I agree on the woman's match being rated too highly, though I guess it just bugs me less when he calls a bad match mediocre than it does when he calls last month's Jericho-Ambrose match ***3/4.

I do appreciate him going negative with me on that New Day-Vaudevillains match.

I admit to doing a half-assed job on these tonight, as the NBA Finals Game 7 did distract me at times. I rated what I saw enough of to throw a rating to.

MONEY IN THE BANK 2016

Tag Team Titles - New Day (c) vs. Gallows & Anderson vs. Enzo & Cass vs. Vaudevillains: So right away I'm biased against fatal four-ways unless the fact that they are happening actually makes good booking sense, which is almost never and not in this case either. I like all of the teams involved in this, and the ringwork was on point (Cass's ringpost bump was pretty great), but the whole thing sort of felt like…a spotfest without any particular high spots? Or something. Still, a perfectly watchable, half-decent curtain-jerker to get this show under way. Correct result as well IMO. **1/2

Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin: Corbin's sequence where he slid outside and then re-entered with a really stiff clothesline was great, and Dolph was the perfect guy to take it. I actually sort of enjoyed what they were going for here in terms of Corbin just dismantling Ziggler early and ultimately overwhelming him, but the crowd going from being dead to breaking into actual "boring" chants still renders this whole thing to be something of a failure, and it doesn't help that they went far too long in executing their ultimate plan…as the match dragged, I kept subtracting quarter-stars. The workers were doing their thing pretty well, but the feud has been a dud and I don't blame the crowd for not wanting to see any more of it. I assume/hope that this will have been the blowoff. *3/4

Charlotte & Dana Brooke vs. Becky Lynch & Natalya: So unfortunately divasrevolution hasn't led to an appreciable improvement in women's wrestling. They shed the insulting division name, but the matches are almost all garbage outside of that WM triple threat. I appreciated the missile double dropkick by Becky, but the action was terrible otherwise. 3/4*

Sheamus vs. Apollo Crews: I didn't watch this. Was trying to watch from the beginning and catch up, and I just couldn't bring myself to watch a third straight match that I absolutely did not care about going into it. Didn't love the ending in a vacuum, but can't fully judge it without having seen the rest. N/A

John Cena vs. AJ Styles: This…was disappointing enough to evoke memories of Perfect vs. Michaels SummerSlam '93. There was enough good action in the final act to call it a pretty good match I guess, but it feels from a talent perspective like these two could have a five-star classic in them, and this was way way short of that even though the crowd was really hot. Really dissatisfying ending to top off a dissatisfying match, despite WWE giving me the result that I wanted. ***

Money in the Bank Match: A couple of really nice bumps, particularly that ****ing crazy blue thunder bomb by Zayn on Owens on the ladder, but as MITB matches go, this was one of the weakest I've seen. Doesn't help that the ending sucked. I admit to being heavily distracted by the NBA during this match, which I guess reduces my ability to critique the "story," but I'm really under the impression that there wasn't one. There never is with these. You hope for an amazing spotfest, and this was just an okay one. **3/4

US Title - Rusev (c) vs. Titus O'Neil: End of game 7, didn't watch. N/A

WWE Title - Roman Reigns (c) vs. Seth Rollins: The superhero kickouts here were at a level that was shameless even for WWE. Still, Rollins was an absolute beast here and Reigns was good as well; the action was the best of the night by a lot, and I was into it. Loved the result of course, until… ***3/4

WWE Title - Seth Rollins (c) vs. Dean Ambrose: Yep. N/A

Tag Titles - ** - would be more but this match had like 8 different botches with the ending with Big E picking up Anderson and string at Gallows while Gallows waits for Big Cass to come in and boot him was super super lol.

Corbin x Ziggler - *3/4 - Now may they never wrestle again.

Not Sasha Banks vs Not Sasha Banks - 1/4* - Natty is the worst.

Shamus vs Crews - ** - Actually liked this more than I thought I would.

