Credit Matt Boone
WWE Money In The Bank 2014 Kickoff Show
The Money In The Bank 2014 “Kickoff Show” opens with the usual expert panel breaking down some of tonight’s main matches. The panel is hosted by Renee Young, and she is joined by Booker T, Alex Riley and Christian. The four give their predictions for tonight and introduce a number of video packages hyping the biggest matches on tonight’s show. The crowd in the background, by the way, sounds loud as ever.
Daniel Bryan Breaks His Silence, Bo Dallas Interupts
Without much build up at all, after a Vickie Guerrero video package for her upcoming WWE Network special, Michael Cole, standing in the ring, introduces us to his guest right now, former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan.
Bryan makes his way to the ring in street clothes. Once he enters the ring and his music fades, we hear a loud “Daniel Bryan” chant from the fans in Boston. Bryan looks around the arena with a big smile on his face as the fans continue to explode with “Daniel Bryan” and then “Yes! Yes! Yes!” chants.
After the chants die down, Cole asks Bryan how his recovery is going and asks him when he will return to the ring. Bryan says this is where he has some bad news. He has he doesn’t know. He says the strength in his arm still hasn’t come back and that he might actually need to undergo another surgery. He does, however, promise that he will eventually return and be better than ever.
Cole asks Bryan to describe his feelings knowing that tonight someone is going to climb a ladder and become the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion. He says he’s been climbing an uphill battle his whole career and it wouldn’t be a Daniel Bryan story without some setbacks. He promises to return and win the title one day.
Michael Cole switches gears and asks Bryan for his prediction on who he thinks will win tonight. Bryan says he has three people he thinks could win. He mentions John Cena. Fans boo. He mentions Randy Orton. Everyone boos. He then mentions Roman Reigns and everyone cheers.
Some Twitter questions are read off for D-B to answer, and he does, in story line fashion, of course. He talks about never getting beaten for the title, and that The Authority had to strip him to get the title off of him.
As he continues talking, Bo Dallas’ music plays. Out comes the inspirational leader of the “Bo-Lieve Movement.” Dallas says Bryan may not be able to climb the ladder tonight, but he can climb the ladder of life, all he has to do is “Bo-Lieve.” Bryan says Dallas is acting like a “Bo-ner.” The fans start chanting “Bo-ner, Bo-ner, Bo-ner.” He says he speaks for all of the fans when he says “Bo….leave.” Bryan’s music plays and he leads the fans in one more “Yes!” chant.
Luke Harper & Erick Rowan Talk Tag-Team Title Shot
The Wyatt Family cut-in happens and we see Luke Harper and Erick Rowan backstage in a dark room. Harper says “you’re time is up Usos, tick-tock, tick-tock.” The camera pans over to Rowan, who is wearing his sheep mask, and all he says is “run.”
We head to one final video package and then it looks like we’re going straight into the fifth annual WWE Money In The Bank pay-per-view. The video package, by the way, which previewed the Money In The Bank ladder matches, ended with footage of NXT star Mojo Rawley. I missed the first 10 minutes of the Kickoff Show, so it’s possible that an announcement was made about Bad News Barrett (who has a separated shoulder) being replaced in the second MITB ladder match tonight. Don’t quote me on that, however. We’ll find out soon enough as the Money In The Bank PPV intro package is airing now.
WWE Money In The Bank 2014
The fifth annual WWE Money In The Bank pay-per-view, which takes place at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, is now officially underway.
The usual bad-ass video package airs, focusing on the two Money In The Bank ladder matches, one for the usual title shot briefcase, the other for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
After the video package wraps up, we head live inside the arena where pyro explodes, the PPV theme plays and Michael Cole welcomes us to the show, promising that history will be made as a new champion will be crowned tonight and a new number one contender will be determined as well.
WWE Tag-Team Championship
– The Usos (c) vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan
From there, we head straight to our first match of the evening, as The Usos theme music plays. Jimmy and Jey make their way to the ring, as our WWE Tag-Team Championship match will open tonight’s pay-per-view in the ring.
The Wyatt Family cut-in happens, and then Luke Harper and Erick Rowan make their way to new theme music. This theme song is different than the new song that played on Monday. No accordian, just a rock-and-roll song that is preceded by a little kid singing one line of “he’s got the whole world in his hands.” Harper, by the way, has somewhat of a new look, ring-attire wise. Nothing drastically different, just a dirty looking vest over his normal stuff.
