Weekly Watchlist 004 - July 7 2024

 A new month, another weekly watchlist! This time, with a twist!

I mentioned that this weeks watchlist was going to be a special one, and I really didn't know what that meant until I started writing out this review. I just knew that I had to do something. Why, you may be asking? Well, dear reader, let me tell you.

I was at Money in the Bank 2024 live in Toronto! The show wasn't all too far from where your esteemed reviewer lives and after my partner was able to pick up a pair of seats for a decent price, we made our way to the big city saturday night.

Editors note: The date of this weekly watchlist is dated after Money in the Bank, June 6 2024. The weekly watchlist goes live every saturday morning at 7am, so there was no way I would be able to include it in the previous weeks watchlist, and I start my next week the day after. 

My partner and I were really excited for the show. The last live wrestling show I was at was when AEW Collision came to Toronto for the first time, and her last wrestling show was when AEW Dynamite came to Toronto for the first time as well. Before that? I really want to say TakeOver: Toronto 2019. We had our winners picked, our shocking predictions in mind, and were ready to enjoy the show.

With all that preamble out of the way, let me quickly go over how I'm going to handle this weekly watchlist. I'm going to go over Money in the Bank from top to bottom and review every match, as well as one promo, but I wont be going into nearly as much detail as I would for a usual review in the watchlist. I just don't have the time or energy to go that in depth for a 5 match card. I figure I'll be able to give a fairly unique perspective on the show being there live, and may even interject some things I notice when I watch back parts of it on the network through the week.

 

 

With all that done and out of the way, here's everything I watched for the week:

 

LA Knight v Andrade v Jey Uso v Chad Gable v Carmelo Hayes v Drew McIntyre - Ladder Match

What a fun way to start the show. WWE

 

The mens ladder match kicked the show off with Jey Uso making his entrance through the crowd and folks, let me just say, I get it. I may not like it, but I get it. Its a real shame that an honestly competent singles wrestler, someone who looked like an abolute star during the early days of the Bloodline storyline, has been boiled down to a single word, and thats all he can be now. "Yeet" was the deathnail in the career of Jey, and yet, hes without a doubt one of the biggest stars in the company. It completely boggles the mind. But when you stand among 20,000 people, all of them singing, dancing, and chanting along with him, you start to understand why. 

LA Knight was another absolute star with an ovation thats hard to top or even describe. You just kinda need to be in the building when Samantha Irvin announces "L-A Knight" and the building booms with "YEAH." God, what a feeling. 

McIntyre got another big reaction, being the last guy to come out, and you could feel the wave of the crowd as more and more people started chanting "CM Punk" as he confidently and, almost arrogantly, came down to the ring. Defiant as ever.

The match started with a brawl, with 2 to 3 guys taking their turns in the centre of the ring having a back and forth. McIntyre is the first to set up a ladder and start the climb but Gable meets him near the top and is able to get him in a disgusting looking armbar. Andrade springboards in and leg drops Gable while he's upside down in the ladder. This is just the beginning of a bad night for Gable.

But, its not entirely bad for the Shoosh man, Gable plants Jey with a German suplex, picks McIntyre off the canvas with insane ease into a second German, and finally catches Hayes off a springboard, before running him into the corner and rolling back for a beautiful Chaos Theory suplex. His flurry comes to an end when he snatches a corner laying against the bottom turnbuckle and suplex's it onto a prone Andrade. Wrestling for the sicko's I see, I respect it, Gable.

Andrade meets Hayes at the top of the ladder and does a spot I feel like he's done in every single ladder match I've seen him in for the past 6 years. Andrade leaps over the back of Hayes and sunset flip powerbomb's him through a ladder bridged between the ropes. It always looks gnarly, but is that Andrade's favourite spot or something? Gotta be.

Gable finally gets a chance at the briefcase all alone, climbing all the way to the top and grabbing hold of the big golden coathanger as Jay slips back into the ring and snatches the ladder out from under him. When I tell you this looked absolutely insane in person, my god do I mean it. Gable is now hanging on for dear life some 15 feet above the ring, swinging back and forth wildly before finally letting go and crashing back down in the ring with a huge crash. 

Jey seizes the opportunity and climbs the ladder, making it all the way to the top before a crazed Scotsman hurls a ladder like a goddamn javelin at the face of Jey, connecting clush and sending him flying off the ladder. Absolutely beautiful. A claymore yeet's Yeet-man through the middle rope, and McIntyre climbs all the way to the top and retrieves the briefcase. Awesome stuff.