Cena vs Styles - **3/4 - Very disappointing match

Mitb - **1/2 - Can't think of a more boring MITB match in WWE history.

Rusev x Titus - ** - Post match was *****. Rusev is incredible.

Reigns x Rollins - **** - Great performance from both guys. Loved the ending with the Spear into the single hook pedigree followed by the clean pedigree for the win. Hopefully this means they are giving up on forcing Reigns into being Cena 2.0 and turn him heel so he can rip the fans who are crapping all over him despite putting in some excellent work in the ring.

Ambore cashes in the mitb - LOL - Jesus.

Requesting LKJ rating on Final Deletion.

5 deleted dilapidated star boats imo

4.5 Roman candles

Would have been higher but the crowd was dead for it

LKJ is #BROKEN

Drowning -> Willow revival -> taser -> pinfall -> senor benjamin reveal might be the best sequence in wrestling history

I admittedly don't really even know what the hell you people are talking about, except that apparently Jeff Hardy faced Matt Hardy and weirdness ensued.

You missed something legendary.

I've seen a lot of things in my life, and the Final Deletion was certainly one of them.

5 Extraordinary Xylophones!

Charlotte & Dana Brooke vs. Sasha Banks & Bayley: This match had a glow from the start due to the enjoyable main-roster debut of Bayley. I like adding heat by having Charlotte and her mascot jump Sasha and Bayley too. The ringwork was good, the crowd was tremendous…I enjoyed this quite a bit. ***

Wyatt Family vs. New Day: Had a hard time getting into this one early, but Xavier Woods did really compelling work to make me care about it. Thought it was pretty well-booked and reasonably well-worked. A lengthy lull in the middle brings it down, but it was decent overall. **3/4

US Title - Rusev (c) vs. Zack Ryder: This was fine. Tough to get into a match when the challenger has no business being in it, when the whole interest I'm mustering in the match is "please don't ruin this title again," but the match was watchable and I have no complaints about the endgame sequence. **

Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens: People spoke to it in the PPV sweat thread, but at this point there probably should have been a stipulation on the line in order to truly get people to care about the result. They kept pushing it as a blowoff match, but putting nothing at stake detracted more in this case than most, and the crowd reflected that same feeling. Considering the talent involved, the first half of this match was terribly underwhelming, but they picked up to a fever pitch and really delivered by the end. I liked the storytelling at the end, with them teasing that Sami might be a huge pussy who couldn't pull the trigger on Old Yeller (especially believable with all the guys he ****ing hugs after they beat him), then him delivering the kill shot. Ended up liking this a lot. ***1/2

Natalya vs. Becky Lynch: Welp. Completely heatless, with good reason since it was a limb match based almost entirely in slow-moving rest holds and never went anywhere interesting. Becky going under clean like that without ever getting near a win is a pretty terrible result. 1/2*

IC Title - Miz (c) vs. Darren Young: They didn't exactly do anything wrong, but it was difficult to get into this. I didn't mind the booking, weird ending though it was. I usually don't like an inconclusive result like that, but with the brands separating the two wrestlers, I didn't see a need for Miz to conclusively do away with Young on this particular night. Still, basically a pretty dull match. *1/2

AJ Styles & The Club vs. John Cena, Enzo, & Cass: Far too choreographed at times, but enough fun spots that I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy it a decent bit anyway. Styles created the spot of the match when he turned inside out on that big boot by Cass outside the ring. ***

WWE Title - Dean Ambrose (c) vs. Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns: Really good match. I probably had higher hopes for it than what turned out, but I would still give it match of the night. The powerbomb through the table transition into Seth dishing out chairshots was great. The ending, at least from an unexpectedness standpoint, was great. The lack of overbooking was great. All of that said, it didn't grip me as well as lots of matches do, so I don't think I can find four stars for it. ***3/4

I just finished the title match (only match I've watched). I'd give it around ***. Can't stand the no selling by Reigns. "Oh bucklebomb? nbd. Superman punch". "Pedigree? **** you.". Superman punch is just so **** and he spams it too much. It had a couple of cool spots but some miscues, no-selling, and tbh Roman and Seth didn't look very crisp out there while Dean barely did anything (did he do anything outside of the finish, powerbomb, and running table onto Seth/Roman?).