The bell rings and Harper and Jey Uso kick things off for their respective teams. Jey gets some offense in and then tags his brother Jimmy into the match. Jimmy picks up where Jey left off until Harper stops him in his tracks with a dropkick, which looked impressive considering his size.
Harper tags in Rowan and Rowan continues The Wyatt Family domination over the champs. Rowan goes to work on Jimmy in the corner and then tags Harper back into the match.
Harper and Rowan continue to keep Uso isolated on their side of the ring, as The Wyatt Family duo keeps the momentum in this championship match thus far. Uso finally makes the tag, and he comes in with a world of fire and energy, dropping anything that moves.
The Wyatt Family ends up cutting off Uso’s big comeback, scoring a near fall after a seated power bomb that the fans bit on somewhat. A loud “this is awesome” chant breaks out as the pace of the action picks up. The finish sees both of The Usos hit a double-superplex off of the top-rope to Rowan. They follow that up by each hitting a top-rope splash onto him, with the second Uso scoring the pin.
Winners and STILL WWE Tag-Team Champions: The Usos
Dean Ambrose Sends A Message To Seth Rollins
We see Dean Ambrose backstage in street clothes addressing Seth Rollins. He talks about being torn between climbing the ladder to grab the briefcase or using that ladder to bash-in Rollins’ face. Bottom line, that Dean Ambrose promo was awesome. Words can’t do it justice, it was a lot of attitude and performance. It’s not just what he said, but how he said it. Really good stuff.
WWE Divas Championship
– Paige (c) vs. Naomi (with Cameron)
After the Ambrose promo, we head back to the ring. Out first for our second PPV match of the evening, is the former Funkadactyl, Naomi. After she makes her way to the ring, out comes the current WWE Divas Champion, Paige. Cameron, by the way is at ringside in Naomi’s corner.
The bell rings and here we go. Within seconds, the two battle out to the floor. They spend only a couple of seconds on the floor before the action returns to the ring. Paige gets the better of Naomi early on, so Naomi ducks out the back door and heads to the floor to take a moment to recover. Naomi yanks Paige off the apron and out to the floor and then hits a dive from the ring out to the floor, splashing onto Paige.
The action returns to the ring again, as Naomi remains in control. JBL puts Naomi over on commentary as the most athletic Diva in WWE today. Naomi gets Paige in a submission hold. Paige screams in pain but ultimately escapes. We see Cameron at ringside looking bored.
Paige turns the tide and starts to take over the offense in the match, but Naomi cuts her off and ends up hitting her with her Rear View move for a close near fall. Paige cuts her off again. By the way, whenever Naomi seems to be in trouble or in pain, we see a shot of Cameron at ringside looking happy. In the end, Paige hits her finisher for the 1-2-3. Paige retains.
Winner and STILL WWE Divas Champion: Paige
WWE Network Plug, Expert Panel Gives MITB Predictions
After the Divas title match, we shoot to ringside where the PPV commentary team does a random hard-sell for the WWE Network.
From there, we shoot to the “expert panel,” which consists of Renee Young, Alex Riley, Booker T and Christian. All four talk about the matches we’ve seen thus far tonight and preview and give predictions for some of the matches yet to come.
Paul Revere vs. Adam Rose
Damien Sandow, dressed as Paul Revere makes his way to the ring. He cuts a promo and blah blah blah. I’m not even going to dignify this match with much effort, as it is a complete joke and is clearly a pointless time-filler.
Out next, led by his “Rosebuds” is Adam Rose. He cuts a mini-promo himself, and then the bell rings and our next one-on-one match is underway.
Sandow, working as Paul Revere, remains in his whole get-up during the match. Rose controls the action early on, but then Revere makes takes over.
Paul Revere goes for a huge moonsault at one point, but doesn’t manage to find his target. In the end, Rose blasts Sandow with his finisher for the 1-2-3. After the match, Rose dances around like a goof with his Rosebuds. Boy, I’m glad that’s over.
Winner: Adam Rose
Seth Rollins, Jack Swagger & Zeb Colter Talk Money In The Bank
Backstage, we see Seth Rollins. He cuts a quick promo about Dean Ambrose and tonight’s Money In The Bank ladder match for the briefcase. Next, we see Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter, and they as well cut a promo about the Money In The Bank ladder match.
