Talk about it here.

Holy shit this was quite the spotfest opener, and the hot Philly crowd certainly helped. What worked so well to me in this one is that there was never a dull moment - once some parties were down, others stepped in, similar to the Dragon Gate trios matches when they first came to the States. I also liked that in this match, there was a damn good reason why guys would be down for minutes at a time. The bumps they took were fucking hellacious. It only made sense both in reality and kayfabe for them to nurse themselves and regain their energy.

 

Some of the most noteworthy spots that I remember include: Swagger yanking down a participant, and that participant getting a beautiful European Uppercut from Cesaro before hitting the mat. Cody grabbing Cesaro off of the ladder and giving him a musclebuster style drop on a ladder. The Usos and the Shield being outside the ring with numerous other participants as Cody pushed the ladder over and Ambrose fell out of the ring. Great finish too, with the crowd fulling behind Cody but the intellectually superior Sandow taking his friend out of the equation, being the smarmy opportunist and rewarded for a good little feud he had just had with Sheamus. With both the WWE and World Titles since being unified, I wonder if the MITB events going forward will be able to have the killer opening matches that we've been accustomed to. ****1/4