Money In The Bank - O2 London

[Hannibal Scorch]

25 minutes ago, air_raid said:

But all this talk about how good the wrestling was, we're ignoring the real matter. What was the seating configuration like, and other logistics?

Never mind.

Personally I thought the entrance set up looked awful in person, same with the pyro. It also looked really small, especially around ringside. And this is why WWE are masters of production, because on TV the arena looked huge and the entrance way looked fine. Not ideal, but better then it looked in person. I was sitting Hardcam side second level and just off center, but was a good view.

[BomberPat]

10 hours ago, ElBigFella said:

In addition to this the Mayor Of London’s office basically needs to have made a bid.

This is a major point - Wrestlemania isn't just a case of booking a venue and going ahead with it, it's almost like the Olympics now where they expect the host city to put in a bid for it. 

David Bixenspan wrote an article for Fanbyte last year (link), about the stadium specs and the bid book that gets sent to potential host cities. 

Here's a list of what that bid book requests be made available, at no cost to WWE:

Quote

• Allocation of “20 executive-sized suites and 2 party suites with seating for 50-100 and the press box facilities.”
• “Sufficient space in the Stadium […] for crew ad talent catering during event move-in and move-out, and for on-site pre-event hospitality/entertaining.”
• “Providing all utilities, construction of additional temporary risers is requested including power ,lighting, house lighting, house sound, by WWE, the arrangements would be made by WWE, and HVAC.”
• “Sufficient parking” for all WWE production and personnel vehicles, as well as other basic necessities involving access to the stadium.
• “[A]ll existing scoreboards, video screens. LED boards, and labor to operate the screens.”
• Box office services if available.
• The rights to use the stadium logo in WWE promotional material.
• “[A]ll WrestleMania-related broadcast and media rights” in perpetuity, though it’s not clear why WWE would even need to ask for this in the first place.
• Though prefaced with it being a “request” on WWE’s part, they also want “20 executive-sized suites and 2 party suites with seating for 50-100 and the press box facilities be allocated at no cost for WWE use.”

 

There's other stuff in there too, but the gist of it is that the city or the stadium should be the one really pushing to make Wrestlemania happen, not WWE. 

Meltzer reckons WWE already rejected Wembley for Clash At The Castle, because the Welsh government put in a better bid, and that whoever's responsible for these decisions in London largely didn't see the point - it's already the most visited city in Europe, doesn't need the tourism boost of a Wrestlemania, and probably wouldn't be interested in covering all the overheads that WWE expect them to. 

I wouldn't put it past the WWE of old to get in at Wembley Stadium to try and undermine AEW, or try and force them out of the market, even at the expense of the kind of money they would normally make from a Wrestlemania and the kind of costs they would normally have covered for them by the venue/city, but I think it would be a hard sell for a publicly traded company (and one that's recently been involved in an antitrust lawsuit) to write off all of that just to cut off AEW at the knees.

At the end of the day, "maybe one day we'll bring Wrestlemania to London!" is the kind of cheap pop easy publicity that a wrestling company will always reach for, and I don't see it happening at all. I'm sure they will try and run a massive London event at Wembley as soon as they can just to spite AEW, and to try and force them out of the market with dodgy exclusionary deals with either the venue itself or with media companies - "if you want an interview with Roman Reigns or Logan Paul, you can't cover AEW for the next six months", that kind of thing - but there's no way it will be a Wrestlemania. 

[SuperBacon]

I bet if we'd built that bloody cheese room, Spurs would be a shoo in. 

[SaitoRyo]

Decided to give Money in the Bank a shot, since it was airing at 9PM local time. I only ever get a chance to really watch either the UK or Saudi shows live these days, though when I'm finished I often wonder how anyone can watch not only the PPVs, but also the fifty-or-so hours of WWE TV every week, too. 

Anyway, some thoughts. 

Men's MITB: Thought this was decent, as it should have been given the talent involved. A few ropey spots here and there, but it was never dull and it was nice that there were a few genuine possibilities for the winner. Speaking of, Priest is as good a choice as any. 

Women's Tag Titles: Was fine and about what I expected. Didn't expect the Shayna turn. Not sure how into babyface Ronda fans are going to be after she's spent the better part of the past few years whinging about them, but I guess we'll see!

