WWE Money in the Bank (July 2021)

Original Airdate: July 18, 2021

 

From Fort Worth, Texas; Your Hosts are Jimmy Smith, Byron Saxton, and Corey Graves (RAW); Michael Cole and Pat McAfee (Smackdown)

 

Opening Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Alexa Bliss v Asuka v Natalya v Naomi v Zelina Vega v Liv Morgan v Nikki A.S.H. v Tamina: Not one mask in that crowd. Not one. The entrances eat up a ridiculous fifteen minutes here. Everyone immediately bails to the outside to brawl, as Alexa just stands on the middle rope, looking creepy as fuck. So with everyone fighting it out, she goes to center ring, and tries to conjure the briefcase down, but gets cut off by Morgan. That leads to a sequence where everyone knocks out someone until Tamina is left standing, so Alexa tries diving on her with a sleeper to bring things full circle, but gets wrecked with a ladder for her efforts. Tamina sets up the ladder, but Liv steals her climb, so Tamina tips, and then squashes both Morgan and Vega in the corner. Is Zelina related to Savio in kayfabe? Asuka comes in to choke Tamina down with a ladder to allow her to climb, but Liv returns to nail her with a kneeling facebuster to steal the climb again. Natalya tips her this time, and they do a tug of war with the ladder until Alexa kills Natalya, and Morgan ends up wedged in the corner. Alexa tries to, I can only assume based on the facial expressions, rape Morgan, but luckily Natalya saves. Bliss sets up the ladder, but Vega comes up the opposite side, only to get sucked back down by some Bliss telepathy. Natalya pulls Alexa off with a sitout powerbomb before she can grab the case, but Vega knocks Natalya to the outside, and hits Asuka with a facebuster. Naomi comes in for, like, the first time in the match, and starts running wild on everyone, but Natalya cuts off a climb attempt. Natalya climbs, but Vega rides her up the ladder with a sleeper, and is that the same girl who was playing Vega from the start? She looks wildly different. Dog pile sequence is won by Nikki with a big dive (which she looked super awkward performing), and she climbs, but Alexa pulls her down. Superhero versus super villain! Bliss kills her with a Sister Abigail, and climbs, but Natalya stops her again. Natalya is really a thorn in Alexa's little side tonight, isn't she? Natalya teams up with everyone else in the match to bury Alexa under a pile of ladders, and then they all just stand around and look at the pile like a bunch of jobbers. Except for Liv, who despite actually being the biggest actual jobber in the match, has the presence of mind to use the opening to climb. Tamina stops her, but Liv fights everyone off, and climbs again - only for Naomi to meet her at the top. That leads to a contrived bit where seven women climb three ladders, with Nikki sneaking past the bunch to snag the briefcase at 15:42. Fun in the usual way that these things are, but not a good wrestling match, and surprisingly light on bumping. *

 

WWE RAW Tag Team Title Match: AJ Styles and Omos v The Viking Raiders: The Raiders get to cutting the ring in half on AJ almost immediately, but Omos gets the tag, and he chucks his partner at Erik to set up a headscissors on the floor. Back in, AJ traps Erik in a chinlock, but he quickly escapes, and passes to Ivar. Ivar slams Styles around, but he gets away long enough to tag, and Omos lumbers in. Ivar tries diving at him from the middle, but gets caught in a bodyslam, and AJ tags back in again. This match has no story or flow to it. AJ loses an exchange with Erik, and gets suplexed, allowing the tag to Ivar for a double team... which AJ quickly fights off for another tag back to Omos. He slams the challengers around for a bit, but Erik manages to get some traction, and the Raiders double team. They manage to knock Omos over the top, but AJ sneaks in with a schoolboy on Ivar for two, and then Omos just comes back in and chokeslams Erik at 12:55. This was bad, with no direction, and without anything even resembling storytelling. ¼*

 

WWE Title Match: Bobby Lashley v Kofi Kingston: Kofi immediately hooks him in a sunset flip for two, and then dives off the middle with a high knee for another two, before Lashley clobbers him. Bobby unloads in the corner before press-dropping him over the top, and following to run his challenger into the post a few times. Back in, Lashley continues to generally 'roid rage, and gives him a trio of dominators, before putting him away with the full-nelson at 7:37. Well, that was certainly an effective way to make Kofi look like a complete jobber. ¾*

 

WWE RAW Women's Title Match: Rhea Ripley v Charlotte Flair: Speaking of people who look very, very different than they used to. Ripley dominates her in the early going, and manages to dump her to the outside for a baseball slide, but a somersault senton from the apron misses. That allows Flair a running dropkick to send Rhea crashing into the barricade, and the challenger hooks the leg for two on the way back in. Flair with a suplex for two, and she grounds Ripley in a chinlock. Flair with a goofy backflip into a kick to the face that felt right out of the Rob Van Dam playbook (what did the backflip add?), but she gets dumped over the top while unloading in the corner. Rhea follows with the somersault senton she missed earlier, but Flair beats the count, so Ripley uses a pair of short-clotheslines. Snapmare sets up a seated dropkick, and the champ hooks a northern lights suplex for two. Flair wisely bails, but an attempt at a cheap shot doesn't save her from taking a German suplex. Ripley dives with a missile dropkick, but Flair dodges, and locks the champion in an elevated crab. Ripley counters to a cradle for two, so Flair tries the figure four, but Ripley cradles again for two. Flair pops up with a big boot for two, but an attempt at climbing for the moonsault gets blocked with an electric chair attempt that triggers a reversal sequence ending in Ripley hitting a suplex for two. Rhea cracks her with chops, but Flair reverses a cross corner whip, and the champion takes a bump to the outside. Charlotte keeps her out there with a big boot, and she dives with a flying moonsault press on the floor. Natural Selection on the way in misses, allowing Ripley to put her in her elevated toehold, but Flair cradles for two. Ripley fights her off with a Riptide attempt, but Flair counters with a DDT for two. Slugfest goes Flair's way, and she taps her with a spinning backelbow for two - the referee busting her leveraged pin attempt. That allows Ripley to recover with an enzuigiri, and she tries taking her up for a superplex, but Charlotte blocks, and dives with a flying Natural Selection for two! Flair shakes off the shock and goes for the figure four, but Ripley dumps her to the outside to block. Rhea reaches out to pull her in, but Flair bashes her head into the post to block, and then wedges her leg between the post and steps to batter. That sets up the Figure Eight, and Ripley is a disappointed dunsky at 16:48. They were really grinding here, and there were some good (and stiff!) sequences, but something just felt... off... about it, and it's hard to pinpoint exactly what. *** ½