LKJ, I assume the unexpectedness you mention is Dean retaining.? I'd have been shocked if he lost. Gotta make SD! relevant for a minute before destroying it.

I still can't get over Seth's catchphrase of Rebuild. Redesign. Reclaim. and him not being a face. Where's the logic in something so simple?

edit: Had to watch the women's tag match. Surprised they got so much time and they certainly made the most of it. Really good match. Solid ***1/4.

I suppose I'm just in denial about this Dean Ambrose thing. When he first won the title I could only see it as a temporary transitional stunt. I agree that no-selling the turnbuckle powerbomb is a bunch of bull****; I guess by now I'm just sort of immune to it when it comes to Roman. Since it just launched a sequence where he jobbed anyway, I wasn't inclined to deduct points from the match over it.

I was disappointed in the triple threat. The Lesnar/Roman/Dean triple threat was noticeably better. Not a bad match in general. But definitely a bad match by Seth's standards.

I will say that, a night of sleep later, I would probably rate that main event match lower.

There are obvious flaws to spewing out ratings the second a show ends; I should probably just write them up and then let them breathe for a day before posting them.

Battleground:

Bayley/Sasha vs Charlotte/Dana: * * * 1/4

It started with a solid feel good moment to see Bayley make her debut (which was enhanced by the crowd going nuts and Sasha being so happy for her), went immediately into a pretty good heel heat moment when they attacked her from behind, had good action throughout, and ended with Sasha making Charlotte tap out to huge cheers yet again. I do think the crowd being so into this one made me score it a bit higher than it would otherwise, but I enjoyed it from start to finish.


New Day vs Wyatts: * * *

This is mostly due to the wonderful job Xavier did selling the match. It gave a serious side to the New Day, enhanced the mystique of the Wyatts (which hasn't happened in a while), had a good story with Xavier facing his fears and going ape****, and then had a good result for the heel going to smackdown that needed some sort of credible win. Plus, Big E doing some form of overhead suplex throw (I am not a technical person ) on Rowan was sweet.



Rusev vs Ryder: * * 3/4

Another good in ring story about someone that Rusev wasn't giving respect taking him further than he thought. Some good offense from Ryder and a good end sequence with Ryder escaping the Accolade only to get put into the super Accolade. Post match segment was weird though.


Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens: * * * 3/4

The start was a little sluggish (though that could be due to shaking off an early botch) but the last 10ish minutes were awesome. I'm a broken record tonight, but there was another good in ring story going on here with Sami finally mustering up the kill shot needed to beat KO. I wonder if they got new road agents recently. Some great spots, crowd was into it, and a nice result for Sami finally putting KO down.


Becky vs Natalya: 1/4 *

I like Becky a lot but this was bad. Crowd didn't care, tons of rest holds, one sided domination that made little sense, and nothing special that stands out. Props to her for selling her leg later with an ice pack in the locker room shots. I think we can all piece together the problem in the womens division lately. Triple threat at mania? Great. Charlotte vs Natalya? Bad. Charlotte/Sasha stuff tonight? Great. Becky/Natalya? Bad. tsk tsk.


Miz vs Darren Young: * *

I don't think there was anything in the ring that was bad, but nothing really excited me either. Add in a super weird ending that was confusing and you're left with just meh. I don't think it's a bad look on Young (who I like with Bob) nor on Miz (who I like a lot since becoming IC champ). I just don't think the meshed great.


