WWE Money in the Bank 2018: Results, Highlights, and Grades

Photo Source: WWE.com

Intercontinental Championship Match

Seth Rollins (c) vs. Elias

Result: Seth Rollins defeated Elias via pinfall

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

In 1985, Queen played what has been called the greatest performance in rock music history. At Live Aid, the band revitalized its career with a perfect storm of crowd, concert, and atmosphere. Over 30 years later, it’s still brought up in conversation as the epitome of showmanship.

Now, to say that Rollins/Elias at WWE Money in the Bank 2018 will be seen as a Live Aid kind of moment for either superstar, but it could be that for the Intercontinental Championship itself. The match told one of the simplest stories out there — über-popular babyface suffering from nagging injuries, gutting it out against a rival out to exploit said injuries.

But how the two superstars told the story was practically perfect. Rollins sold both injuries — the neck and the knee — without wavering. Elias focused the attacks on both body parts with laser precision. The modified Cobra Clutch early on where Elias just dragged the champ around the ring was a great focus on the weakened neck.

In fact, the only thing that keeps this match from being totally perfect was the finish. Why, oh why, would you have your immensely popular top guy on Raw and fighting champion so blatantly cheat to retain the title? It’s mind-bogglingly stupid, and that’s putting it nicely. There is absolutely zero reason for Rollins to hold the belt to score a pinfall, bad knee or not.

Take that idiocy out of the equation and this is a clear match of the night without question. But now there’s room for one of the remaining matches to outshine what could have been a seminal moment for both superstars and the Intercontinental Championship.