Money In The Bank 2013

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 181 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: September 23 2013

With a star-studded line-up and some very good matches, Money In The Bank 2013 is a great event to relive on DVD. It doesn't quite match the standard of the famous 2011 MITB card, but it does come close.

The opening seven-man MITB Ladder match had the weird aspect of only featuring heels, but this doesn't affect the quality, which is top-notch throughout. Curtis Axel vs. The Miz is adequate if ultimately inconsequential, since Axel's chances of losing his Intercontinental Title were low. AJ Lee vs. Kaitlyn is another really enjoyable entry into their surprisingly powerful rivalry, and whilst Chris Jericho vs. Ryback won't win any Match Of The Year awards, it's worth watching at the same time.

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Money In The Bank 2014

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 185 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: September 15 2014

More than in any other year, Money In The Bank 2014 is all about the Ladder matches. Both are exciting battles, and with one additional thriller on the under-card, MITB 2014 makes for an enjoyable wrestling DVD.

The non-Ladder highlight of the show is the opening Tag Team Title clash between The Usos and the team of Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, which greatly exceeds expectations. A short Paige-Naomi bout is not exactly a classic; even Cameron at ringside looks bored (although this indifference was used to set up Cameron's heel turn). Damien Sandow vs. Adam Rose is another short match, the first of two comedy bouts on the show. At this point, the show is dragging badly, but things turn around with an excellent MITB Ladder match involving Seth Rollins (who takes a jaw-dropping backdrop off a ladder onto another ladder), Dean Ambrose, Rob Van Dam, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler. That the match is built around the Rollins-Ambrose feud gives this a different flavour to previous MITB Ladder matches, and the stunts catapult this into being a very enjoyable thrill-ride.

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Money In The Bank 2015

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 184 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: August 24 2015

(To read a full event review of WWE Money In The Bank 2015, click here.)

Money In The Bank has generally been one of the best WWE events each year since it began, and the 2015 show was no different. The DVD of the card is now available, and there are three major matches which make the sixth MITB PPV another memorable instalment. Since it took place days after the tragic passing of Dusty Rhodes, the show opens with a ten-ball salute, and later we get a very good video tribute to the American Dream.

In the ring, besides the Kick-Off Show bout between King Barrett and "King What's Up" R-Truth (which is here as a DVD extra), the action begins with the 2015 MITB Ladder match (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus vs. Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Neville vs. Kane vs. Dolph Ziggler) which is a great start to proceedings, even if the match is a shade inferior to the 2014 MITB encounter. Nikki Bella vs. Paige is a good effort despite the screwy ending, and the Ryback-Big Show bout also has a questionable finish, although The Big Guy and The Very Big Guy make the most of their fairly short time before the conclusion.

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Money In The Bank 2016

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Fetch Publicity

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 198 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: August 22 2016

(To read a full event review of WWE Money In The Bank 2016, click here.)

(Thanks to Fetch Publicity for arranging this review.)

Hyped up as "the greatest Money In The Bank Pay-Per-View in history", MITB 2016 didn't quite surpass the outstanding 2011 card, which had several high-quality matches and was capped off by the unforgettable John Cena-CM Punk main event. It was, however, the best supershow of the year thus far, and the DVD release allows you to relive this memorable event.

The opening Fatal Four Way match for the WWE Tag Team Titles, pitting The New Day against Enzo and Cass, Gallows and Anderson and The Vaudevillains, is a good opening contest and, despite some botches near the end (one of which, by Gallows, was so obvious on the night that it has been edited out here), the participants maintain crowd interest all the way. Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler came after their rivalry had peaked, making this a satisfactory yet ultimately unwanted match to those in attendance. The women's tag bout (Charlotte and Dana Brooke vs. Becky Lynch and Charlotte) is okay but feels more like a Raw match, although it does have an unexpected twist after the finish.