 

Victory, for Scotland. WWE

My fiance and I really enjoyed this match a lot. She's a big LA Knight and McIntyre fan so getting to see those two live was a real treat for her. We were loud and ready for everything they did, and the whole crowd was so into this match for everything they did. I distinctly remember telling her after Drew won "he promised that if he won, he was going to cash it in... I hope we hear that music 2 more times tonight." Turns out I was only half right.

Sami Zayn v Bron Breakker

*Barking intensifies* WWE

To the guy sitting behind us, you matched our energy perfectly and I really felt a kindred spirit with you and your girlfriend. You guys rocked. Especially during this match. I've made it no secret that Breakker is one of my favorite dudes in the business right now, and Sami has been one of my guys since I started watching again. Us ska fans gotta stick together. 

When the graphic for this match played, there was a collective "ooooohhhh!!" throughout the crowd. People were ready for this to be a bloodbath, for Sami to get completely dismantled. To see Breakker annihilate everyone's hero, the unbreakable underdog. And, while that didn't happen, I wouldn't believe everyone on twitter when they say "we hate this match! Everyone does! Breakker is ruined!!"

Breakker comes out first and the dogs were LOUD man. I mean, I was and the dude behind me were. Just a pair of rabid hounds. Which made things difficult when I tried to sing along to Sami's music and my voice started to give out. Match 2 and I can barely talk, hell yeah brother. 

There was a pretty clear and distinct story being told here, experience vs power. Breakker beats down Sami right from the start, suplex's, a massive lariat after rebounding off the ropes 3 times and colliding like a freight train. Watching Breakker hit the ropes in person was completely unbelievable, nobody should be able to move like that. Sami has glimmers of hope at the start, but its not looking good. 

Sami starts making himself openings to get back at Breakker, spiking him with a crazy tornado DDT and keeping him outside the ring. He's got Breakker lined up for his through-the-corner tornado DDT (the one he did against Cesaro in there insane NXT2 out of 3 falls match in 2013, you know the one) but Breakker flattens him with another huge lariat. 

Breakker tries to spear Sami __ different times, even going around the ring to try and cut him in half, only for Sami to jump out of the way and let him collide with the steps. Each time he tries the spear, Sami catches the oncoming Breakker with a jumping knee, knocking him loopy. The final time ends up costing him, as he pulls himself up in the corner, dazed from eating a knee, and gets a Helluva kick for his troubles and is pinned for 3.

The underdog retains. WWE

 

Overall, the match was pretty tight and really good, never felt like it went on too long or went too overboard with kickouts, counters, or crazy spots. While I wish Breakker won,  I'm not nearly as bent out of shape as everyone else is about this. "Sami Hogan" is a 22 year veteran, (half of those years with WWE) wether fans want to accept that he's a vet or not, and Breakker has just barely cracked 100 matches in his entire career. Sure, these stats really don't matter in the long run, anybody can beat anybody, but the story told in these 13 minutes is the veteran was able to outfox the over confident young blood. If he was able to catch Sami with the spear, it would have been curtains for sure, but he needed to find the right moment and, unfortunately, he couldn't in Toronto.

 

The Return

One of the few benefits to modern WWE PPV's (or PLE's, as I've been told they're called now) is that there are these massive, commercial filled breaks between matches that can take like, 20 whole minutes! Its great! (see "sarcasm" in the dictionary if what I've just said confused you). 

While I hate this when I'm watching at home, its great when you're live in the arena because its the perfect amount of time to wait in line for a snack and a bathroom break. My fiance and I went to grab some popcorn, a refill on our waters, and a trip to our respective facilities. While I was waiting for the john to open up, I hear a familiar song booming through the walls. An iconic bass beat thumping, and the entire mens room clues in at the same time; "holy fuck!! Thats John Cena!" 

WHAAAAT?! WWE

 

I charge out the mens room and my missus has reached the counter for our snacks, and she echoes the rest of the building in saying "thats John Cena's music!" We grab our food and dart back to our seats as John announced "tonight I officially announce my retirement from WWE."

"WHAT?!" my fiance shouts, as we climb the final step into the arena, seeing Cena standing in the center of the ring, an unease murmur fills Scotiabank Arena. We make it to our seats and sit in silence as we listen to what he has to say. He wanted to make the announcement in Toronto because we always show up and are always loud, and by god were we. He said he'd go over the details of his retirement at the post show (I didn't watch it, but you can find what he said online, this is getting too wordy already) but said Wrestlemania 41 would be his last Wrestlemania. 

