We saw a mixed bag of main roster shows leading up to this. Money in the Bank is occasionally seen as the biggest of the non-Big 4. Will it live up to that idea? Will it fall on it’s face like many perceive WWE in general?

AJ Styles versus Seth Rollins should be the show stealing match. It’s the one match that most people can hang their hats on, but then everyone remembers the Shinsuke angle. So we all hold out hope it will be okay.

We’ve also got Miz and Shane, which people are just sick of Shane in matches. Samoa Joe could really use a solid a match against a legend to make his title reign. Plus the Becky Lynch double header is a major point of interest.

Let’s see how this all plays out.

Ratings:

• Kickoff Show: The Usos vs Rowan & Daniel Bryan: The Usos win via Double Uce @11:05 – ***
• Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Bayley vs Mandy Rose vs Carmella vs Nikki Cross vs Naomi vs Ember Moon vs Dana Brooke vs Natalya: Bayley wins @13:50 – **
• United States Championship: Samoa Joe (c) vs Rey Mysterio: Mysterio wins via Hurcanrana @1:40 – N/A – TITLE CHANGE!!
• Cage Match: Shane McMahon vs The Miz: Shane wins via Escaping the Cage @13:10 – ** 1/2
• Cruiserweight Championship: Ariya Daivari vs Tony Nese (c): Nese retains via Running Kneese @9:20 – * 1/2
• Raw Women’s Championship: Lacey Evans vs Becky Lynch (c): Lynch retains via Disarm-Her @8:35 – **
• SmackDown Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch (c) vs Charlotte Flair: Flair wins via Big Boot @6:10 – ** 1/4 – TITLE CHANGE!!
• MitB Cash In: SmackDown Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair (c) vs Bayley: Bayley wins via Elbow Drop @0:20 – N/A – TITLE CHANGE!!
• Roman Reigns vs Elias: Reigns wins via Spear @0:05 – N/A
• Universal Championship: AJ Styles vs Seth Rollins (c): Rollins retains via Stomp @19:50 – **** 1/4 
• WWE Championship: Kofi Kingston (c) vs Kevin Owens:Kofi retains via Trouble in Paradise @14L55 – *** 1/2
• Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Drew McIntyre vs Baron Corbin vs Finn Balor vs Ricochet vs Andrade vs Randy Orton vs Ali vs Brock Lesnar: Lesner wins @19:40 – *** 3/4

Analysis:

Wait, The Usos and Daniel Bryan are on the kickoff show? Okay, well that aside, the match was fine. Definitely a few odd spots that didn’t look great, but with The Usos getting the win, it keeps the feud alive. Wild Card Rule will play a big part in this whole story. Should be interesting, and we know that these guys can put on great matches given time. So no real complaints.

Naomi comes out with an homage to Bumblebee from DC Comics and it started off with some interesting spots. Mandy running up a ladder to hit Dana with a knee strike, Mandy and Nattie sandwiching Bayley in the ladder and a push over the ladder with most of the people on it, were all cool. Granted, Carmella and the “injury” angle was stupid, Dana’s spots looked too slow and choreographed, Nattie is mediocre and the match generally got awkward. It wasn’t awful, but the match certainly wasn’t good. Congrats to Bayley though since maybe she can get her main roster career back on track.

So I guess Joe is gonna be the king of b.s. finishes. First the AJ Styles feud, and now this horrible call. Joe’s shoulder was up so far even Stevie Wonder could see it wasn’t three. Just looks bad when the shoulder is up before the 2 count and the referee still counts to 3. Dumb dumb dumb.

Well…this cage match was a mess. It started off fine since Shane kept trying to run away and Miz was basically playing goal keeper. They got a “This is Awesome” chant and then after what should’ve been the exclamation mark, of a Skull Crushing Finale on a chair, after multiple chairshots, Shane gets his foot on the rope, which cued the “Bullshit” chant. Even commentary buried the fact that foot on the ropes shouldn’t break pins in a cage, so that’s when it fell apart. We see the finish of Shane literally slipping out of his shirt, while Miz tries to Suplex him back into the ring, so Shane falls out of the cage. I guess stupid and flukey wins are the hallmark of this feud, but wow did you piss of a crowd that was into it, because you forget the rules to your own match. Not an awful match, but the logical missteps make it hard to even call good.

The Cruiserweights get a main card match? Really? And after a match you should’ve assumed annoyed the crowd? The crowd was so bored during this match, they couldn’t even chant “Boring” for very long. This also wasn’t even a good match. Daivari was sloppy, neither have a great charisma and as we know with Cruiserweights, they get no reaction on main roster shows or PPVs. If this was The Usos vs Daniel Bryan & Rowan, the crowd might have come out the coma. Hopefully this show picks up.

