This is written assuming you know a bit about wrestling - I don't explain who people are, the stories or the lingo. It's really just a chance for me to get some thoughts out. Also yes I know it's all fake and no I don't care.
Preshow - Singles match for the United States Championship: Dean Ambrose (c) vs Rob Van Dam
- Relegation to the preshow is not a particularly encouraging sign for either The Shield or the United States Championship.
- Van Dam is still exciting to watch, but he's basically a spot monkey at this point, and his increasingly stiff movements have trouble covering how ridiculously convoluted the setups for his moves are.
- Ambrose can still sell with the best of them.
- This mostly seemed to be setting up for a future six-man tag team match. The run-ins seemed sort of half hearted.
- Pretty standard DQ finish.
Ring of Fire match: Kane vs. Bray Wyatt
- Bad match to kick off the show with. Slow, lumbering and the fire prevented any major spots or acrobatics.
- Weird booking here. Bray is clearly meant to be the one going over, but Kane dominates the match and the Wyatt leader only being saved by the intervention of his 'family' makes him look weak.
- The flames shooting up whenever someone took a big bump was a fantastic visual.
- The steps finisher is still completely stupid to anyone who has eyes in their head and half a brain cell.
Singles match: Cody Rhodes vs Damian Sandow
- The feud between these two has been lots of fun but with nothing on the line this match was sort of underwhelming
- Very well worked technically mind you. Solid in-ring stuff.
- Still love Cross Rhodes as a finisher, it just looks great.
- This feud is almost certainly set to continue, the question is in what direction? The persistent rumour is that Sandow's Money in the Bank briefcase may be on the line in their next match, which would certainly add the stakes that this was missing.
Singles match: Natalya vs Brie Bella
- ZzzzzZzzzzzzZzzzz;...
- OK, not actually that bad, but forgive me if I have trouble getting hyped up for aa match based on some dumb reality show.
- Not cool - the crowd doing the 'chant the announcers names' thing. It wasn't the greatest match in the world, but they were trying. Show some respect.
- Natalya is still way more skilled than her position on the card suggests. Persistent rumours have her buried because of her Hart connection (she's the daughter of Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart and niece of Bret Hart)
Singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Alberto Del Rio (c) vs Christian
- I could not have cared less about this going in, so it's a testament to the quality of the match that I actually was really into it by the end.
- Alberto Del Rio remains one of the very best pure wrestlers on the roster, and his in-ring work is a total joy to watch. Now if only he could find a persona that could get over with the crowd.
- Christian isn't as good, but he did his part in making this match go, and deserves credit for some great work also.
- Destined to be remembered as the 'match which was really good that everyone forgot about'.
- The buildup really was awful though. They need to find a much stronger program for the WHC next time round.
No Disqualification match - CM Punk vs Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman)
- Brilliant, brutal and beautiful. Match of the night by far.
- Has Lesnar fought in anything other than no DQ matches since he returned?
- Also the rare no DQ match that went a considerable length of time before anybody produced a weapon.
- Excellent, in-character booking here. Both men played their parts to perfection - Brock as the unstoppable juggernaut, Punk as the agile, wronged hero. Ultimately Punk's animosity towards Paul Heyman cost him the match, as it should have been.
- Lesnar deserves a lot of credit for his work here. Despite his part timer status and reputation as a bulldozer, his skill and selling ability made this match what it was. Consistently underrated.
- Punk was as excellent as always. Both men made the other look great, which is the key to a successful match.
- With Lesnar now reportedly off until Wrestlemania next year, how does this angle advance? Perhaps Punk feuds with Curtis Axel instead, which is like going from a Ferrari to a pushbike.
Mixed Tag-team match: Dolph Ziggler & Kaitlyn vs Big E Langston and AJ Lee
- This match was atrociously booked and nearly everyone involved was made to look like an asshole. Sandwiching it as the cooldown between the double main event seemed to be a tacit acknowledgement of its unimportance.
- Three of the participants here are capable of so much better. Dolph is the modern Mr Perfect. Big E is fantastically athletic and great on the mic, and needs a face turn badly. AJ is an excellent wrestler and an even better actor who is sandbagged by the fact WWE creative seems unable to write stories for women that don't involve them being crazy or sluts.
- As for Kaitlyn...eh.
- Short match, inoffensive finish. I sort of hope this whole angle dies now.
Singles match for the WWE Chapionship: John Cena (c) vs Daniel Bryan (with special guest referee Triple H)
- Incredible crowd reaction for both parties, though in very different ways
- I didn't enjoy this quite as much as Lesnar/Punk - it's less physically brutal, but the stakes and the characters made up for that.
- Once again Cena proved he rises to the big occasion. The 'You can't wrestle' chants should be put to bed for good now.
- On the other hand, Bryan applying the STF looked miles better than Cena doing it.
- Bryan is coming dangerously close to having his own 'Five Moves of Doom'. I wouldn't say his sequences are predictable just yet, but there are certainly little patterns you can spot.
- I hope Bryan adopts that running knee as his full time finisher. It looks terrific and Cena sold it fantastically here.
- Daniel Bryan pinned John Cena 100% clean in the middle of the ring. Think about that for a second.
- Good job from Triple H for staying out of the way and just letting the match flow.
- Nice rub from Cena at the end there. Good that they gave Bryan time to properly celebrate too. The lengthy break and the pyrotechnics made me almost think they were done...
Money in the Bank cash-in match for the WWE Championship: Daniel Bryan (c) vs Randy Orton (with special guest referee Triple H)
- As heartbreaking as this was for Bryan fans, it was absolutely the right move. Bryan gets to chase Orton and play up his perpetual underdog role. Orton turns heel and gets more heat than the surface of the sun to kick off what will hopefully be a run where he finally becomes interesting. Triple H gets to needlessly involve himself in another angle. OK, maybe that's not so good, but it does further the McMahon feud storyline that's been bubbling under.
- I liked the tease before the actual swerve. Suddenly all those times Orton has appeared on Raw to just wave the briefcase at people make much more sense.
- It'll be interesting to hear Triple H's justification for his turn. At least his inevitable interference was simple and didn't occur in the match itself.
- Officially timed at 8 seconds, this has to be the shortest championship match in history right?
- I wonder if Orton and Triple H will at all acknowledge their shared history together - a decade ago they were part of the power-stable Evolution, until Triple H memorably betrayed Orton.
- The big question of course is, in storyline terms, who was 'in' on this betrayal. Is Randy Orton now a new Corporate Champion? Has Triple H joined forces with Mr McMahon or is he pursuing his own agenda?
- Exciting times!
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