The Power of Bolief

Bo Dallas's motivational speaker gimmick is similar to the archetypal televangelist. For whatever reason WWE seem unwilling to fully embrace this¹ and instead keep Bo doing the same trite promos that end in his "Bolieve!" catchphrase. Yeah, it's a damn nice pun but Bo could be doing more as a character and livening up the lower card as he does it.

Do you.. Bolieve?

Here's an idea. Have Bo come out dressed in an all white suit, including a white tie and white shoes. They should go full televangelist with it and have him look like he's trying to resemble an actual angel. The New Day lads have honed the televangelist promo style but they're not using the look. That's still wide open and Bo would fit it well.

With this new look could come a new focus in promos. Instead of just setting himself up for his punchline catchphrase Bo could spend a few weeks or a month talking about how he wants to help WWE Superstars™ who are floundering and struggling. Interrupting random matches on SmackDown and getting segments on Main Event would be enough to get this new approach across, with it being made clear that Bo's looking to help lower card lads.

After a few weeks Bo could reveal the guys he wants to help, interrupting a match involving them or simply calling them to the ring during SmackDown (this clearly isn't high profile enough to get air time on RAW). There are a few options for this. Bo could tell Cutis Axel and Damien Sandow that they're better than imitating people from decades ago. He could tell Fandango and Adam Rose that they're both great athletes not being taken seriously because of their silly gimmicks. He could tell Zack Ryder that management aren't interested in him despite his hard work and that he hasn't been relevant for years.

Bolievers?

They're all middle or lower card guys (whether they deserve to be or not). The diea should be that Dallas recruits them to be Bolievers and becomes their manager. Let him manage two guys, give them new all-white ring gear (maybe have their names in black on them or something) and use them as a tag team. You'd have a new team, a new use for Bo Dallas that plays to his strength of being both irritating and ridiculous, and something for guys who are currently directionless.

You would also have the option to imply that Bo is some sort of sinister cult leader who's brainwashed guys into being Bolievers. That may not sound like anything particularly novel in and of itself and it wouldn't be. But it's worth noting that Bo's real life brother is Bray Wyatt, a man well established within WWE canon as a cult leader. Doing something similar with Bo would create the option to play the cult leader thing up in a future storyline. It's an idea that does things short and long term.

But it won't happen. Obviously. Nobody in WWE writes for the mid-card anymore.

***

¹ It's possible they're concerned about upsetting big Christianity fans in their own locker room or religious groups outside the company. But that argument doesn't really tally with them referring to Brock Lesnar as the Devil or the continued depiction of The Undertaker as a demon and-or zombie.

Bad Bad Guys

Where’s the heat in WWE?

Look at any Randy Orton appearance over the last six months. The crowd will boo as soon as his music hits but there’s no passion to it. It’s done out of a sense of habit or because the audience knows that’s what’s expected of them. ‘The Viper’ is WWE’s lead bad guy and so he needs to be booed.

No wrestler should be getting booed just because they’re a baddie. They should be getting booed because the audience dislikes them and wants to see them receive their comeuppance. The wrestler should be genuinely disliked. And that’s not the case with Orton. He’s booed because he’s boring and because people feel they should play along.

And it’s not just Orton. Very few wrestlers in WWE seem to understand how to turn crowds against themselves or why it’s an important part of their job. That or they’re concerned about being genuinely hated by fans. While the latter is a worry it’s also part of the territory for a pro wrestler at the WWE level: people should be willing to make themselves hated so that their good guy counterparts can become more appreciated by contrast. Everyone in wrestling benefits from having heels people want to see beaten on a roster.

A leading theory is that cool heels like the nWo ruined the business. Now every bad guy wants to take that route. That, people say, allows you to act in a heelish manner, with all the creative freedom that entails, while still receiving a healthy royalty cheque for T-shirt sales at the end of the month. That’s a simplification of the argument, but it’s accurate enough.

The easy to hate Randy Orton.

I don’t agree with the theory. While I imagine it’s desirable for a lot of wrestlers to be the cool bad guy it won’t be for all of them. As I’ve already stated I think the bigger problem is that too many people just don’t want to be full-on bad guys because of the possible repercussions. That and WWE’s approach doesn’t allow for much variety. For the most part every bad guy acts like every other bad guy. Every good guy acts like every other good guy. It’s an approach which makes riling crowds up, or forming positive bonds with them, hard.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the good guys the company has on offer are limp and fairly uninteresting. With bland guys like Kofi Kingston and the Usos being the norm people gravitate towards the heels because, by their nature, they get to show a bit more personality and character. Look at Bad News Barrett earlier this year. He was set up as a heel for months on end but people took to cheering him because he exhibited more personality than the stock WWE babyface. Bray Wyatt has become a mesmeric tweener. Fandango, Cesaro and Bo Dallas have experienced it too, getting cheers when they are, apparently, supposed to be the bad guys.

It shouldn’t be hard for the writing team, and the wrestlers themselves, to come up with reasons for fans to cheer and boo with passion at the appropriate times. Although an inability to do so would explain the woeful lack of interesting storylines outside of the main event.

Irish Intercontinental

WWE currently has a great opportunity to declutter their title scene a little bit. Knowing the way the company works I don’t think they’ll have realised it or that they’ll care about it if they have. But the opportunity’s there regardless.

The Intercontinental championship was vacated a few weeks ago after champion Bad News Barrett suffered an arm injury. A new champion will be crowned at the Battleground pay-per-view in a thirty man battle royal. Yeah, thirty. That number seems a bit high considering how few legitimately over wrestlers are on the roster and that (apparently) nobody involved will wrestle in a second match on the show. But that’s what they’re going for.

One of the thirty men in the match is current United States champion Sheamus. That’s a championship that means even less than the Intercontinental title. If either the IC or the US belt was dropped then the remaining one would mean more. The fewer prizes there are on offer the greater an accomplishment it is to win one.

Give Sheamus the Intercontinental championship.

I’m not a fan of former world champions winning mid-card titles. Nor am I a fan of Sheamus. But even so I wouldn’t mind seeing ‘The Celtic Warrior’ leave Battleground as a double champion. It would allow him to appear on RAW the next night and officially combine the two titles, quietly dropping the US belt after a few weeks (or then and there on RAW). Or he could knock the US strap and the country it represents and cast it aside, providing the spark for a heel turn.

