MONEY IN THE BANK

from Las Vegas

THE NEW DAY vs. THE VAUDEVILLAINS vs. KARL ANDERSON & LUKE GALLOWS vs. ENZO AMORE & BIG CASS (11:43): Weird...but on the same day as this show there was one of the bigger New Japan shows...and on that show was a four-way tag-team match. And even though the NJPW match had The Young Bucks, Matt Sydal, Ricochet, and Kyle O'Reilly...this match was better. Shocking. Anderson and Gallows of course used to be in The Bullet Club in NJPW. The WWE can't use The Bullet Club so in the WWE, Anderson and Gallows and AJ Styles are in The Club. Yes, it's not very creative. Gallows totally fucked up at the end of this match to ruin it, although it was mostly Big Cass's fault. Big E. picked up Anderson and Gallows stood there and didn't do anything because he was supposed to be diverted to kicking Big Cass. Cass wasn't in the ring and so Gallows stood there awkwardly not knowing what to do. Cass finally came in the ring which led to Gallows kicking him and being sidelined while Big E slammed Anderson and The New Day won. It was entertaining. **1/2

AJ STYLES vs. JOHN CENA (24:10): Maybe it's because this was Cena's first match back after a seven month injury layoff...or maybe it was the horrible ending (the ref was out and Gallows and Anderson laid out Cena to cause AJ to win)...but this was not a great match. It was good, though, but perhaps these two just don't have the chemistry. That's a shame since they'll be wrestling each other all summer (and rumored to be the two top stars on Smackdown when the new brand split happens in July). AJ's match last month against Reigns was awesome...giving me hope that his epic, NJPW match days aren't behind him. This stalled that theory. **1/2

DEAN AMBROSE vs. ALBERTO DEL RIO vs. SAMI ZAYN vs. KEVIN OWENS vs. CESARO vs. CHRIS JERICHO "MITB LADDER MATCH" (21:38): Brutal, yes, but this was another one of those ladder matches without any suicidal big/sick shocking moments. Ambrose did deliver a clothesline from the top rope...and Owens did a frog splash from the top rope onto Ambrose on a ladder...and they all fell off the ladder and got hit with a ladder...but this match was missing one of those Jeff Hardy-type insane moments. And so it was entertaining but a little less exciting than it could have been. The finale was a tad lame as well. Ambrose pushed Owens off the ladder and onto a ladder bridge and then Ambrose grabbed the briefcase to win. Fairly tame in actuality. **1/2

SETH ROLLINS vs. ROMAN REIGNS (26:00)/ DEAN AMBROSE vs. SETH ROLLINS (0:09): The show ended around 11:23 PM. Why was it so late and so long? I didn't even bother to watch or review the two pre-show matches or the four other matches. And while this was a truly stellar card...it didn't turn out to be that great of a show. The surprise of this match was that Rollins pinned Reigns clean to win the title. I had really thought that Reigns, the WWE's boy, would reign for awhile. But the story made sense. And it sets up a Shield match against each other that probably should have happened a long time ago. Ambrose cashed in his MITB contract that he won an hour earlier and won the title. This, of course, would have been better a year ago. Ambrose beat Rollins last year to win the title but on RAW he was stripped of it because of a fast-counting ref. It reminds me of Daniel Bryan winning the title or almost winning the title so many times and then when they finally gave him a title reign it was kind of too little too late. Ambrose was hotter and more popular a year ago. As for this match...it was okay. Since the MITB contract is already cashed in, it kind of takes away the drama of waiting to see when it would occur. But I'll take Ambrose as champ any day. From CZW champ to the WWE champ. I guess I figured it'd happen with someone someday. **1/2

