As expected, James Ellsworth made an appearance at tonight’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view.
Ellsworth played a role in the finish of Carmella and Asuka’s SmackDown Women’s Championship match. Dressed like Asuka and wearing her mask, he stood on the apron to cause a distraction. Carmella rolled Asuka up for a near fall, then Asuka hit a strike and turned her attention back to Ellsworth. He unmasked, winked at Asuka, and Carmella hit a kick to retain. Carmella and Ellsworth went to the back together following the match.
PWInsider first reported that Ellsworth would be at Money in the Bank and that there had been creative pitches for him to return recently. Ellsworth denied the report by pointing out that he had a booking for Middle Kingdom Wrestling in China on the night of the PPV, but MKW announced earlier this week that he would no longer be appearing at their show.
Ellsworth was released by WWE last November after being written out by losing a match to Becky Lynch and then being superkicked by Carmella. He signed a full-time deal with WWE after appearing for the company in 2016, including a memorable match where he was squashed by Braun Strowman. Ellsworth played an underdog babyface at first before turning heel and being paired with Carmella.
Ellsworth also helped Carmella win the Money in the Bank briefcase at last year’s PPV and got involved in the rematch that took place on SmackDown, which Carmella also won.
Ahead of their Women’s Championship match at Money in the Bank, Carmella tapped out to Asuka in the main event of this week’s SmackDown.
Asuka and Carmella were added to make it a 10-woman tag match after Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Mandy Rose, and Sonya Deville interrupted the women’s Money in the Bank summit. And with Asuka winning it with the Asuka Lock, it was the second night in a row that a Women’s title challenger got the better of the champion before Sunday’s pay-per-view.
AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura also finished building to their last man standing match. Jerry Lawler appeared in his hometown of Memphis and interviewed Styles, who promised to retain the WWE Championship at MITB. Nakamura faced Jeff Hardy, with Nakamura losing by disqualification after a low blow. Nakamura then laid out Hardy with the Kinshasa and counted to 10.
Elsewhere on the go-home show, Daniel Bryan faced Shelton Benjamin and The Miz was the referee for Rusev vs. Samoa Joe.
Another segment for SmackDown and two matches for 205 Live are set for tonight.
Ahead of their SmackDown Women’s Championship match at Money in the Bank on June 17th, WWE is advertising that Carmella will unmask Asuka by revealing a “never-before-told truth” about her. Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch, Naomi & Jimmy Uso vs. Lana & Aiden English, and a contract signing for AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura’s last man standing match at Money in the Bank will also take place tonight.
On 205 Live, Mustafa Ali vs. Buddy Murphy and Brian Kendrick vs. Lince Dorado have been announced. Ali and Murphy have been positioned as the two top challengers for Cedric Alexander’s Cruiserweight Championship. Murphy defeated Ali on the May 8th edition of 205 Live before losing a title match to Alexander last week.
Kendrick & Jack Gallagher have been feuding with the Lucha House Party and defeated Dorado & Kalisto last Tuesday with the help of Drew Gulak.
WWE has added another Women’s Championship match to the Money in the Bank card.
A day after Nia Jax vs. Ronda Rousey was announced, WWE revealed that Asuka will be challenging for Carmella’s SmackDown Women’s Championship at the pay-per-view. That was set up at tonight’s SmackDown tapings in London, with Paige interrupting Carmella’s “Royal Mellabration” and making the match. Carmella at first responded by saying she wasn’t defending the title at Money in the Bank and then left the ring when Asuka came out.
The only time Asuka has challenged for the title was at WrestleMania 34, where Charlotte Flair ended her undefeated streak. Carmella cashed in her Money in the Bank briefcase to win the championship on the SmackDown after WrestleMania and went on to successfully defend against Charlotte at Backlash.
Here’s the updated lineup for Money in the Bank, which will take place at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois on June 17th:
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Shinsuke Nakamura
Raw Women’s Champion Nia Jax defending against Ronda Rousey
SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defending against Asuka
Men’s Money in the Bank ladder match (Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, The Miz, Rusev, Bobby Roode, Kevin Owens, a member of The New Day, and the winner of next week’s Samoa Joe vs. Big Cass qualifying match)
Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match (Ember Moon, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, and four more wrestlers)
A six-woman tag match and a couple of segments have been announced for tonight’s SmackDown.
