WWE Money In The Bank 2015
Columbus, Ohio 6/14/15
Pre-Show
1.) King Barrett vs. R-Truth: **
To say this feud has been a little whacky would be an understatement. They’ve been fighting over Barrett’s “king” title, and Truth has been, at times, wearing (what I think was) a paper Burger King Crowd, and parading around with a plunger as a scepter. Not much to say about this match. R-Truth gets the win, and any shred of credibility Barrett has is long gone by this point.
PPV
Before the show officially begins, we get a tribute to “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, who passed away a few days before this PPV. The entire roster is out on the stage for the ten bell salute, and they play Dusty’s theme song.
1.) Money In The Bank Ladder Match - Randy Orton vs. Neville vs. Kane vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns: ***1/2
Our first match of the night is, interesting enough, the Money In The Bank Ladder Match itself. For the most part, I thought it was pretty solid. There have been so many Money In The Bank Ladder Matches, that it’s become harder & harder to top previous matches (particularly the earlier ones). Of course, we got some cool spots scattered throughout this match, but there have been plenty of other Money In The Bank Ladder Matches that have been significantly better. A big moment occurred in the middle of the match, as Roman Reigns was about to win, when the lights went out, and Bray Wyatt appeared. He attacked reigns, and effectively took him out of the match. Sheamus would end up grabbing the briefcase to win the match. Can’t say Sheamus winning this had me (or anyone) excited.
2.) WWE Diva’s Title - Nikki Bella vs. Paige: **3/4
At this point in the year, I really felt like the Diva’s Division had become really stagnant. The Diva’s Title Matches on pretty much all of the PPV’s up to this point had involved some combination of The Bella Twins, Paige, & Naomi. Despite that criticism, this was actually a pretty decent Diva’s Title Match. Then the finish happened. The Bella Twins pulled “Twin Magic” and Brie Bella got into the match, only for Paige to roll her up for the pin, and seemingly won the Diva’s Title. Brie started freaking out, and took the tissue out of her bra, trying to tell the referee that she wasn’t Nikki. This distraction would allow Nikki to take advantage, hitting Paige with the Rack Attack to retain the Diva’s Title. I didn’t totally mind the idea of Brie getting involved here, but if they were going to do this, then it should’ve ended in a DQ. It still gives you the intended result (Paige getting screwed out of the title).
Before the next match, The Miz comes out, making fun of the state of Ohio, and says that will get a shot at the WWE Intercontinental Title.
3.) WWE Intercontinental Title - Ryback vs. The Big Show: *1/2
Ryback won the vacant Intercontinental Title at Elimination Chamber 2015, in the Elimination Chamber. His first feud as champion is against, of all people, The Big Show. I’ll keep things short here. This wasn’t good…..AT ALL. The match ends when The Miz attacks both Ryback & The Big Show for the DQ. This is something that was more suited for TV, not a PPV.
4.) Non-Title Champion vs. Champion Match - NXT Champion Kevin Owens vs. WWE United States Champion John Cena: ****1/2
I think many people were concerned about WWE doing this rematch so quickly after their first encounter. With that being said, this match was still pretty awesome!! It was right on par with their match from Elimination Chamber 2015, though if I had to pick, I’d put that match over this one (mainly due to the shock value of Owens winning clean). Much like their first encounter, we saw a ton of great back & forth action from both guys. Owens is just an incredible performer, and Cena, once again, really stepped up in a big way. We even say Cena bust out a Code Red/Yoshi-Tonic (even though it nearly got screwed up), which was an incredible sight. Cena would eventually get the win over Kevin Owens.
After the match, the two shake hands, but Kevin Owens attacks John Cena, and takes him out with his powerbomb on the ring apron. While Cena didn’t need to get his win back so soon, the fact that Owens got the last laugh here by taking Cena out was a good move.
5.) WWE Tag Team Titles - The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) vs. The Prime Time Players: **3/4
So since Kofi Kingston was in the Money In The Bank Ladder Match earlier in the night, The New Day are invoking “The Freebird Rule”, as Big E & Xavier Woods are defending the WWE Tag Team Titles against Titus O’Neil & Darren Young. While this wasn’t a great match by any means (in wasn’t quite as good as some of the WWE Tag Team Title Matches we’ve gotten in recent months), this was still a fine tag team match. To the shock of a lot of people, The Prime Time Players actually captured the WWE Tag Team Titles here. An interesting move, for sure, but I’m glad Titus O’Neil & Darren Young at least got a run with the titles.
6.) WWE World Heavyweight Title - Ladder Match - Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose: ***¾
These two guys have met in a variety of different stipulation matches at this point. Lumberjack Matches, Street Fights, Hell In A Cell, and now a Ladder Match. While this wasn’t able to come close to Cena/Owens II as far as Match of the Night is concerned, I thought this was still a really good Main Event. The match going nearly 36 or 37 Minutes did hurt it a little bit, in my opinion, but they still packed a lot of action into this one. I actually liked this a little bit more than the Money In The Bank Ladder Match. Both men took a beating throughout this match, but in the end, Seth Rollins was able to sneak away with the win, just barely, to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Title. The best part about this match? We had no interference from The Authority!
Rollins celebrates with Triple H to close the show.
Overall: 7.5/10
Money In The Bank is usually one of the better WWE PPV’s of the year, in terms of match quality, and while this show wasn’t as great, it was still pretty solid. The PPV itself really only had one bad match (Ryback vs. The Big Show). You had two decent undercard title matches, two very good Ladder Matches, and another awesome John Cena/Kevin Owens match. WWE’s booking always seems to hurt these PPV’s in some form or fashion, and while this PPV was no different, this was still a fine PPV outing from WWE.
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