Naturally I’d much rather see the uber-talented Cesaro or Dolph Ziggler win the Intercontinental title. Or the recently revived Fandango. Or the slowly catching on Bo Dallas. Any of them would be a great choice to construct meaningful mid-card storylines around. But in Sheamus WWE has the option to finish the tidy-up started last December with the world title unification, and that’s something I’ve wanted to see them do for years.

Of course for the Intercontinental championship to truly become the star-making tool it used to be more needs to be done than unifying it with or keeping it in favour of the United States championship. It needs to be presented as a title worth winning and wrestled for in lively matches featuring performers people care about. But getting rid of the US title isn’t a bad first step.

That RAW Recap 07.07.14

Two things stood out as being good on Monday’s RAW.

The first was the presentation of Roman Reigns. A few weeks ago he was a fun-lovin’ prankster, spiking coffees being carried by Vickie Guerrero so he could sneak his way into a pay-per-view main event. That wasn’t the sort of approach that was going to turn Reigns from a man with potential coming off a run as part of a popular trio into the leading man WWE needed. It didn’t play to his strengths. Worse, it made him look like every other WWE babyface.

Thankfully someone involved in the creative process seems to have realised that was a mistake. Monday’s RAW opened with Reigns striding through the crowd, to a reaction only reserved for top stars, and cutting a promo in which he displayed charisma and the ability to hit bullet points that further storylines (both necessary skills for those at the top of the WWE ladder). The response he got when addressing Kane, Randy Orton, John Cena and Triple H was a very good sign.

I don't want to know what Joey Mercury's grabbing for.

The good booking continued when Kane showed up and Reigns left the ring to battle him in the aisle. That he was keen to fight ‘The Big Red Monster’ made him look like the tough guy WWE needs. That he speared Finlay and then knocked Kane off the apron with a Superman punch ensured that RAW’s first segment ended with Reigns looking like a man who doesn’t back down. That’s the kind of star the promotion needs.

The show ended in a similarly positive manner. After Cena had defeated Rollins (in a non-title match) Orton and Kane appeared to duff up the world champ. Reigns showed up and immediately KOed both men with Superman punches, establishing that the move is incredibly effective. After briefly being dazed by a thump from Rollins’ briefcase (again protecting him by showing that Rollins needed to use a weapon to stun him) Reigns returned to the ring to save Cena from a choke slam by spearing Kane.

The episode went off the air with Cena and Reigns raising one another’s hands. When Reigns held up Cena’s hand the crowd booed. When Cena held up Roman’s hand the fans cheered. It was confirmation that Reigns is becoming accepted as a top guy and that he’s already preferable in the eyes of many to Cena. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Cena’s been on top for near enough a decade and WWE have done a terrible job of creating new stars over the last few years. Reigns is new and looks the part, so people will back him. They want change and Reigns represents it.

The second thing that stood out as being good was the booking of the non-main event names. This is something I’ve mentioned in a variety of articles over the last couple of months, my feeling being that giving people outside of main event plots something to do is what’s needed to make WWE’s weekly programming more watchable and to create new stars.

Please note that Fandango has "Girls" written on his tights.

The best example was Fandango. He followed up his enjoyable Money in the Bank performance with a stint as guest commentator during a Dolph Ziggler v Alberto Del Rio match. He was fun and got his character over before he leapt up on to the announce table for the planned finish: distracting Dolph with his dance moves.

But this wasn’t just promising because it gave Fandango something to do. It was clear that Fanners had a problem with ‘The Show Off’ giving Summer Rae (Fandango’s ex) a kiss and that that was his motivation for causing a disturbance. It’s not the ideal starting point for a Ziggler v Fandango rivalry but it’s at least a step in the right direction, and the involvement of Summer and Layla could allow for some tag matches to keep things interesting.

Similarly the idea of having The Miz read out fan mail was a nice touch. It got over his new wannabe movie star vibe, as did the Tom Cruise shades. I could have done without the return of his awful leather trenchcoat though. That things needs to be retired.

The Divas division was well served too. AJ Lee and Paige were paired up as a babyface team to defeat The Funkadactyls. Cameron opted to apply lip gloss instead of tagging into the match at a critical moment and was immediately pinned with a Paige Turner when she did eventually ta in. She and Naomi then had a shoving match followed by a fight. It was not impressive or multi-layered but it did get a surprisingly strong reaction, indicating audiences may be more into the Funkadactyl v Funkadactyl feud than I’d assumed. If so that’s good news. It means people can be pleased by a storyline involving performers who have only been half-heartedly pushed as long as it develops naturally.

Of course, the Paige and AJ thing was underplayed. There were no signs of jealousy or bitterness from the former champ. The closest they came was AJ flaunting the title belt a little too much, but it wasn’t pushed by the commentary crew and Paige didn’t really react to it. The long approach is being with their rivalry. That’s good.

While RAW as a whole was nothing spectacular it did several things right and indicated that the roster as a whole is being given attention. It’s a step in the right direction and I hope WWE sticks with it.

Money in the Bank 2014 review

The chief selling point of this year's Money in the Bank pay-per-view was the crowning of a new WWE champion. The titular briefcase took a backseat to the title, with all three of the company's top rising stars and all but two of the active main eventers bring piled into the ladder match for the vacant title. This left the Money in the Bank contract match looking like a mid-card affair. This being the first time there's ever been a MITB match with only one world title on the roster that shouldn't have been the case. It should have been presented as something more prestigious than a mid-card prize.

WWE was hit with an unfortunate number of injuries but they still had options. A non-ladder bout could have been held for the championship, freeing up the bigger names to work meaningful matches against one another. Or the competitors for the pair of matches could have been jumbled up to create a mixture of former champions and undercard guys in each. Dolph Ziggler would have been accepted in the world championship ladder match for example.

But they made the decisions they made and presented the card they did. Was it as good-looking a piece of booking work as other shows bearing the Bank brand have been? No. Was it the above average offering it had the potential to be even with its clear limitations? Read on and see.

In notable happenings from the kick-off show WWE debuted a new Money in the Bank stats video, in the same vein as their Rumble by the numbers one and Daniel Bryan made his first appearance since being stripped of the championship. Bryan received a huge reaction and announced that he doesn't know when he'll return to the ring, mentioning the possibility of another operation.

This photo sums up perfectly why I like Bo Dallas.
Or, if you will, why I'm a Boliever.

After answering a couple of trite questions Michael Cole had collated from Twitter Bryan was interrupted by Bo Dallas. He was given a pep talk and responded by saying "Bo, leave!" It was a pretty insubstantial sequence but it did at least get D-Bry and Bo on TV. That's never a bad thing.