Charlotte Flair, Asuka & Becky Lynch will be teaming against SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella, Peyton Royce & Billie Kay. The IIconics got a win over Asuka & Lynch last week, while Charlotte stood tall after her contract signing with Carmella.
The tag match comes five days before Charlotte gets her rematch for Carmella’s title at Backlash. Carmella cashed in her Money in the Bank briefcase to win the championship last month after Charlotte had been attacked by Royce and Kay.
Another title bout should become official for Backlash as Jeff Hardy appears on Miz TV tonight. Hardy has been involved in a program with Randy Orton and Shelton Benjamin since winning the United States Championship and coming to SmackDown in the Superstar Shakeup.
WWE is returning to the Bell Centre in Montreal for the second straight night for tonight’s SmackDown. AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura will finish building to Sunday’s WWE Championship match, with Nakamura demanding an apology for their double countout and post-match brawl from the Greatest Royal Rumble.
While the build to the show has been complicated by the Superstar Shakeup and Greatest Royal Rumble, WWE continues to add matches to the lineup for Backlash.
Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass and SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defending her title against Charlotte Flair were confirmed for the pay-per-view tonight. While returning from the torn ACL that he suffered last summer, Cass moved to SmackDown in the Superstar Shakeup and began his program with Bryan. Carmella cashed in her Money in the Bank briefcase to win the title from Charlotte two weeks ago when Charlotte had been attacked by The IIconics.
Cass took Bryan’s place on Miz TV tonight, explaining why he laid him out last week. He blamed Bryan for stealing the spotlight from Cass being cleared to return and said he despises Bryan because he reminds him of himself when he was a “little guy” and was getting pushed around. It was then revealed that Bryan had been attacked backstage before the segment.
Carmella and Charlotte had a contract signing this week, with Charlotte standing tall after flipping the table onto Carmella.
Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe, Alexa Bliss getting her rematch for Nia Jax’s Raw Women’s Championship, and Seth Rollins putting his Intercontinental title on the line against The Miz are the other matches that have been announced for Backlash. It’s the first event that’s been affected by WWE’s switch to all dual-brand PPVs and will take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on May 6th.
On the post-WrestleMania edition of SmackDown Tuesday, Carmella cashed in her Money In The Bank contract and became the SmackDown Women’s Champion seconds later.
As Charlotte was out doing a promo recapping her win over Asuka at WrestleMania and pondering who might be next, The Iconics (Peyton Royce and Billie Kay) made their WWE debut and ran down the champion before double teaming her for several minutes, laying her out.
That prompted Carmella to emerge from the back with the briefcase she won last July in the first-ever women’s Money In The Bank match. After referee Mike Chioda kept delaying the start of the match, they called for the bell and Carmella kicked Charlotte in the head and pinned her to win her first WWE Women’s title.
The 30-year-old made her main roster debut in July 2016 after several years in NXT alongside Enzo Amore and Big Cass.
Two more matches have been added to the card for Sunday’s Fastlane pay-per-view.
Before he challenges for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania, Shinsuke Nakamura will be in action against Rusev on Sunday night. That was announced after Nakamura accepted a challenge from Rusev during a backstage interview on SmackDown tonight. Rusev interrupted him and wanted revenge after Nakamura defeated Aiden English last Tuesday, with the story being that English getting hit with a knee to the throat made him unable to sing this week.
AJ Styles will defend his WWE Championship against Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, and John Cena in a six-pack challenge at Fastlane, and the winner will go on to face Nakamura at WrestleMania on April 8th.
Naomi & Becky Lynch vs. Natalya & Carmella was also made official for Sunday later in the show. Naomi proposed the idea to Natalya after Lynch tapped out Carmella in a singles match.
With the two additions, the card for Fastlane is up to six matches. Here’s the updated lineup:
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, and John Cena in a six-pack challenge
SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair defending against Ruby Riott
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Rusev
United States Champion Bobby Roode defending against Randy Orton
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos defending against The New Day
The list of teams for WWE’s Mixed Match Challenge is officially set.
Big E won a fan vote over his New Day stablemates and will be teaming with Carmella in the tournament. WWE noted that Big E received 47 percent of the vote over Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods.
There was a dark match before SmackDown last night where Jimmy Uso & Naomi faced Baron Corbin & Tamina (who aren’t in Mixed Match Challenge). The match wasn’t part of the tournament and was a run-through ahead of the series’ debut. Beth Phoenix, who will be calling the show alongside Michael Cole and Corey Graves, was at SmackDown last night.
