John Cena Becomes 15 Time WWE Champion At Money In The Bank

WWE.comWWE Money In The Bank was an entertaining show, a night in which WWE made various booking moves to set the scene for their summer storylines. The biggest development was John Cena winning the WWE World Heavyweight Title, his 15th major championship to date. The commentary instantly referred to him as the greatest WWE superstar ever, a line likely fed from Vince McMahon backstage, a line Vince probably believes. You'd surely expect the 37 year old Cena to have at least another couple of title reigns in the next two years, which would beat Nature Boy Ric Flair's vaunted 16 world title reign record. The reason for the Cena win was to facilitate a summer feud between himself and Brock Lesnar. The Beast made clear at the start of the year that he was going after the WWE world title, he is booked for SummerSlam and WWE have already sent out a Cena / Lesnar poster to Amazon. This match will be between the two biggest mainstream names WWE have under contract, that's going to translate well into interest off casual fans, it's simply the biggest thing WWE could have done. The other big development at Money In The Bank was Seth Rollins winning the title shot briefcase. His victory also established a summer feud between himself and a revenge driven Dean Ambrose. The other direction WWE look to be going in is Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton, with the former Shield leader effectively replacing Daniel Bryan's character in the Authority feud storyline. In results from the Money In The Bank show, The Usos retained their tag titles against Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. This was a really exciting opener, they got good time and filled it with various big moves and high flying stunts. The near falls toward the end made for a hot finish, with the Usos getting the win after a double team superplex and splash combo. Paige vs Naomi was a short and boring match, the action mostly notable for a couple of botches. It was more about storytelling, with Cameron's heel mannerisms being the focus at ringside. Behind Naomi's back she smiled as Paige won with a cradle DDT. It looks like we will get a full blown funkadactyl fall out within the next two weeks. Adam Rose had a nondescript comedy bout with Damien Sandow. This was as bad as it gets, with Sandow dressed up as Paul Revere, an American history character which the majority of the WWE global audience will have no idea about. Thankfully the Money In The Bank briefcase match was next. It was full of athletic spots, Kofi Kingston memorably dropping off a ladder, landing on the ring rope with his feet, and splashing on to the wrestlers at ringside. The other image of the night was Seth Rollins taking a backdrop off the top of a ladder, bouncing on to a second ladder lower down. Rollins also took a superplex off Dean Ambrose from the top of the ladder. The match finished up with the story that Kane distracted Dean Ambrose from winning, leading to Rollins running up and grabbing the briefcase. It was an excellent ladder contest, exactly what a spot filled gimmick bout should be. Given that this was such a breathtaking affair, WWE then filled a considerable buffer period before the second ladder match. In consecutive order we had Goldust and Stardust vs Rybaxel, Rusev vs Big E and Layla vs Summer. This was all done by design to make the ladder matches far enough apart to both seem amazing. The three filler matches had nothing that you wouldn't see on Raw, it was pretty average stuff. Stardust won for his team, Rusev won a better match against Big E, and Layla won a nothing match over Summer. The main event WWE title match was more storyline driven than spot driven. The earlier ladder match was definitely better. Not to say the main event was by any means poor, it was actually really good, with every man getting a chance to showcase their worth. Sheamus in particular seemed to get considerable action. The finish toward the end was particularly thrilling, with each man getting a chance to hit their finisher, Randy Orton notably hitting Cesaro with an RKO from the ladder. The other memorable thing about Orton was that he got cut badly from a ladder head bump early on. By the end of the night he was gushing blood, a reminder of just how dramatic and effective blood can be in the proper WWE context. Cena won after hitting Kane and Orton with an Attitude Adjustment, a result which ended up receiving mostly cheers. Overall it was a really great night. You got a strong tag opener, the match of the night in the middle of the show, and the memorable main event to end. From here WWE are in the perfect position to continue Brock Lesnar's desire of the WWE Championship, putting the beast on a collision course with Cena in SummerSlam's main event. That should be a great match and get all sorts of fans interested. The other thing to note from Money In The Bank was how hard the commentators pushed the WWE Network being better value than pay per view, which could be a sign that PPV won't even exist in North America come August. The only other news coming out of the show was that Orton required 12 stiches for the bloody wound to his head. Overall WWE will be happy with the successes they achieved at Money In The Bank, the fan reaction by in large has been positive and the WWE Network doesn't seem to have had any major problems in streaming. The company now moves with momentum on to July's Battleground show.