NJPW DOMINION

 from Osaka, Japan

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. RICOCHET & MATT SYDAL vs. reDRAGON vs. RAPPONGI VICE (15:23): There were four matches on this four and a half hour show that I didn't watch. I doubt I missed anything, but this show wasn't as good as last year's Dominion, which I named the best show of 2015. AJ Styles and Nakamura went to the WWE in January, and Tanahashi is injured, so this show was missing three major players. It still felt like the old New Japan, though, as these four teams battled yet again for the Jr. Tag Team titles. To mix it up they made this an odd, over-the-top-rope elimination match...which negated any cool high flying out of the ring maneuvers. Which meant that this wasn't as good as previous bouts between these eight awesome wrestlers. **1/2 (out of ****)

KUSHIDA vs. WILL OSPREAY (14:36): Losing AJ and Nakamura was tantamount to a death blow...but gaining Will Ospreay, the best free-agent in the world, certainly helped. Ospreay won the Super Juniors tournament last month...but this was his second straight loss to Kushida. It was exciting and fun (Ospreay is one of the best high-fliers in the sport), but not as good as their April match. Ospreay is still young, still learning, so perhaps one day he'll be in a masterpiece. **1/2

THE BRISCOE'S vs. GUERRILLAS OF DESTINY (14:02): Jay and Mark Brisco are wild and energetic, so that helped. They won the tag titles here, a pointless trophy since all the good teams are in the Jr. division. The Somoan bores, Guerrillas of Destiny, are like a bad team from WCW Thunder days. *1/2

SHIBATA vs. NAGATA (14:53): Good, hard-hitting, dramatic stuff. Nagata lost the NEVER title here. He had just won it last month from Shibata. Nagata is 48 years old, but he can still go, and the story here was that Shibata had to gain the respect from his elders, which he did. Shibata goes on to probably face Honma sometime in the future, but, really, Shibata deserves to be the champ and main eventing. He's just awesome. **1/2


KENNY OMEGA vs. MICHAEL ELGIN "LADDER MATCH" (33:32): This was a kitchen sink match; it had pretty much everything. Ladders, tables, trash cans, handcuffs, outside interference, etc. It was, simply, a typical WWE ppv main event. Which was odd...as this show was on the same day as WWE's Money in the Bank ppv. And New Japan never does gimmick matches, and yet this match blew away anything on MITB. It would probably have been better if I hadn't seen all this shit all the time in the WWE over the years. And, sure, it went on way too long...but it was pure spectacle; a true cluster fuck of brutality and chaos. Hiroshi Tanahashi was supposed to face Omega here. It would have been their re-match from February when Omega won the Intercontinental title. Tanahashi was hurt so they threw in the big man, Elgin. And while Elgin took some hard bumps (power-bombed onto a ladder resting on two trashcans in the ring), Omega might be in the hospital for awhile. Omega was slammed off a ladder onto two tables that didn't break at ringside. He was tossed onto a ladder bridge at ringside. Even the hits to the face with the ladder to Omega looked like they broke his jaw. He's certainly putting himself out there this year trying to make a statement as the new Bullet Club leader. When the Young Bucks ran down and handcuffed Elgin to the ring post, Ricochet and Matt Sydal ran down for the save. The Bullet Club beat them up while Omega climbed the ladder. But Elgin is so strong he broke free from the handcuffs! He tipped the ladder, spilling Omega off the ladder and out of the ring onto the other BC members. And Elgin won. This was a very exciting, wild match. ***1/2

NAITO vs. OKADA (28:58): This was pretty boring actually. The best moment came when Okada delivered his pile driver then Rainmaker clothesline finisher and Naito kicked out. Wh-wh-what? My God, man! Okada ended up having to give Naito three more Rainmaker's in a row to pin him and reclaim the title he lost in April. I was kind of surprised that Naito lost the title already. Why did they even give it to him in the first place? Naito is a heel now, part of Los Ingobernables, which is apparently super popular in Japan...but not in Osaka, where this ppv was held. Osaka hates Naito...and he hates them back (he spit at the crowd numerous times). I guess they didn't want to tarnish Okada by having him lose at straight big shows. And the heel Naito is amusing but fairly dull. He slowly walks to the ring, slowly takes off his suit...slowly wrestles except in spurts. The final few minutes were dramatic but it was mostly dull. **