The inaugural Women’s Money in the Bank match featured five female superstars from the Smackdown roster. Charlotte, Carmella, Natalya, Becky Lynch and Tamina squared off inside the ring to earn the most opportunistic briefcase in the history of the WWE. They did manage to steal the show forcing the crowd to chant, “this is awesome”.
However, the finishing did leave a sour taste among the fans. Never in the history of the event, we have witnessed a controversy like this. Despite it being a women’s match, a man in the form of James Ellsworth was the one to climb the ladder and grab the briefcase. He then passed it on to Carmella to make her the winner.
This is not the outcome what WWE Universe has not expected in this history-making match. We expected a definite winner, for sure. According to the recent reports, the Creative did want this controversy all the way around and they come with this master plan.
As per Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the writers of the show wanted to find a way so that the world keeps on talking about the match for a long time. This is the sole reason why they did not plan a proper finish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ggSIAEfJ8
They knew that there will be some sort of negative reactions from the crowd around the finish. However, not every backlash from the crowd turns out to be harmful to the company. In this case, they managed to involve the audience into the matter with this unexpected twist. This is what the veteran wrestling journalist had to say about the controversial finish:
“They (WWE) pushed the idea that this first match was historical, then gave people an ending that would be anything but, with the idea of using that to garner interest in a television rematch where that first match result was negated.”
This was a very cunning antique from the creative since Carmella is still the favourite to win the second ladder match, as well. Letting her win in the first match would surely not garner the attention the way it is now. Rather, they can continue with the Money in the Bank gimmick for two more weeks before moving on to the storyline for the next PPV, Battleground.