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Welcome back to the Excellence in Column Writing here at LordsofPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com. The man who is harder than the ladder that Kofi Kingston was powerbombed onto, Mr. Tito. So yeah, I subscribed to the WWE Network... Thus, the boycott is over... Why did I do it? (1) June is FREE, so why not try it? (2) NBA Finals were on tonight. Sorry, but I want to see that game. Thus, multitasked and watched the NBA Finals on my HD television while watching WWE Money in the Bank PPV on my SmartPhone. Not an easy chore, I can assure you. Things were made worse when I was also watching the Nintendo World Championships on my Computer. (3) It's time to play catch-up... I keep hearing great things about the shows and documentaries on the channel. Plus, I'd like to maybe trade in an hour or two of RAW viewership (becoming a chore) to dabble in some NXT. The WWE Network exclusive events are making it really enticing. It was getting difficult to credibly write a column lately without any access to the WWE Network. Plus, it's only $9.99 and the 6 month committment no longer exists. If I'm sick of it, I can just ditch it. If I like it, I can keep it and maybe help provide me with a wrestling fix outside of what the USA Network tries to air. So here we are... My first review from a WWE Network Pay Per View that I watched on MY WWE Network instead of my friend's. Since it was technically FREE, I guess I saved money on Pizza that I usually provide. I was REALLY impressed with TWO specific matches tonight: Money in the Bank Ladder Match and John Cena vs. Kevin Owens. First of all, I don't agree with Sheamus winning the Briefcase. Not at all. How many chances can this guy get with the World Title and obtaining title shots? Has the WWE not received a clue yet that this guy cannot draw when they artificially push him? I laughed when Sheamus tried to insist that he wasn't receiving any booking favors. Bull... You don't get pushed, repackaged, handed multiple world titles, and winning the Money in the Bank briefcase after you've been World Champion without some kind of bias. I don't agree with Sheamus winning this whatsoever and it just validates what most think about Sheamus. WWE Creative loves him. The only redeeming value is that we've never seen Sheamus vs. Brock Lesnar if the WWE opts to make Lesnar champion at SummerSlam again. We'll find out... But the match, itself, was OFF THE HOOK. That was one of the best Ladder Matches that I've seen in a few years and congrats to Roman Reigns who I thought looked the best in this match as the aggressor. The other guys took the bumps, like that SICK powerbomb onto the Ladder (poor Kofi!), but the match featured Rollins well. Reigns powerbombing someone over the ropes was sick, too! Seems like the Wrestlemania 31 match against Lesnar has rubbed off on Reigns well. However, he still needs major fixes to his look and personality. You can't fix that with great matches. I thought it was weird to exclude Bray Wyatt for this match just to have him interfere to set up another Pay Per View. Just odd. The match was pure chaos and most everyone took sick bumps. John Cena vs. Kevin Owens was amazing... If the Internet didn't see why John Cena remains the #1 wrestler in the WWE and maybe the world, just watch this match. Not only was John Cena busting out many different moves, but he was selling for Owens like a champion. I have a small sample size to work with for Kevin Owens, but I really enjoyed Owens's performance tonight. For as husky as he appears, the guy is very agile and quick in the ring. There is real in-ring talent there. That missed moonsault was absurd, as was the reversal of the Superplex off the top rope. The guy has real ability... Pushing him too fast? Maybe, but John Cena seems to really like working with the guy. That's something... I enjoyed the attack by Owens afterward on John Cena that sets up Cena/Owens #3. Fine by that... Match of the Year? Maybe... I can now re-watch the 2 Lesnar matches from Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania 31 that I have pegged as my top 2015 matches. But hey, I can rewatch this again without the damn Cavs/Warriors game distracting me a bit too... I did NOT like the Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose Ladder Match. It was one of those matches where you felt like you've seen this before... Ambrose and Rollins have wrestled so much that it has sucked any uniqueness from their matches. I felt like I was waiting for the match to get good and it just didn't deliver. Granted, I was intensely following the Cavs/Warriors game at this point and may have missed something. But the crowd seemed to agree with me. Maybe