Money In The Bank Ladder Match
(Briefcase For Title Shot Up To One Year)
– Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger vs. Kofi Kingston
Each guy makes their way to the ring, one-by-one, for the first of two Money In The Bank ladder matches, the first of which is for the briefcase, which guarantees you a shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship whenever you want for up to one year.
The bell rings and here we go. Early on, all of the guys are duking it out with each other inside the ring. A bunch of the guys end up outside the ring, where Kofi Kingston does the first big, major high spot, as he hits a crazy dive onto all of the guys on the floor.
This left Ambrose alone by himself in the ring, but not for long, however, as Rollins hits the ring and he and Ambrose slug it out. Each guy tries to suplex the other on a ladder that is draped in the corner. In the end, Ambrose hits a gut-wrench style suplex onto the ladder. Rollins rolls out to the floor to recover.
All of the guys take turn hitting spots in the ring. Van Dam is the only guy who ends up staying in the ring by himself for a while. Most of the other guys are on the floor fighting or selling, as one guy at a time seems to enter the ring and duke it out with Van Dam for a bit.
The super-sized giant ladder is brought into the ring. Van Dam and Rollins fight at the top of that ladder until Swagger climbs up underneath Van Dam and power bombs him off of it.
Rollins, who is still up there, watches as Ambrose climbs up the opposite end. Ambrose gets a hold of Rollins and hits an insane superplex off the top of that massive ladder. The crowd explodes as soon as their bodies hit the mat. Lots of “holy shit” chants, followed by “this is awesome” chants.
All of the guys mix and match inside the ring again, circulating different guys into the ring and outside of the ring to sell. This builds to Ambrose and Rollins being left inside the ring alone again. After another big bump off of the ladder, Ambrose is hard-selling his shoulder/arm. WWE medics end up sliding into the ring and they force Ambrose to head to the back, as I guess the story is he’s too injured to be allowed to continue. He argues the whole way, but is eventually forced to head to the back.
Meanwhile, all of the guys are starting to re-enter the ring. One of the most insane spots I’ve ever seen happens, as a ladder is drapped between part of the ladder set up under the briefcase in the middle of the ring, and the ropes. Like a bridge. Anyways, Kingston and Rollins are up there and Kingston ends up slamming Rollins onto the bridge ladder, which when he lands, breaks loose of being wedged into the setup ladder under the briefcase, and Rollins — with the ladder — slams down again. The announcers are putting over that Rollins, like Ambrose, may be out of this match after that spot.
Ziggler goes up the ladder but Swagger catches him while he’s half way up, with the Patriot Lock. Rollins ends up cleaning house of both guys and climbs the ladder. The fans chant “we want Ambrose,” and sure enough, Ambrose runs from the back to the ring and blasts Rollins with a chair.
Ambrose is now climbing up the ladder as the fans explode. As he nears the briefcase, Kane’s pyro explodes and out of nowhere he hits the ring and chokeslams Ambrose off of the ladder. The fans boo like crazy. Kane follows that up with a Tombstone piledriver. The boo’s get even louder.
Meanwhile, Kane holds the ladder as Rollins climbs up with ease and grabs the briefcase. Seth Rollins wins.
Winner: Seth Rollins
Randy Orton Talks About His Chances Tonight
Backstage, Randy Orton is asked what his chances are in the Money In The Bank ladder match for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship tonight. Orton says his chances are better than anyone else’s. He’s asked for his reaction to what just went down in the previous Money In The Bank ladder match. Orton says that’s all and well, but he won’t need any help to win his match tonight. He’s asked about Roman Reigns, but doesn’t seem to want to comment on that.
Ryback & Curtis Axel vs. Goldust & Stardust
After a quick promo for the Vickie Guerrero special on the WWE Network this coming Tuesday night, RybAxel’s music hits and the duo makes their way to the ring. During their entrance, we see video highlights of Stardust’s debut a few weeks ago. After that, Goldust and Stardust make their way to the ring for this tag-team match.
The bell rings and here we go. The announcers plug WWE Slam City and the fact that Stardust is now on Twitter. Anyways, Stardust and Curtis Axel, who has new ring gear, very similar to Ryback’s, start things off. Stardust gains the upper-hand in the offense and then tags Goldust in. Goldust keeps things going and then tags Stardust back in. Stardust remains in control and then Axel tags Ryback in.
