WWE Continues Impressive 2015 with Money in the Bank

As someone who embraces all around jerkiness as part of their #brand the usually easy-to-ridicule WWE product has been frustratingly consistent since April. Seriously, the build to Wrestlemania 31 was one of the worst ever, the card contained an internal contradiction which undermined WWE's recent youth movement and was near impossible to get excited for, yet somehow they miraculously pulled out a great show. What's even more surprising to me than Wrestlemania being good was the fact WWE actually have managed to capitalise on their own momentum for once, something of a rarity in the modern era. There's been plenty of exciting events in recent memory, the debut of the Nexus, the Summer of Punk, the Yes movement etc. but all of these events were squashed either by WWE creative themselves or outside forces. You might be thinking to yourself "Wrestlemania was only a few months ago they haven't kept it up that long", and I'm saying the fact they've made it this far is remarkable in of itself.

I hope that opening paragraph communicates how much faith I have in WWE creative and contextualises the positive feelings I have towards them right now.

But seriously, although not without flaws (obviously) the WWE product has been on good form lately, and I'm not even talking about NXT! Seth Rollins is a fantastic and credible champion as well as a much needed regular fresh face at the top of the card, none of the major storylines have been embarrassingly mishandled (yet) and WWE have even been handling their troublesome Roman Reigns situation with some intelligence and grace. The main appeal for me however is how much more of the roster actually has STUFF TO DO. Valuable but floundering talents from last year such as Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, Big E, The Miz, Wade Barrett, Cesaro, Tyson Kidd and others all feel part of the show again and some of them are doing the best work of their career. Of course, the influx of great new talent from NXT and the indies making big splashes on the main roster isn't hurting either.

If you've only started watching recently I don't think you can appreciate how much better things are, and how unbearable getting through an episode of Monday Night Raw was. In 2010 WWE used to only announce about 2 or 3 matches for each Pay-Per-View and make up the rest of the card on the night because the non-main event guys were that boring. I'm dead serious. I'm not saying the overall product is amazing or even close to perfect, but it's nice that a 3 hour episode of Raw now has about 2 hours of stuff on it worth watching as opposed to just the opening and closing segments.

That leads us to WWE's most recent Pay-Per-View event (I don't know how much longer we're going to be calling them those, we should probably get used to "Network Specials" or something) Money in the Bank. Ironically the gimmick of the show was one of the least interesting parts of it, with WWE stalling Roman Reigns once again on his quest for title glory and instead opting for long game option Sheamus. WWE don't want to squash Seth Rollins thunder by dunking another briefcase into the title picture just yet so I'd expect Sheamus to hang on to that thing for a while or possibly even have an unsuccessful cash in.

The two highlights of the show were the two main events, and both matches were direct results of what you get when you put your focus on fresh and exciting talent. First, NXT Champion and king of the indies Kevin Owens against the old guard modern-era representing John Cena, and also Seth Rollins Vs Dean Ambrose, two stars made by WWEs best non-NXT youth project The Shield.

Kevin Owens Vs John Cena was a simply fantastic match, with their past match a mere two weeks ago they cut the slow feeling out process of the Elimination Chamber bout and got straight into it. It definitely felt like more of a contest than the first match, the Elimination Chamber match was good too but it also kind of felt like a Kevin Owens highlight reel to show him off during his debut...which was someone undermined by Cena kicking out of the vast majority of it. John Cena wins, a result I think most people predicted even if they didn't want to believe it. Look, it doesn't make business sense to have some new guy who hasn't been road tested yet kick down the door and beat your money maker consistently. Once? Sure. It's a hell of a way to make a debut, it gets people talking and Cena can take a loss every now and then, but twice is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I mean at that point you're firmly establishing the champion of your developmental system is better than the guy you've built your entire company around for the past decade. It's a silly risk to take just to appease some nerds on the internet who will complain about whatever you do anyway.

Having said that I wish WWE hadn't done the rematch two weeks later, allowing Owens to run with it a bit more and save his first big loss on WWE television for whoever takes the NXT title off him. A Owens/Cena rematch with a couple of months gap would have done wonders for Owens, NXT AND Cena, it certainly would have made the US open challenge thing a lot more interesting. But if you are going to hit the panic button and immediately give Cena his return win, they picked a good way to go about it. Cena barely beats a highly game Owens, Cena gives respect to Owens and acknowledges that Owens is where he belongs, something you'd think is everything Owens' character secretly wants, but instead Owens buys into his own shtick so hard he refuses to accept his own loss and turns Cena into just another one of his victims, claiming glory that isn't his. Owens is the best character WWE have right now, it's incredibly simple and restrained but contains enough depth to make any matchup against him interesting.

I suspect I may be in the minority on this, but I loved the WWE Championship ladder match EVEN MORE. Ladder matches for the most part have turned into demolition derbies since the Money in the Bank concept was created in 2005, and when you start gimmicking gimmicks things start getting real silly. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying a multiple man ladder match isn't a bucket load of fun, but it's essentially a stunt show and all logic goes out the window. I was 1000% ready for a classic one on one ladder match that was a real MATCH that just so happened to contain ladders and a couple of high spots.

You know a match is great when both guys come out of it better than they went in. For Seth Rollins, he showed off a nasty and capable side of himself and legitimised himself by finally getting a big win by himself. I suspect WWE put effort into giving Rollins more edge because they're setting him up for a match against Brock Lesnar for Summerslam. Heels like Rollins should be cowardly and cheat to win, but it's also important to establish they're GOOD. I think WWE were making a mistake and overdoing the Authority thing too hard but flat out admitting on television they PUT the title on Seth Rollins effectively diminishing any value that belt could have, I'm glad they made it a point that they chose Rollins because he really is one of the BEST.

But it was Dean Ambrose who truly made his career last night with one of the best performances I've seen out of anyone in WWE of recent years. I was wincing at the face he made when Rollins powerbombed him on the ladder, you could feel that the match was slipping away from him but also how much Ambrose still wanted to fight back. The art of "selling" isn't Dolph Ziggler doing three flips off the mat whenever he takes a bump, it is selling people the match and the emotions they should be feeling at that moment. Ambrose coming back and coming back, combined with the visual of him continuing to crawl up the ladder and over Rollins only for them both to fall and the title belt barely slip away from him was a finish anyone could connect with.

And then of course, there's this face;

LOOK AT THAT. The disappointment might be a performance, but the sweat, exhaustion and pain in his eyes sure aren't. That's rasslin' daddy.

Searching the #MITB hashtag on Twitter for reactions to the match you can see how well it worked, it's amazing in a performance that everyone knows is pre-determined you can still provide a heartbreaking result. Although let's face it, the folks who ridicule people who care about wrestling matches because they're "fake" probably have no understanding of any form of storytelling.

I hope WWE keep their hot streak going into and beyond Summerslam and continue to build and explore their wonderful pool of upcoming talent. If things keep going like this we're going to have some real exciting fresh main event matches going on by the end of the year. Mostly I hope that if WWE do start botching everything again they don't do too soon and make me look like a complete jerk for writing this.