Dean Ambrose was upset that he wasn't winning the World Title? That can hurt match quality... NO Brock Lesnar tonight, by the way... He'll probably appear on RAW soon to threaten the retaining WWE Champion, Seth Rollins. I'm happy about the Prime Time Players winning the WWE Tag Titles but I fear their opportunity to make money as tag champions ended years ago. The win seemed without hype and as if WWE is just discarding the New Day. Then again, I'm not as crazy on the New Day stable as the Internet showed they were tonight. My Twitter timeline exploded with venom towards the WWE about New Day losing. Who knew? Did not see R-Truth vs. King Barrett... Tuned in just before 8pm. I enjoyed the 10 Bell Salute to Dusty Rhodes. As one of my first WWE Network viewed shows, I saw the Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes Rivalries documentary. Holy cow was that great! Highly recommend to anyone who has the WWE Network if you haven't seen it already. Confused by the Nikki vs. Paige finish... Shouldn't that have been a Disqualification on Nikki Bella for Brie interfering? My favorite part about Brie's explanation that she was NOT Nikki was the removal of her bra padding. Look, I'm the smaller chested Bella! And the referee bought it... Hilarious stuff. Paige vs. Nikki was good, but nothing off-the-charts. And once again, the Miz is featured... Isn't if funny how the WWE defines the term "insanity" by repeatedly pushing Miz and Sheamus over and over and over again? Not that Big Show vs. Ryback was tearing the house down but you can see right through the WWE's agenda. Whatever. As my first WWE Network owned Pay Per View, I was mostly satisfied. The Money in the Bank Ladder Match was amazing and probably the best Ladder Match in years. Each and every guy took sick bumps. Owens vs. Cena is working really well... Cena has always lacked good heels to be his equal yet it might take a guy signed from the Indies and brought up through NXT to finally supplement him with a good heel foil. That's a sad statement of the current roster, too, if guys like Bray Wyatt and Rusev can't get fan support like Owens. I sort of worry about Dean Ambrose after this show, but maybe I'm wrong about my first viewing of the Money in the Bank 2015 Main Event. WWE has only let Dean Ambrose win ONE Pay Per View match since the last Shield/Evolution encounter this time last year. Ambrose had true momentum heading into the Hell in a Cell Pay Per View but that odd ending with Bray Wyatt attacking took the wind out of his sails. Then, getting owned by Bray Wyatt didn't help either. He's broken... WWE Creative broke his will and now we're left with a damaged wrestler that might take years to repair. LAST WORD: I'll go B+ for this show due to 2 strong matches carrying the show while the rest was just OK. Now, we get to enjoy Sheamus push #173466263. Oh joy, we all have the luck of the Irish! ------------------------------------------- PHAT QUESTION Question: Where does Dusty Rhodes rank among the all time greats? Being honest here, I don't know... Why? I began watching pro wrestling regularly during late 1988. By then, Dusty Rhodes was about to leave NWA/WCW for WWE. My first memory of Dusty was seeing clips of the Road Warriors stabbing Dusty in the eye with one of their shoulder pad spikes. He was quickly let go after that incident, reportedly (although booking issues with Flair is also blamed). So I have no idea how big he was during the 1970's. I appear to realize that he was a big deal in NWA during the mid-1980's when he was feuding regularly with Ric Flair. That seems evident... But how big he was before that, I don't know. I know one thing, however... His 1989-1990 run in the WWE was better than expected. Who else could be given black shirts with yellow spots, funny "American Dream" theme music, and an unknown manager named Sapphire and STILL get over? Dusty Rhodes. From what I know and have read, he was a big influence on the Creative side of wrestling. He gets a bad rap for "Dusty Finish", but AWA was doing that stuff heavily during 1982-1983 with their World Title matches having false finishes. He also seems to get a bad rap for his dual role as wrestler and booker but Dusty was over and during the mid-1980's, he appeared to be the top babyface. He was pretty important backstage for WCW during the mid-1990's with creative and he had an influence on NXT as a creative team member there. In addition, Dusty produced 2 legitimate pro wrestlers as sons in Dustin (Goldust) and Cody (Stardust). His combined contributions as a wrestler, creative mind, and creating a generational link is quite a legacy. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2015
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