Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

By Nicholas Jason Lopez

The poster of this event is a microcosm of the problems that plague the main roster – the illusion that two’s better than one.

In a panicked reaction to low ratings, Vince McMahon introduced (in a half-assed manner, mind you) the “Wild Card Rule,” where four superstars from Raw could appear on SmackDown and vice versa. McMahon messed up the promo to explain it and then managed to break his own made-up rule as five superstars from SmackDown appeared on that very Raw.

Since its forgettable introduction, it has actually made Raw and SmackDown feel like the same show, with Elias, Roman Reigns, Shane McMahon, The Miz and The Usos being most of the “Wild Cards.”

We’ll get into the bigger problems later, but Money In The Bank comes at a time when the main roster needs unpredictability and luckily, the briefcase holders can contribute a bit of that to their respective Title pictures.

The Pre-Show

– WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships – Daniel Bryan/Rowan (Champions) Vs. The Usos: Logic loophole number one is present right here. A team just drafted to Raw after three years on SmackDown find themselves competing for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. We guess the feud with The Revival has been so bad that they want to stretch this out for whatever reason, but if they just let those teams go in the ring instead of focusing on childish locker room humor, we’d actually have something. The moment The Usos were drafted to Raw, we clamored for an in-ring encounter with The Revival. Now we just shake our heads. That aside, this match should be good if it’s any indication based off their last bout on SmackDown. We’d be hard-pressed to see a Raw team hold the SmackDown belts, so our picks are The Planet’s Tag Team. The demotion from World Title to Tag Team Division is tough to take for Bryan fans, but perhaps it’s best for him anyways. It’s not like SmackDown has much of a Division there anyways.

Prediction: Daniel Bryan/Rowan

– WWE Cruiserweight Championship – Tony Nese (Champion) Vs. Ariya Daivari: We haven’t caught up much with the 205 Live Experience (pun intended), but based off how Nese was crowned Champion at WrestleMania and Daivari appearing to be nothing more than Challenger Of The Month, we’ll give the nod to Nese. He needs wins to build credibility as Champion anyways until the next big opponent comes his way. Should be enjoyable either way.

Prediction: Tony Nese

– WWE United States Championship – Samoa Joe (Champion) Vs. Rey Mysterio: There was a brief time where Joe was positioned as a dominant Champ stealing the show with R-Truth, Andrade and Mysterio in multi-man matches. Since then, Joe has cooled off a bit but still kept himself warm with passionate promos and a decisive win over Mysterio at WrestleMania. If they actually get the chance to go in the ring and hopefully this is it, this should be excellent. They’ve brought Mysterio’s son Dominic (absent of his blonde hair and trademark pout) as an extra means to the underdog, but we’re honestly shocked that there hasn’t been an ambush angle of some sort since Dominic’s a trained wrestler and can take bumps. Joe faced off with Dominic backstage, but that was it. We’re halfway curious if the plan is for Dominic to be Joe’s next challenger to defend his father’s honor. That doesn’t happen if Joe doesn’t retain.

Prediction: Samoa Joe

– Steel Cage Match – The Miz Vs. Shane McMahon: After their good WrestleMania encounter that had a finish that allowed the feud to continue, we’ve seen it progress to include the likes of The B-Team, Miz’s former allies as Shane’s new lackeys. Miz and Roman Reigns have worked together recently as well since Elias has buddied up with Shane as well. With the “Wild Card” rule, we’ve seen a bit too much of Shane, Miz, Reigns and Elias and we honestly want to see it over and done with. The steel cage stipulation gives us another chance to see Shane leap off of something and if handled right, this match could actually be really good. Since Miz didn’t get his triumph at WrestleMania, we expect it here.

Prediction: The Miz

– WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship – Becky Lynch (Champion) Vs. Charlotte Flair: It seems no matter how much time passes, Flair and Lynch will forever be intertwined in battle. Since Lynch has won both Women’s belts at WrestleMania, it has just been the same song and dance, just with Lacey Evans mixed in. While we’ll talk about what Evans brings later on, we’ll get to what we expect here. If given enough time, this should be good like every other Flair-Lynch match. Will it reach the pinnacle of their Evolution encounter? Not so sure, but maybe we’ll get close. If Lynch is going to lose a belt, we think it’s this one. If Flair gets the belt back, maybe Creative can actually follow through and enter Asuka, Bayley and Ember Moon into the Title picture and actually get the Women’s Division back to prominence. So far, we’ve only seen Lynch, Flair and Evans predominantly featured. Something has to change.

Prediction: Charlotte Flair

– Roman Reigns Vs. Elias: This feud has been a yawner, even with the inclusion of Shane/Miz. There’s just no action or heat here at all. We’re afraid that Reigns is going to go over just for the hell of it, which will only hurt Elias further. Both these guys feel without any direction, so let’s hope this is a one and done. We’re going to side with Elias because the guy desperately needs credible wins if this feud has any chance to believably continue. Both these guys could be doing so much better right now.