Money in the Bank proper kicked off with the tag team title match. That came as a surprise. I'd expected the briefcase match on first with the championship match closing the event. The Usos dictated the pace for the first several minutes, ultimately losing control when a Jey was shoved off the turnbuckle and landed face first on the crowd barrier. After absorbing punishment for a while he managed to tag out to his bro and the match phased into a brawling, double teaming and leaping over the top rope session. After a near fall heavy sequence Jimmy and Jey retained off a double superplex and a pair of splashes on Erick Rowan.

It was a satisfying opener. I can't help but feel it would've been nice to see the Wyatts win the belts but that can come later. The lack of meaningful teams practically guarantees a Battleground rematch.

Next up was a series of video recaps reminding us why Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose dislike one another. Then Ambrose was shown backstage cutting one of his eccentric, lively promos. Which, for the record, are hard not to enjoy. He said he planned to use ladders to win the contract and smash in Seth's face.

Match two was Paige against Naomi. They worked what I think we can at this point refer to as a standard Paige defence. The challenger was in control for much of the match and most of the time when Paige got the advantage she opted for submission holds. There was, however, the added thrill of seeing Cameron looking smug at ringside when her fellow Funkadactyl took a move. Paige won with a guillotine DDT.

After an expert panel segment and a repeat of the MITB by the numbers vid Damien Sandow came to the ring to call the crowd halfwits and say New York's better than Boston (because cheap heat, that’s why). He got his comeuppance at the hands of Adam Rose.

The Money in the Bank match followed that but was preceded by talking heads from the competitors. It was overly scripted nonsense not worth my time repeating. Ziggler was the best of the bunch, and got a heartening pop when he appeared on the screen. Also, it was announced Bad News Barrett would be unable to compete due to injury. That was a pity. He's been doing great stuff since WrestleMania and deserved to be included here.

The also-rans of the match.

The first ladder battle was the match of the night (although it didn’t have much competition). Impressive spots and storyline points in order of occurence: Ambrose entered last and went straight for Rollins; Ambrose butterfly suplexing Rollins onto a ladder; a Rob Van Dam tumbling senton onto Rollins, laying on a ladder propped in the corner; JBL lecherously saying that Jack Swagger is a weapon; Swagger power bombing Van Dam off the top of a ladder, followed moments later by Ambrose suplexing Rollins off the top; Swagger catapulting Ziggler into a ladder and Ambrose; 'The Lunatic Fringe' getting taken out of the match on doctor’s orders after "landing awkwardly on a shoulder"; Kofi back dropping Rollins off the top of one ladder onto another; 'The Show Off' super kicking a ladder into Swagger's face; Ziggler pulling himself up a ladder while trapped in a Patriot lock; Rollins doing a number on Ziggles with a chair; and an effective finishing sequence which saw Ambrose make his (inevitable) return to stop Rollins winning, only to be stopped from winning himself moments later by Kane.

Kane’s interference (specifically a Tombstone piledriver) allowed Rollins to take the briefcase, causing Michael Cole to kick off about the injustice of Ambrose being cost the match. The scene was topped off by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon coming out to celebrate with their charge. It was a well booked match that delivered the required thrills and spills and furthered the Rollins and Ambrose rivalry. Not bad considering it was missing Bad News and RVD got injured halfway through.

The need for some comedy was pretty high after such a hard hitting ladder battle. Thankfully RybAxel were on hand to provide it. Because there's little funnier than Ryback's perma-anger and Axel's depressing Better Than Perfect T-shirt and poorly designed ring gear featuring an axe that looks like a Wi-Fi emblem. They were facing the not unfunny Goldust and Stardust. Their team name really needs to be Gold Star.

The match went longer than their first encounter on RAW. But that wasn't hard as that match lasted less than two minutes. It was inoffensive but utterly unmemorable. Stardust got the win for his team off a roll up on 'The Big Guy'.

In the back Byron Saxton asked Fandango about the love triangle he was involved in. Fandango's response was that he loves triangles. Next he called Byron's question about fairly officiating the match "fascinating." It was a great example of why WWE needs to do more with its mid-carders. The Fandango gimmick isn’t cut out for the top of the card but it, and the man behind it, could do so much more in a thriving, well-booked mid-card. Summer Rae and Layla rocked up and bickered. Fandango remained the most captivating thing on the screen.

The talking continued in the ring with cheap heat act Lana and Rusev. They were met with a USA chant. Lana screeched for the crowd to shut up and, amazingly, they did. After some pro-Putin patter Rusev said something in (presumably) Russian. Part of it sounded like “super athlete.” Then Big E came out. A box appeared in the corner of the screen. In it was a pre-recorded talking head of E in which he seemed to be channelling Abraham Lincoln. The pair had a physical match but it never progressed beyond average (although Big E nailed his ever impressive spear through the ropes. 'The Super Athlete' went over with the Steiner Recliner then posed in front of a large Russian flag.

Fandango is magical.

Summer Rae v Layla was the penultimate match of the night. It was a standard Divas match but with the added twist of the two women flirting with guest ref Fandango throughout. Layla won after elbowing Rae in the face. She and Fandango had a kiss and a cuddle after the match. It was heart-warming to see, although Summer didn’t seem to think so.

And then, finally, it was time for the WWE championship match. The order of wrestler entrances was actually pretty interesting here. Bray Wyatt came out second (missing out on the impactful first spot to Sheamus), hometown star Cena was out fifth (and in fairness he tends to get booed in Boston just as much as anywhere else), followed by Orton. The final man introduced should have been Roman Reigns, presenting him as the star and holding off his big pop for as long as possible. Instead he was the penultimate man out and Kane took the final entrance.

The match was a slow starter. There just weren't any big spots happening and none of the men in the ring seemed interested in trying to draw the crowd in. That included the usually reliable Cesaro, Wyatt and Cena. It was a disappointing effort. The audience amused themselves by booing Cena and chanting "Boring!" For that to happen during the main event of Money in the Bank should cause the writing team some concern.

There were a few memorable exchanges, although most of them got subdued reactions from the crowd: Cesaro dangling above the ring from the belts; Orton doing the draping DDT off a ladder propped up between the ring and the announce desk; Reigns lifting up a ladder as Cesaro and ‘Great White’ stood punching one another on top; Cena doing the same; Wyatt suplexing Cena on to a ladder; Cesaro giving Sheamus a Swiss Death off a ladder; and Orton giving Cesaro an RKO to Cesaro off a ladder.