Seeing Cena was an absolute shock, I don't think anybody expected him to show up, let alone announce his retirement! John Cena's retirement tour is gonna be something else, man. Hard to believe 2025 is gonan be his last year. 

Damian Priest v Seth Rollins

Burnt out, but still excited. WWE

Sorry to say but at this point in the show, I was kinda tapped out. The first 2 matches were so much fun for me to watch, I basically lost my voice barking and singing in the match before, and Cena announcing his retirement really took a lot out of me. Combine that with the headache I think I just realized I was getting and I just didn't have it for this match. And the crowd didn't really either, it felt kinda sleepy in the arena for this one.

Which really sucks, because I really like Priest! I'm well and truly over Rollins, he got nothing from me when he came out. There was a time I was prepared to make the case he was one of the best wrestlers in the world, at least in the WWE, but I can't help but feel like he's really phoned it in for years now. I struggle to really remember the last Rollins match that blew my hair back and had me wanting more. 

Rollins and Priest start heavy from the opening bell, hitting each other fast and heavy.  They both keep the pressure on when they get the other guy rocked, but they seriously cannot help but look up the ramp every chance they get to see if McIntyre is coming down. Sharp minds will remember when Drew said "if I win on saturday, I'm cashing in that night," and that idea loomed over this entire match, for every single person in the arena. 

Seth even goes so far as to call out Drew after sending Priest to the outside, before hitting him with the good 'ol triple suicide dives. The action pick up when Priest starts slapping the dogshit out of Rollins and the two trade forearms and kicks in the centre of the ring, its honestly the best part of the whole match. Priest tries to climb to the top but Rollins chases after him, picking him up for a superplex and a falcon arrow for the pin. The ref counts 1, then 2, then... nothing! He stops! Priest doesn't kick out, the ref stops cold, and everyone is confused. Way to let whatever air you had in the balloon out in half a second, just completely took this match, that was already pretty shaky to begin with, right off the rails. All seemed lost, when suddenly...

Drew McIntyre makes good on his promise and cashes in.

 

Damian Priest v Seth Rollins v Drew McIntyre

Making good on his promise. WWE

The crowd is electric as soon as his music booms through the speakers. I find it in me to care once again as I scream "walk faster Drew! Move! Get down there man! Move faster damn you!" He sadly was unable to hear me, I fear. 

Drew is fresh and prepared, trying for the Claymore but gets cut off, until he is able to drop Rollins on his head with Future Shock. He tries for the Claymore again but Priest gets in this time! A Claymore drops the champion near the ropes, and as McIntyre pulls his lifeless corpse to the centre, none other than Mr. Pepsi himself, CM Punk charges in and clobbers McIntyre. 

He bends a chair over his back at ringside, strangles him with a cord, and cracks him in the skull with the world title when he finally stumbles back into the ring in a vain attempt to try and make his cash-in successful. But is proves pointless, as Priest plants Drew with South of Heaven for the 3.

Priest's face tells the whole story. WWE

 

God, I feel bad for this match man. Like, I really do. 

Priest and Rollins weren't that good, and I wish I could give a reason why, but it just didn't click at all. Is it because Seth's style is so played out that its hard to get invested in anything he does anymore? Maybe. Is Priest just not world champion material? Could be, but I've been more than willing to give him a chance. Did Drew winning the briefcase and cashing in only for it to go south in less time than it takes to climb a damn ladder feel utterly pointless? I think it does, yes! Did the focus of the world title match need to go from Priest, the retaining champion to Punk, the guy who just screwed McIntyre again? Absolutely not!

Punk and McIntyre didn't need this extra wrinkle in their feud. They both had enough justification and anger to want to kill each other the first chance that they get, so this was completely unnecessary. And to cap it all off, what happened to Priest?! He wins the match, holds his title high, and off ya go kid! We gotta see what Punk is gonna do now, get the camera on him! I watched both the jumbotron and Priest during the entire end of this match, and not once did the camera show him standing at the top of the ramp, holding the world title in victory. And he stood there for a long, long time. Held it high in victory, nothing, not one shot. We got the standoff between Rolling and Punk, we got McIntyre rolling around in agony, but the world champion got snubbed. For what? Extra layers to an already boiling hot blood feud? Bad call. 

Naomi v IYO SKY v Chelsea Green v Lyra Valkyria v Tiffany Stratton v Zoey Stark - Ladder Match

 

Heads up guys, match of the night incoming. WWE

The womens Money in the Bank match was one I was still deciding on who might win as we made it into Scotiabank arena. It felt like it had the most top contenders in it, whereas the mens only came down to two or three, in my opinion. I could easily see any one of these women holding the briefcase and making a good case as to why, but my front runners were Chelsea Green and Tiffany Stratton. As far as who I was rooting for the night of? I can't remember now, I'm writing this in the middle of the week now. 

