I complained and hated the parade of promos on WWE SmackDown last week, even though the Money in the Bank competitor parade included WWE Undisputed Champion Sami Zayn and his other competitors. WWE topped it off this week with a promo for the opening of the CM Punk vs. Kevin Owens show that involved Zayn once again. however. The fans these days are always clamoring for a good pre-MITB promo with everyone climbing the ladder, the homecoming episode of WWE Raw leading up to the 2016 event, and I’m one of them.
However, this promo was a lot less cheesy than it was in 2016, and I love the ongoing feud between Owens and Punk, and this format spiced it up a bit. They made the silly “up-on-ladders” promo work really well, and luckily the whole thing just drew them in, along with Zayn. The other Money in the Bank guys were getting into the fight in the main event segment after promos last week, and splitting things up this week worked out really well. Evans, Penta, Williams, and Breaker are far more likely to win the briefcase than Punk and Owens, despite the latter being the bigger stars, and Owens basically proved it himself tonight.
“KO” came out to interrupt Punk, who was already sitting on top of the ladder, going through his MITB opponents along with the fans. He basically put them all down, but when it came to Owens, he said he was the guy he “didn’t sweat at all.” He talked from Owens’ entrance about how he beat him up in Toronto in front of his mother, which was a nice touch.
Owens then made it clear that his first priority was to win the contract, but his second priority was to make sure Punk didn’t win. Punk then had a great line where he said Owens wasn’t winning, but still wouldn’t let Punk win, it was just an excuse for Owens not being able to win the job and that he always looked down on Owens and looked down on him. This led to Owens climbing the ladder to face off with Punk, where he said he would win and “beat that b**** Sami Zayn,” which then brought out the champion, who stood on a comically shorter ladder to help close the segment. He told Owens and Punk that they are more alike than they realize and he doesn’t believe either of them are winning the case.
I never thought Punk or Owens would win either, but it looks like the MITB match will fuel the feud and things between them heated up again tonight. I’m not usually one for show opening promos or anything involving Punk, but I really enjoyed it.
Posted by Daisy Ruth
