WWE MONEY IN THE BANK 2013 [DVD Review]

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK 2013
On DVD and Blu-Ray in the UK from 23rd September 2013

At just shy of 2 hours and 50 minutes, WWE brings wrestling fans Money In The Bank 2013, shot live at Philadelphia in the United States. Up for grabs during the show are two Money In the Bank contacts which can be ‘cashed’ anytime for a championship match and are represented by a briefcase suspended in the air and attainable by using a ladder. These particular matches are called Ladder matches, due to the use of the aforementioned ladder.

The first match is a World Championship Contract Money In the Bank Ladder match between 7 of the undercard wrestlers on WWE’s roster. They include the dancing Fandango, current United States champion – The Shield’s Dean Ambrose, The Real Americans tag team pairing of Jack Swagger and Antonio Cesaro, Team Rhodes Scholars’ Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow, and British wrestler Wade Barrett. Whilst it’s every man for himself, the tag team members of The Real Americans and Team Rhodes Scholars pair up with their fellow team member to attack the other wrestlers in the match. The fight is quite hectic, with wrestlers emerging from every corner of the ring. The wrestlers use the ladders lying around the cage to full effect – be it to smash their opponent with, throw their opponent onto or to climb up on and reach the holy grail of briefcases. From an entertainment point of view, the match is incredible, with each wrestler potentially having the chance to secure the case and stopping at nothing til they get it. There’s rolling throws, fisticuffs on the ladders between Cody Rhodes and Dean Ambrose, complete with a bleeding Cody. The match even gets invaded by The Shield, which is no surprise to WWE fans. A non-stop assault results in a shocking, controversial win that could mean big things plot-wise in the future.

In the second match is a fight between newbie WWE wrestler Curtis Axel and The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship belt. The latest client of Paul Heyman’s, Axel seems confident and should be as he’s the current Intercontinental Championship belt owner, but seems to have suffered a string of losses recently. The commentators seem convinced that having Heyman by his side is the source of his power, so Curtis panicks when a cunning The Miz gets Heyman dismissed from ringside by the referee. The Miz fights clever against the champ, but could copious amounts of strikes, throws and a figure 4 leg lock submission prove enough?

The ladies fights are always interesting to watch, and this is certainly one to see has an enraged Kaitlyn with nothing to lose takens on the crazy girlfriend of Dolph Ziggler, current Divas Champion, AJ Lee, in a bid for her belt. Much like in MMA fights, the women instantly get the claws out and attack one another, with Kaitlyn opting for the more traditional moves her male counterparts regularly perform. AJ Lee has a smaller frame than Kaitlyn and would stuggle with supplexes but she pulls out a bag of special tricks of her own, including a cool submission called the Black Widow. This match up is shorter than the men’s matches, but is action packed from start to finish.

After the Divas fight, Chris ‘Y2J’Jericho enters the ring to face off against the hungry beast, Ryback, after taunting him in previous shows when Ryback injured his leg. The two lock horns and Chris Jericho wastes no time in heavily slapping Ryback across the chest. Ryback plays as good as he gets though, and takes a breather outside of the ring. Ryback is very much playing the game on his own terms and the two of them pull out all the tricks in their arsenal in attempt to secure the 3 count pin.

In the World Heavyweight Championship match, the show off Dolph Ziggler aims to reclaim the belt from Mexican wrestler, Alberto Del Rio, who’s missing his once-best-friend ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez from this fight. Dolph wastes no time in attacking Del Rio with a shower of elbows with the crowd clearly chanting his name in support. Del Rio feels the WWE universe have not shown him the respect he deserves and fights to the extreme with Ziggler in a bid to secure a win to keep the belt. The two put on a fantastic show with many pin attempts, but could an appearance by AJ Lee help Ziggler or cause problems?

After formally ‘retiring’ from the world of WWE, the World’s Strongest Man Mark Henry challenges John Cena to a WWE Championship match, stating that the belt is the only thing that is missing from his 17 year career. Whilst John Cena is usually the favourite, the crowd appear to side with Henry in a fight that challenges Cena. Whilst Cena has technique, he struggles against Henry’s 410lb weight against his own weight of 250lb. Henry takes advantage of his size and throws Cena around like a ragdoll, something you rarely see when Cena usually outweighs or at least equals his opponents. The match is surprisingly entertaining, with Mark Henry on top form. They use the steel steps in the fight and Cena performs his techniques the 5 knuckle shuffle and Attitude Adjustment (AA) in a close run match.

The main event of the match tests all-stars wrestlers CM Punk, apex predator Randy Orton, goatman Daniel Bryan, the Celtic warrior Seamus, Christian and classic favourite Rob Van Dam in a Money in the Bank Ladder Match for a WWE Championship contract. As the bell sounds the start of the fight, the crowd can be heard chanting clearly Rob Van Dam, in his debut return fight, so the rest of the wrestlers decide to pick the favourite off first before setting about attacking one another. Like the previous ladder match at the start of the show, the wrestlers put on an energetic performance, with high flying antics from RVD and Daniel Bryan, not to mention an iconic scene of all six men grasping for the suspended briefcase from two ladders. You can imagine what happens. An appearance from Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman mix things up to cracking finale.

This DVD comes with the pre-show Tag Team match between The Shield and The Usos, but as usual, the Blu-Ray editions features six more extras.

Money In The Bank 2013 is a complete entertaining show that ticks all the boxes.

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