Stardust immediately gets the better of Ryback and then tags Goldust back into the bout. The announcers put over Ryback’s tweets as he finally starts to turn the offensive tide in the match, as he takes it to Goldust before tagging Axel back in.
Ryback gets a loud “feed me more” chant at one point, to which he yells to the crowd, “I still got it!” However, Goldust makes the tag to Stardust, who comes in with a ton of energy, hitting fast-paced moves and offense on anything that moves, eventually scoring the pin.
After the match, Axel flips out, but ends up getting hit with a double-team finishing-type move from both Goldust and Stardust. Their music plays and they celebrate, in odd fashion.
Winners: Goldust & Stardust
Layla & Summer Rae Argue Over Fandango
We see a recap of some recent tweets in the Fandango, Layla and Summer Rae triangle situation. This leads to video highlights of Summer Rae and Layla dumping milk and kitty litter, etc. on each other recently, as well as the Summer/Fandango kissing stuff and all of that nonsense that has happened in this angle thus far.
From there, we shoot backstage where we see Fandango in a bedazzled referee t-shirt. He is asked about his love triangle. He says “Fandango loves love triangles.” He is asked how he is going to call the match down the middle tonight. Layla enters the scene and says he can’t call it down the middle because he loves her. Summer walks in and talks about how Fandango needs someone with long legs, not a little runt like her. Layla talks about how Fandango likes big breasts. They continue to argue about what Fandango likes and eventually storm off in their separate directions.
Rusev (with Lana) vs. Big E.
The bell rings after that backstage segment and Justin Roberts introduces Lana and Rusev. The two come out, with Rusev proudly waving the Russian flag. They enter the ring and Lana cuts one of her typical pro-Russian, pro-Rusev, anti-American promos, as a “U.S.A.” chant breaks out in Boston. After that, Big E. comes out proudly waving the American flag.
This match ends up going a little longer than you’d expect, with Big E. actually getting in a considerable amount of offense as compared to their previous encounters.
Big E. gets in a couple of actual near-finishes, as the announcers heavily put over the fact that we’ve never seen Rusev in this kind of trouble before.
In the end, however, Rusev floors Big E. with a big kick. And since he actually took punishment, as he fires up and calls for the finish, he seems more pissed than ever. Lana calls for Rusev to “crush,” and he obliges, applying The Accolade to Big E. Big E. hangs in there in the hold for quite a while, nearly fighting his way out of it, but ultimately has no choice but to tap out.
Winner: Rusev
Stephanie McMahon Kicks Brie Bella Out Of The Building
Backstage we see The Bella Twins. In walks Stephanie McMahon, who questions what Brie Bella is doing in the building since she fired her a few weeks ago. Nikki tells Stephanie that she was just showing her family member her new favorite video, which is Vickie Guerrero throwing Steph into the mud or whatever on RAW. Stephanie says the new company policy is that no one is allowed backstage except employees. Stephanie calls for security and they force Brie to get out of the building.
Summer Rae vs. Layla
Summer Rae makes her way to the ring. Out next, is Layla. The special guest referee for this match is Fandango. The bell rings and here we go.
Summer gains the upper-hand early, stomping away at Layla in the corner. Fandango orders Summer to break, so Summer walks over and tries to kiss Fandango. Fandango seems into it, but before they actually kiss, Layla nails Summer from behind.
Layla takes over the offense momentarily as a loud “CM Punk” chant breaks out. Layla continues her domination over Summer and covers her. Fandango gets down and counts the 1-2-3. Layla wins.
After the match, Layla and Fandango make out as Fandango’s music plays and we see Summer Rae laying in the middle of the ring. Fandango and Layla leave together.
Winner: Layla
Money In The Bank Ladder Match
(WWE World Heavyweight Championship)
– John Cena vs. Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton vs. Cesaro vs. Kane vs. Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio
A video package airs, highlighting the situation surrounding Daniel Bryan being stripped of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by The Authority, and the title being put on the line in the Money In The Bank ladder match. The video shifts to focus on each of the eight participants in tonight’s main event qualifying for the match.
After the video package, we shoot live into the TD Garden where we see a closeup shot of the two WWE title belts hanginng above the ring. Justin Roberts does the formal introductions for the main event. “King of Kings” plays, as Roberts introduces Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. The Authority make their way to the ring.