The arena was super behind both Chelsea and Stratton, no surprise really when both have been killing it in their roles on the main roster, with Chelsea especially shining whenever she's on camera. Being Canadian obviously helped win the crowd over too. 

The running thread throughout this match was Chelsea and her (possibly real?)  fear of heights. She gets opportunities throughout the match to climb the ladder when she's all alone in the ring and she needs to psyche herself up to even climb a few rungs, and each time the crowd is electric. Screaming in support of Chelsea, encouraging her to climb higher and grab the briefcase. 

The ladies started out in usual multi-person match fashion, taking turns squaring off in the ring and using the ladders in various ways to damage their opponents. There are a few botches and mishaps near the start that kinda half momentum for a couple minutes, but once the kinks get worked out, these ladies are giving it their all this entire match. I think its safe to say this ladder match absolutely stole the show. 

The match really turned around when Stratton picked up Naomi for a cartwheel-into-alabama slam on the ladder, followed up by using a ladder leaned up in the corner against IYO as a ramp to dive onto the competition on the outside. 

Naomi sets up a second ladder beside the first one set up in the ring and starts to climb for the briefcase, fending off attackers with kicks that have her standing on both ladders at once. Stratton and Stark decide they want to see how flexible she really is as they start pulling the ladders away from each other, forcing her to slowly fall into a suspended split. I thought, for some reason, she'd pick someone up and suplex them while suspended, because her entire body wouldn't absolutley break in half from how insane that is. No, instead she drops Stark on her head wirh a DDT, a far more reasonable thing to do.

Working together on the outside, Chelsea and Stratton set up a pair of tables and, maybe its just me, but the exact moment I saw those two tables set up, I knew what was going to happen. I could feel it in my soul. Whehn those two finished setting the table, they returned to the ring and helped the rest set up the rest of the ladder contraption. With 2 ladders set in the middle and a ladder suspended against the middle rope, the field was set for the final sprint of carnage.

Stark started by slingshotting Stratton into the underside of one ladder, only to climb and meet Lyra halfway to the briefcase and powerbomb her onto that same ladder. In what is, somehow, the second craziest spot of this entire match, IYO pulls Stark over the top of the ladder in a tombstone-like position and fucking powerslams her on the horizontal ladder. Completely disgusting, I loved it so much.

Finally mustering up the courage to climb all the way to the top, Chelsea is able to actually open the carabiner that holds the briefcase, but is stopped just short of pulling it down by Stratton. 

You guys ever watch that one Impact match from a few years ago? Ok, I guess I'm being too vague. You guys ever watch Slammiversary 2022 where Chelsea Green and Deonna Purrazzo found themselves together at the top of a ladder together? Well, wouldn't you know that the ladder got pushed over and the pair went flying to the floor and crashed through a pair of tables. Almost identical to what happened at Money in the Bank. Now, don't take this as me being negative, I loved this moment! It was brutal, it was amazing, it was insane! Chelsea is an absolute ace for taking this bump, she deserves so much praise for her work. 

When the dust settles and we can focus on the match at hand again, we find Stratton at the top of the ladder and the briefcase held high. I feel like she was my pick when the bell rang for this match after flip-flopping between Chelsea Green for the days leading up to the show. I really hope Stratton holds it for a while before cashing in, having Money in the Bank as a constant, looming threat is such a fun concept and I wish they'd have more instances where both cases are in play at the same time for at least like, 6 months.

Tiffy in the Bank is leagues better than Yeet in the Bank. WWE

 

One final detail I noticed at the end of this match was when Stratton finally grabbed the briefcase, IYO still made an effort to get to the ladder and act like she was still trying to climb for the save, holding onto the very bottom rung. I'd put good money on IYO doing that purely to make sure the ladder was going to wobble less for Stratton while she was up top. The mark of a pro.

 

Cody Rhodes, Kevin Owens & Randy Orton v The Bloodline 

 

Owens is laser focused on the Bloodline. WWE

Here we are, ladies and gents, its main event time! 

I'll be honest, the womens ladder match perked me up quite a bit and I was ready for this match. Kind of a shame what happened, but lets not get too ahead of ourselves here.

 The Bloodline came out first to a wall of hate, the entire arena was ready to just lay into Solo and the gang. "Fuck you Solo" was a constant chant in this match and it started as soon as they parted the curtain. Its a shame too, I kinda dig his entrance song.