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WWE Money In The Bank 2016

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Champions Of The Champions

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: June 19 2016
Location: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Attendance: 14,000

In the run-up to the latest supershow, WWE was hyping it as "the greatest Money In The Bank PPV ever". The card certainly looked promising beforehand, with two potentially great singles matches and the annual MITB Ladder war. But, like with the "New Era" talk, it was WWE overdoing the self-promotion rather than letting the fans decide (it hadn't even happened when WWE was stating this about the card). As things transpired, it was definitely a night to remember as the main matches lived up to the hype, and there was a major development to end the show - but was it truly the best MITB to date?

On the Kick-Off show, we had two matches on this occasion, both of which were tag team matches (incidentally, Jerry Lawler was absent from the pre-show due to a suspension brought about by problems at home). The first pitted Breezango against The Golden Truth. Goldust and R-Truth have had a very slow build to the formation of their comedy tag team, and once they did form, they have lost multiple times to the new combo of Tyler Breeze and Fandango. But Breezango were at a big disadvantage here because, the previous Monday, they had been sharing a sunbed at the same time (which was funny in itself) and GT turned up the heat quite literally, resulting in them supposedly being near-burned to a crisp. This made them look ridiculous (think Rodney Trotter in the hang-gliding episode of Only Fools and Horses), and made even their slightest movements painful for the heels to absorb. Admittedly, this did raise a few laughs before Goldust finished off Fandango with the Final Cut (or whatever Goldust calls his finisher these days) to finally get a win for The Golden Truth.

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WWE Money In The Bank 2013

Image Source: Wrestling
DVD Network

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: July 14 2013
Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Attendance: 15,000

Having been the recipient of its own PPV event for four years now, and with the match having originally debuted back in 2005, it's safe to say that the Money In The Bank Ladder match, as an entertainment spectacle, has probably passed its peak. Whereas the early bouts (held annually at WrestleMania) were about showcasing the young talent who could potentially become future main eventers, in an environment which suited their athletic styles, since 2010 the MITB PPV has seen twice as many matches of this nature, thus partly diluting each one, whilst also casting either headliners who need not require MITB to get ahead or performers whose size or style do not make them suitable participants to what is, at its essence, a stunt match.

Fortunately, though, there are enough worthy performers whose styles do suit the environment and their creativity has been of a high enough standard that the Money In The Bank Ladder match remains one of the must-see matches of the year, perhaps only behind the Royal Rumble match and the featured bouts at WrestleMania. This year, there were once again two MITB bouts, each with a very different casting, but with both promising plenty of thrills and spills. And the match does still provide a boost to the winner when the briefcase ends up in the right hands, meaning that there is still genuine intrigue to the results of these matches; and, again, the casts on this particular night offered up some intriguing possibilities if they were to win. So, plenty to look forward to then, even if the stipulation has lost some of the appeal that it once had. Add to that the return of Rob Van Dam to WWE in one of those bouts, two World Title bouts and some potentially exciting mid-card bouts, and you have the makings of what could be a pretty memorable PPV extravaganza.

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WWE Money In The Bank 2014

Image Source: WWE

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: June 29 2014
Location: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Attendance: 15,653

The fifth annual Money In The Bank supershow was preceded by the unfortunate news that Daniel Bryan's neck injury, which was originally supposed to keep him out of action for only a matter of weeks, would now put him on the shelf for months, meaning that he was forced to relinquish the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. It's a shame that Bryan's hugely memorable title win at WrestleMania XXX ultimately led to a short reign due to injury, but it's hoped that the long rest will be enough for Bryan to fully recover and come back better and healthier than ever, whenever that might be.

Bryan's injury meant that the vacant title would be decided in an eight-man Ladder match at MITB (he would have defended the gold against Kane in a Stretcher match had he been cleared for a return to the ring). Whilst there was intrigue over who might win the championship, a quick analysis of the contenders (and of the roster in general) meant that there was only ever likely to be one winner, especially after the apparent leaking of a poster for SummerSlam which appeared to give away the planned main event for the biggest show of the summer. Let's keep tight-lipped about that for now until things properly develop, and we'll stick to Money In The Bank and the crowning of a new WWE Champion.

