WWE’s Monday Night Raw emanated from our nation’s capital this week, the final episode heading into this Sunday’s Money in the Bank PPV. And the take-home show definitely delivered.
Let’s get right to it.
Sometimes, two is better than one.
A major announcement that came out of WWE last week was the addition of a traditional Money in the Bank ladder match for a WWE World Heavyweight Title shot. This is welcome news for WWE fans. Although the original MITB match has been turned into a title bout, things wouldn’t be the same if a superstar wasn’t carrying that suitcase around.
After announcing that Seth Rollins would be the first participant in the match, COO Triple H named Rob Van Dam, Bad News Barrett, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, and Dolph Ziggler (#PUSHZIGGLER!) as the other five participants.
This lead to Triple H bringing out his pick for the match, Rob Van D— just kidding, Seth Rollins. RVD would interrupt the two and set up a great back and forth bout that ended much like all recent Rollins matches; with Dean Ambrose interfering.
(Sidenote: Absolutely love that Ambrose has gone to the jeans/tank brawler gimmick. Now if we could just do something about his terrible entrance music, we’d be good.)
(Second sidenote: I hate Rollins music as well, and his wrestling gear. Come on creative, you can do better.)
This interference lead to Ambrose promising he will make his presence felt in the MITB match regardless of if he is a participant or not, and letting Triple H know he may as well enter him in now to save his PPV.
!!DEAN AMBROSE CRAZY EYES ALERT!!
After Ambrose made his presence known, Rollins went straight to his dad– err Triple H’s office and demanded his former Shield partner be entered into the MITB match rather than allowing him to interfere and cost Seth a shot at the contract. Trips obliged and let his newest protege know that a loss would be all on him.
Dolph Ziggler (and Bad News Barrett) steal the show, again.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Dolph Ziggler had a match on Raw, and it not only stole the show, but was one of the best televised matches we’ve seen in months.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Week in and week out, Ziggler goes out and puts on an absolute show in the squared circle. And week in and week out, Dolph isn’t given the push the Universe wants to see him get (#PUSHZIGGLER!).
This week was no different as Ziggs and BNB put on an amazing Intercontinental Title match. There were great spots, plenty of false finishes, and enough Ziggler near-falls to make us all believe he was going to take home the strap.
Well, at least for a second. Barrett caught Ziggler with a Bull Hammer out of nowhere for the 1-2-3 and title retention. These two will meet again this weekend in the MITB match, but let’s hope this is a sign of singles bouts between the two to come.
You’re weekly reminder to always Bo-lieve!
Most of Bo Dallas’ matches are becoming the same thing week after week, but I can’t help but love this gimmick. A win over Titus O’Neil runs the rookies record to Nine and Bo!
So long Vickie Guerrero, you wonderfully crazy woman.
Well, you knew it was coming.
After allowing Roman Reigns to enter, and win, the Battle Royal for a spot in the MITB title match, Vickie Guerrero had some splainin’ to do. Stephanie McMahon (who has become the best heel in the company by the way) wasted little time bringing Guerrero out and letting her know that her job would be on the line in a match later in the night. Against Vince’s baby girl herself.
Well, sort of. Guerrero was ready to do battle, but McMahon came out in her normal dress, letting Vickie know it wouldn’t be a normal match. No, it would be a “first woman to be thrown in that pool of who-knows-what loses” match. Seriously.
After dispatching some Divas who otherwise can’t get TV time on Vickie, McMahon was able to finally push Eddie’s wife into the pool and thus lose her job despite a valiant effort from the loud-mouthed self-proclaimed cougar.
Vickie would get her chance at redemption by throwing a “Na-na-na-na hey-hey-hey gooooood-byyyyyye” singing Stephanie into the pool. Leading us to this gem from the WWE Instagram account.
One Eddie Guerrero-esque shimmy later, and Vickie Guerrero was gone from WWE.
Stardust is real, and here to stay.
So apparently WWE really is turning Cody Rhodes into a new character named Stardust who, you’ll never believe this, is a carbon-copy of his older brother Goldust! I haven’t been this disappointed in a character change since the Undertaker’s American Badass days. Seriously, I hope this goes away ASAP.
The Roman Reigns rocketship has launched.
Oh hey, there’s also a little title match going on this Sunday at Money in the Bank. After narrowing down the field to seven participants last week, the wrestlers all took center stage in the main event, a 4 on 3 handicap match.
Roman Reigns, Sheamus and John Cena teamed to pick up the victory over Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt, Cesaro and Alberto Del Rio thanks to a Brogue Kick from the Irishman. But that’s when things got really fun.
After losing a Stretcher match last week to Super Cena, the Demon Kane made an appearance, absolutely dismantling everyone (minus a retreating Orton).
Confusing right? Well Triple H came out to let us all know that Kane was the 8th participant in the title match. Talk about making a statement heading into this Sunday’s PPV. As always, Kane hit his pyro to close things out and—
ONLY ROMAN REIGNS SPEARS CAN CLOSE THINGS OUT!
And we close the show with the WWE’s newest superduperstar Reigns standing tall in the ring as Triple H and Orton look on.
WWE sure has been hinting a lot at Reigns winning the title this Sunday at Money in the Bank. No superstar in the title match has been given as much of a spotlight as the big man, so maybe creative will get things right and put the strap on their newest main-event player.
Yeah you’re probably right, this is just setting up another opportunity for Triple H to put himself in front of the WWE’s biggest rising star in a SummerSlam match. Great.
At least we can count on Ziggler winning the— oh who am I kidding?
We’ll see where things go from here after Sunday’s Money in the Bank PPV.
#PUSHZIGGLER!