James Ellsworth winning Money in the Bank for Carmella creates heat, just maybe not the right kind

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Carmella won the first-ever women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. The problem, is, she didn’t win it by herself — James Ellsworth physically climbed the ladder, retrieved it for her, and tossed it down to his friend who is a girl without being ordered to by her. Now, in theory, this could work: they’re heels, you’re supposed to hate Ellsworth, and Carmella being totally okay with taking the easy way out and letting a man do the work for her is a reason to boo her.

The problem is that, unless you’re too young to realize it, you’re aware a writing team made this decision. And that’s where much of the heel heat for this win is going to go instead of to the performers themselves.

WWE probably should have stopped at Ellsworth pushing the ladder with Becky Lynch on it over and let Carmella go from there so we had the image of her pulling the case down ingrained in both our memories and available for whatever WWE Network look at the past special they make down the road. Instead, we had this propped up as a historic moment for women, and then had a man determine the outcome by himself. That’s not pulling the rug out from under the audience so much as rolling them up in the rug and then kicking the rug down a steep cliff.

Maybe you aren’t bothered by it at all. Or maybe you know it’s a tone-deaf, idiotic decision, but you’re also willing to wait it out since it sure seems like every woman in WWE is going to take burns mutilating Ellsworth for what he’s done, and it’s clear that the angle WWE wants to push here is that it is wrong for a man to have won this for Carmella, and we should be mad, and that someday, he will get what he deserves for this transgression. The thing is, those aren’t the only two options.

This is a move that could backfire and cost WWE viewers, and that’s not something they should be intentionally setting out to do. Especially not when women are dying for a reason to not only watch WWE, but believe that they’ll deliver a product where they’re as fairly represented as the men. They don’t get the time the men do, they only recently get the stories and matches men do, and in this instance, they weren’t even allowed to finish the match themselves. It shouldn’t be a surprise if some viewers bail on watching because WWE hasn’t built up long-term trust with them to do things right in the end — it’s on WWE to inspire that trust in their viewers, not for fans to inherently have it within them.

Me? I’m in that second camp, those who know it was dumb but are curious to see where WWE goes with it given the kayfabe reactions of their authority figures and women from both shows. I’m just some dude with plenty of representation in WWE, both historic and present-day, though. Take a moment today to think about how this finish might feel for those who lack that luxury.

• It’s not just WWE’s women who are going to make Ellsworth pay: both Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan have made it clear this is going to be the topic du jour on Tuesday.
• Monday’s Rumor Roundup includes a Roman Reigns SummerSlam rumor so weird that you’re going to just have to click to see what it is because I can’t even hint at what it is without giving it away.
• New Day failed to take the title from the Usos because the Usos figured out they weren’t going to easily retain and decided to bail.
• Naomi retained against Lana, so don’t worry, there’s still one face champion left in WWE. Before you say “But Brock Lesnar is Universal Champion,” please realize that I believe Brock’s alignment is “Brock.”
• Jinder Mahal beat Randy Orton again because Randy began wrestling at such a young age that he never had time to watch any. THEY WERE DISTRACTING YOU, RANDY.
• Maria Kanellis is back in WWE, and she brought along her loving husband, Mike Kanellis. I’m so prepared to love hating these two.
• Baron Corbin is Mr. Money in the Bank this year, in part because Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles forgot the entire point of this match is to climb the ladder when everyone else is down.
• Andrew Swift has the full recap for you, and needs help with grading a show that was a mess whenever it wasn’t busy being inspired.
• And here’s my own recap over at SB Nation on a pay-per-view that was designed to make you mad. Just, uh, not always the way WWE intended.
• We know what one of the announcements on this week’s RAW is going to be. Don’t worry, it’s not a story line spoiler.
• Scott Steiner had a microphone, which means we wrote about things Scott Steiner said into that microphone.
• With Money in the Bank behind us, check out Kyle Decker’s look at the rest of the week in wrestling to know what you’ll be watching.
• If you want to know the details of PJ Black’s latest basejumping incident, knock yourself out.
• This is probably a good a day as any to remind you that WWE still suffers from the curse of the Attitude Era.