Owens comes out first for his team and my fiance completely loses her shit. I'd always known she was a fan of KO, but seeing him live in a big, main event match like this had her really pumped up. Did I just say pumped up? I must be talking about Randy Orton! My god this dude is enormous, absolutely bulging at the seams, the most natty wrestler going right now, hands down. Singing along to his song was pretty fun, he's been stretching his entrances out longer and longer lately so we got plenty of time to sing. Now, we can't talk about singing entrances without bringing up the man himself, the big champ, Cody Rhodes. I recorded his whole entrance and kept back to let my girl hit the "woah" arms (you know the ones) and Toronto, you did not disappoint. The volume, the energy, the wall of sound that was created. I don't think I'll ever forget that feeling as long as I lived. Put "Cody Rhodes entrance live as Undisputed WWE Champion" on your bucket list and thank me later.

 I'd love to give a better play-by-play for this match but I'll be completely, 100% honest, I did not enjoy this. I feel really, really bad for saying that, but this match just dragged and dragged and was not that good, man. (I just checked the time for this match, 25 minutes. Sounds about right to me)

Owens is absolutely rabid in this match, taking it to whoever he meets in the ring from the Bloodline's side, fighting them tooth and nail. Orton is in early and is the first to lock horns with "The Samoan Werewolf," Jacob Fatu. He tries a draping DDT early on to try and keep him down but, clearly, he forgot that Samoan's have thick fucking skulls! Fatu stands up immediately as Orton drops down for an RKO and sees only boots. 

Owens gets tagged in after the Bloodline beat down Orton some more and its all Bloodline from this point on. Owens gets a few moments of hope here and these, but I was really fading during this extended beatdown. I'm all for heel's beating down the face so the good guys can get the valiant hot tag, but when it's teased and taken from us as often as this was, I kinda stop caring after a while, sorry to say. 

Finally, mercifully, Rhodes gets tagged in and hits the classics. A Disaster kick, Cody Cutter, and a pair of suicide dives that nearly claims toe life of Tonga Loa. Seriously, it sounds bad on the network version of the show when his head hits the table, but it somehow sounded just as bad live. Disgusting, really hope Tonga Loa is ok after that crash. 

Back inside the ring, Rhodes goes for a pedigree but Sikoa fights out and tries to spike Rhodes, but he ducks out of the way and clobbers the referee. By this point, I was tapped out, hoping that we'd get a surprise return from Reigns, just like everyone else in Toronto. But no, just more of the usual Bloodline beatdown. No ref, nobody to stop them, just a mugging outside the ring. Owens was able to splash Fatu through the table on the outside, which was real satisfying to see. He even managed to get Tama Tonga alone in the ring and picked him up for a package piledriver. Only for Tonga Loa, with whatever brain power he had left, to slide in and low blo- nope, missed the first time. But the second time he tried, he's successful in cracking Owens in the jewels.

With Cody and Solo alone in the ring, he gets planted with 2 Cross Rhodes in a row. As he sets up for the third and, what you can only imagine, final Cross Rhodes, Fatu runs behind Cody and climbs the turnbuckle, diving off the top for a massive Whisper in the Wind. Dazed, Cody gets back to his feet only to eat a samoan spike for the 3. 

 

Once the ref was killed, this match was a done deal. WWE

 And that was it, folks! The show closes with Solo and the Bloodline standing tall and Cody's team left to pick up the pieces, probably setting up for Cody/Solo at SummerSlam as the rumour mill is suggesting. The show ended for is fans in the arena with a lovely little Kevin Owens promo, saying that this week has been the hardest for him personally in his entire career, and he couldn't have done it without the support of Orton and Cody, "two guy's that I'd take a bullet for." They hug, no Orton turn either like people were starting to anticipate, just curtains.

Overall, we really enjoyed this show a lot. I can't say it was perfect, and at times it wasn't that good,  but the live atmosphere and being there with my favourite person really helped elevate what would have been a mediocre, or even bad show if I were to watch it at home by myself, to one that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

And that does it for my weekly watchlist! Wow, what a behemoth of a post. If you made it to the end and read everything I typed out over the past 3 days, kudos to you. Come collect your gold star after class, shoot me an email so I know who to congratulate. cliffmorganwstl@gmail.com. Don't expect these kinds of posts often, but I hope to go to more live shows in the future when they are in my area and I'll probably give them the same treatment as this one. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled watchlist next week.

 

Until then folks, take it easy.

Cliff Morgan