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As seen on Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live, Daniel Bryan suspended James Ellsworth for 30 days and fined him $10,000 for his involvement in the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder matches. He also added that if he violates the terms, Carmella will be stripped of her MITB briefcase.
Carmella and Ellsworth both took to Twitter and made the following remarks in regards to the suspension:
Taz opens today’s show speaking about last night’s episode of Smackdown Live.
He says that it was nice to see Carmella scale the ladder and claim the Money in the Bank briefcase on her own this time, but James Ellsworth found a way to get back into the building and got involved in the match again, even after being banned from the building by GM Daniel Bryan.
Taz thinks that Daniel Bryan and/or Shane McMahon need to do something to maintain their credibility moving forward, such as suspending Ellsworth for some amount of time. Bryan specifically ordered Ellsworth to stay out of the building and Ellsworth ignored him. Taz says that Bryan needs to show Ellsworth who’s boss.
He thought that Randy Orton cut a good, convincing promo last night and Mahal’s interruption was well done as well. He’s exciting to see the return of the Punjabi Prison match, but if he was WWE he wouldn’t have had Mahal talk nicely about The Great Khali. Taz says that Mahal should be a dirty, nasty heel who shouldn’t talk nicely about anyone.
Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane, Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno), and Konnan.
Russo opens today’s show by discussing the rise in viewership for Smackdown Live this past week. The blue brand’s viewership increased by 500,000 last week and he believes that was a direct result of the booking from Sunday’s Money in the Bank PPV, specifically the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match.
Konnan agrees and although he thinks the finish could have been done better, it accomplished its goal of drawing attention to the brand. Russo points out that when you tell stories and leave viewers wondering, they will tune into the next show to see what happens.
Gilbertti says that the fan backlash over that finish was silly to begin with. He says the problem with the wrestling industry right now is that there are too few experts, and the actual experts are criticized and ridiculed by people who consider themselves experts simply because they’ve watched a lot of wrestling.
A listener calls into the show and asks Taz if he thinks WWE would throw us all a curve ball and have one of the Money in the Bank winners emerge on RAW to cash in their briefcase against Alexa Bliss or Brock Lesnar. Taz admits that would be a very shocking and surprising turn of events, and would make for a very memorable moment.
However, he doesn’t think cashing in on RAW (especially the day after the PPV) is a good idea. He has always been a fan of the Money in the Bank creative, and more often than not the goal is to get as much longevity out of that angle as possible each year. The briefcase holders can use that contract to boost themselves up throughout the year, and the constant threat of cashing in adds intrigue to the product throughout the year as well.
A listener calls into the show and says that he purchased the ROH PPV this past weekend, and this was the first PPV he purchased since 2014. He’s very happy he decided to spend the money on this PPV because it was a great wrestling show. Taz says that he’s a big fan of ROH, and there’s a lot of hard working people who make that company work on a daily basis.
Ryback is joined on today’s show by his co-host Pat Buck.
Ryback opens today’s show speaking about the finish of the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match from last Sunday. There has been plenty of fan backlash since James Ellsworth scaled the ladder and retrieved the briefcase for Carmella, but Ryback believes that means the finish was a success.
He believes that people need to realize that this is a fake scenario, and the events that transpire in the ring are meant to elicit a response from viewers, whether they be positive or negative. With this in mind, WWE succeeded last Sunday because the finish of this match has been a hot topic of discussion ever since.
Buck believes that the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match should have went on later in the show instead of going first. WWE could have taken advantage of the crowd’s energy early on by having a less impactful match go on first, which would have saved the historic women’s match for later on in the show. Ryback points out that WWE needed to separate those two main event ladder matches, so that’s probably why they started the night with the women’s match and closed the night with the men’s match.
Buck also points out that this finish made James Ellsworth relevant again. It looked to be fairly certain that Ellsworth’s WWE contract wouldn’t be renewed after his one year deal was up, but now WWE creative has some options with Ellsworth moving forward. They might be able to stretch this angle out long enough to secure another contract for Ellsworth.
Quite simply, Ryback calls the finish of that match ‘perfect’.
Steve Austin was vocal on a recent installment of his podcast regarding WWE booking Naomi to defend her SmackDown Women’s Championship against Lana at the Money in the Bank event. He made the following remarks:
“Naomi deserves better, the title deserves better. Lana wasn’t up for this task at hand, at this point in her career. I thought she had much more mystique as the valet, whatever the term is, with Rusev. Man, they kind of killed her gimmick off, and reinvented her, and I just liked her the way she was. So, if she wants to be in the ring, that’s more power to her, but a lot of the stuff I got on Twitter was, ‘Hey man. For a first match, she did a lot better than I expected.’ Ok. As I say that, good for her. But as a company who’s striving for excellence in sports entertainment/professional wrestling, the best of the best belong on a pay-per-view.”