Lacy comes out with money guns, that kinda neat. As for the match, it wasn’t bad. Granted, we have very questionable referee work tonight when Lacey rolls up Becky for about a 4 count, and he never counts, but Becky reverses into the Disarm-Her and retains.

Wait wha-WAIT WHAT

➡️ https://t.co/E0MswUzX3G pic.twitter.com/12DRVYODlQ

— TDE Wrestling (@tde_wrestling) May 20, 2019

While we’re trying to figure out why the referees are garbage tonight, Charlotte’s music hits and she goads Becky into the second championship match right away. Becky takes the bait and she weathers the early storm. Charlotte looks like she screwed up when she goes for Natural Selection on the apron, but Becky holds on and Charlotte spills to the outside. Lacey however lands The Woman’s Right and Charlotte takes advantage of it. Fun point from this match is that Charlotte did a Ric Flair special when she went to the top rope and Becky pressed her down into the ring.

Bayley comes out to make the save while Lacey and Charlotte are beating down Becky. After Charlotte gets greedy and misses a Spear going face first into the turn buckle. The crowd is hot for Bayley, they chanted for her to make the save and they were electric wanting her to cash in. So Bayley does so, hits the Elbow Drop and becomes the new SmackDown Women’s champion. WWE took advantage of the crowd wanting Bayley and it all played out well. The matches may not have been fantastic, but the way the story played out and Bayley finally getting to feel what it’s like to be over on the main roster, is a nice moment.

So Elias attacked Roman in the back, came out and sang his anti-Hartford song all the way through. Tries to leave and Roman meets him with a Superman Punch. Match officially starts, Spear happens, match is over. This is a weird PPV so far, a lot of story moments, but feels more like an episode of Raw.

AJ and Seth was mostly the match we expected, a lot of normal beats that they both tend to hit in bigger matches. AJ Styles doing the Stomp counter into the Styles Clash was a fun moment, and Seth inverting his Suplex/Falcon Arrow combo wasn’t completely new since he used to use the Paroxysm, but still, nothing overly surprising. Best match of the show so far, and didn’t really disappoint.

Why is the Lucha House Party on this show? I don’t remember seeing a garbage 6 man match announced, oh and they’re talking, and they suck at it. The crowd doesn’t react at all to them, and Lars Sullivan comes out now. This really is like an episode of Raw. Why are there so many goofy gimmick aspects? I feel bad for people who paid to be there. At least Lars killed them, so that’s something, but the crowd doesn’t care about the House Party or Lars, so good snack break before the last two matches. YUP! That’s what I’m going with, WWE knew the fans would need time to go to the bathroom or get a snack after the Universal title match, so he just threw them out there for five minutes. Good looking out WWE!

The WWE Championship match was fine, just awkward. A few big and rough bumps helped to turn the physicality up, Owens avoiding losing to the first Trouble in Paradise by falling out of the ring was good. Kofi bumping close to the ropes after the Stunner made that spot obvious,and what was the point of no shoes and still losing to the Trouble in Paradise? I…I’m so glad this show is nearly over.

We had a hell of a fun train wreck with this match. The fact that we started with 7 and there was no official announcement of the 8th, I assumed it would be either Bray or Brock, since that would be a polarizing entrant. But the spots were crazy. Randy flinging the smaller wrestlers into the announce table was fun, Andrade’s big Sunset Bomb onto Finn through into a ladder was huge. Randy was murderer by a Claymore early and sold it for most of the match. Corbin tried to pick his spots, Ali had a big hope moment, until Brock revealed himself as number 8! The crowd was hot during the match, even doing a “Yowie Wowie” chant after the Sunset Bomb spot. Brock got the expected reaction and him standing there, laughing his ass off with the briefcase was solid wrestling.

Overall Score: 5.5/10

Holy crap this PPV was pretty awful up until the Styles/Rollins match. Bayley was a nice moment, but that was such a cluster to get to the point. Like I said earlier, this really felt like an episode of Raw just with slightly better/bigger feeling matches.

After all is said and done, the show was pretty average, but I don’t blame anyone thinking it was the worst thing in the world if they just got sick of it before the Universal title match. Since the weeks leading up to this were such a huge mixed bag, I was hoping the whole show would knock it out of the park. The last 3 matches saved the PPV and helped to offer us something to sink our teeth into moving forward.

Brock versus Seth at the Jam in Sand III could be a hell of a headliner for the fans over there.