WWE Money in the Bank (June 2017)

Original Airdate: June 18, 2017

From St. Louis, Missouri; Your Hosts are Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, and John Bradshaw Layfield

Opening Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Charlotte Flair v Becky Lynch, v Natalya v Carmella v Tamina: Everyone dives for the floor to grab ladders right away, all except for Tamina, who holds the high ground, and uses their ladders against them. Flair jumps her before she can climb, however, and she gives Natalya an exploder suplex. That allows Tamina to recover and sneak attack Charlotte, then drop Carmella like a Samoan, but Charlotte sneaks up while Tamina is busy with Becky. Flair uses the ladder on Tamina, and Becky tips one over on her. Natalya takes Charlotte out, leaving her and Becky to have a tug of war over a ladder, and Lynch gets bodyslammed onto the steel! With the ring cleared, Natalya climbs, but she takes about two weeks to get the ladder positioned juuusssst riiigght, and Charlotte brings her down with an electric chair. Flair climbs, but Carmella crotches her on one of the lower rungs, and climbs up past her - sending kicks back down the whole way! She gets to the top, but now Charlotte follows, and we have a slugfest at the top of the world - neither winning when Tamina tips the ladder over. Natalya attacks before she can climb, but Becky interrupts her own climb, so Nattie puts her in the Sharpshooter. Whip into a ladder is reversed, however, and Lynch climbs, but Carmella pulls her down. Carmella with a handstand rana (with Lynch getting into position in the least plausible way possible), but Charlotte destroys them both with big boots anyway. Flair climbs, but Tamina is on her tail, and brings her down with a headbutt. That pisses Charlotte off, so she spears Tamina out of the ring, and follows with another spear into the steps. Sloppy stuff there, like both are afraid of the ball. Charlotte adds a flying corkscrew moonsault onto both Tamina and Natalya, but the ladder is unattended, and Carmella climbs - only to get brought down by Becky with a powerbomb. Lynch climbs, but James Ellsworth slides in and tips her over. Unfortunately, Carmella is dead and can't climb, leaving Ellsworth to snag the case on her behalf himself at 13:21. The novelty of seeing the women work this type of match was cool, but it was definitely several rungs below what we're used to seeing from the guys. Not bad for a first effort, though the finish was basically a wrestling version of mansplaining. * ½

WWE Smackdown Tag Team Title Match: The Usos v The New Day: The Usos are looking more like their cousin Roman by the day. Which, all considered, may not be the worst strategy to ensure an ongoing push. Feeling out process to start, with Kofi Kingston using his speed to avoid getting trapped in a beat down, and Big E helping out with a splash on the apron for Jey Uso. A cheap shot ends in Kingston taking a nice bump over the top, and Jimmy Uso kills him with a clothesline. Jey follows out for a tandem suplex into the post - a spot that sounds awesome, but fell kind of flat. It's those damn LED boards, I'm telling ya. Inside, the champs cut the ring in half on Kofi, but Jey runs into an oddly timed dropkick, and Big E gets the tag. He starts throwing overhead and belly-to-belly suplexes on Jimmy, and a uranage gets him two. Big Ending, but Jimmy escapes, so Big E knocks him to the outside with a spear. Charlotte would do well to study that one. Inside, New Day go for the kill, but Kofi misses a dive, and they destroy his knee - cutting the ring in half again. Jey goes up with a flying splash, but Big E catches him in the Big Ending for two. Well, kinda. That was the plan, but they messed up the catch, and it came off badly. Points for trying though, because that would have been a wild spot had it worked properly, and the camera crew was perfectly positioned for maximum impact. Big E tries to spear both Usos off the apron, but they block with stereo knees, so Big E backdrops them over instead! That allows Kingston to follow-up with a wild dive, and they rush Jey in for the Midnight Hour, but Jimmy pulls him out at two, and the Usos take a countout loss to save the belts at 12:06! Some timing issues, and the ending was a bummer, but overall it came off fine, with its share of eye popping spots and bumps. ** ¼

