to shut up all detractors and would go on to win the WWE Title before the year ended.

WWE Championship Steel Cage Match: Sheamus (c) def. John Cena in 23:00
The cage is mostly there to prevent the Nexus from getting involved. Striker points out that the WWE Title changed hands in Kansas City twice, with the most memorable being Undertaker in 1999. Sure, Matt, that’s what I remember from Over the Edge 1999. Cena is timid, expecting the Nexus to intervene at any time. The crowd is dead while they go through the motions of a typical feeling out process. Just by that I can tell this is going 20+. Sheamus works an extended sleeper style submission. Cena makes a rally to the delight of the kids in the audience. Sheamus ties him in the ropes like he’s Andre the Giant. Cena gets free, stops him from exiting and hits a super bulldog for two. Sheamus has dominates most of it but eats the Attitude Adjustment. The fans buy it as the finish but Sheamus kicks out. That must’ve been the cue because here comes Nexus. They have bolt cutters but a referee steals them. The other ref throws the key into the stands. PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF THE MATCH! Inside, there’s a ref bump before Cena makes Sheamus tap to the STF. Gotta get that visual win for the babyface. Nexus doesn’t realize they could just climb in until Cena goes to leave. Justin Gabriel meets him up top but is sent somersaulting in. The Nexus fight him to prevent him from leaving. Sheamus only has Heath Slater to deal with on his side and knocks him down. Sheamus escapes to win and immediately runs out through the crowd. A technically decent match but it felt like they were just killing time until the big angle came at the finish. It was as generic as a cage match can get. **

The Nexus chase Sheamus to the back, leaving Michael Tarver and Darren Young behind. Why they gotta leave the black guys alone. Justin Gabriel is still out in the ring, so there’s that. Cena destroys Tarver and Young out of frustration and anger. Don’t worry, John. You’ll get to kill the Nexus dead at the next PPV.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

There was a lot to like on this show and some things to drag it down. The main event was just two guys going through the motions and had the kind of finish I’d expect on TV, not PPV. The two women’s matches were rather dire and easily the worst things on the card. Everything else delivered though. The Tag Team Title match was solid and the World Heavyweight Title match exceeded expectations. There was also the cool moment of Kane cashing in his briefcase. Speaking of the briefcase, the two ladder matches were just shy of being great and the best things on the card. Most of the show is an easy watch, making this a thumbs up.