THE WRESTLING REPORT

Money in the Bank is coming!

Cory De La Guardia
May 1, 2019, 5:22 am
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Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.nerdthugradio.com!

The setup for Money in the Bank was in full swing this week as Raw and Smackdown started rolling.

Raw started off strong with the announcement of four contenders for the upcoming Money in the Bank ladder match being announced by Alexa Bliss and then having their own tag match. The highlight of that match for me was watching Baron's partner Drew Mcintyre turning on him mid match. The Usos had a tag match against Gallows and Anderson who honestly I'm not sure anyone asked for a return from. The biggest shock of Raw was the discovery that Bobby Lashley now speaks in third person, that was a tough discovery. Raw then also announced the women's contestants for Money in the bank from Raw which was nice to hear Alexa Bliss be named for it, I hope she gets back to regular competition because the women's division is better for it. Becky Lynch continues to burn across both brands as Becky "2 Belts" aka The Man, it's a beautiful thing she's doing honestly. Quick question, are Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins really the Raw tag team champions? That's weird. So apparently at Money in the Bank we're having another Shane McMahon vs Miz match and we're also going to have a Seth Rollins vs AJ Styles, at least I'm excited about one of those.

Smackdown kicked off with Kofi Kingston laying down some decent promo work in anticipation of his title match at Money in the Bank and Kevin Owens knocked another one out of the park which is a great beginning. The Hardy's having to give up the tag titles was a bit of a disappointment, but this is an issue that I've been talking about on Smackdown for awhile, these older superstars are more likely to break down and that's why Smackdown needs to get some more youth into its roster. Also, Lars Sullivan is the most boring "scary" guy ever, this is just Braun Stroman but less intimidating. As Smackdown announces their list of men entering the 8 man Money in the Bank ladder match, it's actually looking like an interesting match and secretly my hope is for either Randy Orton to win so he can finally have some kind of direction. For the last two years he's basically been showing up when he wants and then just disappearing for a few weeks and then coming back randomly, it's been kind of annoying. Another announcement for Money in the bank is the entry of Mandy Rose, splitting Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville after splitting the Riott Squad but on the heels of creating a women's tag team is a little bit confusing as there aren't a lot of solid women's tag teams.

Overall this was another good week as momentum begins building towards the next big event.

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Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.nerdthugradio.com!

So there's a ton that happened this week and not all of it on just Raw and Smackdown. Let's get to the big announcement first, NXT will be leaving the WWE Network and coming to USA Network and directly competing against AEW on Wednesday nights. Also, NXT will begin touring the country like the Red and Blue brands to give more exposure to these lesser wrestlers and help grow the brand overall. I've always said one of the hurdles an NXT call up has to deal with when they come up is that they aren't nationally known, so sure they pop in Florida where NXT films every month, but how do they play when they're seen for the first time in the Midwest? That's not going to be a problem anymore which will make some of these guys journeys much easier. The choice to compete with AEW I think is their mistake. I think if people have to choose between two things they don't know, they are more likely to give the complete unknown the try rather than the third WWE show, I might be wrong but that's just how I feel.

The other thing I wanted to mention was WWE did a house show here in Houston on Saturday and this is the perfect opportunity to talk about how crazy the WWE schedule is. This is an untelevised show, with guys like Randy Orton, Kevin Owens and Charlotte Flair among other big name stars doing matches, they were flying in from Orlando, doing this show and going right back on the road for Raw on Monday night. This is where the road takes its toll on WWE superstars. When it was reported that Dean Ambrose did 200 matches in one year and you start adding it up, even if he was on every Raw and Smackdown that's only 104 shows. The number of house shows these guys do is insane and it's part of how they make their business work but still, the travel and the wear and tear is incredible.

This week on the shows they began the King of the Ring contest, this is something they never should have gotten away from. King of the Ring is just one of those iconic WWE things that should always be an active part of the brand and I'm glad they brought it back. From both shows the things that stick out the most to me is the Kofi getting tough with Randy Orton, Bayley getting a little rough with Charlotte and I'm so damn tired of the Roman Reigns storyline. I do like Seth and Brawn winning the tag titles, and I hope they let this have a nice long simmer before these two match up for Seth's title eventually.

Feel free to check out my brand new comic book Another Day at the Office email me for details or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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