7 Match Star Ratings For WWE Money In The Bank 2021
5. AJ Styles & Omos Vs. The Viking Raiders - RAW Tag Team Title Match
In just the second match promoted on WWE's first pay-per-view back on a full-time touring schedule, the ghost town vibes of 2019 cloaked the atmosphere.
The Viking Raiders - who got over everywhere else as War Machine - are not over in WWE. Perhaps turning them into literal cartoon vikings wasn't the best idea. This was echoed in a flat audience reaction in which AJ Styles, who put his working boots on in a strong individual performance, generated only brief flickers of noise. One spot in particular was awesome; AJ used Omos as a platform to leap onto Erik's shoulders and send him hurtling into the barricade with a gorgeous hurricanrana.
Beyond that, this was a sub-TV match in which the action was broadly fine if totally inessential when AJ was in the ring and not very good at all when Omos tagged in. The crowd were into him, to an extent. He's a spectacle performer whose rudimentary power game is the stuff with which young fans are made. The thinking behind his push and the vehicle WWE has selected cannot be faulted. He just can't sell, at all, and when he had to do it his aura weakened and suspension of disbelief became difficult.
It really was strange and sobering, watching such an enormous crowd desperate to escape watch so much of this with little interest. What got over on the night was stunts and the stars of yesteryear.
Beyond the reception afforded to one new player in the Money In The Bank Ladder match, this was not a good omen.
Star Rating: ★★¾