RAW In A Nutshell: Monday Night Money In The Bank

Hello again everyone! It’s another week and another Monday Night RAW. What makes this week so special? Because this time around, we might as well dub it Monday Night Money In The Bank. Why is that? Because Alexa Bliss will be giving us the names of the RAW participants for the men’s and women’s Money In The Bank ladder matches. The PPV named after those matches happens in three weeks’ time. The rest of the show will no doubt serve to build up to the May PPV as well, as we also get a wonderful contract signing for the Universal Championship match tonight. All that and more, so let’s crack open this Nutshell!

Best Match of the night:

Forget matches. The best segment (and better than any mach) was the main event contract signing. Now sure, we are all accustomed to these contract signings going sideways. Tonight’s did not disappoint in any way.

Worst match of the night:

Rey Mysterio versus Samoa Joe. I go into this a bit more later, too, but this one just felt…I don’t know…sloppy? Plodding? I was not overly impressed with this one. Things did not look crisp. Not sure if one or both men were “off” in any way, or maybe my standards are super high. In any case, on a night where a few matches were jockeying for this spot, Mysterio and Joe win

Crowd Chants of the Night:

Becky

Becky 2 belts

shave your back

Star of the Night

I have a few of these to hand out.

One for Lacey Evans (and by proxy, Becky Lynch). Honestly, I’d expect that kind of heated exchange to happen closer to the PPV…but they did well to set up the match at Money In The Bank.

The last couple? AJ Styles and Seth Rollins. It’s easy to forget how well-regarded both men are. It’s not hard to overlook the fact that we’ve never gotten Styles/Rollins one on one…and that changes later in May.

Spot of the Night:

Several good ones during the contract signing, but the best was the spot where Styles put Rollins through the table to close things out.

Jobber of the Night:

Lucha House Party, anyone? I think so. I mean, sure, they got the first shots in when they attacked Viking Raiders (even changed, this name still sucks). The Raiders got the last word in, however, as the duo destroyed the trio.

Upset of the Night:

I have to put this one as Rey Mysterio going over Samoa Joe. I honestly looked at the match and wasn’t overly impressed, especially when you consider that it was the last wrestling match of the televised show. Best I can guess, WWE has some plans for Dominic and the program might be leading to a bigger payoff…but I just don’t see it. This match was not overly crisp, and while we’ve seen Mysterio beat plenty of men bigger than him…this one just didn’t feel close to on a good level.

Still, Rey did win, and that’s what gives him the upset.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

Honestly this show kind of lacked one of these.

Botch of the night:

Nothing really worth complaining about.

LOL Moment of the night:

OK, the shower scene with the back shaving was a little funny…but more on that later.

Noteworthy Moment:

Well, we have 50% of the Money In The Bank participants known. On the men’s side, it’s Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, Braun Strowman and Ricochet. On the women’s side of things, we have Naomi, Natalya, Dana Brooke and Alexa Bliss. It will be interesting to see who gets added during SmackDown.

Also, Miz and Shane McMahon continue their feud, as we have them booked in a steel cage match for Money In The Bank.

Overall lowlights:

I am all for a funny segment…but, in this overly PC age we live in, I really don’t think it’s a good look for WWE to make body-shaming a thing on television. They caught heat for it when it came up with Nia Jax, so it should as well when it came to the back hair shower scene. Plus, most of us have no interest in seeing Dash or Dawson in towels on television.

Overall highlights:

After tonight, how can you not be excited for…

Lacey Evans and Becky Lynch.

The men’s and women’s Money In The Bank ladder matches (with only knowing half of the combatants).

The Universal Championship match between AJ Styles and Seth Rollins.

These all hit some high notes for me.

After the final bell:

Three weeks out from Money In The Bank, and things are heating up. It’s actually one of the more exciting shows because of two matches-the ladder matches. Even without the briefcases, ladder matches involving that many Superstars is just an epic train wreck we can’t not watch.