Kickoff Interviews
The Kickoff Show had several different interviews interspersed throughout so I’m putting them all here and giving them an overall grade.
Becky Lynch’s kickoff interview was fairly solid. There wasn’t anything new or different in her words; in fact, they were kind of the same thing she’s been saying since she became the double champ.
Lacey Evans’ promo oozed arrogance and confidence and really adds to her Lady character. I think she did a good job throwing shade but not coming off too much like a middle school bully.
Kevin Owens calling Sarah Schreiber “Renee” was gold and right on par with his character. His promos are fairly wordy but not in an off-putting way. I also think that Owens has been fantastic at calling Kofi Kingston an undeserving champ without absolutely burying him.
After a startling bit of personality change, Nikki Cross shows us some more of the craziness that marked her character in NXT. Hopefully we see this utilized more, though I wouldn’t mind if we continue this flip-flopping of personalities
Grade: B+
Daniel Bryan and Rowan vs The Usos
Rowan’s name wasn’t on the titantron graphics. Rude! Jimmy Uso and Rowan had a particularly good sequence where Uso kept trying to get the big man down and Rowan was just too big. Rowan was also doing his absolute best to solidly catch the Usos whenever they went flying. I respect that! Daniel Bryan trying to pick the bones after Rowan had caused damage was also great character work for their team; I actually do like this big enforcer and mouthy small guy dynamic. But, the Double Uce proved too much for the planet’s champions. Overall, the match was soli, albeit a little slow. So do the Usos now have a shot at the Smackdown titles? How does this work?
Winner: The Usos
Grade: B
Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match-Naomi vs Carmella vs Nikki Cross vs Ember Moon vs Natalya vs Bayley vs Dana Brooke vs Mandy Rose
So this match started off with intensity and never took its foot off the gas. It was arguably more action-filled than the three previous women’s Money in the Bank matches. It was definitely more brutal with several different great ladder spots. I’m not sure if Carmella was actually injured or not but I did like the renewed aggression she showed to Mandy Rose after being escorted from the ring by officials then coming back. Sonya Deville fireman carrying Mandy Rose up the ladder was also impressive, but Bayley put a stop to that and snagged the briefcase for herself. The MVP of the match was Nikki Cross though; her unpredictability was a great wild card (haha) throughout the bout.
Winner: Bayley
Grade: A-
Sami’s totally cool…
Sami Zayn’s whining to Triple H made me laugh. I love that Hunter totally dismissed him and told him to tape his fists if he wanted protection. This version of Zayn is perfect for a multi-man match, much more than the version that wants to square up with the audience.
Grade: B+
Samoa Joe vs Rey Mysterio-United States Championship
Well…this was actually somewhat of a match, unlike the WrestleMania squash. Joe did get his nose busted but Mysterio pulled a roll up. It looked like Joe’s shoulder wasn’t all the way down so I’m fairly certain this is going to be used in a further storyline. I did like the post-match beatdown though. Joe looked like an absolute monster destroying Mysterio in front of his son.
Winner: Rey Mysterio
Grade: C
Where’s Sami Zayn at?!
He’s probably behind that prepositional phrase, Braun. Anyways, I love watching Strowman go on destructive rampages so yeah, I’m good.
Not Graded
The Miz vs Shane McMahon-Steel Cage Match
I have two main thoughts about this match. First, the match itself was fantastic! It was essentially a grudge match because of what McMahon did to the Miz’s dad at Fast Lane and Miz’s loss at WrestleMania that was based on a technicality. It did exactly what it was supposed to do, which was allow Miz to take out all that anger on McMahon. The cowardice showed by McMahon also drove this point home. Second, this feud was fairly predictable in its beginnings but it has since morphed into a pretty good program. Miz has been on point in this face run, but it’s gone on too long and this particular feud needs to end, especially since these two matches have ended in fluke victories.
Winner: Shane McMahon
Grade: B+
Tony Neese vs Ariya Daivari-Cruiserweight Championship
Admittedly, I haven’t been following 205 Live like I should be, but I didn’t mind Daivari’s fancy car entrance. Tony Neese’s “premiere athlete” moniker is certainly deserved because this man has ridiculous athleticism, but athleticism alone does not a good pay-per-view match make. I found this whole bout a bit dull and I think the live crowd agreed with me.