GUNTHER/Riddle: I love watching that big Austrian bastard and I'm glad he pretty much ate the annoying Riddle up in a one-sided match. Drew's return was well done and matches between those two hosses should deliver bigtime.  

Cody/Dom: Total house show match and that's OK! Cody is over, Dom is over and they didn't do more than they needed to given their programme and spot on the card.

Women's MITB: Enjoyed this in parts, though it was scrappy and a bit terrifying at times. Thought it did a good job of making it about actually winning the case, rather than just doing a bunch of spots (SKY's big moonsault excluded). The finish was an absolute all-timer though and whichever agent/producer came up with it deserves a raise. 

Rollins/Balor: This was alright, but it just felt like a bunch of moves and you never believed Rollins was in any danger of losing. I feel like heel Balor has been good value of late though and would like to see him given something else to stick his teeth into. 

Bloodline Civil War: I tapped out at this point because as I had erroneously believed the show would be over by midnight, which is when these lads were making their entrances. Caught the ending (which was good) after the fact, but I must confess I'm not really that arsed about the whole Bloodline thing and feel like it's ready to wrap it up sooner rather than later.

Anyway, a solid show overall with a red-hot crowd, some good surprises and booking that (mostly) made sense.

7/10.  

[air_raid]

22 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

I bet if we'd built that bloody cheese room, Spurs would be a shoo in. 

Part of the counter terms being that on the show Stone Cold has to give someone a beer bath with Beavertown Neck Oil.

[The Dart]

Watched a bit of it back last night.   The crowd sounds loud on TV, but they were way louder in the arena.   It doesn't come across how loud the crowd was.

Edited July 3, 2023 by The Dart

[d-d-d-dAz]

I know I said it flippantly in the Smackers thread, but I’m now becoming convinced Solo is going to get the title match with Roman. I’m not saying necessarily he’s going to dethrone Roman, he may well not if they’re sticking with Roman’s Uber reign, but everything is pointing towards Solo now.

The Uso’s angle seems to be that they are the ones, together, as a tag team.

Solo however has been on the slow burn turn for a little while, and he looked utterly exacerbated by Roman during the MITB match.

The only complicating factor is I don’t think Solo works as a face necessarily, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Summerslam was Solo/Roman.

[The King of Old School]

13 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

I know I said it flippantly in the Smackers thread, but I’m now becoming convinced Solo is going to get the title match with Roman. I’m not saying necessarily he’s going to dethrone Roman, he may well not if they’re sticking with Roman’s Uber reign, but everything is pointing towards Solo now.

The Uso’s angle seems to be that they are the ones, together, as a tag team.

Solo however has been on the slow burn turn for a little while, and he looked utterly exacerbated by Roman during the MITB match.

The only complicating factor is I don’t think Solo works as a face necessarily, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Summerslam was Solo/Roman.

I don't see how you can do anything other than Roman/Jey at Summerslam after MITB. Brings that 3 year arc to an end i think.

Roman/Solo at the Rumble maybe before Cody finally takes it off him at Mania? That's the way i think they will go but i'm not keen.

I think revisiting Sami/Roman at Mania now Roman is on his own would be great, Sami deserved a run with the big belt i think after his work over the past couple of years.

[BomberPat]

I've assumed we'd get Solo/Roman for a while now, with Heyman ditching Roman Reigns for Solo. I don't see how they do that without Reigns dropping the belt, though, so perhaps not - maybe that's a match for after Reigns drops it at Wrestlemania. 

I still think absolutely everything happening in WWE right now makes more sense if Cody had beaten Reigns at Wrestlemania. If they wanted two titles, they could have had the new babyface champion declare that in the spirit of competition he was splitting the two championships back up, rather than introducing a "second" title while Reigns already carried two belts around. The Brock Lesnar/Cody feud starting immediately after Wrestlemania makes more sense with Cody as champion, after Lesnar had lost a match that meant he couldn't challenge Reigns for the title any more. The Bloodline falling apart and the Usos realising that they don't need Reigns, and that he's been using them all this time, as Reigns becomes more controlling and paranoid, makes a lot more sense when he's lost the title and with it his sense of purpose and self-worth than it does with him still as champion having beaten literally everybody there is to beat. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 hour ago, The King of Old School said:

I don't see how you can do anything other than Roman/Jey at Summerslam after MITB. Brings that 3 year arc to an end i think.

