After a long stretch of chaos and roster changes WWE TV this week finally settled in to begin the 6 week build toward Money in the Bank. It will be nice to see storylines unfold with some room to breathe, but with a lot of international travel on the schedule they may still find themselves scrambling to accomplish everything they desire.
Fans walk out on Backlash
It wasn’t just the fans at home who responded poorly to the main event match between Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe. Numerous reports from the arena show fans leaving early during the match. Backstage reports indicate that Vince McMahon simply chalked this up to the late run time and fans wanting to get ahead of the traffic so we’re likely to continue seeing booking play out as he sees fit regardless of the continued fan backlash.
Bliss injured?
On Monday WWE reported that former Womens Champion Alexa Bliss had suffered a shoulder injury in her match against current champion Nia Jax on Sunday. At the time there was some speculation that this could simply be a storyline reason to give her a little break from the title scene while Jax moves on to her next challenger. This speculation was further bolstered later in the week when photos surfaced of Bliss working matches in the UK during the companies current tour of that country. We’ll have to wait until next week’s episode of Raw to see if they continue the injury story or reveal that the injury wasn’t as bad as initially reported.
2 more Horsewomen arrive
The remaining half of MMA’s 4 Horsewomen, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, reported to WWE’s Performance Center this week to begin their training. With Duke and Shafir now working at the PC with current NXT Womens Champion Shayna Baszler and Ronda Rousey already part of the Raw roster it’s now a matter of when rather than if we see an eventual feud between the 4 and WWE’s Horsewomen (Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Bayley).
The KO Show renewed
It was reported this week that Kevin Owens has a signed a new contract to stay with WWE for another 5 years.
A true heel
The WWE Network wished NXT’s Tommaso Ciampa a happy birthday on social media recently. In a fun showing of character rarely seen these days, the Sicilian Psychopath responded by blocking them. It’s nice to see a performer willing to be completely hated for a change in an era where heels can too often come off as cool anti-heroes.
When will we see Lesnar again?
Reports indicate that Brock Lesnar is not currently schedule to defend the Universal Title at the Money in the Bank PPV and he may not be back again until Summerslam. While this booking is not surprising for a special attraction like Lesnar it’s a shame that it also means having one of the top titles in the company off of TV for months at a time. Whatever happened to the old rule about titles needing to be defended at least every 30 days?
Florida Mania
Last week news broke that Tampa was trying to get a future Wrestlemania to come to town and this week Orlando has decided to join the mix. Having already played host to 2 Wrestlemanias as well as being the home of NXT and the Performance Center, Orlando should be considered home turf. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it become a frequent locations for big WWE events similar to the way the NYC area has been traditionally.
Charlotte injured
When the company company wraps up its European tour, Charlotte will reportedly go under the knife to repair a ruptured implant. Additionally, on the same day work broke of that surgery, Flair’s teeth were damaged in a match. Hopefully these issues will require limited time off and won’t impact her availability for the Money in the Bank show. On this week’s Smackdown she qualified as a participant in the Womens MitB match.
Money in the Bank Card
Finally, here’s the announced card for the June 17th PPV
Mens MitB Match- Braun Strowman vs Finn Balor vs The Miz vs Rusev (2 more men from each show will be added)
Womens MitB Match- Ember Moon vs Charlotte Flair (3 more women from each show will be added)
