John Pollock andWai Ting review WWERaw featuring major news from Becky Lynch and the announcement of Brand-to-Brand Invitations.
Monday’s episode featured the big announcement that Becky Lynch is pregnant and the news of a new Raw women’s champion. This show also saw the return of Edge and Randy Orton for the first time since WrestleMania, 2-on-2 basketball between The Street Profits and Viking Raiders, Rey Mysterio survives a roof fall but not Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley enlists assistance from MVP and the introduction of Brand-to-Brand Invitations!
John & Wai review “Chapter 1: The Greatest Fear” of Undertaker: The Last Ride.
WWE Booking Wrestler X beats down Wrestler Y 90% to 10%. Wrestler Y hits his finishing move at the end and wins
Street Profits vs Viking Raiders in basketball Profits go up 74-0, Raiders get the final basket and win. The Viking Raiders won the basketball game
Yup especially for then women. In 3 years of MITB for women the briefcase has only lasted beyond the PPV once (twice if you count this year). Carmella has it for a while when she won the first year, but the last 2 were cashed in on the same night.
I have to say, I really enjoyed Raw last night. Now full disclosure, I fast forwarded through every single match since they were all meaningless. I started watching the tag match with MurphyRollins/Rey/Black, but once I saw it was going to be a handicap match that meant nothing until Rollins got involved, I fast forwarded that as well until Rollins got hit by Rey.
I liked the opening segment, Becky did a great job and it felt very real (which of course it was), I enjoyed the Rollins/Rey angle, I enjoyed the further tease of Lashley/MVP getting together, I enjoyed Shana’s promo, and I loved Edge & Orton.
The basketball stuff made me chuckle a few times, but overall I hated it. Even if the VR were “faking it” the visual of seeing the Viking Raiders look like idiots running around on the court just kills their mystique. Its very frustrating to see them just not care about Tag Teams.
One thing I was thinking, if the brand extension is being put on hold they may as well merge the titles. Then once the this is all over and they do their first show back, they can do a draft and for the show that is missing any champions they can do a tournament or have a consequence to a yearly match (ie. the Rumble or the Andre Battle Royal etc.)
The Street Profits/Viking Raiders stuff is just flat out terrible. I just don’t understand who it’s for. WWE comedy is just so bad. The tag division is a complete joke.
Commentary seems to be getting worse but I do like the MVP and Lashley alliance. MVP really stands out on these shows because he can act and talk. Very few can on the WWE roster.
The cash in element of MITB has long lost its charm.
Personally, I’ve enjoyed the idea of the winner calling their shot in advance ever since RVD did it to set up him vs Cena.
Aside from Edge, has a MITB cash in benefited any winner long term? Has it “made” anybody? I’m honestly having a hard time figuring that out.
It worked for WWE to get out of giving a winner between Roman and Brock at Mania 31, and created a fun moment… But man, I can’t think of many that did much for anybody.
It really has become a tool for lazy storytelling, in my opinion.
I don’t even think that worked. That was the moment to make Reigns a mega star and they decided to make a “moment” instead. Then they spent the next five years trying to rebuild Reigns and it didn’t work
Oh agreed on that. It was basically them getting out of having Brock lose, and putting over Roman clean. And since neither was winning, in hindsight that was the best thing to do to get our of a stadium booing Roman out of the building during what would have been his big coronation.
I guess I would just say Rollins and Punk, those two and Edge are the only one’s who were launched at MITB, won the title and stayed on top for years. Everyone else either dropped right back down, or was already a star to begin with (ie. Cena, Orton, Lesnar etc.). I don’t think that’s the fault of the MITB concept though, if anything that would be an issue with the booking of the MITB winner after winning the title.
Really, everything you just said could be said about the Rumble as well. No Rumble winner has been made since probably Batista in 2005.
I totally get how you may be sick of it, and I respect that, especially given that there are 2 winners a year. The only thing I disagree with is your “lazy” comment. I don’t see how its lazy story telling to do the current MITB concept, while making it identical to the Rumble is not lazy. Hasn’t the “win a big match, get a title shot” story been done way more then the idea of the MITB cash-in?
Agreed. The Rollins cash-in was the best thing to do on the day, but a series of booking failures with Reigns is what ultimately led to that.
Overall, I think the Money in the Bank gimmick sucks. It hamstrings all of the booking surrounding the world titles. You can’t have a champ get beat down or otherwise look vulnerable without everybody and their mother expecting a cash-in. And then the actual cash-in is never a surprise as a result.
And yes, the cash-ins get a pop, but it’s rarely a genuine pop for the worker (like the awesome Ziggler one), it’s just the “I get to say I was in the audience for this” pop.
I guess what I meant by “lazy” is that it has become a crutch for uncreative storytelling.
Far too often WWE will book themselves into corners, and rely on something like MITB to get out of it. And while sure, maybe there is a momentary pop - they’ve actually done a disservice to all involved.
And then there are the times where they get the MITB out into circulation, only to use it immediately (same event, or a few days later) and essentially dump the gimmick for the next year. This seems to be done for WWE to get out of the circumstances they’ve created.
I’d much prefer an attempt at using the MITB win to help build somebody up into a Championship challenger at a major PPV.
While the set-up is simple, it creates a solid narrative for the Summer months. A time when they usually don’t even try, and fans drop off.
Much like when the Rumble challenge spot is done right, you can really tell a story and build up somebody in the eyes of the fans, with this sort of win.
What do you think about this? This was an idea I had that I was hoping for this year, but it never happened.
I wanted Black to win the MITB, the come out the next night on Raw and cash it in for next years Wrestlemania. His character doesnt seem like the type of character who would walk around with the briefcase anyways, and if being in the Main Event of WM is “the ultimate” in storyline, I thought that would make sense. Then the Rumble is simply for a shot at the Smackdown title.
This is kind of similar to what you are saying, it would be different at least.
I don’t hate it - but I think a year (or ten months in advance in this case) committing to a main event is risky for a variety of reasons.
The issue however becomes that you’ll have to sacrifice anybody who gets over organically in the next year.
I think CM Punk was a major victim of this in 2011/2012.
He got over huge in the Summer of 2011. They however were getting behind a long time planned push of Del Rio. So where Summer Slam 2011 should have been all about Punk finally being elevated into being a made man, following his win against Cena at MITB a month earlier - we have to get that dumb cash in, and hurt Punk’s momentum.
More so however when they agreed to Rock / Cena a year in advance. Despite Punk being the Champion, and really the guy who the company should have been getting fully behind, they were forced to back Rock / Cena as the Main Event, because they set it up well before Punk caught fire.
I think your scenario would work for Summer Slam much better, as it allows them to spend the next two or three months building to it. And you really can get over Black in this case, as the next big challenger. And, as you mentioned, it doesn’t keep the gimmicky briefcase hanging around.
