Storyline Progression/Pay-per-view Build
In this section, we take a look at all the storyline advancements that took place on each show, as Money in the Bank is only a couple of weeks away.
Raw
The ‘Big Dog’s Average-Sized Return
Elias opened Raw and sang over replays of him hitting Seth Rollins with a guitar last week. This led to the IC Champion coming to ringside to a sizable pop. The ‘Architect’ pulled a steel chair from under the ring before stepping between the ropes and confronting Elias, who was armed with a guitar. Just as Rollins looked like he was about to strike, Jinder Mahal ambushed him from behind leading to a two-on-one assault. This was until Roman Reigns saved the day and cleared the ring.
Kurt Angle then came out and made a tag team match. This was a relatively clever way of merging two Money in the Bank matches into one tag team match. With that said, hopefully, they don’t just shove Lashley and Zayn in there and make it a six-man tag for next week.
The Mahal-Reigns conflict continued later into the night, as they both conducted interviews at the same time for some reason, and could somehow hear what the other guy was saying. Reigns then got angry, found Mahal, and attacked him. Are they actually trying to get us to cheer Jinder now, or what?
Constable Corbin
As I mentioned earlier, Baron Corbin interfered in Curt Hawkins’ match, thus leading to the former ‘Edge-head’ picking up his 200th straight loss. Hawkins had brought tacos to ringside so he could celebrate when he won. Corbin then threw the tacos at Hawkins and threw Hawkins at the tacos. I assume they were left over from last week or something.
The ‘Lone Wolf’ then went to find Kurt Angle backstage, and moan about not being given opportunities. He read a statement on behalf of Stephanie McMahon appointing him the new Constable of Raw. Which basically means he’s going to have a go at Kurt Angle whenever he does something stupid.
Who remembers around this time last year when Corbin won Money in the Bank and looked destined to become WWE Champion? And now he’s feuding with Curt Hawkins and is essentially Stephanie McMahon’s spokesperson.
The “Inconsistent Force”
Last week, Nia Jax destroyed a jobber to get at Ronda Rousey. This week, after she beat Natalya who tweaked her knee, she checked that the ‘Queen of Harts’ was okay. So, either last week was an impostor or WWE‘s writing staff think we’re stupid and are undoing what they did last week because they realized it was silly. I’ll probably go with the latter.
Also, Jax was only trying to be nice, so why Rousey was so angry at her for trying to help, I have no idea. Natalya provided the best verbiage in this segment, which says a lot about how awful Jax and Rousey’s delivery really is.
The ‘B’ Stands For “Number One Contenders”
The saving grace of the Raw tag team division, the B-Team won a Battle Royal and are now number one contenders for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships.
We don’t actually know when the match will be, it could be Money in the Bank, the Money in the Bank Kickoff, or just on Raw at some point soon.
“Where are you going?” – I’m going to Sleep, Bobby
Bobby Lashley came out smiling more than a happy Finn Bálor. He told Sami Zayn to come out, but Zayn instead stayed in the crowd. The former NXT Champion admitted to the world that he has multiple anonymous Instagram accounts, and uses them to stalk Bobby Lashley. He showed some inspirational quotes that the ‘Dominator’ has posted and basically came off like a bit of a creep.
Zayn admitted that he had DM’d Lashley as a fan and Lashley entered him into the “Bobby Lashley fan club”.
This whole thing feels like a really weird episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show. Or just a standard episode of The Jerry Springer Show.
Zayn accused Lashley of lying about everything, including having sisters and serving in the US military. This made the former ECW Champion take off his jacket, and that was it. If he comes out grinning from ear-to-ear next week, then that proves he is, in fact, a robot.
Let’s Try to Make Sense of This
As we went through earlier, Bayley interfered in the six-woman tag team match, essentially replacing Alexa Bliss. At the time, the referee awarded the babyfaces the win. That was until Constable Corbin was called into action.
Corbin had a go at Angle for putting up with the awful refereeing decision and ordered the GM to tell Moon, Banks & Bayley that the decision had been overturned.
This led to Banks and Moon getting angry with Bayley. Hopefully, we get a better understanding of what’s going on this time next week, because I am mega confused right now.
Well Bálor’s Not Winning, Then
Following their disappointing main event match, Kevin Owens continued to attack the Irishman with a Bullfrog Splash. ‘KO’ then put a ladder in the ring and teased attempting a splash from said ladder.
Bálor had enough time to recuperate, and turned the tide, as he landed a Coup de Grâce, before pulling the briefcase down and holding it high. What an idiot.
Not the most flattering image, but that’s what he gets for pulling the briefcase down.
Matches Announced For Next Week:
- Sasha Banks vs. Natalya vs. Ember Moon vs. Alexa Bliss
- Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Roode vs. Finn Bálor vs. Kevin Owens
SmackDown Live
Absolution Have Been Resuscitated
SmackDown Live opened with WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion, Carmella, which was a nice change. She basically ran down how she is going to beat Asuka at Money in the Bank, which prompted the ‘Empress’ to join her in the ring. Then Absolution came out. Together.
Rose and Deville both challenged Asuka to a match and GM Paige came onto the stage. She made official a handicap match, despite the fact a few weeks ago she literally told Absolution they weren’t allowed to team together anymore.
After Asuka defeated Rose and Deville, Carmella attacked her, standing tall over her Money in the Bank challenger.
Pancake Batter is in Money in the Bank
The Miz was backstage, practicing “Miz-jitsu” before he was greeted by Mr. Bootyworth and New Day. The trio asked him to pick out of a hat which member of the group will compete in the Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder match. However, after blindfolding the ‘A-Lister’, they swapped hats and instead Miz ended up putting his hand in a load of pancake batter. I didn’t even notice the hat-swap at first, which I think made this even better.
His Pen’s Broken – Someone Get That Fella Off Love Island, It’s A Serious Business
Paige conducted the WWE Championship Last Man Standing match contract signing. Styles signed the contract, but Nakamura said his pen wasn’t working. he borrowed Styles’ pen, but after closer inspection, said it was broken. Styles grew frustrated with this so slapped his challenger and had to be restrained by backstage officials.
As if by magic, Nakamura pulled a pen out of his suit jacket. I’m glad he got there in the end.
Yes, You’re Big
Big Cass came out and told everyone he’s big.
Sin Cara Actually Has Something To Do
Following last week’s antics, Sin Cara was questioned about his relationship with Andrade Almas. He blamed Zelina Vega for Almas’ attitude change who confirmed they have a match scheduled for next week. Almas then ambushed the ‘Faceless One’ from behind.
Match Confirmed For Next Week:
- Andrade Almas vs. Sin Cara
The Verdict
Neither show performed particularly well in this category this week. They both have a few engaging programs, like Rollins vs. Elias and Almas vs. Sin Cara, but also complete bores like Lashley vs. Zayn, and Cass vs. Bryan. This week only just goes to SmackDown Live
6 years ago by Liam Winnard
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