WWE Money in the Bank 2018 review: What we learned, takeaways, future projections

Roman Reigns vs. Jinder Mahal

What we learned: Nothing. We learned absolutely nothing here. If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I ran up to take a quick shower when this was happening live, clearly thinking this was not going to be a good match. I came back down with this STILL going on and upon a rewatch, I was absolutely right.

This was easily a filler feud for Roman Reigns, and Jinder Mahal basically got thrown to the wolves, even if they tried to make him look good by giving him the upper hand for a big portion of this match. The problem was that his upper hand still doesn’t look good and this bout was just SOOOOOO slow. The CM Punk chants right at the start of this match didn’t surprise me one little bit as this match was doomed to fail from the start. There was no reason to give these guys 15 minutes, especially in Chicago where everyone knows they’re not going to be shy about things they don’t like. And there was nothing to like about this match at all. I’m pretty sure there were beach balls flying around the Allstate Arena at one point, but I know there was definitely some version of “the wave” happening.

I’ve been trying so hard to defend Roman Reigns for a long time, but it’s getting harder and harder for me to keep doing that. Unlike how John Cena kept adding to his repertoire during pay-per-view matches, it continues to be the same song and dance from the Big Dog, and things are just stale for him when he doesn’t have Brock Lesnar around to get physical with or someone like Seth Rollins to make him look good. The booking isn’t helping matters any as there was nothing to get into throughout this program. Match summary: Jinder was up, Roman comes back and hits a spear to win. Yawn.

What’s next: This feud can’t possibly continue, right? Jinder tried to cheat to win and still couldn’t get the job done so that just needs to be it. But what do you do with these guys? Mahal isn’t ever going to get back to the level he was at last summer and simply needs another midcard guy to feud with. And seriously, how has it not been mentioned that Jinder Mahal, Drew McIntyre and Heath Slater are all on Monday Night RAW? 3MB reunion, anyone?

As for Roman Reigns, it’s hard to say where he goes from here. With all the reports that Brock Lesnar still isn’t officially booked for SummerSlam, Reigns is now without a clear opponent for the summer. He’ll need someone for Extreme Rules unless we get some random tag with he and Rollins taking on Elias and Jinder, which may happen in the next week or two anyway. There’s been no indication that Reigns’ coronation isn’t still going to happen, but without knowing what Lesnar is going to do, it’s tough to call.