Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

Corbin and English both shaved their heads to get rid of the "long hair but balding" look

Surprised that Charlotte didn't win but not surprised about Alexa. The company can't get enough of her. She's already had long title reigns on both brands that have been truly uneventful. And to have her cash on the same night? They could have had her interfere and win tonight or another night without the need to the briefcase. It could have helped launch the career for someone else

Velveteen Dream is so awesome. I can't wait to see more of him

The amount of title reigns some of the women have in only a couple of years speaks volumes about how they've played hot potato with the belts. Women's wrestling is the best it's ever been in WWE, and there have been some great matches and good storylines, but also some terrible booking. Of course, it's probably no worse than the way the men have been booked these past few years, either. At least they've given AJ Styles a couple of good strong reigns with the real world title.

I've rewatched Money in the Bank last night, from the women's ladder match onwards -- although skipping Carmella vs Asuka. I thought it was a pretty solid PPV. I also think the women's MITB match was paced better, although I would rather have Becky win the case instead of Alexa.

As has been said before, the in-ring product is generally pretty solid these days, it's just the booking or lack of coherent/well-told/interesting angles that brings the show down.

WWE announced that they have come to terms with the release of Big Cass.

I won't forget how over both him and Enzo Amore were in NXT and in the main roster. I think splitting them up was a bad idea, and it just spiraled from there with Enzo's backstage attitude, Big Cass' injuries, and ultimately Enzo's rape case.

I never would have imagined that Carmella would outlast both Enzo and Cass from their stable in NXT.

They both seemed like stubborn hotheads and didn't ever seem to fit into the main roster picture

The split and Cass' injuries didn't help matters, but they seemed to be lost in the shuffle, never really getting a push. Enzo got over, but his act got stale quickly, and then he shot himself in the foot. I think Cass needed a "Constable" Baron Corbin-type role to save his job, but that role is obviously taken.

Wrestling Legend Big Van Vader Dead At 63

Vader aka Big Van Vader — who wrestled in WWE, WCW and all over the world — has passed away at the age of 63-years-old … this according to his family.

One of Vader’s children tweeted from his account saying, “It is with a heavy heart to inform everyone that my father, Leon White, passed away on Monday night (6/18/18) at approximately 7:25pm.”

Adding, “Around a month ago my father was diagnosed with a severe case of Pneumonia. He fought extremely hard and clinically was making progress. Unfortunately, on Monday night his heart had enough and it was his time.”

He hadn't been well for some time so it's not a surprise, but still sad news all the same. It's a shame he never got a proper run in WWE, thanks to Vince's myopia, and HBK's backstage politicking. RIP.

Damn, rest in peace.

IT'S TIME
IT'S TIME
IT'S VADER TIME

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Sami Zayn is injured and won't be back till 2019. Hopefully he comes back strong and creative will have something for him.

Heard that he's been working with that injury since August last year.

I like his heel run because he's just this obnoxious character, but I only see Sami Zayn as the underdog face that goes against the odds. I'm hoping that he returns as a face.

Agreed. His heel run has been good, but it feels like he'll ultimately be more successful as a face everyone can get behind for an underdog success story. Daniel Bryan comes to mind.

Agreed. His heel run has been good, but it feels like he'll ultimately be more successful as a face everyone can get behind for an underdog success story. Daniel Bryan comes to mind.

There's definitely some of that Bryan underdog face stuff to Sami, but his entire run as a face in WWE, I just found him to blah and boring, and couldn't get behind him. He seemed just so bland. He'll need to be written and booked well in order to make it work, because from my perspective, the only time since he was in NXT that I've given even a little bit of a crap about Sami was as a heel. He's an immense talent, but overall I think has massively underwhelmed.

I agree. I've never liked his character but he has great work inside the ring. His match against Nakamura is one of if not the top favorite matches of all time for me.

I think Vince has the same idea where he might see him as another one of those "small indie guys"

Same reason why a lot of top talented little guys wind up leaving

Are you suggesting his character is a little too El Generico?

Kevin Owens is gold.

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The story here is that Owens got tickets from his wife to Shania Twain's concert, and he's constantly tweeting Shania to play a specific song in this Montreal concert.

I completely forgot Extreme Rules today. I woke up two hours into the PPV, and just caught Styles vs Rusev and Rollins vs Ziggler. Shame that Styles seemingly won't ever main event a PPV as long as he is on Smackdown.

He's getting the CM Punk treatment: a long reign with the oldest and most prestigious championship in the company, but not given the main event slot.

It's crazy because they recognize his popularity by keeping the belt on him, selling his merch, and putting him on the cover of 2k but they'd rather push Rollins and reigns

Lingering A Show, B Show mentality.

To be fair, fans have been clamoring forever to "restore the prestige" of the IC Title, and then complain when it Main Events a big (sort of) show. Now, I don't think I"d main event it on a show where the World Title is also being defended, as it was last night, but at least they had the Iron Man Match stipulation tied to it, which I think played a role in it being the headline event. Styles vs. Rusev was a good match, as was Rollins vs. Ziggler, albeit, to a lesser degree. Hell, even Reigns vs. Lashley was a good match, despite just horrible build up. Owens took an unbelievable bump from the top of the cage through a table after entertaining with Strowman. Orton looks to be a heel again, which is the best version of himself, though I'd rather not see him at all. Shinsuke vs Jeff Hardy was a strange one, but I like the result and at least Shinsuke has character now and I have a reason to cheer or boo for him, unlike guys like Finn Balor who the WWE can't quite figure out what to do with or what direction to go with, and whose match with Corbin felt like an absolute waste of time. The women's matches were pretty bad, but overall I liked this PPV a lot better than what seems to be the general reaction I've seen. The biggest issue I had was the build up to basically every single match over the past month was awful. I didn't care about a single match heading into the PPV. They're trying on some of them, like with Braun and Owens, but even there it's falling very flat. They've forgotten the 'entertainment' part of sports entertainment. I'm okay with smarmy Carmella beating the superior Asuka with old tried and true smarmy heel tactics, as long as it's entertaining. More often than not though, it feels like it's failing to be that.

Props to KO for that Mankind bump from the top of the cage.

IC belt is basically the prestigious belt on the show now that the Universal championship belt isn't on the show. Glad they put it on a well deserving Dolph. Drew has been money and can't wait to see where they go

Jeff Hardy squash job could be a way to sell legit injuries and time off.

I liked the tables match on the preshow. Smackdown still has its moments but raw is just super lacking in anything remotely interesting

Is it fair to say they have too much potential main event talent on the roster to know what to do with? Obviously that's a good problem to have on paper, but when combined with the problem of not being able to tell good stories or give matches without a title belt meaning, it means that talent is going to waste.