Here Comes The Money!

BELL2BELLWRESTLING REVIEW: WWE MONEY IN THE BANK 2017

Announcers: Tom Phillips, JBL & Byron Saxton

Location: St Louis, MI

Venue: Scotttrade Center

Over the years the Money in the Bank event has become one of the most anticipated events of the WWE calendar and this year was no exception. A Smackdown Live exclusive show with the chance to create some new stars and create history. Here are my thoughts on WWE Money in the Bank 2017:

Opening match of the show its the HISTORIC first ever Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match. Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Carmella, Natalaya & Tamina battling it out for a guaranteed contract for the Smackdown Women's Championship. The crowd was super hot for this match and overall I don't feel like it disappointed in terms of action. The hype video before the match talking about the history of women in wrestling was great really building up the importance of this match. None of the women looked cautious throughout the match willing to take bumps and not afraid to get the ladder involved. Tamina had a great dominant showing at the start and Charlotte showed some great athletic spots. The ending is certainly one that is controversial and one that is being heavily debated. With everyone down James Ellsworth climbed the ladder, grabbed the briefcase and dropped it into the hands of Carmella. Now I have no massive problem with this because from a storyline point of view they are heels and its a very dastardly thing to do. Its a move that managers have tried in these matches before but this is really the first time I can remember it ever happening. However people aren't happy with this because when a match that was built up as massively as this for the Women ends with a man climbing the ladder to grab the briefcase. I can understand why people are annoyed but I think its a tad over reaction.Whatever the case I am very intrigued to see what happens on Smackdown Live as GM Daniel Bryan has said he will address the situation.

Next up we had the Smackdown Tag Team Championship match between The Usos and The New Day. This tag team match was utterly fantastic the best match these guys have had in quite some time. The Usos are continuing to absolutely kill it as heels and The New Day are easily one of the top babyface acts in WWE. I felt like The New Day haven't had a really good match in a while though so it was good to finally see. Both teams delivered some great tandem offence and both looked close to winning with one near fall after Big E hit 'The Big Ending' was ridiculously close. Kofi did one of the spots of the night Trust-Falling to the outside on both Usos. The match ends after The New Day come close again to winning only for the Usos to decide to talk a walk with their belts and the match ends on a count-out. It was a bit disappointing to see a match so good end on a count-out but this does continue their story and if they can keep having matches this good I have no problem with that!

The event is interrupted by the latest episode of The Fashion Files. Titled 'Fashion Vice', this colourful 80s inspired segment features the Fashion Police trying to figure out who trashed their office and laid out Tyler Breeze. After watching a VHS tape with two dudes who REALLY look like The Ascension, Breezango end the segment with some Michael Jackson puns. Good stuff.

An 80s style power ballad plays throughout the arena and IT'S A MIRACLE! Mike and Maria Kanellis are here! Otherwise known as 'The Miracle' Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis Bennett, the real life married couple have been doing great work over the past few years in ROH, NJPW & TNA. Maria of course previously worked for WWE which is why they seem to be going down the very modern romantic route of Mike taking Maria's last name. Maria says they are here to teach everyone 'The Power of Love'. Should be great!

Back to action now and its Naomi defending the Smackdown Women's Championship against Lana. Much was made going into this match about Lana's lack of experience and this being her first ever singles match in WWE. Surprise this wasn't an amazing match but it was decent enough. Since they made such a huge thing about Lana's lack of experience it was no great surprise when she actually turned out to be more than competent in the ring. The match ended a bit weird because Carmella came down threatening to cash in her MITB briefcase but choose not to. This distraction seemed enough to put Lana off her game and she tapped out to Naomi's submission move 'Slay-o-mission'. After the match Carmella again teased cashing in but again choose not too. I am surprised she didn't considering the earlier announcement from Daniel Bryan but will have to wait and see what happens there. Not a terrible debut singles match from Lana and this match was a hell of a lot better than that Bliss Vs Bayley match from Extreme Rules!!

