Excessive Video Review – What happened with the WWE Tag Title false finish at MITB?

The opening WWE Tag Title match at the Money in the Bank PPV went awry mid-way through the match when there appeared to be a three count in favor of Enzo Amore & Big Cass that threw off the rest of the match.

Upon several reviews of the footage currently on WWE Network, what appears to happened is the rhythm of the nearfall was thrown off, causing the air to be let out of the building when it looked like the spot was messed up.

(1) Big Cass launched Enzo Amore off the top rope onto a prone Karl Anderson.

(2) Enzo made a clear cover of Anderson as referee Jason Ayers positioned himself to make a count.

(3) Anderson rolled his right shoulder toward the ring ropes to check on the status of Luke Gallows to break up the pin from the outside.

(4) Ayers cocked his left arm to make the initial one count. However, he stopped short when Anderson’s shoulder was not completely down on the mat for a legal pin since Anderson was leaning over checking on Gallows’s status.

However, that initial motion from the referee appeared to be the start of a one count.

(5) Ayers officially counted one, which looked like two, and then counted two, which looked like three because of the rhythm of the count initiated by the false first count.

Gallows yanked Enzo out of the ring and off the pin attempt after the actual two-count and rhythmic three-count, making it seem like there was a screw-up with the referee accidentally counting three.

CONCLUSION: The first part of the spot threw off the entire sequence. After Enzo landed the big splash, Anderson’s shoulder was down for a split-second for referee Ayers to get into position to initiate the motion of counting a pin.

However, Anderson’s shoulder popped up as he checked for Gallows’s whereabouts just before the first count. This forced a proper restart of the count, but not the visual restart of the pinning situation.

Without the clear break in-between the false one, actual one, and actual two, it made it seem like the actual two count was the three count.

It would have worked best if Anderson’s shoulder stayed down the whole time, or at least if Anderson’s shoulder was up from the beginning, so referee Ayers could have done the motion of sweeping his hand underneath Anderson’s shoulder to indicate he could not start his count. It would have temporarily hurt the momentum of the match after the big high spot from Enzo & Cass, but at least not made it seem like there was a botched pinfall, throwing off the rest of the match.