The WWE Universe has our first ever Ms. Money in the Bank & our very own Brandon Ewing explains why Carmella’s brilliance between both Money in the Bank matches may have made all the difference.
Heading into this year’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view extravaganza, a lot of speculation began to mount as to what the WWE would do. WWE, much to the surprise of a few yet a concept that many have dreamed and wanted for years, pulled the trigger on a first ever Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder match.
The ladder match would pit five of the top superstars on the SmackDown Live roster, which isn’t saying much.
After all, the roster is lacking in numbers as everyone was included in the match for the exception of SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi and her challenger, “The Ravishing Russian” Lana for the evening.
The five women included in the contest were:
Natalya, a woman many internet darlings and die hard fans christened as the woman who should be one of the likely candidates to win the match.
Tamina, who had just returned from an injury and was looking to leave her mark on the roster in order to prove herself as a heavy hitter in the Women’s Division.
Becky Lynch, the prized jewel (babyface) of the roster that had her shares of ups and downs since the initiation of the brand split last year, in spite of becoming the first Women’s Champion for SmackDown Live.
Charlotte Flair, the heir apparent to the legacy of her father, “Nature Boy” Ric Flair and the woman who dominated the RAW Women’s Division last year. To many fans, she was going to be the victor and make wrestling history.
Finally, there’s Carmella. A woman whom many felt was an unlikely candidate to the win the match but held a good chance as long as her pet James Ellsworth was around. Needless to say, the thoughts of Carmella walking out as Ms. Money in the Bank were fairly low in people’s eyes.
WWE Money in the Bank came and went. The event was a mixed bag to some and a home run to others. The talk of the night came in the form of the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match.
However, the talk wasn’t about the how the actual match itself came off, but rather the controversial ending as seen below:
Now, before I go any further allow me to comment and elaborate on the end result of this compelling, buzz-worthy finish.
I have to say that I did select Carmella as my favorite to win the match. My instinct was to see Carmella use some sort of underhanded tactic to 1-up one of the key faces in the match-up (let’s say, Charlotte Flair as per example) with some obvious assistance from James Ellsworth, the latter of which was going to happen no matter what as long as he was at ringside.
Once I watched in amazement and saw how WWE went with the finish, I was likely one of the minority that believed the finish was absolutely BRILLIANT! I’ll admit, I loved it!
Why did I love the finish?
The finish was simple, perfect and it achieved everything the WWE would want. Simple, as in the finish was constructed in a way that it would bring monumental heat to both Carmella and of course James Ellsworth. People were irate, mad, pissed off, angry, you get the idea. This spread all over social media. Twitter posts. Facebook posts. Everyone was talking and buzzing about this. And guess what?
WWE got you all, hook line and sinker. Carmella elevated herself in a span of 48 hrs between Money in the Bank and the upcoming SmackDown Live that would follow thereafter. She used her boy toy James Ellsworth as a puppet. Pulling the strings to watch him climb the ladder and pull down the briefcase for her to become the first ever Women’s Money in the Bank.
WWE set out to make Carmella (presumingly) as their new number one heel for the SmackDown Live Women’s roster and it worked like a charm. Everyone hated her. Wrestling fans across the globe, the die-hards and average fans, felt she and Ellsworth ruined the integrity of the match. How dare they destroy what the fans wanted to see and rob them out of a clear cut victory for the other women who were robbed on that very night!
No matter, because at the end of the day, all eyes were on Carmella, James Ellsworth, SmackDown Live and of course, WWE!
Fast forward to SmackDown Live on the following Tuesday:
Carmella hit the nail right on the head and hit a grand slam, capitalizing on the fact that all ladder matches are indeed “No Disqualification”, therefore why not take advantage of the loophole and let James Ellsworth do her bidding?
It worked perfectly to a tee and her promo pissed off the WWE Universe even more. And, of course, later on we would get a response from SmackDown Live GM, Daniel Bryan, in which he would do the quote unquote “right thing” by the WWE Universe and it’s Women’s division by booking a rematch for next week’s show.
However, there had to be one catch to this… and that was seeing James Ellsworth banned from ringside. Making the match truly a level playing field for all participants involved. However, as the match would play-out, as shown in the highlights below:
James Ellsworth would get involved yet again, only for his attempts to backfire and send him flying to the top rope, crotch first. Carmella would go on to win the rematch after taking out Becky Lynch with a steel chair and recapturing the Money in the Bank briefcase. Now the dust had settled and the smoke was cleared, Carmella came out victorious yet again and proved her worth as a legit, scheming, underhanded heel that would do anything to get her way and to rise to the top of the Women’s Division.
In conclusion, I feel WWE used the rematch as a cheap ratings ploy to boost their numbers and by giving away a high profile match on free television. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but do you think it ruins the credibility of the match itself? Shouldn’t WWE have just kept things as they were, allowing Carmella to ride off that huge wave of controversy by holding on to her briefcase with no rematch clause happening in order to boost her heat to a new high?
The ratings remained the same as they were for the June 20th edition of SmackDown Live, remaining at 2.6 million viewers. The needle obviously did not move in either direction. The match, in my view, should never have happened again in the first place. I felt the original contest was good. The finish was brilliantly executed. There was no need for a rematch and I felt WWE buckled under pressure by giving the “IWC” what they bitched & moaned about.
Carmella retained most of her heat, but it could have easily went bad had WWE decided to not give her the briefcase in the second and definitive match-up on SmackDown Live.
What are your thoughts, WWE Universe? Let us know on Twitter and on Facebook at the links below. Until then, I’ll see you next time!