Time for the WWE Championship Match now as Jinder Mahal defends against Randy Orton. I must confess I really enjoyed this match. The promo package before hand was really good and showing all the St Louis legends at ringside was a great touch to really build up this match. This match was classic WWE. Super over babyface in his hometown trying to get the title from the super despised heel champion. I've said before that I really think Jinder is doing a great job with his new role and relishing being such a despicable heel. Working the crowd and Randy's leg really well while incorporating the figure four leg lock and spinning toe hold made famous by some of the St Louis legends. Mahal fails to complete the ultimate insult to Randy's father 'Cowboy' Bob Orton by going for the superplex made famous by Orton and instead takes one from Randy. Randy manages to hit the RKO on Mahal but the count is broken up by the Singh Brothers putting Mahal's leg on the rope. Randy pleas with the ref not to DQ Mahal and instead the ref ejects the Singh brothers from ringside. As the Singh brothers leave the start mouthing off at the legends and threaten Bob Orton. Randy sees this and understandably goes nuts much like he did at Backlash. The running RKO through an announce table was particularly sweet. Randy gets back in the ring is kicked in the leg that has been worked over during the match, Jinder delivers the Khallas for the win. Jinder retains the WWE Championship in Randy Orton's hometown in front of his father on father's day. It doesn't get more evil than that!

The Fashion Police to confront who ever was on that tape and responsible for the heinous attack on their office and....its The Ascension. SHOCK HORROR! This was pure filler and to be honest as Breezango have been doing a great job of getting over really this was a smart way of getting them on the card. Breezango win obviously. The Ascension case is closed....again....for now!

MAIN EVENT TIME! The WWE Championship briefcase is up for grabs in the second Money in the Bank ladder match of the night. AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Baron Corbin and Shinsuke Nakamura contested this highly anticipated match which was (pun intended) PHENOMENAL!! I said a couple of weeks ago that the Fatal-5-Way Extreme Rules match was my favourite WWE PPV Main Event of the year so far, but this match blew that one completely away. This was the mad spot fest that MITB Ladder matches are famous for and ranks in my opinion as one of the matches of the year. Another great promo package as well hyping the match up even more. Before the match even started Nakamura was attacked by Corbin at the entrance stage taking him out to begin with. So many great spots to choose from but by Favourite spots were Zayn sunset-flip powerbombing Ziggler from the top of the ladder. Styles Death Valley Driver on Owens on a ladder set up outside the ring. And the sick fall AJ took from 15 feet in the air while trying to hold the briefcase was scary. Just as Corbin looks set to win Nakamura makes his way back out and proceeds to destroy everyone. AJ comes back in and he has a face off with Nakamura which draws one of the biggest pops of the night. The universe wants this match badly. Hopefully we get it soon at Summerslam or they save it for Wrestlemania. AJ and Nakamura are both at the top of the ladder fighting to get to the briefcase until Corbin comes back in tipping the ladder over. Corbin climbs up and retrieves the briefcase to become the new Mr Money in the Bank. This match went about 30 minutes which I think might be the longest ladder match WWE has ever done. Amazing!!

And that was WWE Money in the Bank 2017! Overall I though all the in-ring action was really good but let down ultimately by some odd finishes. The Main Event was absolutely brilliant and is well worth watching and will be for years to come. The Tag Title match was really good even if the ending was disappointing. Hopefully Usos and New Day can put on great matches again but this time with more definitive endings. The WWE title match was classic WWE that I really enjoyed. The first ever Women's Money in The Bank was really good even if the ending was controversial. Will be interesting to see how that develops. The Women's title match was decent enough considering Lana's inexperience. The Fashion Vice segment was entertaining and the subsequent tag match was just pure filler. And the debut of Mike and Maria Kanellis was great to see and I hope for great things for them in the future. Special mention as well to the St Louis crowd who was really into everything apart from the throw away tag match. Crowds can always make the big matches feel bigger and they certainly did that on this show. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!