Roman Reigns should have looked like the star of the show.

People finally started reacting when Reigns was booked to storm through all of his opponents, presumably because that’s what they’d been waiting to see. It’s understandable. With three rising stars in the match WWE should have prioritised giving them all impressive moments and booking them to dominate the veteran headliners. That’s what audiences want: new stars. That the Reigns sequence culminated with him facing off with John Cena was a good call but the visual failed to get the sustained cheer it merited. That was probably a result of it taking too long to come about and-or the first portion of the match being so bland.

Cena and Reigns briefly traded punches to boos and yays but stopped pretty quickly. They should have recognised that it was drawing the audience in and gone a bit longer. Thankfully Bray Wyatt was in next, stopping the audience from cooling off too much. A roar of approval went up when he floored 'The Viper' with Sister Abigail. Unfortunately the pacing was off again as 'The Eater of Worlds' quickly vacated the ring to make way for ADR and a continued sequence of run-of-the-mill attempted title grabs. In an ideal world Bray would have hung around for longer.

The closing moments saw Reigns fight a bloody Orton off the ladder with headbutts and punches before being choke slammed by Kane. Cena then slipped in from nowhere and AAed 'The Demon', yanked Orton off the ladder and then jauntily scampered up the ladder to unhook the belts and become a fifteen time world champion. The show went off the air with Michael Cole saying "Ladies and gentlemen you can boo him or you can cheer him but there can be no doubt that John Cena is the greatest champion in WWE history." It’s hard to think of a comment more clearly designed to illustrate that Cena is above Daniel Bryan in the WWE pecking order.

Money in the Bank was not a good show. The opening match and the briefcase ladder match were both very enjoyable offerings but everything else was either forgettable filler or poorly formatted. Some of the matches were better cut out for an episode of RAW or SmackDown than for the undercard of what’s become the company’s fourth biggest event of the year.

The champ is here. Again.

The main event was the worst offender. Cena did very little before winning the thing and the opportunity to build up Wyatt, Reigns and Cesaro was horribly squandered. With the number of men involved the match could have been used to launch some fresh feuds for Battleground and SummerSlam. Even the obvious feud for those shows, Reigns v Orton, didn’t get the treatment it should have: there was no clear point where Orton (with help from Henchman Demon Kane) clearly and definitively cost Reigns the championship via shady tactics.

Money in the Bank 2014 was a missed opportunity and a below average offering. That’s partly attributable to injuries. It’s mostly attributable to WWE not knowing where they’re going or what their audience want.

SmackTalk 20.06.14

SmackDown’s generally a one match show. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It can lead to good matches ad interesting matches and good interesting matches. This week’s show featured the latter. The seven participants in the WWE championship ladder match at Money in the Bank were placed in a four-on-three handicap match. It was well booked and made the more important match the seven are to be involved in seem more interesting.

It’s an approach I think WWE should use more often. Getting a number of guys together who don’t usually interact is a good way of starting fresh issues. With that seeming to be something WWE has a problem with (so much so that they rarely bother doing it outside of the main event) it’s odd that they’ve not realised this themselves.

Anyway, just for fun, here’s a tweeting session I did.

Seth Rollins v Kofi Kingston

Tweet 1: Let's tweet some Smack.

Tweet 2: First guy out is Seth Rollins, meaning I have to make the obligatory Agents of SHIELD comment.

Seth Rollins, agent of SHIELD.

Tweet 3: Rollins was wearing trainers when Ambrose attacked him on Main Event. Can't imagine image conscious Triple H approved of that.
Tweet 4: He's facing perma-disappointment Kofi Kingston who's decked out like The Flash.
Tweet 5: "Dean Ambrose belongs in a rubber room" - JBL, perhaps hinting at plans for WWE to steal the Samuel Shaw story
Tweet 6: Kofi lost surprisingly quickly. I don't think it'll hurt his chances of being added to Money in the Bank though.
Tweet 7: Uh-oh, Seth's got a mic...
Tweet 8: Is Kane's new ring name Demon Kane? Everyone seems to be calling him that. It's like he's a DBZ villain who's reached his second power level

John Cena promo, featuring interruptions from Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus, Cesaro, Paul Heyman, Roman Reigns, and Randy Orton

Tweet 9: Michael Cole's welcoming us to the show after the first match and a recap vid. Weirdo.

Tweet 10: John Cena on SmackDown? SAYWHAAAAAAT?!
Tweet 11: Cole's introducing himself AGAIN. This is getting out of hand.
Tweet 12: Cena's jokes falling flat there.
Tweet 13: Rough cut to the crowd chanting "Yes!" It's almost like they didn't take Cena's original cue and had to be prompted a couple more times.
Tweet 14: Hahahaha interrupted by Del Rio of all people.
Tweet 15: Remember when ADR first debuted and he feuded with Rey about three separate times in his first year?
Tweet 16: Sheamus came out. I wanted him to say that he was going to unify the US title with the WWE and World titles to make the WWE triple crown.
Tweet 17: He didn’t. Poor.
Tweet 18: Heyman getting the most heat of the entire show by mentioning Lesnar ending The Streak there.
Tweet 19: Reigns and Cena could be something one day.

Wouldn't surprise me if this was a WrestleMania main event one day, to be honest.

Tweet 20: And I don't mean slash fic.
Tweet 21: Randy Orton. Go to guy for exciting promo segments.
Tweet 22: That promo segment ended with all the guys fighting. Didn't see that comin'...

Dolph Ziggler v Bad News Barrett

Tweet 23: Dolph putting the moves on Lilian Garcia there.

Tweet 24: Bad News Cape Klaxon!!
Tweet 25: Leave it to Barrett to drop in a football reference. Helping to stereotype all Brits as football lovers.
Tweet 26: Could've done with that being longer. Still good though. I want Ziggler v Barrett on the next three PPVs. I'll take them in MITB together.
Tweet 27: Bad News hit Ziggler so hard that his music stopped. Impressive.

Titus O’Neil v Adam Rose

Tweet 28: They're idiots for not saving Titus v Rose for a pay-per-view.

Tweet 29: Love the fact that Rose's entourage are the most excited people in the arena. Most people in the crowd aren't bothered.

The most excited people in the building.

Tweet 30: Can't wait for that bunny heel turn.
Tweet 31: Titus loses. Demands a rematch. Loses again. I'm sure someone, somewhere finds that hilarious.