WWE Smackdown Women's Title Match: Naomi v Lana: Naomi charges at the bell, and hammers away in the corner. The referee steps in, allowing Lana to try and catch Naomi off guard, but it backfires, and she takes a bulldog onto the middle turnbuckle. Naomi misses a flying bodypress, however, giving Lana a two count, and she boots the champion out of the ring. Inside, Lana works a chinlock, and a snap suplex into the ropes hurts Naomi's knee. Lana gives her another one for good measure, and works the leg with basic (but effective) stuff. Naomi fights her off in the corner, and starts throwing kicks, as she mounts a comeback. Rear View gets two, so Lana bails, and she manages to nail the champ when Naomi goes after her. Inside, Lana delivers a sitout spinebuster for two, but here comes Carmella - complete with music and lighting. She teases cashing in right then and there, but ultimately changes her mind. The distraction allows Naomi to recover, however, and Lana ends up in the FTG at 7:30. Lana looked really green, but I'm not going to complain about her transitioning to being a wrestler if it means we get to keep seeing her in skimpy outfits. ½*

WWE Title Match: Jinder Mahal v Randy Orton: Orton goes for the RKO within the first minute, so Jinder bails, and stalls on the outside. He stupidly tries charging back in with Orton holding the high ground (at least have your lackeys try to distract him first, or something), and gets nailed with a Thesz-press, then dropped front-first across the top rope to setup a Garvin-stomp. Elevated DDT, but Mahal backdrops him over the top to block, and follows out to abuse the knee. He whips Randy into the steps out there, but Orton side suplexes him onto the barricade, and Jinder ends up in the laps of the legends sitting at ringside - including Randy's dad, Bob. Hopefully Mahal didn't injure Cowboy's knee, because I think he's had enough of casts for one lifetime. Inside, Mahal goes back after the leg, and grounds his challenger in a leglock. Randy escapes and hits a fallaway slam, so Jinder bails to the outside, and swipes at the leg again when Randy follows. Mahal drops him knee first into the barricade before bringing him back inside, where Orton tries the RKO outta nowhere, but the champ blocks with a superkick for two. Stepover-toehold is applied, and Mahal hits a kneedrop ahead of applying a figure four. They cut to Ric Flair at ringside, as if he's supposed to be having some sort of reaction to Jinder using his move, but the Nature Boy looks more bored than anything. Orton reverses, but Mahal ma'has the ropes, and he keeps pounding the leg following the break. Spinning-toehold, but Orton escapes by countering with an inside cradle for two, so Mahal knocks him down with a high knee. This is perfectly watchable, but they are just not connecting on any meaningful level here. Mahal tries a superplex, but Orton knocks him down with headbutts to block, then takes him back upstairs for his own vertical superplex for two. That leads to a slugfest, and Orton pops off a pair of clotheslines to setup a powerslam. Elevated DDT connects, as does the RKO, but Jinder is in the ropes at two, thanks to the Singh Brothers! That gets them ejected, but they stop to disrespect the legends on their way out, so Randy steps out to save. He delivers an extended beat down to both of the brothers, as Mahal... takes a nap, presumably. Don't know what else he could possibly be doing for that length of time. Lucky for Orton, the referee is super lenient with the countout, but unluckily for him, Jinder has woken up from nap time, and he hits a cobra slam to retain at 21:01. Felt like they were going through the motions here, and all the focus on Mahal working the knee ultimately led nowhere. This was watchable, though instantly forgettable. * ¾

Breezango v The Ascension: The Ascension are mystery opponents. Tyler Breeze starts with Viktor, but it quickly breaks down into a four-way brawl. The Ascension get the better of that, and they settle into the heat segment on Breeze within less than a minute. Fandango gets the tag while Konnor is clotheslining Tyler over the top, and he comes in hot with a spinheel kick, but runs into a rotating spinebuster after a double-team. Ascension go for the kill, but Breeze saves, and Fandango cradles Viktor at 3:50. Total filler. DUD