Mixed Match Challenge premieres on Facebook Watch at 10 p.m. Eastern time next Tuesday. It will be a 12-week series with 20-minute episodes and will feature a single-elimination mixed tag team tournament. Here’s the finalized list of teams:
While it remains to be seen how the match will be laid out or how long it will actually go, an intergender matchup is set for tomorrow’s episode of SmackDown from Manchester, England.
WWE announced today that Becky Lynch would be facing James Ellsworth at the show. The announcement was made by Cathy Kelley in a video update, who went over how Lynch vs. Ellsworth was set up by a Twitter angle. Carmella volunteered Ellsworth, who had said Lynch wasn’t deserving of being SmackDown’s Survivor Series captain, for the match after Lynch challenged her.
Tomorrow’s SmackDown will be headlined by Jinder Mahal defending his WWE Championship against AJ Styles. A tag team title match is also scheduled for the show, with Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin challenging The Usos.
Before the Manchester Arena hosts SmackDown this week, Raw is taking place at the venue tonight. Both of those episodes will air on a tape delay.
With the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match taking the top spot on Tuesday night, women’s matches main evented both Raw and SmackDown this week.
Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Tamina, and Carmella faced off in their Money in the Bank rematch. And after James Ellsworth helped Carmella win the first one, the storyline was that he was supposed to be banned from the building this time.
Naomi also defended her title against Lana in a rematch from Money in the Bank, Randy Orton demanded another shot at Jinder Mahal’s WWE Championship, and a battle royal to determine Kevin Owens’ next challenger was announced for next week.
Daniel Bryan comes out to start the show to a big ovation. He went over the two big women’s matches on tonight’s show. As he explains the Money in the Bank match, Carmella and James Ellsworth come out to interrupt.
Carmella says you’ve said this is a land of opportunity, but this is a land of injustice. She talks about unfairly being stripped of the briefcase. She mentions that the rulebook clearly states that it is a no disqualification match — there are no rules, the first woman to gain possession of the contract wins the match. “How can you break a rule if there are no rules?” she whined.
Bryan said she makes some valid points, but no one has ever grabbed the briefcase and handed it to another competitor. Bryan takes it to the crowd, asks them if they want him to cancel the match. They heartily chant no in response.
Ellsworth takes it to the crowd, said that they were villains here, you control this puppet. You’re upsetting my homegirl. Loud “Ellsworth sucks” chants. He used to look up to Bryan, but all he sees now is a coward who can’t cut it in the ring anymore so made up some fake injury. Bryan responds by saying, well, he did say last week on Talking Smack that he was going to ban him from ringside during the Money in the Bank match, but he’s not going to do that…instead, he’s going to ban him from the entire arena! Bryan calls for security as Ellsworth tries to flee, but to no avail and is dragged away.
Bryan wishes Carmella the best of luck as she’s left all on her own tonight.
The Usos defeated The Hype Bros.
This didn’t last long and was pretty much just your basic back and forth television match. They went to a commercial then when they came back, immediately went for the finish as one of the Usos pinned Ryder.
The New Day immediately came out after the pinfall. Big E made it clear they wanted that gold, and at Battleground they’ll pick them up. Usos said they didn’t deserve it, but they eventually accept, but be careful about what you wish…it ain’t about the New Day, it’s about the Day One Ish.
Woods says it’s all about the fire, and instructs Kingston to, I guess, rap against the New Day. Kingston says they’re underdogs like Rudy, but the Uso’s underwear are booty. Byron Saxton says that the Usos “got served”.
Fashion Vice returns, this episode titled “Under Pressure”. We see the detectives interrogate The Ascension in a dark room. Fandango shows the alleged culprits a picture of stick figures and asks if they look familiar. Konnor says that’s not them. Fandango plays the nice cop, saying he has two tickets to Paradise. Viktor goes to grab them, but Konnor says no, we only listen to grindcore death metal.
Breeze comes in and also plays the nice cop, giving them a cheese platter and iced tea. Konnor says look, we weren’t the ones who thrashed the office, we just wanted a spot on the card at Money in the Bank. The two detectives converse to one another, saying this is a tough case to crack.
