WWE Weekly BreakDown: July 1-7 Money In the Bank Go-Home Shows

 Written By: Danny Albers 

It’s Money in the Bank week, and we also have Heat Wave coming up on Sunday. This week is packed for the WWE. We’ll have two more MIB contract holders next Monday who will look to be a pain to our current champions. We also have things ramping up with this new Bloodline. Will Roman Reigns return to exact his revenge. Will CM Punk return to screw over Drew again. Let’s break down each show from this past week. 

Monday Night RAW 7/3

 

The Wyatt Sicks saga continued on RAW. Jey Uso kicked off the show coming out from the crowd and pumping everyone up. He talked about becoming “YEET In The Bank” on Saturday. He would be interrupted by Chad Gable who was looking to stake his own claim to Money in the Bank. The Wyatt Sicks would appear again, and the creepy Nikki Cross would deliver another package to Michael Cole. This package would contain another interview between Bo Dallas and Uncle Howdy, where the two personas personality would begin to mesh, signaling Bo becoming Howdy as he explained his reasons for turning into this monster. WWE are taking their time in building the Wyatt faction. It’s probably smart with how much is at stake if they mess up the story. Fans are glued to this right now, and if WWE doesn’t execute well and make it make sense with us getting a strong wrestling faction it’s going to meet a rainstorm of harsh criticism on WWE creative. 

After all that, we transitioned into a solid midcard feud that has been going on for a couple weeks now. Karrion Kross has been a problem for the New Day as he’s been trying to cause a rift between Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston. He called Woods the “Marty Janetti” of The New Day (harsh - and very untrue). Woods looked to exact some revenge on the problematic leader of The Final Testament. This was a pretty good match between two veterans in the ring, and Wood found himself winning by a roll up. But the Authors of pain pulled Woods onto the outside where they destroyed him. Kross then pulled Kofi Kingston into the ring, and locked in an arm submission on Kingston injuring the former WWE Champion. 

The next match we got a Women’s World Title match between Liv Morgan and Zelina Vega. I’m not sure why they did hold this for the pay per view. It was a mediocre match, which saw Dom try to give a chair to Zelina just to have Zelina send the chair into his face. This caused Liv to become enraged and defend Dom by hitting the Oblivion on Zelina Vega. Liv got the pin and walked out with Dom who once again looked annoyed at the entire situation. Especially now that he has Damian Priest pressing him because Dom hasn’t called Rhea Ripley since she got injured. 

Cracks are appearing all over Judgement Day. Finn Balor confronted Seth Rollins after Damian told him he didn’t want his help. This ended in a public lashing by Damian to Finn. Despite Damian Priest’s wishes, Finn attacks Seth from behind. Damian pulled Finn off Seth, just to get a super kick for his efforts. Enraged, Priest hit a chokeslam on Rollins. Seth’s promos have been flat since he returned, and Damian is trying hard to look cool and comfortable. His similarities to Roman aren’t just in the ring, but on the mic, as that was an issue that Roman dealt with for a long time. 

We had our last strings of Money in the Bank qualifying triple threat matches. The first match saw Zoey Stark beat Dakota Kai and Ivy Nile. I thought Nile came out looking the best in this match. She had a nice string of suplexes when she got some momentum in the middle of the match. Zoey Stark physically is solid, but everything else about her is boring. Dakota Kai is just chrony and I don’t think she will ever be a serious singles competitor. If Ivy can get a solid string of promos together, she might have some future potential. This was a boring match that you didn’t miss anything if you stepped away. The third qualifier which was the main event and by far the best match of the night was Drew McIntyre beating Sheamus and Ilya Dragunov. This was a hard hitting battle between the three European’s. Dragunov has taken a bit of a dip in his development on the main show which is concerning. But Drew was the obvious choice as Punk is sure to find a way to screw over McIntyre at the pay per view. I don’t think they have the balls to have Drew win, and screw over the cash-in later that night. So I think it’s possible we get two interruptions in the match. I think Punk will appear to sabotage Drew and The Wyatts will continue to torment poor Chad Gable.