Kane v Dean Ambrose

Tweet 32: #DemonKane

Tweet 33: Nice to see Rollins has put some effort in for his spot as a guest commentator. So few wrestlers care these days.
Tweet 34: Look at Lawler. He sits there in naff T-shirts every week.
Tweet 35: Once again I feel compelled to comment on Dean Ambrose being really, really surprisingly over as a singles babyface.
Tweet 36: Rollins didn't cost Ambrose the match. mbrose cost Ambrose the match. #BretscrewedBret

Jack Swagger v Big E

Tweet 37: BIG HOSS.

Tweet 38: It's the grudge match we've all been waiting for: Big E v Jack Swagger!
Tweet 39: These two had a cracking match at Elimination Chamber. My hopes are raised for this.
Tweet 40: Lasted about a minute so nowhere near as good as the match at Chamber. Gonna pin my hopes on Big E v Rusev.

Fandango, Summer Rae and Layla backstage

Tweet 41: Fandango not using his gimmick voice is the most kayfabe-breaking thing I've seen in years.

Tweet 42: Summer mouth rapes Fanners and Layla sees. Nothing is said. Their eyes do the talking.
Tweet 43: Yep. Really hyped for that Layla v Summer Rae match.

Bo Dallas v Fandango

Tweet 44: Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo!Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo! Bo!

Tweet 45: The obvious finisher for Bo Dallas is the bow and arrow. Why is this not happening?
Tweet 46: 'Dirty' Curty going back to his old ways, basically.
Tweet 47: Not pleased with Layla and Summer trying to overshadow Bo Dallas.

"Are you a... Boliever?"

Tweet 48: Is part of Bo's gimmick that he becomes a bystander in other people's storylines and gets wins out of it? If not it should be.
Tweet 49: Anyone who says Bo's not getting over is wrong. There are signs in the crowd for him and his victory is being booed.

Bray Wyatt backstage promo

Tweet 50: Wyatt Family screen thing going off with Bo in the ring made me think they were going to acknowledge them as brothers.

Tweet 51: 'The Designer of Chaos' is another great moniker for Bray.
Tweet 52: Nice that WWE are savvy enough to have Bray say that he's only siding with the other heels briefly.

Randy Orton, Cesaro, Alberto Del Rio, and Bray Wyatt v John Cena, Sheamus and Roman Reigns

Tweet 53: Instead of a four-on-three match they could have done Sheamus, Reigns and Cena v ADR, Orton and Cesaro v The Wyatt Family.

Tweet 54: Could've been interesting. Maybe they'll do it next week. But they won't.
Tweet 55: The question that everyone wants answered is: are there Mexican flags on the ring posts?
Tweet 56: Awkward shot from the cheap seats there. It was so they didn't have to show a bunch of tarped seats I expect.
Tweet 57: Bray Wyatt foregoing a musical entrance and instead choosing to teleport to the ring there.
Tweet 58: Love Cole making out Reigns is untrustworthy because he said nobody could stop him from winning the world title.
Tweet 59: This match perfectly illustrates how WWE could use six man tags to start new feuds every few months.
Tweet 60: It's not actually a six man tag, but still...
Tweet 61: "Sheamus loves to fight, don't he?" - Michael 'I Can't Think Of Anything To Say' Cole
Tweet 62: The announcers are pushing a lack of trust towards Reigns but Cena teamed with him and Ambrose the week after Rollins turned. Ridiculous.
Tweet 63: Cena and Orton tag in at the same time. The audience immediately begins booing.
Tweet 64: Needlessly sexual cover from Orton there.
Tweet 65: For those playing along at home it was the one he went for after he pointed at Reigns.
Tweet 66: "It's his first big chance at the title!" - Michael Cole on Cesaro, who also wrestled for the title in the main event of Elimination Chamber
Tweet 67: The Crowd Noise Machine is going into overdrive now that Reigns has tagged in.

Bray Wyatt's about to get Lex Luthored.

Tweet 68: Pretty good finish to that. All of Reigns' spots were used and then he went over. Works for me.

Tweet 69: I wish JBL would stop talking about watching Reigns erupt though. #filth

Intercontinental Versus United States: More Unification

On May 19 2013 Dean Ambrose defeated Kofi Kingston to win the WWE United States championship. On November 8 2013 Big E (then a Langston) defeated Curtis Axel to win the WWE Intercontinental championship. Both are mid-card championships designed to enhance the status of the stars wearing them and mark them out as names on the rise.

Are the titles doing this? I don’t think so. Ambrose and Big E are both over but that has more to do with their own abilities: Ambrose’s peculiar mannerisms and promo skills and Big E’s cool, understated self-assuredness are more noteworthy than their hardware. In Ambrose’s case it’s also a result of the fantastic booking he and his Shield teammates have enjoyed over the last year and a half.

Big E with his not-so-big belt

Twenty years ago the Intercontinental championship was a valuable prize in the WWF. It was protected by being placed (mostly) on good wrestlers and being presented as something that people wanted to win. People cared about it, or at least didn’t think of it in disparaging terms, because the wrestlers cared about it and because it was linked to enjoyable matches.

I’ve written before that the introduction of the World Heavyweight championship dealt the status of the IC gold a blow, one from which it’s never recovered. The WHC gradually usurped the Intercontinental title’s spot of being the number two strap, the prize the workers won, the title that was used as a reward for veterans who’d never get the WWE title, and the title which rising stars won. It became the company’s second most important prize.

When the World title was folded into the WWE championship last year I thought this state of affairs might change, that the Intercontinental championship may slowly regain some prominence. It didn’t seem unreasonable to assume that Big E, as the number two champion in the company (and more to the point someone WWE were and are keen to groom for the top) could get more microphone time and more opportunities to defend his title on RAW in an effort to highlight that he and his title had been moved up a notch.

He didn’t get that. Neither did Dean Ambrose get similar chances to defend his belt. He notably went three and a half months, from the post-Hell in a Cell RAW on October 28 2013 to the February 10 2014 RAW, without defending his championship at a televised event. Big E went two months, not defending his title (on TV) between the December 30 RAW and Elimination Chamber in February. More worryingly no other wrestler has shown any real interest in relieving either champion of their title.

 

Do you care about this championship?