Winner: Tony Neese
Grade: B-
Papa Hunter is pissed
Triple H’s dad voice always gets me. Also he was scolding a man significantly taller than him so he had to use the “I’m your boss”.
Not Graded
Becky Lynch vs Lacey Evans-Raw Women’s Championship
I hadn’t put much stock in Lacey Evans in the past couple of weeks, but she proved me completely wrong. I wish she had been given more opportunity to show her in-ring abilities before this, but regardless Evans put in some work. It wasn’t the best match by any means, but her character game was on point. Given a little more time or the proper storyline, Evans could have a good title run in the future.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Grade: B-
Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair-Smackdown Women’s Championship
This was a brilliant move by Flair and pretty much what I expected her to do. Flair fired on all cylinders from the beginning, trying to take advantage of an exhausted Lynch. This was a highly physical match with both women trading some hard blows. Flair and Lynch do have great in-ring chemistry and I don’t really mind seeing them fight constantly.
Winner: Charlotte Flair
Grade: B+
Cash In! Bayley vs Charlotte Flair-Smackdown Women’s Championship
Bayley doing her elbow drop onto Flair’s lifeless body has to be one of the highlights of the night. This was perfectly done and I hope Bayley gets a better title run this time around.
Winner: Bayley
Grade: A+
Elias vs Roman Reigns
I love that Elias can actually sing and play the guitar and I did like the pre-match guitar attack on Reigns. But at the same time I’m somewhat getting tired of Elias. He keeps getting built up but there’s no payoff. At some point this is going to run out. However, I also didn’t mind Reigns just straight up spearing Elias in half while not even being fully dressed to compete. Reigns has shown a different fire since returning from his leukemia battle; I wonder when we’ll get to see it fully unleashed.
Winner: Roman Reigns
Grade: B
Seth Rollins vs AJ Styles-Universal Championship
This was a fantastic match! The breakneck pace added so much intensity; the pedal was to the metal the entire time. It seemed like both men were pulling all their tricks out of the bag in order to prove who was better. This is another pair with phenomenal (haha) chemistry. The multiple counters and near falls were amazing. And the two showed each other mutual respect at the end of the match. This was the match of the night by far!
Winner: Seth Rollins
Grade: A+
The Freak crashes the Lucha House Party
Supposedly there was a 6-man tag team match scheduled, but Sullivan showed up and promptly murdered Lucha House Party. I’m not even sure what this was, maybe just more build up for Sullivan. It made Lucha House Party look silly and I didn’t care for it.
Grade: F
Kofi Kingston vs Kevin Owens-WWE Championship
I feel like we could’ve gotten a few more weeks of Big O, but there honestly wasn’t a better choice for a first true title defense for Kingston. The two worked well here, trading offense fairly equally. Owens also did a great job of pissing the crowd off, getting them even more behind Kingston. There were a couple of near falls, but there was never a point where Kingston didn’t look credible as a champion.
Winner: Kofi Kingston
Grade: B+
Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match-Sami Zayn vs Drew McIntyre vs Baron Corbin vs Ricochet vs Andrade vs Finn Balor vs Ali vs Randy Orton
The start wasn’t as intense as the women’s match but the fists were flying fairly early. Orton did what I expected, which was be a veteran pair of hands and perform a couple of spots. Despite the slower start, once the match got going it was great. I enjoyed quite a few of the spots, but my absolute favorite had to be Andrade’s sunset flip powerbomb on Finn Balor that landed on a ladder. It looked positively devastating. I do think this match suffered a tiny bit from its placement on the card and that may have added to the longer amount of time it took the crowd to get into it. There was a decidedly mixed reaction from Brock Lesnar taking the eight spot in the ladder match after Sami Zayn was left incapacitated and I can’t exactly say I’m excited for this.
Winner: Brock Lesnar
Grade: A-
Final Thoughts
From start to finish, I thought this was a great Money in the Bank. I wasn’t too keen on Lars Sullivan having a random squash match or the fact that the women’s tag team titles were not defended on the show. I felt like the matches all had the appropriate amounts of time. I do feel like the men’s ladder match suffered by coming after the two title matches, but it did prevent two immediate cash ins from happening on the same night. All in all, I feel like this was a good kickoff for the summer.
Overall Grade: B+