Suddenly, a loud noise is heard. They go to their office and see that it’s thrashed once again. Knowing that the Ascension were in their interrogation room the whole time, they realize the case is far from over…
Naomi defeated Lana to retain the Smackdown Women’s title
Lana jumps Naomi during the ring introductions and plants her with her seated spinebuster finisher, but Naomi kicks out at two. Lana grows infuriated, but immediately gets cut off with a kick to the head. Naomi follows with the split-legged moonsault for the quick win.
Dasha Fuentes interviews Becky Lynch, asking how she feels about her second chance. Lynch says tonight she has a fair chance to legitimately win the Money in the Bank ladder match.
The announcer introduces us to the operatic, melodious voice of Aiden English. He starts to sing when he’s rudely cut off by Randy Orton as it went to commercial. When we came back, as one would assume, English was quickly disposed of with an RKO.
Orton says that he’s not leaving until Jinder Mahal comes out. Last week, he tore apart the WWE champion, and showed footage of the beatdown. He’s not leaving until he gets what he wants, which is a WWE championship rematch. If he doesn’t get what he want, he’ll beat up Mahal in the back, in the parking lot, in St. Louis, wherever Smackdown is taping next week.
He starts to go backstage to hunt Mahal when Shane McMahon comes out. He said we go a ways back, he can have him threatening the safety of Jinder Mahal. Orton says what are you going to do, fire me? I’ll just go to every arena Smackdown is in and track him down. He disrespected his family, after all.
McMahon said that those kind of tactics that Mahal and the Singh Brothers crossed the line at Money in the Bank, knowing their past, and the look in that eye he’s never seen before, so he will get his rematch. However, there’s going to be a stipulation, and Jinder Mahal will choose that stipulation. Orton says he doesn’t care what that stip is, the title is coming home to where it belongs.
This brings out Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers. Despite the prejudice shown to the Maharaja he will name the stipulation. He will bring a stip brough to the WWE by his idol, the Great Khali — the Punjabi Prison match. They show the footage as Jinder Mahal poses with the title.
Bryan is talking to someone on the phone about the Punjabi Prison match when AJ Styles arrives. He talks about the open challenge from last week when Kevin Owens comes in, asking why he’s complaining about the opening challenge. Owens says he wants to face people he hasn’t faced yet, and since he beat him at Backlash, he is a loser. In return, Styles calls Owens “Ron Burgundy’s definition of San Diego”.
Daniel Bryan comes up with an idea — next week is the July 4th edition of Smackdown, so why not do an Independence Day battle royal. Owens leaves, calling it the worst idea ever. Styles, being the battle royal, loves the idea.
Mike and Maria Kanellis come out and start to talk about their love when they’re cut off by Sami Zayn, who makes his entrance for the next match…
Baron Corbin defeated Sami Zayn
Corbin dominates a lot of the match, putting him in long rest holds. Zayn comes back with a roll up after clotheslines to the corner, but Corbin immediately cuts him off again. Zayn takes out Corbin on the top rope and launches off, but Corbin dodges. Zayn turns around, but walks right into the End of Days for the win.
Shinsuke Nakamura is watching the match backstage when Dasha Fuentes comes in to ask a question — the WWE Universe wants to see a match between him and Baron Corbin, but does Nakamura want that? Nakamura says Baron Corbin is strong, but he is afraid of what he might be able to do against him…
The Usos and The New Day will square off in a Rap Battle next week.
Carmella won the Women’s Money in the Bank match
This was a very good main event that was laid out well. This wasn’t like other Money in the Bank ladder matches as this didn’t have the crazy spots as one would expect, but there were still some dangerous looking bumps and enough chaos that made it a nice, dramatic bout.
Everyone pairs off against one another as Carmella is left climbing the ladder…until everyone notices and comes back in. Everyone brawls until Lynch is the one left standing, throwing people around with exploder suplexes. Tamina comes in and lays her out with a Samoan drop, then hits the Superfly splash.
Returning from commercial, Charlotte and Natalya are battling in the ring as Carmella slaps Tamina on the outside. The latter responds by grabbing Carmella by the leg and flinging her into the announcer’s table.
Meanwhile, Becky climbs the ladder but Tamina and Charlotte close it, eventually sending her to the floor. Charlotte boots the ladder into Tamina, but Natalya comes back with a discus punch and a ladder shot to a prone Charlotte. Natalya goes to climb, but Charlotte sets up another ladder as they fight until Carmella pushes the ladder to the floor. After commercial, Natalya is back up climbing the ladder as everyone but Carmella joins in, but they all fall to the floor, taking a big bump.
