A2Z Analysiz: WWE Money in the Bank 2014 (John Cena, Randy Orton)

Wrestling DVDs

MITB 2014

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TD Garden – Boston, MA – Sunday, June 29, 2014

Michael Cole, Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler, and JBL are on commentary.

WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso) defeat The Wyatt Family (Erick Rowan & Luke Harper) at 13:13 to retain the titles. Jimmy and Jey have been the Champion since 3.3.14, and this is their fifth defense. Both teams use their strengths to try and control the match. The challengers use power moves and try to keep a slow pace, while the Champions quicken the pace and fly around the ring. But what makes these two teams really good, is that they are both also adept at playing each other’s’ game. After a whirlwind of action with very little resting, the Usos are able to trap Rowan all alone on the top rope. Jimmy and Jey bring Rowan down with a double superplex and then hit back-to-back Superfly Splashes to get the pin. That was a hot opener and great tag team work by all four men. Sometimes teams just click and that’s definitely the case with The Usos and The Wyatts.
Rating: ***¾

WWE Divas Champion Paige defeats Naomi (with Cameron) at 7:10 to retain the title. Paige has been the Champion since 4.7.14, and this is her fourth defense. Both Divas are aggressive with each other, fighting both in and out of the ring. Naomi is even able to hit her finisher, the Rear View, but Paige kicks out at two. She tries a very nice split-legged moonsault but Paige gets her knees up. A series of reversals ends with Paige hitting a sick Ram-Paige Cradle DDT to get the win. That was actually pretty good, as they got some time to tell their story and had the crowd reacting to them. They could have gone longer.
Rating: **¾

Adam Rose defeats Damien Sandow at 4:13. Sandow comes out dressed as Paul Revere for some reason. Anyway, they do some stuff, the commentary is terrible, and Rose gets the win with the Party Foul. Let’s not pretend that anyone cared about that.
Rating: *½

Seth Rollins defeats Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, and Rob Van Dam in a Money in the Bank Ladder Match at 23:14. Rollins is making his debut, RVD is entering MITB for the third time (with one win and successful cash-in), Swagger for the fourth time (with one win and successful cash-in), Ziggler for the fourth time (with one win and successful cash-in), Kingston is entering for the fifth time, and Ambrose for the second time. Ambrose goes right after Rollins and the rest of the participants waste no time going at each other either. The action is hard to follow, of course. While everyone gets a chance to shine, the spotlight is definitely focused on the Ambrose/Rollins rivalry, and the crowd is juiced every time they touch. Kingston gets in his couple of sweet spots, as he’s known to do in this type of environment. Ambrose gets injured and taken to the back against his will, but he makes his triumphant return at just the right time to rob Rollins of the victory. He assaults Rollins with a steel chair, but when he climbs up to get the briefcase, the ring posts explode and Kane makes his way out. Kane pulls Ambrose off the ladder and hits a vicious Chokeslam, and then a Tombstone Piledriver. That’s enough for Rollins to climb up and pull down the case. For the most part that was a really entertaining spot-fest, with the Rollins/Ambrose tension really igniting the crowd and tying the match together. Then they lose a bunch of points for the lazy, uninspired finish. That was really the best they could come up with? Kane? Again?
Rating: ***¾

Goldust & Stardust defeat RybAxel (Curtis Axel & Ryback) at 7:45. I think these teams faced each other roughly 458 times in 2014. This is just as adequate as every other match they had, which is nothing extraordinary. Goldust plays the face-in-peril and gets beat up for a while before making the comeback and the hot tag. Heel miscommunication allows Stardust to pin Ryback with a schoolboy rollup. The work was fine but had no fire to it. It just felt like a TV match.
Rating: **

Rusev (with Lana) defats Big E at 7:17. Both men use their power, but they go at a different pace – Rusev tries to slow the match down and Big E speeds it up. Rusev spends more time on offense, but Big E counters him with explosive clotheslines, suplexes, and a Spear through the ropes and to the floor! Rusev survives the onslaught and catches Big E with a superkick. He then locks on the Accolade and Big E has to tap out. This was a good, hard-hitting brawl between two guys that I think can be big players for years to come if WWE plays their cards right with them. Big E certainly didn’t look like a slouch here, and Rusev looks all the better for going over him super clean. Everyone wins.
Rating: **¾

Layla defeats Summer Rae at 3:45. Fandango was the special referee. As I gather it, the crux of this feud is that both women like to dance and want to be with Fandango so they’re fighting over him. WWE writers really don’t think much of these women do they? Summer and Layla catfight around while the crowd sits on their hands. Layla lands a knockout kick to the head to get the win. They barely had time to do anything, and what they did do no one cared about.
Rating: *

John Cena defeats Alberto Del Rio, Bray Wyatt, Cesaro (with Paul Heyman), Kane, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, and Sheamus at 26:30 in a Ladder Match to win the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Title. The title has been vacant since 6.9.14. Sheamus is the current United States Champion and beat Bad News Barrett on June 9 to qualify for this match, Wyatt beat Dean Ambrose on June 13, Del Rio beat Dolph Ziggler on June 2, Cesaro beat Rob Van Dam on June 9, Cena beat Kane in a Stretcher Match on June 16, Randy Orton was handed a spot by Triple H on June 9, Roman Reigns won a battle royal on June 16, and Kane was also awarded his spot by Triple H. Obviously this match is pretty action-packed from the get-go, with so many bodies flying around there’s always something going on. I don’t know how they do it, but every year they manage to come up with a few new spots that somehow haven’t been done before in any previous ladder matches. A few threads run through this match: Kane pretty much runs interference for Orton on behalf of The Authority, individual feuds between Cesaro/Sheamus and Cena/Wyatt in particular get time to shine, and Reigns is made to look strong on several occasions and set to go into a feud with Orton. At one point Reigns and Cena come face-to-face with no one else around and the crowd gets pretty into Reigns. Orton gets busted open late in the match but still looks in good enough shape to climb the ladder with Kane’s backing. Cena puts an end to that plan though by hitting Kane with an Attitude Adjustment, and then hitting Orton with one as well. That’s enough for Cena to climb up and earn his fifteenth World Championship. While there was plenty going on here to keep from getting bored, nothing really meant much of anything, and we came down to Cena, Orton, and Kane at the end. I understand that Cena was the best choice to replace Bryan in the upcoming SummerSlam match with Brock Lesnar, but of course it’s just not exciting to watch him win again.
Rating: ***½

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