Now we get to the Superstar entrances, led off by the WWE United States Champion, Sheamus. “The Celtic Warrior” makes his way to the ring. The Wyatt Family cut-in happens and we see Bray Wyatt on the titan tron. “Boston, I’m here,” says the leader of The Wyatt Family. He blows out the latern, his theme music hits and out he comes. Next out is Alberto Del Rio. Then, Cesaro is accompanied to the ring by Paul Heyman. John Cena comes out next to a loud mixed-bag reaction, leaning more towards “boo’s,” despite the fact that we’re near his hometown tonight. Randy Orton comes out next. Roman Reigns is out next, through the crowd, to a pretty good reaction. Finally, Kane makes his way to the ring.
The bell rings and here we go. All eight guys immediately break off into pairs of two and duke it out all over the ring and all over the floor outside the ring. The fans zone in on some loud “let’s go Cena” and “Cena sucks” dueling chants. The announcers talk about how this is the most significant Money In The Bank ladder match in history, as the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship is up for grabs, and the winner of the match tonight will leave Boston, Massachusetts as the new champ.
The pairings seem to be Cena-Wyatt, Reigns-Kane, Cesaro-Sheamus and Orton-Del Rio early on, however they have been mixing and matching throughout. It’s been made very clear early on that Kane is not so much trying to win this match, as he is trying to make sure everyone but Randy Orton loses. It’s pretty clear early on that Kane’s key objective is to serve as the The Authority’s henchman and do everything possible to ensure Orton walks out of this match as the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
A huge spot happens where Sheamus and Cesaro climb the ladder and end up grabbing a hold of the loop that is securing the title belts above the ring. The ladder is removed from underneath them, so they each dangle above the ring with nothing under them. They both end up holding on with only one arm, as they trade punches while hanging there. Eventually, Sheamus is knocked off and takes a huge bump. Cesaro continues to hang on, but eventually falls down, and is immediately met with a big back-splash by Wyatt.
I must have missed it, but according to the commentators, Orton was busted open pretty bad. A ladder is draped from the Spanish announce table and the ring, creating a bridge effect. The announcers talk about how they are surprised that WWE trainers were able to clean up Orton, who they talk about being busted open earlier. Sheamus takes a big bump on the bridge-ladder setup outside the ring.
Meanwhile, Orton brings the giant, super-sized ladder into the ring. He sets it up underneath the belts in the center of the ring. Orton and Reigns try to climb up the opposite ends of the ladder, however, all of the guys are back in the ring now and they stop both of them. Each guy tries to climb, but gets stopped by someone else. Literally, every person takes a turn trying to climb a few steps, only to be stopped by someone else. That was almost a comedy spot.
Everyone ends up clearing each other out of the ring, as literally no one is in the ring now. Everyone is out selling on the floor as Michael Cole exclaims, “my god, there are bodies laying everywhere!”
Back in the ring, Sheamus and Cesaro are back on their feet. A bridge effect is created with a ladder again, this time in between the giant ladder under the belt and the ropes. Wow, this is hard to even describe. At one point, due to a balance effect, Cesaro is hanging off a ladder that is leaned way over, with Cesaro’s back right above the ring post, with the ladder he’s hanging off of being leaned back in a weird angle. Anyways, it ends up getting straightened back up, so nothing really happened there.
Sheamus climbs up the giant ladder under the belts and gets a hold of the loop, and he dangles off of it momentarily, but Kane yanks him down. Orton clears Sheamus out of the ring and now it’s just Orton and Kane left alone in the ring. Reigns, out of nowhere, spears Kane. Orton follows that up by blasting Reigns with the ladder.
Things work out to where Reigns and Cena are left alone in the ring. They milk the crowd, slowly walking closer to one-another. They eventually start firing punches off back-and-forth, with Cena ultimately hoisting Reigns up for an Attitude Adjustment as the fans boo loudly. Reigns escapes, however, and blasts Cena with a huge spear. The fans explode with cheers.
Reigns and Orton end up trying to climb up the same side of the ladder. They duke it out with punches, and trade turns slamming each other’s faces into the ladder. Orton is busted wide open. Reigns knocks Orrton off of the ladder. Kane knocks Reigns off. Cena hits an A.A. on Kane and then Orton. He climbs the ladder and takes the titles off. John Cena wins. Michael Cole touts John Cena now being a 15-time champion.
Winner and NEW WWE World Heavyweight Champion: John Cena
