The Good
For Raw, even though we have seen this matchup multiple times the past few weeks, the match between Braun Strowman and Kevin Owens was a great way to start off Raw. Strowman ended up winning to solidify his spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match. Strowman is on an absolute roll right now and he deserves to be in the ladder match.
For Smackdown, they surprised me this week when they had Rusev beat Daniel Bryan to get a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match. Usually when Rusev is put in a big spotlight, he tends to lose so the fact that he actually beat a big name like Daniel Bryan and now he has the chance to win money in the bank is exciting. As far as Daniel Bryan, it looks like him and Big Cass are not done yet.
The Bad
For Raw, the sit down interview with Bobby Lashley was awful. All we learned from this interview was that he grew up with three sisters. We never found out why he is back in WWE or who he would like to fight. This segment could’ve been a great way to show why Bobby Lashley is back, but instead we just learned about his family and made no progression towards that.
For Smackdown, I didn’t understand the purpose of the match between Mandy Rose and Becky Lynch. I thought that this would be a Money in the Bank qualifying match, but instead it was just a match. This match did help establish that Mandy Rose can handle being by herself, which is good to see, but it shouldn’t come at a time where it feels like filler on the show.
The Final Verdict
I’ll be honest, Monday Night Raw was not a good show this week. While they did focus on Money in the Bank and had some qualifying matches, most of what they featured on their show fell flat. The Bobby Lashley interview was a letdown, we had one too many phone selfie promos, and we saw Bobby Roode versus Elias for the 100th time. Smackdown, on the other hand, featured two great Money in the Bank qualifying matches, and still focused on the main rivalry for their brand between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura. With that said, Smackdown definitely had the better show this week. With Money in the Bank building up week after week, it will be interesting to see who fills out the rest of the matches.