 

Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Drew McIntyre v Big E v Kevin Owens v King Nakamura v Seth Rollins v John Morrison v Ricochet v Riddle: A bunch of guys go flying to start, leaving Drew and Big E. Why are they treating this like a bad battle royal? Or, conversely, the best battle royal ever, since it's over in under a minute. Owens, the only one with a brain, hangs back and lets them kill each other since they don't even have a ladder in the ring yet anyway, and then he sneaks in with one, but Nakamura cuts him off. He wants to climb, but Morrison dives off the ladder to cut HIM off, so Nakamura puts him in a triangle choke, but Rollins saves. Seth and John team up to control the field, until Seth turns on him with the ladder, and makes the climb. A bunch of guys cut him off, but none of them make it up the ladder before Drew dives on everyone for a dog pile. Drew lands a Claymore kick on Rollins before making a climb of his own, but Veer and Shanky (Jinder Mahal's henchmen) pull him off, and Jinder himself shows up with a chair to finish the job. They cart Drew to the back, as Riddle sneaks in to climb, but Ricochet shoves him off. He makes his own climb, but Riddle tips the ladder, and Ricochet ends up crashing into everyone on the floor for another contrived dog pile. Somehow this ends up with Riddle and Ricochet at the top of the ladder again, but it goes nowhere. Again. Nakamura climbs, but Morrison squirts him in the face with a water gun - only for Owens to cut off his climb. He climbs, but Seth powerbombs him through a planked ladder to end that effort. Rollins climbs, but Big E knocks him off, and takes the case at 18:03. Okay then. *

 

Main Event: WWE Universal Title Match: Roman Reigns v Edge: Posturing to start, ending in Edge getting knocked to the outside. Edge goes after the arm after shaking the dust off, but Roman punches him in the face to end that effort, and he unloads in the corner. Edge manages to strike at the arm again to shake him off, and he tries for a fujiwara armbar, but Roman bails. He comes back in with fists of fury, but Edge doesn't back down, and sends Reigns back to the outside with a knee. Edge charges out there, but that backfires when Reigns grabs him with a Samoan drop on the floor. Reigns heads back in to bask while Edge gets counted out, but the punk beats the count, so Roman kicks the crap out of him, and then dumps him right back to the outside. But instead of giving him the mercy of the countout, Reigns follows to send his challenger into the steps out there, and then he drags him back in to cover for two. Reigns responds by drilling him with mounted punches, and he chucks Edge into the post through the buckles, wrecking the shoulder. Vertical suplex gets two, so Reigns goes to a cravat, and he trash talks the crowd while doing it for good measure. 1996 Shawn Michaels could learn something from this man. Edge slugs free, but Roman immediately strikes him back down with an uppercut, and delivers the Drive-By for two. Superman punch, but Edge counters with a backslide for two, and both guys collide for a double knockout spot. They stagger up for a slugfest, won by the challenger with the Edge-o-Matic for two. Edge makes a fiery comeback, and the implant DDT gets him two. He takes Reigns up for a superplex, but the champ knocks him to the apron to block, so Edge bulldogs him into the post. That leaves Roman in a tree of woe, and Edge is quick to capitalize. Edge with an STF to try and finish him off, but Reigns makes the ropes to save himself. Edge tries a spear, but Reigns catches him in a front-facelock to block, and he wrenches it on, but Edge manages to fall out of the ring to stay in the game. Roman recovers with a spear of his own on the outside, but Edge dodges, and the champion goes crashing through the barricade. Edge then sends him through another piece of the rail with his own spear, and he rolls him in to cover for two. Reigns comes back with the Superman, but the referee gets bumped in the process, so no cover. Reigns capitalizes by finding a weapon, and he puts Edge in a crippler crossface with it, but the challenger escapes with a series of fake looking headbutts. Edge fish hooks Reigns with the weapon, and there's no referee to stop the madness, but here come the Usos! They get cut off by the Mysterios, however, and Edge keeps the hold applied... until Seth Rollins shows up to save! That allows Reigns to rev up another Superman, but Edge blocks with a spear, and a new referee sprints in to count a dramatic two! That was a great near fall. Though, I always wonder why, in kayfabe, the referee has to wait until a cover is made to show up. The other official has already been carted to the back, there's an active match going on... maybe get your ass in gear? Edge sets up a second spear, but a distraction from Rollins allows Reigns to reverse, and Roman retains at 33:07. This was a good storytelling match, but the story would have been more effectively told in about half the time. **

 

BUExperience: I would make an effort to see the Women’s title match, don’t bother with the rest.

 

DUD