With several years of action-packed shows to follow the sixth annual Money in the Bank show faced a tough job this year. It had a good frame of matches to work with in Cena v Owens II, the latest Ambrose v Rollins match and, of course, the Money in the Bank match itself, but it also had Ryback v Big Show and a pre-show which saw R-Truth defeat King Wade Bad News Barrett I. Was it any good? The answer, pleasantly, was a resounding yes.

The main card kicked off with a ten bell salute to 'The American Dream' Dusty Rhodes. His music played afterwards. The audience and some of the wrestlers clapped along. Vince was amongst those who joined in. Randy Orton was amongst those who did not.

That was followed by the typically great video package recapping the build to the highlighted matches. In this case that meant Ambrose v Rollins, Cena v Owens and the Money in the Bank match. The latter kicked off the show. Which surprised me. With there being only one Bank match, and it being guaranteed to be a highlight of the show, I would have thought it would be saved for closer to the top of the card. Then again there was also a ladder match going on last, so spacing them out did make sense.

Randy Orton and Neville both got loud cheers when they entered. Kane got half-hearted boos. Dolph Ziggler got a monster pop, which got even more monstrous when people noticed Lana was present to give him a good luck kiss. Kofi Kingston got huge boos when he skipped to the ring. Sheamus was booed too, but not as much (yeah, New Day has more heat than Shaymo). Roman Reigns, naturally out last, got a mostly positive reaction. The writing team have done a good job turning him around.

The lads.

The match started with everyone except Kofi pairing off and the New Dayer taking the chance to try and sneak up a ladder to grab the case. The rest of the field turned against him, throwing him out of the ring before slipping into a standard issue brawling segment. Sheamus came out of that on top after going wild with a ladder. He was phased out of the match a few minutes later to make way for an all too short exchange between Kofi and Neville, the highlight of which was Nev hitting a monkey flip only for Kingston to land upright and immediately start climbing a ladder.

Reigns put a stop to Neville v Kingston, power bombing Kingston onto a ladder and Neville onto Kofi. The crowd, it's worth noting, ate this up. Kane put a stop to Reigns' attempted briefcase grab with a choke slam before taking an RKO from 'The Viper'. Kofi returned to stop Orty climbing the ladder and took an RKO too. Neville then springboarded back into the ring, over Orton, and shot up the ladder. He was yanked off the ladder and took a mid-air RKO, easily the best of the three.

Despite being accidentally kicked in the head Drew Galloway at the end of the previous evening’s show Heather Lynn was in the ring when the EVOLVE 37 stream started up. She introduced the show before coming over all woozy and in need of a sit down. Joanna Rose replaced her to handle the intros of the first match. If she wasn’t able to speak why did Lynn bother to turn up? I mean, yes, obviously it was to get over the kick she’d taken from Galloway, which in turn reminded everyone that Roderick Strong is a bit of a cad, but in real life terms why did she attend the show?  

EVOLVE kicked off the year with what has become an annual visit to Florida. The first of the weekend’s two shows kicked off with Joanna Rose welcoming us to the Orpheum (WWN’s preferred Florida location) and introducing “new” Open the Freedom Gate champion, Johnny Gargano. She said new even though Gargano had had the title for around a month and a half at this point. Once Gargano arrived she simply handed the microphone over and left the ring. She didn’t even bother interviewing him. I found myself wondering, not for the first time, what she’s paid for.

For the last few years WWE has struggled with its Royal Rumble shows. The titular gimmick match, which is always the central attraction no matter what else is on the show, has seemingly become a problem for them. In theory it’s an easy match to get right. You ascertain who the audience wants to see win and you have them win. Or you pick a hot heel that people really don’t want to see win. WWE’s booking crew seem to have forgotten this, which has led to a string of limp, uninspiring matches.

This year was no different. A man neither the live crowd nor the home audience really wanted to see win was the man that won. Not only that but he did so in the most underwhelming, clichéd manner possible. It was a poor end to a poor pay-per-view.

This was not helped by a generic undercard. The show kicked off with The Ascension versus the New Age Outlaws. It wasn’t a bad match, but that in itself made it a slight disappointment. The Outlaws should have been very quickly squashed by Konor and Viktor in an attempt to erase the memory of the Kliq and the APA, all of whom are well into their forties, easily dispatching The Ascension on RAW. Because it’s The Ascension who are going to be of more benefit to WWE in the future, not the stars form the 90s.

FACEPAINT!!!

But we didn’t get that. Instead we got a competent match that ended with Billy Gunn tagging in to take Total Elimina- sorry, I mean The Fall of Man. It was the right result but the wrong route was taken to get to it.

WWN’s third Chinese supershow once again kicked off with Johnny Gargano. Opposite him was Chuck Taylor, who had headlined the previous two shows. Yep, a battle of former Ronin teammates was considered a good way to kick off this show. In fairness it was. Both men are experienced enough to work an exciting opening match and big enough names (in regular wrestling circles, at least) to draw the crowd into the show early on. 

WWN’s second Chinese supershow kicked off with the ring announcer introducing Johnny Gargano to the ring with a series of yips. More wrestling shows should start in this way. For that matter more EVOLVE shows should feature the talents of Jody Kristofferson, Gargano’s opening match opponent on this show. His Stan Hansen tribute act is just the right level of bad to be entertaining.

I don’t think it would be unfair to say that the WWN venture struggled to remain relevant in 2014. Visa issues brought an end to Dragon Gate USA, which had initially been the streaming service’s jewel in the crown, and while EVOLVE never failed to produce a show that was good it was also a promotion that spent much of the year looking noticeably smaller than other companies operating on a similar level (most obviously ROH and CZW). Meanwhile FIP and Shine, the other major new content providers, remained regional promotions running shows once every few months. Things just didn’t come together for them.