Carmella comes in and climbs, nearly grabbing the briefcase but everyone comes in…then starts brawling with one another. Carmella comes off with a crossbody, taking two participants down. Charlotte pins Tamina over the ladder as she starts to climb, but Carmella comes back and fights her off until they both crash to the floor.
Natalya and Charlotte pair off, exiting the ring and going off on one another into the crowd. And what do you know, suddenly James Ellsworth comes in through the crowd and starts to help Carmella like at the pay-per-view. Ellsworth goes to climb when Becky Lynch comes in and grabs the ladder, pushing it as Ellsworth crotches himself on the ropes, putting him out of comission.
Becky starts to climb when Carmella comes back, grabbing her back down to the mat. Lynch tweaks her leg on impact as Carmella hones in, grabbing a chair and pelting Lynch with chair shots, laying her out as she grabs the briefcase on her own, winning the match.
Carmella poses with the briefcase on top of the ladder to close out the show.
Final Thoughts —
On the surface, this looked to be a match-oriented show but as it turns out, was very much a show dedicated to building towards Battleground on 7/23, hyping matches like Mahal/Orton (in a Punjabi Prison match, no less), New Day/Usos and Corbin/Nakamura. I wish they wouldn’t start the build so soon as it makes things REALLY hard between this PPV and the Great Balls of Fire PPV, but I can’t fault them for doing some early build.
Most of the matches on tonight’s card were either pretty short or just there. The main event at least delivered, so those who were looking for a better, less crappy finish from the Sunday pay-per-view got what they wanted, and probably should have been what they got in the first place.
The second-ever women’s Money in the Bank ladder match is set for next week’s episode of SmackDown.
As was announced beforehand, Daniel Bryan returned on tonight’s show to make a ruling about the controversy surrounding Sunday’s match. The storyline led to Bryan forcing Carmella to relinquish her briefcase and making the rematch official for next week.
James Ellsworth helped Carmella get the win at Money in the Bank by knocking Becky Lynch off of a ladder and retrieving the briefcase so that he could give it to Carmella. It will once again be Carmella vs. Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Natalya vs. Tamina in the rematch.
The SmackDown Women’s Championship will also be on the line in a rematch from Money in the Bank next week, with Lana getting another shot at Naomi’s title. The Hype Bros will face The Usos in a non-title match as well, and Sami Zayn will take on Baron Corbin. Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley will become the tag team division’s number one contenders if they beat the champions.
UPDATE: It was announced on Talking Smack that James Ellsworth is banned from ringside for next week’s ladder match.
In addition to the Kevin Owens vs. Shinsuke Nakamura non-title match that was revealed previously, WWE has announced more matches for tonight’s SmackDown.
AJ Styles will once again face Dolph Ziggler on the show. That’s a rematch from last week’s main event, which Styles lost in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
There will be a six-woman tag team match on the episode as well, with SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi, Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch taking on Natalya, Carmella & Tamina. Aside from Naomi, everyone else in that match will be involved in the first-ever women’s Money in the Bank ladder match on June 18th.
The New Day will also return to in-ring action for the first time since Kofi Kingston underwent ankle surgery in April.
After SmackDown, there will be a Cruiserweight Championship match on 205 Live. TJP will challenge for Neville’s title after the storyline of their alliance reached its breaking point on Raw last night.
After an angle where the number one contender’s fatal five-way match that had been advertised for tonight’s SmackDown failed to get started, it was confirmed that WWE will be making history at Money in the Bank.
It will be Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Natalya vs. Carmella vs. Tamina in the first-ever women’s Money in the Bank ladder match at the pay-per-view. Dave Meltzer noted that the match was in WWE’s plans last week following a report from Pro Wrestling Sheet.
A brawl between those women kept their fatal five-way from ever taking place on SmackDown tonight, which led to Shane McMahon announcing the Money in the Bank match.
The winner will receive a contract for a future shot at the SmackDown Women’s Championship. There will be two Money in the Bank ladder matches at the PPV, with AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler having been announced previously.
Jinder Mahal defending his WWE Championship against Randy Orton and The Usos defending their tag titles against The New Day have also been confirmed for Money in the Bank. The show will take place on June 18th at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