Roman/Solo at the Rumble maybe before Cody finally takes it off him at Mania? That's the way i think they will go but i'm not keen.

I think revisiting Sami/Roman at Mania now Roman is on his own would be great, Sami deserved a run with the big belt i think after his work over the past couple of years.

I just don't think Jey breaking out and chasing solo glory fits with anything we've seen recently. Jey has specifically spoken to wanting to do it with his brother, the end of the match was them linking hands as if to say "we're the ones". I just don't know how you go from that to "Soz, Jimmy, fancy being the man now actually!"

I don't think they can work their way back to Sami, either.

I agree with @BomberPat though, currently nothing they're doing requires the world title.

[The King of Old School]

34 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

I just don't think Jey breaking out and chasing solo glory fits with anything we've seen recently. Jey has specifically spoken to wanting to do it with his brother, the end of the match was them linking hands as if to say "we're the ones". I just don't know how you go from that to "Soz, Jimmy, fancy being the man now actually!"

I don't think they can work their way back to Sami, either.

I agree with @BomberPat though, currently nothing they're doing requires the world title.

I think they definitely could with a Sami Rumble win next year, as that's all they will probably do with Cody.

Edited July 4, 2023 by The King of Old School

[Supremo]

Reports are that the plan is to do Cody vs. Roman 2 at WrestleMania, presumably once Roman loses all his back up and has to finally fight alone.

On paper, it reads like a good arc, but in practice? I highly doubt Cody is going to feel as hot by then as he did this year. That was the moment. They fucked it.

Hopefully I’m wrong, but right now? I’d rather Jey Uso is the one to dethrone Roman. That’s the perfect conclusion to this. The whole thing goes full circle and Jey Uso can finally put to bed the most stressful few years of his life. I can’t think of a better ending to the Bloodline saga than Jey sitting on a beach with his belts, watching the sunset, finally having a nice, relaxing day.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Supremo

[BomberPat]

I just don't see them ending a multi-year reign on Jey Uso. It will be Sami all over again; an emotional high that's snatched back to keep the "story" going. And I'm mostly fine with that - Jey beating Roman makes sense, but a Jey Uso title reign doesn't particularly. What they need to do is figure out an emotional climax for Jey and Jimmy's stories that don't require the belt, and don't feel like they become an afterthought. 

Ultimately, everything about Roman's title reign is a question of "if not now then when, and if not him then who?" - if not Sami, then Cody, if not Cody, then Jey, if not Jey then Cody again, and what if they get to Wrestlemania and Cody's out injured, or they just decide on the day that they're going to keep it on Roman? Then who? He's beaten everybody. It's gone on too long. 

[air_raid]

37 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

"if not now then when, and if not him then who?"

It's gone on too long. 

If they didn't seem fairly obviously leaning towards a rubber match with Lesnar, Cody at SummerSlam would have seemed good timing now that Reigns has passed the 1000 days.

As an aside, that the SummerSlam main event wasn't confirmed last night strikes me as weird, is there another PPV before then?

47 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I highly doubt Cody is going to feel as hot by then as he did this year. That was the moment. They fucked it.

Let's say it like it is ; they Lugered him.

[CavemanLynn]

The angle is so hot right now, that I think you could put anyone involved in front of Roman and argue they should be the one to dethrone him. Ultimately though, I'm still convinced they fxxxed it, not going with Cody at Mania. Everything that has happened since would have made more sense if he'd lost - with Roman lashing out at everyone around him AFTER he'd been stripped of the trophy that really gave him his sense of power and self-worth. Now, they've had to manufacture a belt for the rest of the roster while Roman retains, and you've got his downfall playing out before losing the title, which means any face who finally dethrones him is simply putting the final nail in the coffin. It would be WWE parity booking at its worst, cutting the legs off the face from the off by saying that they wouldn't have had a chance if the heel champ had been at 100%. It relies on whoever they choose (Cody) maintaining their own heat and surviving 12 months of booking to stay hot enough that winning at the second crack is just as memorable and cathartic. I don't doubt that person (Cody) could manage it, but there's no on-screen reason it had to be so convoluted. I want a climax, not just relief #OOC.