The Club vs Cena/Enzo/Cass: * * * 1/4

Opening promo was insane. Enzo is just tops on the mic right now. Some good (albeit choreographed) action throughout. AJ getting turned inside out by the big boot from Cass was great. I kind of enjoyed both teams kind of ****ing up and hitting teammates (which never happens in these matches despite it being chaotic). The string of finishers sequence seemed a bit "raw-y" but meh. Enjoyed Enzos offense be "getting thrown into people by Cass". Ending spot was done well as instead of having someone corpsing from the top rope, AJ was fighting it all the way to the AA.


Ambrose vs Reigns vs Rollins: * * * 1/4

I think this match had two problems overall: first that the expectations/hype for this match was incredibly high due to people waiting for it for 3 years and so it was hard to live up to it and second with all the locker room/gm's out there everyone was just waiting for nonsense to occur. Even though none did occur, it kind of took me out of a couple near falls throughout because I was waiting for something to happen (and was also kind of surprised when it did end).

With that said, the match was still good. Reigns wrestled well (minus his no selling of a move that put Sting out). Ambrose was good and looked more vicious (like he used to be) rather than having the weak shane-like punches. Rollins was awesome as usual. I really enjoyed the powerbomb tease into the powerbomb spot into the chair shots. Was a nice walk through Shield history. There were also some pretty good spots throughout. The ending worked for me. Dirty Deeds is being protected like no other finisher in like a decade. Shane/Dbry putting over Ambrose was unlike how any authority figure has treated a wrestler in a long long time and is hopefully the first of many like that. The locker room coming out to celebrate was a nice little touch of making the title seem like a big deal again.

I'm not the biggest Ambrose fan but I don't think I'm his biggest hater either. I am all aboard the WWE running with a face champion that large swashes of the crowd doesn't completely despise. If you ignore the one month reign pre injury from Bryan and ignore Brocks reign where he wasn't around much and was more of a heel/tweener than a face, you have to go back to around 2011-2012 for Punk for this. Run with it. We all know how hard it is to find a well liked face these days. It helps that his overall crowd enjoyment has happened organically instead of being manufactured too. Always coming so close and yet failing (survivor series tournament, royal rumble 2nd place, good match with HHH, the dusty finish vs rollins) made most of the fans rally behind him and be thrilled when he won it.

Totally cool with seeing where this goes.



Overall, really enjoyed the show. One of the better worked/booked ppvs in a while.

Seems like everyone enjoyed the Cena/Club match much more than I did. Lots of it just felt ABC and downright corny, for lack of a better word.

Also I have no idea why Styles ate the pin. If the match was meant to blowoff his feud with Cena then I sort of get it, but I would be shocked if the two of them aren't fighting at SummerSlam.

Why does Roman's no sell of a bucklebomb bother people so much more than Kevin Owens no selling a half and half suplex at the end of the match?

I didn't mind either of them, but its very strange to have a huge problem with one and not care at all about the other one.

I don't remember the KO spot you're referencing.

near the end sequence, sami half and halfs KO and KO immidiately gets up, swings at sami and gets half and half'd again

The spot is around the 1:15:00 mark in the show

Meltzer says......

Battleground
Breezango/Usos - 2.75
Sasha Banks & Bayley/Charlotte & Dana Brooke - 2
Wyatt Family/New Day - 3.25
Rusev/Zack Ryder - 2.25
Owens/Zayn - 4.5
Natalya/Becky Lynch - 3.25
Miz/Darren Young - 1.5
Club/Cena & Enzo & Cass - 3.5
Ambrose/Rollins/Reigns - 4

Raw
Cesaro/Owens/Balor/Rusev - 3.75
Reigns/Jericho/Zayn/Sheamus - 3.5
Charlotte/Sasha Banks - 3.75
Balor/Reigns - 3.25

Women's tag too low. Nattie/Becky WAY too high. I'd have given 4 to Sasha/Charlotte, but not a big deal. Everything else seems reasonable.

That Nattie-Becky rating is completely beyond my comprehension. Usually I can at least puzzle out the cause of a rating that I totally disagree with.