If the wrestlers don’t want to defend their titles and nobody’s interested in beating them for them then why should viewers care about them? And if viewers don’t care about them what’s the purpose of keeping them around? WWE has demonstrated that they’re not interested in, or are incapable of, giving meaning to two mid-card championships at the moment. Part of the problem stems from the fact that they concern themselves almost exclusively with the main event players and treat mid-card men like Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, Bad News Barrett, Damien Sandow, and Fandango as afterthoughts. There are enough guys on the roster to sustain two mid-card championships, but WWE doesn’t have the interest to.

The best thing that could be done right now would be to have Big E and Ambrose face off in a unification match, with whoever wins quietly getting rid of the US title after a few weeks or a month. That would leave the remaining Intercontinental title looking more prestigious even if it was booked exactly as it is now: it wouldn’t be sharing its level with the US strap.

I wouldn’t like to see it happen at WrestleMania though. Extreme Rules looks like the better option to me. It could, if presented in a dynamic fashion, be used as a reason for people to buy the show. It wouldn’t add anything extra to WrestleMania. In fact it might actually look out of place presented on ‘The Grandest Stage of Them All’ because it could raise the question of why two mid-card titles were being unified there while the company’s two world titles were chucked together at the last minute in a match at TLC.

If WWE had a mind to they could make great use of the Intercontinental championship. It could be used as a tool to highlight rising stars, start feuds, and add good matches with meaning to TV shows and pay-per-views, just like it used to. But I think we’re a long way from seeing that happen. Which is another hurdle for the non-established roster members to overcome.

Golden Opportunity

Any time John Cena takes time away from WWE it provides everyone on the roster with the chance to progress. Other TV regulars find themselves with more air time when the face of the company isn’t around. Those performers who rarely, or never, see the bright lights of Monday Night RAW may find themselves appearing more often. And this extra time can become a regular thing if enough of a reaction is received.

Cena's final appearance before elbow surgery came on the August 19^th RAW. After the show he commented via Twitter that him leaving just as Los Matadores debut is a fair trade. This was clearly a joke but it does beg the question of who could "step up" and better their position in the company during Cena's absence.

The obvious person to mention is AJ Lee. On the August 26^th RAW she was given an open mic to reveal how she feels about the state of the Divas division, the women that comprise it, and the Total Divas vehicle that she’s been denied a part in. She gave one of the most compelling performances seen in wrestling this year. In a single promo she did more to rejuvenate a shambolic division than all the Natalya v Brie Bella matches ever could.

What will happen next on the Divas scene is anybody's guess. Personally I hope that the women are granted more air time and the various feuds and storylines they're given are constructed primarily around AJ. She's the best all round female performer WWE has at the moment. They'd be foolish not to make her the division's centrepiece as well as its champion.

Up until July Dolph Ziggler seemed to be on track for the number four babyface spot. That doesn't terribly impressive but bear in mind that the three guys above him would've been Cena, Bryan and Punk. Technically I suppose he could still be considered babyface number four (or even three, with Cena out of action) but the gap between him and the next guy on the list, whether you consider that to be 'The Second City Saint' or 'The Dazzler' is gargantuan.

'The Show Off' would've been better served by a continuation of his feud with ADR. That being pulled too early combined with the fact that he's not moved on to anything new has caused him to lose almost all of the momentum he built up in the first half of the year.

That said Ziggler remains popular and could earn himself an elusive and richly deserved top spot. He just needs something to do to give audiences a reason to care about him.

 

Is 2013 the Year of Ziggler or not?

 

Curtis Axel has a great chance to “step up” too. He’s working with one of WWE’s most popular performers in CM Punk. He’s only playing a bit part, Heyman’s henchman, but it’s his biggest feud yet. It’s a chance for him to prove to those in charge that he deserves another programme at that level once he’s done with Punk.

As much as I feel he's in the right place at the moment (namely the middle of the card) The Miz is the sort of guy who could rise up the ranks in Cena's absence. In any interview you ever hear with him you'll hear 'The Awesome One' talk about wanting Cena's spot. I agree that everyone in the company should be aiming for the top but few wrestlers seem to actually have the drive. That results in guys who are not especially qualified rising higher than those that are, because they're more willing to put themselves out there and do everything they can to climb to the top.

Miz already does a lot of media appearances for WWE and is apparently considered to be one of the company's greatest social media assets internally. If being a social media asset is judged on the number of Twitter followers someone has (and while that's a ludicrous single criteria to have it certainly is indicative of popularity) then Miz is amongst the top in the company. He can certainly take on more appearances for WWE during Cena's absence but I'm not sure he'll be able to translate any advancement he makes on that front into a better TV spot. He'll certainly be able to argue for more TV time though, and that's a start.

The man Miz is currently feuding with, Fandango, could also make good use of Cena’s absence. We saw ‘The Ballroom Brute’s’ popularity soar the night after WrestleMania, mainly thanks to the fans in attendance taking a liking to his entrance music. European tour aside he’s not reached those heights since.

That magic will be tough to recapture (probably impossible outside of TV tapings from this continent) but Fandango could still move himself up the ranks. Playing such a clearly gimmicked up character helps him. Fans want a bit of variety on their wrestling shows and a ballroom dancer can provide that. If there were more gimmicks on the roster he’d have a harder time of it, but there aren’t. It helps him to stand out.

He’s shown a knack for playing a tweener role, accepting crowd cheers when he’s supposed to be the villain. He, like Ziggler, could make something of himself if given something to get over with. A feud with Miz is not it.

 

Just turn him face...

 

The entire tag team division could revive itself while Cena’s away too. It’s been a long time since WWE had this many regular combos on television. The Real Americans, The Shield, Tons of Funk, The Usos, The Prime Time Players, 3MB, The Wyatt Family, and the incoming Los Matadores make eight. When you throw in Big Show and Mark Henry, who have said they’re teaming together to chase the tag belts, and the possibility of Tyson Kidd and Evan Bourne returning to reform International Air Strike and Air Boom respectively and there could be a whopping eleven teams in WWE.

If every guy involved in the tag ranks agreed to work together to make their division into something more than generic TV filler they could elevate everyone. They’re obviously not all going to magically start appearing in RAW main events, but it could lead to regular TV outings on shows that matter for tag teams. And there are a lot of guys that could benefit from that.

Had he not senselessly been turned into a heel back in the spring Ryback would be the ideal candidate to march right up to the top of the card now. Even if he’d turned heel and been kept a strong and dominant character they could probably revert him to the good guy role and do something worthwhile with him now.