Main Event: Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Kevin Owens v AJ Styles v Shinsuke Nakamura v Sami Zayn v Dolph Ziggler v Baron Corbin: Kind of weird that a match for a shot at the belt goes on last, ahead of a match actually for the belt. But then, that’s probably for the best, given the match for the belt they booked. Corbin attacks Nakamura in the aisle during the entrances, and beats him with a ladder and a TV camera, leaving him unable to perform. Ziggler looks like he borrowed Carmella's gear for good luck. Everyone else spills to the outside for a big brawl to start, and Sami hits old rival Owens with a somersault plancha. Baron is the first to go for a ladder, which he and Ziggler use to nail AJ - with Corbin them immediately turning on Dolph. Ziggler superkicks him before he can head in with the ladder, but a dive off the apron ends in Dolph eating a Deep Six on the floor. There is a woman in the crowd who looks like she BADLY wants Sami Zayn. He should totally slip her his number at some point. Kevin beats on everyone with a ladder, but a charge at Styles is countered when AJ uses a drop-toehold onto a ladder wielding Owens. Styles Clash, but Kevin backdrops him over the top to block, then heads up to try a dive out after him, but Zayn slams him off the top onto a ladder! That badly messes up the ladder though, and now Sami has nothing to climb. He heads out to grab another, but by the time he gets is set up, Ziggler jumps him. Dolph props the ladder up in the corner and chucks Zayn onto it, then decides to make a climb - the first of the match thus far. Sami pulls him down and hits a Blue Thunder Bomb, but Baron stops his climb effort, and smashes his face into the ladder. Styles is in with a seated forearm smash before Baron can climb though, and he climbs - quite nearly getting the case before a combo of Dolph and Baron stop him. Corbin climbs, but Dolph stops him with a Zig Zag off the ladder, and he climbs. He's followed up by both Zayn and Styles, which leads to a neat three-way slugfest at the top of the ladder (with AJ positioned on the hinges!) that ends in Zayn delivering a wild sunset bomb on Ziggler! Owens prevents him from climbing, but a powerbomb on the outside is countered with a half-and-half suplex on the apron! Welcome back to the main event, Sami. I have missed you. Zayn drags himself up the ladder, but AJ dives in with the Phenomenal Forearm to knock him down, only to have Corbin pull him out of the ring before he can climb. I've never noticed it before, but what's weird about these modern multi-man matches compared to the ones from the 90s (when the style was popularized) is how segmented they are now. Like, originally, you'd see them have to do split screens all the time because there was so much action going on that you couldn't cover it all with one camera. And that was even in matches with only four guys, sometimes. Nowadays, no matter how many bodies you've got out there, only two or three are doing anything at any one time, while everyone else just plays dead. I guess both styles have their pluses and minuses, I'm just surprised I never noticed that before. Corbin gives Styles a uranage onto a ladder on the outside, but eats a Helluva Kick from Zayn as he climbs in. That allows Sami to climb, but Owens pulls him down, and knees him in the misters! Kevin climbs, and quite nearly gets the case, but AJ pulls him down. That leads to a reversal sequence that ends with both guys on the apron, and Kevin tries a powerbomb onto a ladder (planked between the steps and an announce table), but AJ counters with a death valley driver onto it! Nuts! He climbs, but Ziggler pulls the ladder away, leaving poor AJ hanging from the case for a while. He struggles, but can't remove it from that position, and ultimately takes a free fall bump all the way back to the canvas! Crazy! Corbin takes Ziggler out, but as he prepares to climb, Nakamura shows the fuck up! Baron throws the ladder out at him, but Nakamura dodges, and heads in with a series of kicks. Leg-feed enzuigiri and a dropkick connect, as does the running knee in the corner. A kneesmash knocks Corbin out of the ring, so Ziggler charges, but eats Kinshasa! Here comes Sami, but he takes an inverted side suplex, and also gets served a helping  of Kinshasa! Nakamura brings a ladder in, but Owens tries to pull it away from him, so he takes a Kinshasa on the floor to stifle him. As a finisher, I really don't think much of that move. It's also really annoying to type quickly. Alone, Nakamura climbs, when AJ suddenly shows up opposite him - and you can feel the crowd getting goose bumps. They mutually decide to set the ladder aside so they can engage in a slugfest, and Nakamura controls with a sleeper into an inverted side suplex. Kinshasa, but AJ blocks with a jumping forearm, and he climbs. Nakamura pulls himself up the opposite side of the ladder for a slugfest at the top, but Baron ends up tipping them both off, and climbing for the case himself at 29:48! Some great spots and bumps – this definitely delivered as a main event. ****

BUExperience: A great, long main event, but a pretty humdrum show. I wouldn’t really waste your time on this one.

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