Date: 18th July, 2010
Venue: Sprint Center
City: Kansas City, Missouri
Attendance: 17,000
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SmackDown! Money in the Bank Ladder match
- Kofi Kingston vs Matt Hardy vs The Big Show vs Kane vs Christian vs Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre vs Dolph Ziggler
Before the show I would have definitley predicted this to be the worse of the two MITB matches, and even though it probably was it was still a very good match. Unlike many previous ladder matches it had a sense of storyline and wasn't all just about linking together spots. Of course there still were some big moments such as Kofi's big Boom Drop through the announce table. There were also some other great original moments that mostly revolved around the involvement of the Big Show. Bringing in that massive ton ladder was excellent even if Show trying to get it in the ring the wrong way did slightly kill the momentum the match had.
At the end there were some great teases over who would get the briefcase, including a tense struggle between Christian and Matt before it looked like McIntyre was about to win. However, Kane threw him off and claimed the win, but I'll get more into that later.
Winner: Kane (26:17)
Via retrieving the briefcase
***1/2
Divas Championship
- Alicia Fox (c) vs Eve Torres
If it wasn't going to be hard enough already to get the crowd involved in this match, having such an exciting ladder match before it really reduced any chance of that happening. Nobody in the arena really cared and even though both women tried their hardest this was a fairly typical divas match. Fox picked up the win with a Booker T-esque scissors kick.
Winner and STILL Divas Champion, Alicia Fox (5:51)
Via Pinfall (Scissors Kick)
*
Unified Tag Team Championship
- The Hart Dynasty (c) vs The Usos
Good lord, a PPV match for the tag titles between two actual tag teams. The state of the tag division in the WWE today is probably the weakest aspect of the company and that may be a reason why this match had so little heat. The fans didn't feel attached enough to either team to really care about it. The match itself was decent enough but at times they were wrestling to almost literally silence.
Winners and STILL Tag Team Champions, The Hart Dynasty (5:22)
David Hart Smith made Jey Uso submit (Sharpshooter)
**1/4
World Heavyweight Championship
- Rey Mysterio (c) vs Jack Swagger
I can't stress how much it annoyed me that Mysterio picked up a clean victory here. Maybe even more so than it annoyed me that despite having apparantley torn muscles in his ankle he could perform all manner of springboard moves. The storyline with Swagger injuring Rey with his new Kurt Angle persona was great and set up the match brilliantly but having Rey win clean only makes Swagger look pathetic and is ridiculous considering the multitude of other endings they could have chosen. Such as Swagger holding on the Ankle Lock for too long as he has done on recent SmackDowns! and subsequently getting DQed. Ignoring the "ankle injury" this was as good a match as you would have expected.
Winner and STILL World Heavyweight Champion, Rey Mysterio (10:42)
Via Pinfall (Hurricanrana Pin)
***1/4
World Heavyweight Championship
- Rey Mysterio (c) vs Kane
Swagger begins to beatdown on Rey after the match so out comes Kane for the save and chases Swagger to the back. Just when you think the moment has passed, his music hits and he saunters back out, briefcase in hand. This was a brilliantly done moment and I'm very happy for Kane. Like him or not it's hard to begrudge him a world title shot, when in 13 years with the company he's had a 1 day WWF title reign and an ECW World title reign, which doesn't really count.
Winner and NEW World Heavyweight Champion, Kane (0:37)
Via Pinfall (Tombstone Piledriver)
NR
Women's Championship
- Layla (c) vs Kelly Kelly
Nothing much happening here. The idea of having two women's title matches on the same PPV is very confusing, in fact the idea of having two women's titles is confusing, especially when one of them effectively replaced the Cruiserweight title.
Winner and STILL Women's Champion, Layla (3:56)
Via Pinfall (Sunset Flip reversal)
3/4*
RAW Money in the Bank Ladder match
- Randy Orton vs Evan Bourne vs John Morrison vs Mark Henry vs Edge vs Chris Jericho vs The Miz vs Ted DiBiase
My more anticipated of the two MITB matches didn't disappoint in what was no doubt the match of the night. The star power in this match is quite ridiculous and even Mark Henry who looked like the standout weak link, played his part in this match extremely effectively including taking a series of finishers fantastically outside the ring, so fair play to him. This was a shorter match than the first ladder match but also more action-intense so definitley was better paced than SD!'s attempt. Really pleased to see The Miz get the win as the majority of others in the match (Edge, Jericho, Orton) can get title shots without having to win here and others aren't ready to move the main event scene (DiBiase, Morrison, Bourne).
Winner: The Miz (20:25)
Via retrieving the briefcase
****
WWE Championship - Steel Cage match
- Sheamus (c) vs John Cena
After all the excitement of the previous match, this kind of felt like a let down and it certainly didn't help that it was extremely slow-placed and to be honest fairly boring. The cage wasn't really utilised in any kind of offensive manner and despite being the second longest match of the night, nothing really happened until the Nexus came down to ringside in the final minutes. The end itself was kind of a mess with both men trying to escape the cage, with the Nexus trying to stop them both, not sure what they were trying to achieve really. Eventually Sheamus fought off his attackers and landed first to retain.
Winner and STILL WWE Champion, Sheamus (23:01)
Via escaping the cage
**3/4
Overall Thoughts:
If you ignore the two women's matches, which are fairly short and inoffensive anyway, this was an extremely enjoyable event. The two ladder matches were of course entertaining and seeing one of the briefcases get cashed in almost instantly was a very cool moment. The two title matches weren't perhaps as good as they could have been but still played their part in the show, as did the tag match which even though it was short and formulaic, was still entertaining.
Thumbs up to the WWE for this show, probably the best non-WM event so far this year, and I'd like to see it return as a gimmick PPV for next year.
7.0 / 10.0
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