‘The Human Wrecking Ball’s’ chances of benefitting from Cena’s absence seem long. He’s not just had his hot babyface momentum stolen from him, he’s been utterly discredited with a string of pay-per-view losses and a whining, bullying character. At this point I can’t see anything giving Ryback his momentum back. But he’s definitely one of the guys that should be doing everything they can to nab themselves a higher spot while Papa Cena’s at home.

The final man I feel is worth mentioning is Wade Barrett. Three years ago he was main eventing pay-per-views against Cena and Randy Orton and was the promotion’s lead heel. There were rumours that the company was going to go all the way with him and award him a run as the WWE champion. Obviously that didn’t happen but that he was in such a lofty position under a year after he’d first been introduced to fans shows that Barrett was considered a man with potential for greatness.

Is he still viewed that way? In truth, probably not.

If WWE thought highly of him he wouldn’t have been competing for the worthless Intercontinental title for a year. Nor would he have been involved in a throwaway fortnight-long programme to keep Daniel Bryan warm just before SummerSlam. He’s not the guy he once was, but there was clearly something about him that allowed him to reach the top in the first place. I’d like him, and those in charge, to remember what it was and get back into the main event. 

Money in the Bank 2013 preview

This Sunday WWE will present what looks like their most packed card since WrestleMania XXIX in April. Featuring two world title matches, two ladder matches to determine which men will have the near-as-dammit guarantees to world title reigns sometime in the next twelve months, and the return of Rob Van Dam after half a decade away there's a lot for fans to look forward to. WWE have had a pretty good run of pay-per-views this year. This one doesn't look like it will deviate from that.

A few weeks ago I posted an article that advocated the idea of WWE presenting one Money in the Bank match instead of two (read that here... if you like). My logic was that one guy being able to cash-in on either champion would make unpredictable television, allow WWE to present a single match packed with the best talent, and make the Money in the Bank concept in general seem more prestigious.

We're getting the tried and tested two ladder matches format. It has been altered a little though, which is nice to see. Last year saw the ladder bout for the red (WWE championship) briefcase featured only former WWE champions. This year that match has become the bout for former world champions in general. The blue briefcase match will feature guys who have never (with the exception of Jack Swagger) held either of WWE's two world titles.

For those who aren't sure who the more important wrestlers are the red case match has been dubbed the All-Star match. The other match features up-and-comers. Those aren't my words. No, those are the words of Teddy Long (holla!). Yes, Teddy has made a seven man match and described the entrants as up-and-comers even though only two have debuted in the last twelve months and one has held the World Heavyweight championship before.

The other thing to note about the two matches is that one exclusively features faces while the other exclusively features heels. It's an interesting choice for WWE to have made. I imagine it was largely decided to do an all heel match because the event's being held in Philadelphia, a city whose fans will take in their stride an all bad guy battle. My assumption is that they'll pick one or two guys to cheer as the match goes on. Some of the guys may be booked sympathetically too, encouraging the audience to support them. Fandango has been used as a pseudo face on this week's TV and has proven popular in the past so he may be laying the blue eye on Sunday.

Both matches should be good, but i think the All-Star match is likely to be the best. It will consist of CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, the returning RVD, Sheamus, Christian, Kane and Randy Orton. Well, I say 'The Big Red Machine' will be involved but he might not be: WWE are reporting that he suffered injuries after being attacked by the Wyatt Family on RAW. He may miss the event to sell that.

Bryan is an obvious guy to select as the winner. Over the last several months he's been striving to prove his worth, first as part of Team Hell No and then in his rivalry with Randy Orton. The natural progression of this is for Bryan to defy the storyline odds and unhook the briefcase, setting himself up to climb WWE's ultimate mountain: defeating John Cena for the WWE championship.

Bryan is my pick to win. It's a combination of wanting to see him enter the WWE title's orbit and the belief that Cena v Bryan is one of the best feud WWE could offer fans this summer. Besides Punk v Lesnar (more on which below) what other fresh matches and stars does WWE have access to?

They could do the feud without the briefcase or they could simply not bother with it all together, which means 'The Dazzler' is not the only option. Sheamus has been directionless for a while now. That's been a rarity over the last eighteen months. He could easily be plucked from obscurity to challenge for the WWE title. Cena v Sheamus is not a wholly fresh match but it is one we've not seen for a while.

 

It could even give us a surprise 'Great White' heel turn, not that I think that's likely. Speaking of which, a briefcase victory for 'The Viper' could play into that heel turn he's been rumoured to make for around a year. He could cash in, lose, and go nuts or opportunistically take his match against a prone Cena like a true villain. Either way it would set 'The Apex Predator' up as a bad guy.

Ultimately the MITB concept is one designed to favour wrestlers that have yet to become truly ingrained headline personalities. That's another reason I favour Bryan over Orton, Sheamus, and the rest.

The up-and-comers in the blue case battle will be Dean Ambrose, Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, Jack Swagger, Antonio Cesaro, Wade Barrett, and Faaaaaan... daaaaaan... goooooo. The best part of this match? There's nobody that even resembles an obvious winner. Swagger and Fandango were both in prime spots a couple of months ago but have lost momentum because of injuries (an arm injury for Swags, a concussion for Fandango). Had they not been forced to take a few weeks off either or both could be favoured. As things are they seem as likely to win as everyone else.

As a member of The Shield Ambrose has been used well since late last year and is now more of a singles guy than a trios guy but it feels too soon for him to be close to the WHC. The Shield will likely split before any of the three become that big.

Rhodes and Sandow have done nothing of note for months. The flip-flopping on their split during the WrestleMania build hurt them both. And Barrett and Cesaro both spent significant portions of the first half of the year as mid-card champions who lost more often than they won.

Arguments could be made for any of the seven men being potential winners. Most of them have been on the roster long enough to deserve the chance to be a top guy and all of them would inject freshness into the World title scene.

Of all the names involved I like Barrett's chances best. He has a handy combination of having very little to do and tenure on the roster. He'd be accepted in the role of 'Mr Money in the Bank' and world champion. That he dropped the Intercontinental title at Payback could have been WWE freeing him up for bigger things as much as anything else.

 

That's one busy ladder

 

Fleshing out the card are a number of matches that could be worthwhile. Top of the list for most people will be Chris Jericho versus The Ryback. I've found their antics boring for the most part. 'Y2J's' antagonised his foe while deftly avoiding a clobbering. It's the same routine we've seen him perform many times before. For his part 'Big Hungry' has done a lot of glaring and bellowing. Again, this is not fresh territory.