You can listen to the podcast here.
After the controversial ending to the women’s Money in The Bank Ladder Match, Daniel Bryan announced on this week’s episode of SmackDown LIVE that there will be a rematch on next week’s episode of SmackDown LIVE. James Ellsworth will be banned from the ringside in the match.
Eric Bischoff expressed his displeasure over the decision on his podcast, “Bischoff on Wrestling”. Here’s what Bischoff said:
“I think it’s a bad move. It’s a mistake I’ve made in the past. Sometimes you learn from your mistakes. At least, sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. When you build up to a big event on PPV and you build up the stakes and you build up the expectation and you basically deliver a screwed finish and then re-match it on free TV. It diminishes the long-term expectation of future big event matches on pay-per-view when that happens. I think it’s a really bad idea. By the way, I’ve done it and the results were always negative”
I recently went to an escape room, and it was pretty fun, no doubt about it. These escape rooms are not for everyone, though. To quote famed poet Gerald Gilum (also known as G-Eazy), “Never going nowhere unless your team is strong.” You’re going to need a good team to make sure you get out of that room.
If you were hypothetically going to solve an escape room, you’d need a hypothetically good team. However, what if that hypothetical team was to be made up of wrestlers? You’d need to pick a team of good wrestlers, then. Here are four in particular who could help you solve the challenges.
Yes, I would put Jinder “Modern Day Maharajah” Mahal on my team. Why? It mainly comes down to two reasons. First off, Jinder’s rich, and these rooms don’t come for free. The one I went to wasn’t so bad; we ended up paying around 6 of your American dollars per head. Still, if Jinder’s got money, then he’s got money.
Secondly, Jinder’s got the Singh brothers by his side. They only really take orders from Mr. Mahal himself, so he’s got to be there. The rooms come with all sorts of puzzles and challenges, and let’s be honest, not everyone can be the brains of the group. So the brains should figure out what exactly needs to be done, tell Jinder, who will then tell the Singh brothers. Does the challenge require a Pascal’s triangle up to 64? Hey Jinder, could the Singh Brothers help out with that? Should two people dance the Biyelgee, the traditional Mongolian dance? Jinder, could the Singh brothers help out with that?
You will have to keep Jinder under control, though. If he gets angry or frustrated, it could be a problem. This is the same guy who lost two different matches because of his deep-seated hatred for Rob Gronkowski and American Football. It would be ideal if you kept him under close watch, and make sure all he does is boss the Singh brothers around.
Ahhyessir, Sami Zayn would be a real helpful guy in an escape room. You never know which solution is the right solution, so you’d need someone who could analyze all the different possibilities. Enter Sami Zayn.
As evidenced on his various backstage segments on both Raw and Smackdown, Zayn is an analytical guy, perhaps overly so. Still, if he has an idea, it’s generally worth listening to. Rewind to the six man tag team match before Money in the Bank. Styles and Nakamura listened to his advice, and their team won! Sami Zayn has some good ideas.
He is the type of guy to think of all the different possibilities. Are these numbers a code or coordinates? Are these letters an anagram or music notes? Is that the Alphabet song or Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star? As long as you have Zayn on your team, you don’t have to worry about missing out on a key clue that might be overlooked by lesser teams.
Solving an escape room is challenging. It can be disheartening. Maybe you’re solving the puzzles all wrong. Heck, maybe you can’t even find the puzzles. You really feel like throwing in the towel.
John Cena will not let you do that. He will tell you to Never Give Up™ just because the room’s a bit difficult. He’d also tell you to Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect™ the escape room that you find yourself in. You’ve got to hustle and move quickly to solve the puzzles, and you’ve got to show loyalty to your team by sticking with them, and you’ve sure as hell got to respect your team, and respect yourself. You’ve also got to respect the room by never giving up and attempting to win. By showing respect, you show effort. Something like that.
Teleportation powers. Nothing more needs to be said.
This week’s Smackdown got a few gears going shortly after Money in the Bank. Lana and Naomi look to be fighting again. Daniel Bryan returned, and then he stripped Carmella of the Money in the Bank briefcase and scheduled a rematch for next week. Good for the women.