There were two more matches to end the night. We got a WrestleMania rematch between Dom and Rey Mysterio. Unlike Dom’s involvement winning the match for Liv earlier in the night, Liv’s involvement cost Dom to get beat by his Dad. This angle is kind of taking a long time to get where they're trying to end up. They need to pull the trigger on what they’re building before people begin to get uninterested with the cat and mouse game they’re playing every week. And the other match was Bron Breakker sending a message to Sami Zayn. His spears are devastating to watch. I think Sami is a perfect match for Bron because of Sami’s ability to sell and be the babyface underdog. You can tell Bron is doing something right, because even though he’s a heel, he’s getting a strong reception from the crowd. 

The overall flow of the card was a bit slower as go-home episodes before a pay per view usually are. This one felt a little slower just because of how hot WWE has been during the run of the International PLE’s, the debut of the Wyatts, and the partnership with TNA. It doesn’t help that Jacob Fatu, Tonga Loa, and Toma Tonga have all made exciting debuts on the other brand, and there is a lot of intrigue surrounding that brand right now. It’s crazy that Punk hasn’t even been on the show weekly, and his feud with McIntyre is carrying the brand right now. Damian Priest has to step it up. We’ll see if WWE doesn’t trust him to carry the belt to SummerSlam to drop to Gunther, and they put the belt on Seth causing Damian to split from the Judgment Day. It doesn’t seem plausible they’d have Damian win at SummerSlam, causing Seth to not be able to challenge for the belt, just to have Damian drop it to Gunther next month. Especially since WWE has already hinted at a future feud between Seth and Gunther. 

Show Grade: C- 

NXT 7/2

   

Michin and Jaida Parker kicked off the show with a street fight. The action was a bit mild, but it’s really good to get Parker into her own feud. Parker has a lot of natural charisma and ability. Michin is the perfect veteran to pair her with to help elevate her talents.

Je’Von Evans cut a promo. There is authenticity in letting stars be themselves. I think it’s working for Kelani Jordan. But as you saw in her package, her being a long established champion in gymnastics is her character. Evans doesn’t really have a character yet and he’s just being himself in these promos which is difficult because he’s limited to the “this was my dream” motive to being successful in the industry. WWE has to do better with putting characters on these kids when they come into NXT instead of “I’m a great athlete, here you go.” That’s why a lot of these promos come off elementary. I think Lani is finding that character development faster than a lot of the new young athletes on the roster, and that’s why she has the belt and the push. 

The New Catch Republic took on Tank Ledger and Hank Walker. The New Catch Republic won by pin. I’m not sure if this is a demotion or them helping to establish new tag teams at NXT. But Bate and Dunne are way too good as a tag team to be back at NXT. The one thing I think NXT is doing right is the video packages. They’re educating us on who the stars are before they wrestle in front of an audience. It’s a good boost for when a new face shows up that the fans already know who they are and their background.

Izzi Dame took on Brinley Reece accompanied by Malik Blade & Edris Enofe. This was a tough match to watch as I think both ladies are still extremely green in the ring. Reece has a powerful frame that I think can develop into a good superstar down the road, but no need to rush. Izzi Dame got a pinfall victory in this match, and it looks like a split might be coming with Reece, Blade, and Enofe. More backstage builds went on the video board. Eddy Thorpe and Lexis King had a cringe faceoff about who’s music is better. Charlie Dempsey hit Damon Kemp with a stray, telling Myles Borne not to listen to Kemp who couldn't find ways to stay in the win column. And Andre Chase prepared Chase U for becoming tag team champions in Toronto on Sunday at Heatwave 

Now, the segment I really want to talk about. Lola Vice’s emotional promo with Roxanne Perez. Vice shared some background on her story about her Mom getting sick, and having to support her family at 18 through fighting. I’m all for being vulnerable, and I’m all for emotion. But only if you can handle it. I don’t think Vice was ready to talk about this out loud. She immediately broke down and was on an island by herself as Roxanne couldn’t break character. Vice had to struggle through this. This was from twerking every week to a really heavy segment. It’s good for Vice, she will get better from this, and she gained a lot of support, but it was hard to watch. I think that Shawn Michaels and the other producers at NXT probably could have told this story in a powerful 5-minute feature story where they could have really shown this side to her without her breaking down in front of a live audience. See Cody shows emotion, but he’s a master at it. Cody is really good at drawing on the tears and speaking about his dad when he needs to boost the crowd's support. It’s why people say Cody reminds them of a politician. It's a real emotion, but it’s also planned, rehearsed, and controlled. It’s vulnerable while remaining fierce and strong. Lola was still uncontrollably weeping walking up the ramp. It was a lot to throw on her for her first “I’m not just a twerking MMA fighter” promo. 