I'm hopeful that this match will be a cut above the average Ryback outing. He's shown in the past that he can have very good matches with smaller, faster men who are better wrestlers than he is. If they're given some time I think they'll have a very good night together.

Who'll win? The Ryback. This match seems designed to give him his much needed first pay-per-view victory of the year. It could also see Jericho written off TV too. He's got some Fozzy gigs coming up, y'see, and who better to be credited with his disappearance than the company's resident psychopathic musclehead?

Curtis Axel's first major title defence will be at MITB. He'll face former two time champion The Miz. I can't see why Axel would lose the belt after just four weeks so I expect a successful night for him. This match is unlikely to he wonderful. Axel is good and has connected well with crowds (Heyman's certainly helped in that regard) but 'The Awesome One' has been treading water for a while now. Fans aren't into him as they were. I still think he could be huge as a babyface but it's not something that can happen overnight.

The feud between Kaitlyn and AJ Lee, which had been teased for well over a year but only started just over a month ago, had been uninspiring until this week's TV rolled around. For too long it was basically AJ and Kaitlyn dressing up as each other and causing distractions. RAW saw them actually meet in a tag match and SmackDown on Friday will see the old contract signing trope trotted out. It may not be new but at least the ladies are being treated more seriously than they were.

I like both gals but this has been neither's finest hour. With just a bit of work this could have been one of Money in the Bank's hottest rivalries. Given some promo time and a remit to be a little more serious they could have built up a story of a friendship gone bad. It's a shame WWE left it so late to give them more to work with.

This isn't to say the match will be bad. I think it will be at least good and probably better if they're given the time. Their meeting at Payback was comfortably the best Divas match in some time. I expect AJ to win. She's the most effective female performer on the roster. I can't see what taking the title off of her would achieve.

The pre-show will feature one match (as is typical). Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns defend the tag team titles against Jimmy and Jey Uso. This is a wonderful example of why WWE should've spent a little more time on the tag team scene before The Shield became champions. That one of the promotion's best acts is wasting time on a pre-show wrestling against glorified jobbers is very disappointing.

Don't expect the Usos to win. It will take a massive disaster somewhere in WWE for them to ever be considered for a tag title reign.

World Heavyweight champion Alberto Del Rio will defend against Dolph Ziggler. They'll have a tough job topping their excellent effort at Payback, especially in terms of storytelling. It was one of the smoothest plots to a wrestling match, in any company, that I've seen in a long time, and the greatest double turn since WrestleMania 13.

I had mixed feelings on ADR as a babyface. On the one hand he'd proven far better at it than I'd expected. He changed his facial expressions and wrestling style really well and managed to portray himself as a sincere individual (a not inconsiderable achievement). But on the other hand Ricardo Rodriguez outstripped ADR in terms of popularity and the programme with Jack Swagger had outstayed its welcome by the time it wrapped up.

Ziggler's turn had been building for a while. WWE's been smart to keep him mostly apart from 'The Essence of Excellence' over the last few weeks. It's made us keen for Ziggler to enact his revenge on the unsportsmanlike champion. The mini feud with 3MB is neither here nor there, as is the case with everything pertaining the 3MB. It was only meant to be a short term thing to keep the Zigster occupied.

This match could be won by either guy. Winning the title back would certainly help Ziggler's perception as a good guy that can be believed in but a Del Rio win could set up another match between the two with the same dynamic for SummerSlam. 'The Show Off's' size and unparalleled bumping ability make him a natural underdog babyface, so I'm leaning more towards Del Rio winning via nefariousness. That would allow Ziggler to go into SummerSlam as the challenger again. Then he can win it and reign into the autumn.

I'll probably be happy with whoever wins. This feud has been great for both men. It should continue into SummerSlam regardless of who's champ because it's one of the best things going on in WWE right now.

Topping the bill there's the WWE championship match. John Cena's feud with Mark Henry got off to a strong (and well received) start with the lauded retirement swerve on the June 17^th RAW. Henry dominated Cena on that show and has dominated him since. On this week's RAW they even went so far as to tease that Cena can't lift Henry for the AA. That only happens when WWE are going all out to convince us someone's a threat. Sadly it's ridiculous because Cena's managed the feat of lifting Henners many times in the past. That means we can probably look forward to Cena trying and failing to hit the move throughout their match at Money in the Bank... before he inevitably does it and the crowd go nuts (and they will).

I'm surprised a stipulation didn't get added to this. Neither man excels in regular wrestling matches. Some sort of rule relaxation would have played to their strengths. There's still time for something to be announced I suppose, but it doesn't seem likely. At least without a gimmick they'll be able to focus on telling the story of Cena hefting an overweight man on to his shoulders. Who doesn't want to see that?!

A win for Mark Henry isn't the most ridiculous prediction that could be made. He's been built up as Cena's equal and, more importantly, WWE have displayed a worrying tendency to treat him as a valuable main event asset over the last few years. I thought him defeating Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight strap was an impossibility. Look how that played out. I shan't underestimate WWE's devotion to 'The World's Strongest Man' again.

But just because I recognise the possibility of Henry winning doesn't mean I think it will happen. Cena is still very much the top dog, pushed at everyone else's expense. Henry's been built up as a standard issue Cena challenger: someone big and heavy who can muscle 'The Champ' around before falling to an AA. This is just a particularly good example of the standard formula as far as I can see.

Then there's Brock Lesnar.

Don't be surprised if you see 'The Pain' make an unannounced appearance on this show. It's easy to envisage him stopping Punk from winning Money in the Bank to move their feud along. They could, in fact, achieve a similar result simply by playing Lesnar's music. That obviously wouldn't be as good though as it would deprive us of the chance to see some hot, hot Lesnar on Punk action.

This year's MITB instalment looks like it will continue the event's hot streak from previous years. It also looks like it will continue WWE's recent streak of very good PPV events. If they want to they can start building towards a spectacular SummerSlam card here. Whether they'll choose to is a question we won't have answered until next week. But I'm going remain hopeful.

Predictions summary:

John Cena to defeat Mark Henry
Alberto Del Rio to defeat Dolph Ziggler
Daniel Bryan to win the WWE championship Money in the Bank match
Wade Barrett to win the World Heavyweight championship Money in the Bank match
AJ Lee to defeat Kaitlyn
Ryback to defeat Chris Jericho
Curtis Axel to defeat The Miz
The Shield to defeat The Usos