10 WWE Money In The Bank 2018 Impulse Reactions
5. Some Kind Of Nightmare
Vince McMahon has discovered trolling. Expert trolling.
At WrestleMania, he subverted audience expectations by having Brock Lesnar defeat supposed chosen one Roman Reigns in a match fans elected not to pay attention to, so sure as they were that 'The Big Dog' would finally claim his treat for sitting, staying and walking when told.
At Greatest Royal Rumble - in front of a crowd that genuinely would have embraced his victory - Roman was beaten again. McMahon this time reverted to a 50/50 philosophy, but 'The Beast' f*cking off in the immediate aftermath branded Reigns a two-time loser with no recompense.
Backlash wasn't the end of Roman's career-crushing arc, even if half the crowd elected to take an early finish. His main event scrap with Samoa Joe was so tiresome in its planning and execution that fans rationalised beating the traffic instead of watching a loser beat a guy they actually liked.
More is always more with McMahon, and his trolling persists. Even booking his Boy against Jinder Mahal for Chicago was pure banter. Giving them 15:40 of a chinlock-and-comeback match was the moment he gave back. In the dark days of the Divas division, the poor women competing were told to go out there to fill time whilst fans went for a p*ss. Roman and Jinder were in much the same spot, but this time the audience were actively encouraged to go for a sh*t instead - all over their (sort of) hard graft. It worked a treat too. Chants, Mexican waves and references to CM Punk disappeared into the fog of this nonsense and didn't once interfere with the rest of his show.
Expert trolling.