Meanwhile, Jinder continues to reign as the WWE Champion (30 days and counting!), and the Hype Brothers Bros asked for the title shot that they rightfully earned. Daniel Bryan, for some reason, decided not to give them their title opportunity, but forced them to earn it again. This will most likely lead to shenanigans from the Usos to get Zack and Mojo out of the title picture.
Still, this week left us me with more questions than answers. Here are three of those questions that I feel need to be asked.
If I’m going to be honest, their last two matches have hardly managed to set the world on fire. There are certain duos in the ring who will always have excellent chemistry. Okada – Omega, Styles – Ambrose, Owens – Zayn, Punk – Cena, Orton – Christian, etc. Unfortunately, Orton – Mahal is not one of those pairings.
Mahal wrestles a rather pedestrian style, and Orton is a tricky guy to have chemistry with. A lot of talented wrestlers just don’t really click with Orton. It happens. So why are they continuing the feud between Orton and Mahal?
Let’s even look at it from a kayfabe perspective. Orton lost his rematch. Why should he get another match? He could feasibly earn it again in a match, but they didn’t do that. Randy just said he was gonna RKO a bunch of Indians to get revenge on Jinder.
Then there’s Baron Corbin waiting in the shadows with his Money in the Bank contract. While he is exactly the type of guy to cash in on Jinder, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll have a heel cash in on a heel. What I’m trying to say is that there is going to be a lot of change in the WWE title scene, but we don’t know what’s going to happen.
This is a question that many people have been asking since last month. Rusev demanded a title match at Money in the Bank, but then he was conveniently forgotten. Of course we all found out that Rusev was only medically cleared like last week, and then we all thought “cool. Maybe he’ll be at Money in the Bank.” Nope. Instead, we got Mike and Maria Kannelis, who, don’t get me wrong, are a cool and welcome addition to the Smackdown roster, but they’re not Rusev. So where on God’s green earth is Rusev?
They clearly had something before he got injured. He had beef with Mahal for some reason. I’m not entirely sure why because to be honest, there was a period of time where I stopped watching Raw completely and only watched Smackdown. But I know they had a squabble.
The story really writes itself. Rusev could’ve helped Jinder retain at Money in the Bank, and then turn on Jinder so he could get the WWE Championship. Or have Rusev return and attack Jinder, because they have unfinished business.
Rusev is one of the best performers on the roster today, so Smackdown should find a way to put him on the show.
I like the idea of the Open Challenge. It helps the image of a fighting champion who is looking for competition and looking to prove himself. It also showcases the skills of often overlooked superstars, and makes them look like they want the gold.
This week, Owens defended the US title against Chad Gable in a pretty good match. Gable returned from doing absolutely nothing the last few months, while Jason Jordan got exactly 10 seconds of screen time. While I like the idea of the Open Challenge, there’s still AJ Styles hanging around in the title picture.
Was this Open Challenge a one-time thing? I think it’s a potentially great idea to have Styles keep answering the challenge and Owens repeatedly denying him and defending it against someone else. Of course, that’s just me, and surely there’s some sort of flaw that I don’t see.
So how far will Smackdown take the Open Challenge? When will Styles and Owens face off again?
Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane and Rue from ‘Rue TV’. On today’s show, Russo will discuss Sunday night’s Money in the Bank PPV.
Speaking about the opening match on the card, Russo mentions that he was very concerned going into the match for the safety of all five women involved. This was the first ladder match for most of these women, and he was afraid that they would try to do too much. Luckily, he thought WWE did a good job of protecting the women, and he was happy to see that.
Russo says he didn’t have a problem with Ellsworth climbing the ladder and retrieving the briefcase for Carmella, but he did have a problem with how the entire segment closed. The three referees were arguing about the finish on the outside of the ring, when Ellsworth picked up the mic and announced Carmella as the winner and all of a sudden the finish was official. Russo couldn’t believe that they closed the segment like that.
He also didn’t like the fact that Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon were tweeting about this afterwards, because he believes at least one of them should have been present at the show. They could have done something as simple as a quick backstage interview with McMahon, where he mentioned how disgusted he was by the finish of the match.
Speaking about the Tag Team Championship match between The Usos and The New Day, he thought there were several sloppy parts in this match, and he particularly hated the finish. After the controversial finish to the Women’s Money in the Bank match, he thought this match deserved to have a legitimate finish. He says that the finish of this match was another prime example of why Titles shouldn’t change hands on a count-out.
