On Sunday, the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois will host the ninth ever Money in the Bank pay-per-view event.
This time, the event is co-branded, meaning both of the rosters from RAW and Smackdown Live! will compete.
That also carries over to the actual ladder matches themselves.
However, in year’s past, this has been a male superstar only event.
Now, we have two ladder matches: one for the males and one for the females consisting of eight competitors in each.
Speaking of the women, each brand’s Women’s championship will be on the line as Carmella defends her title against Asuka and Nia Jax squares off with Ronda Rousey.
Supplied by BetDSI, we have odds for both of these matchups. We will examine each match below and try to pinpoint how these matches will be booked as well as what the smart betting option is.
Let’s get started.
Carmella (c) (+150) vs. Asuka (-200)
Heading into Wrestlemania, Asuka was undefeated and set to take on Charlotte.
Well, she lost that match and even lost a tag team match on Smackdown Live! which kind of hindered her character as being an undefeated wrecking ball.
Currently, Asuka is a relatively small favorite by WWE odds terms to win the strap.
However, this doesn’t feel like the spot.
To build Asuka back up, they should have her win it on a stage that will help give her more notoriety like Summerslam.
The Money in the Bank event has become one of the bigger ones, too, but Carmella needs a little bit longer of a title run to give her more legitimacy after cashing in Charlotte earlier this year.
My money is on the underdog here. It won’t necessarily be clean, though.
I’m sure the Princess of Staten Island will be booked to pull out plenty of her heelish tactics to overthrow Asuka.
Nia Jax (c) (+475) vs. Ronda Rousey (-600)
No surprise here, but Rousey is the favorite to win the RAW Women’s Championship in her first ever single’s match.
Prior to this, Rousey has only competed in one televised match and that was at Wrestlemania when she partnered with Kurt Angle to take out Stephanie McMahon and Triple H.
More recently, though, Rousey and Jax squared off on the 6/11/18 edition of Monday Night RAW which ended in a physical altercation between the two women.
Now, after Jax challenged Rousey at a red carpet event, Rousey appears to be the one to come out on top.
I would agree with that.
However, I’ve been thinking of a few different booking strategies that could make this more intriguing.
Assuming Rousey wins via the armbar, Jax might be left incapacitated.
Perhaps bringing in the Riott Squad to assault Rousey from behind because of their anger toward the former UFC star getting a shot so easily could be the reason for this.
Then, if Natalya wins the Women’s Money in the Bank briefcase, what a heel turn it would be if Rousey’s “best friend” cashed in on her like that, taking the title and setting up a feud that could also last until Summerslam where Rousey could take home the belt for real.
To make this believable, it would need to take more than just a couple of women to bring Rousey down.
If the Riott Squad assaults Rousey, leaving her hurting in the ring, then Natalya comes out, it would make it a bit more believable.
Remember, booking Rousey is going to be no easy feat for this creative team. They already struggle with regular characters, never mind someone who should totally annihilate every competitor.
You do that, though, with cheap shots from behind with a stable of women like the Riott Squad and allow Natalya to take the strap.
It would still make Rousey look strong as it would have taken four women to take her out and then have Rousey squash Natalya at Summerslam to win the belt back.
Winning it at Summerslam and being booked for that even will attract more mainstream coverage, too, and potentially lead to more WWE Network subscriptions—something the WWE will never say no to.
So, that’s what I’d do.
To break it down: Rousey goes over Jax, wins, gets assaulted by the Riott Squad, book Natalya to win the Women’s Money in the Bank match, cash in on her friend and build a feud to Summerslam.
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