Oro Mensah faced Myles Borne. This is why building other members of factions is so important. Now that Noam Darr is out with injury, Oro is all on his own and trying to hurry up and find a place on this show. Oro got the win over Borne, and I think they’re trying to slowly get him up the ranks as a top singles guy on the brand. It’s just going to take time since he was Noam’s sidekick for so long. Wendy Choo took on Carlee Bright in what was one of the most bizarre and unnecessary character changes. Choo submitted Bright in this match with a Cobra Clutch. Choo is obviously talented, but these weird characters they’ve put on her are really hard to follow. They ripped off Orange Cassidy but instead dressed Choo in pajamas which was weird, especially when they had her winning matches like that. But now she appears like this with no story or reasoning. 

Jazmyn Nyx and Karmen Petrovic were the next match. They’re still trying to go with the Kill Bill inspired character for Petrovic. She brings the sword to the ring which unless she’s going to stab somebody she just needs to get rid of it. It’s dumb when deadly weapons are introduced into wrestling. We know nobody is intending on killing anyone, don’t insult our intelligence. And after all this entrance, Petrovic gets beat by Nix. When you bring a sword to a fight, and you get beat up by a model who’s dressed like Britney Spears in the “oops I did It Again” music video, you immediately look like a loser. 

Finally, the show would come to an end with a 4-way contract signing with Page and Shawn Spears taking the “we’re veterans” route, and Evans taking the “I’m young and have more potential than you” angle. Trick Williams looked strong here which was important, and the heels got put through a table. But the intrigue was that the heels managed to cause a rift as Evans’ ambition got the best of him, and he reached for Wiliams’ title. Trick Williams pulled it away, and looked at Evans like it might be time to teach the young man a lesson. Strong ending to a cluttered show. 

Show Grade: C+ 

Friday Night SmackDown 7/5

The go home show of SmackDown before Money in The Bank kicked off in regular fashion. As is standard practice for shows that have a multi-man match, all the contestants of the men’s MIB match came down to the ring to cut individual promos about why they’re going to win the match. It would end with all the contestants ending up engaging in a brawl. It was a decent segment that saw every wrestler have their moment of looking strong. 

The Street Profits took on Pretty Deadly next. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Pretty Deadly on SmackDown. Street Profits looked really strong in this match with this new confident attitude being aligned with Bobby Lashley. They picked up the victory off a wild frog splash by Montez Ford. Tag Team action would be the theme of this show. Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair faced off with Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell. There was a little bit of bad blood here after Indi Hartwell screwed Jade out of a spot in MIB. Cargill and Belair dominated this match for the win, and made it clear to everyone that they intend to challenge for the Women’s Tag Team Championships. 

Kevin Owens made an emotional promo about his mother being hospitalized as he stood out there with Cody and Randy Orton. He said that his 4-years of fighting The Bloodline has never been more important. Cody, Randy, and Kevin stood united as baby faces. Bayley and Piper Niven had a rematch from Clash at the Castle. Niven got off to her normal start using her power to dominate the Women’s Champion. But Bayley battled back and picked up the win in a pretty boring and uneventful match. Nia Jax attacked Bayler, and Michin came out to even the score with a kendo stick. A brawl between the women’s MIB contestants battled at ringside amidst the chaos. 

The final match of the night came with A-Town Down taking on # DIY. It was a really good match as had been the norm with these teams who’ve been feuding for a while. This was a long time coming for Gargano and Ciampa. It was back and forth, but Gargano and Ciampa got the win and the fans were in full support for the veteran tag team. The show ended with The Bloodline sending a message to Cody, Randy, KO, and Roman Reigns! He said Roman is welcome to come back and try to take the Head of the Table back from him. 

Show Grade: B-