Prediction: Elias

– Money In The Bank Ladder Match For Women’s Championship Match Contract – Natalya Vs. Dana Brooke Vs. Naomi Vs. Bayley Vs. Mandy Rose Vs. Ember Moon Vs. Carmella Vs. Nikki Cross: This match received some good hype on the go-home Raw, as Brooke dived off a ladder and Cross got some form of main roster character development besides a crazy face and “LET’S PLAY!” which is always good. If we had to come up with a list of women who haven’t been showcased properly lately, a good chunk of them are in this match, so that actually makes it harder to predict. Bayley can organically enter the Title picture on her own, so we’ll stay away from her winning here. The other story loosely associated with this match was Alexa Bliss’ removal due to injury, but her absence has resulted in Cross’ own benefit. Do they ice the cake with a Cross victory? Not so sure. We’re gonna be daring and side with Brooke here. It has been far too long since she has been relevant and with some ounces of potential this year both on the mic and that ladder dive, maybe there’s something there after all. We saw a decent run in NXT way back when so if she can channel that “Muscled Confidence” character that got her noticed to begin with, she can be quite prevalent in the Title picture. On a side note, the “Wild Card” rule also muddies up the logic in the MITB concept. Does the winner have to choose a specific Title to chase? What if they decide to just show up on the other show instead? Someone please close this loophole before it leads to even worse television.

Prediction: Dana Brooke

– Money In The Bank Ladder Match For A World Championship Match Contract – Sami Zayn Vs. Ricochet Vs. Drew McIntyre Vs. Baron Corbin Vs. Ali Vs. Finn Balor Vs. Andrade Vs. Randy Orton: We’ve got an eclectic mix of former Champions, upstart potentials and high-flyers so that this match has potential to steal the show. When we look to predict who might win, we look at who’d benefit from being a presence in the World Title picture without actually being there. A hard push for McIntyre should happen organically and we wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a nearby future challenger for Seth Rollins. Creative is said to be boldly behind Corbin although the fans aren’t, so we see him as a dark horse contender. Look for him to be a Rollins opponent perhaps near SummerSlam. That said, he doesn’t need the MITB contract per se. Someone who has sort of floated around since their return is Zayn, who while has impressed with his “It’s All Your Fault, Go To Hell” promos, hasn’t done much besides his recent interaction in the Kofi Kingston-Kevin Owens feud. Him winning the MITB contract would actually make things interesting in the Title picture. He could easily be Kingston’s next challenger or perhaps they save him for SummerSlam if Kingston’s still Champion. We can picture that match already. Five stars?

Prediction: Sami Zayn

– WWE Raw Women’s Championship – Becky Lynch (Champion) Vs. Lacey Evans: This has been one of the better feuds lately, even though it has Flair’s name thrown in the mix. Evans has showed prowess on the mic and has done just enough in the ring to make us want more, so with her biggest marquee match to date, we can truly see if she rises to the occasion and gives Lynch a run for her money. We’re a bit disappointed that Creative hasn’t teased the idea that Lynch could have three matches if the MITB winner decides to cash in, but that makes us more apt to think it’ll actually happen. That being said, there’s no reason to rush things and put the belt on Evans, who still needs to prove herself in the ring before being graced with gold. We vote Lynch.

Prediction: Becky Lynch

– WWE Championship – Kofi Kingston (Champion) Vs. Kevin Owens: Ever since KO’s return saw him presented in a new light, we knew his babyface days were numbered when he became an “Honorary New Day” member. That just doesn’t sound like the KO we know and trust. Even that sentence sounds weird to say. The heel turn was well-executed, but we feel like the follow-up has just been missing something. Don’t get us wrong, this will be an excellent match and all, but we just can’t figure out why Owens hasn’t used being off WrestleMania as a fuel to his anger towards Kingston. That would’ve been the perfect logical explanation, but for some reason, they just haven’t used it. We do like the inclusion of Zayn given him and Owens’ friendship history, but it still feels just short of something tangible. Disappointing is the word. We love the idea of Owens as Kingston’s first opponent and that Owens has used the “You’re truly on your own now, let’s see how you fare” argument, but it wouldn’t make sense for Kingston to drop the belt so soon. That sucks because we think Owens would be an excellent Champion. They’ll probably stretch this feud out another month or so, so maybe we won’t get a decisive finish, but rest assured, Kingston’s reign isn’t in jeopardy on this night.

Prediction: Kofi Kingston

– WWE Universal Championship – Seth Rollins (Champion) Vs. AJ Styles: When they first announced this match, this card was an instant seller. A dream match for the longest time, we’ll finally get to see what happens. They’ve played this feud as two cool guys with a little animosity and we guess that’s the right way to go about it. A fully heel Styles would probably make for a better feud/match, but we’re still getting what we want more or less. With Rollins still a relatively new Champion, we just don’t see him dropping it to Styles here, but this could very well be a potential Match Of The Year candidate if all goes right. Maybe they can even still go with a full Styles heel turn to extend things further, but who knows for sure? With more potential challengers down the road like McIntyre, Lashley and Corbin, this will probably be a one-and-done match.

Prediction: Seth Rollins