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WWE Money In The Bank 2015

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Champions Of The Champions

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: June 14 2015
Location: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Attendance: 15,277

Money In The Bank has often been one of the top WWE Pay-Per-View events of the year. This year, the card promised two Ladder matches (one of which was MITB) and a rematch of John Cena-Kevin Owens from Elimination Chamber. Combined with a number of under-card matches, then, expectations were fairly high going into this show that it would be a barnburner. In the end, though, I felt that while there was a true Match Of The Year contender and the action was largely good, the show overall still felt slightly underwhelming, and while it was by no means a bad card, it had a couple of flaws preventing it from being a truly memorable event.

Money In The Bank began, rightly, by paying tribute to the recently-passed Dusty Rhodes. The American Dream was one of the biggest names in wrestling history, and his respect level within WWE and the wrestling industry was underlined by the entire roster, headed up by Vince McMahon, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, as the bell tolled ten times with wrestlers and fans standing in silence to show respect to Dusty. This was followed by his music playing once more, with fans spontaneously clapping along, making it an even more touching moment. But what really did bring me close to tears was the video tribute to Dusty, shown a little later on the card, which perfectly encapsulated what Dusty meant to so many and what he achieved. Although the video tributes are generally speaking unfortunate to have to watch (because they are playing after a performer has died), they are brilliantly compelling and excellently produced, and WWE does a great job of having you smile when reliving fond memories before feeling upset when they end with the final graphic paying tribute to the fallen hero. That definitely was the case here, but was even more notable on the MITB Kick-Off show when host Renee Young genuinely broke down in tears and delivered her subsequent links while not being shown on camera because she was so upset having known Dusty and then watched this tribute. The whole situation is just so sad, but WWE paid tribute to Dusty perfectly here. If anything, this was the most memorable aspect of the entire card for me.

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WWE Money In The Bank 2011

Image Source: Sports Keeda

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: July 17 2011
Location: Allstate Arena, Rosemont, Illinois, USA
Attendance: 14,815

For this week's retro event review, the focus turns to a more recent classic: Money In The Bank 2011. On this night, there were two great MITB Ladder matches, a very good World Title bout and a tremendous main event which had a brilliant build-up, a red-hot crowd and positioned CM Punk as a permanent main eventer.

The card kicked off with the SmackDown Money In The Bank match which involved Wade Barrett, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, Kane, Sin Cara and Cody Rhodes. There was no real favourite but plenty of viable contenders and, with a good blend of talent and styles, there were plenty of big moments, the most notable being a Sheamus powerbomb through a horizontal ladder to Cara, who left the match afterwards (this was the cover story for a suspension), and a very risky 450 Splash by Gabriel off a horizontal ladder. In the end, Daniel Bryan emerged as something of an unexpected winner, which went down a treat with the hardcore Chicago fans. The show had kicked off with a bang.

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Straight To The Top: The Money In The Bank Ladder Match Anthology

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 390 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: November 4 2013

Debuting in 2005, the Money In The Bank Ladder match has been one of WWE's most anticipated stipulations over the last decade. Originally appearing once a year at WrestleMania, and later earning its own PPV where two bouts were held each time, the MITB mattered because a) a guaranteed World Title shot was at stake; b) the matches themselves would be good, great or incredible; and c) the cash-in moments would usually be unpredictable and/or very dramatic, and largely resulted in new titleholders being crowned.

This DVD shows every MITB match from its debut to the 2013 entries, and is hosted by Raw MITB 2010 victor The Miz. The Blu-ray includes all the cash-ins up to Dolph Ziggler's post-WM XXIX World Title triumph, which means a few 'proper' full-length bouts (the highlight being Rob Van Dam vs. John Cena at ECW One Night Stand 2006), although the best 'unexpected' cash-ins are Edge at New Year's Revolution 2006 and a 2007 SmackDown, and CM Punk at a 2008 Raw.

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