Live from the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, WWE hosted Money in the Bank. One of the highlight shows in the yearly PLE calendar. Where superstars can practically guarantee themselves a World Title victory and elevate their careers to a level they potentially have never reached before, or re-establish themselves firmly at the top of the company.
First, we saw the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. Which saw Rhea Ripley, Stephanie Vaquer, Giulia, Naomi, Roxanne Perez & Alexa Bliss compete to pull down the Money in the Bank briefcase, which of course guarantees the holder a title match whenever they see fit over the next year. Ultimately, the win went to Naomi who has been on a roll lately with a much more vicious side of her character being revealed in the aftermath of her assault on Jade Cargill months ago. While Naomi has held a World title in WWE before, this was all the way back in 2017 so it has been a long time since Naomi has been on top of the division and winning the briefcase gives her a chance to firmly get back on top.
Next, we saw a match that had only been set up hours prior during Worlds Collide, a separate crossover event that had taken place earlier in the day as the first proper use of WWE’s recent acquisition of AAA. Where Dominik Mysterio defended his Intercontinental Championship against AAA’s Octagon Jr. Though apart from the surprise of seeing AAA representation on MITB, there was not that much else to say as Dominik retained his title in relatively quick fashion.
Moving onto the Women’s Intercontinental Championship, Becky Lynch once again challenged Lyra Valkyria for the title after her loss at Backlash. This was a match with high stakes at both ends, as Becky agreed that if she lost, she would not be able to challenge for the Intercontinental Championship again as long as Lyra was champion. And Lyra, as well as losing the title if she was defeated she would have to raise Becky’s arm and admit Becky was the better woman. And she ended up having to do this as Becky this time was able to dethrone Valkyria as champion. However, she did eventually lose patience with Becky’s gloating and assault her after the match in frustration.
Second to last was the Men’s Money in the Bank ladder match, which saw LA Knight, Andrade, Solo Sikoa, Seth Rollins, PENTA & El Grande Americano (who is not Chad Gable) fight for the briefcase. Given some of the participants of the match, you won’t be shocked to know there was some interference. Firstly from Seth’s faction as Bronson Reed & Bronn Breakker turned up to decimate the competition, and then Jacob Fatu and JC Mateo came out to assist Solo. But after Mateo was taken out of commission, Jacob Fatu finally had enough of Solo after months of frustration and assaulted him. The final straw seemingly having been the previous night on Smackdown, where Jacob overheard Solo insulting him. The match was ultimately won by Seth Rollins, who of course has won the briefcase once before and is often credited with the best cash in ever with his “Heist of the Century” at Wrestlemania 31.
Finally to say a sentence that would have had me questioning my sanity if I were told this would happen say 10 years ago, John Cena teamed up with Logan Paul. They teamed up to take on Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso following Cody’s return at Saturday Night’s Main Event thwarting Cena’s attempt to cost Jey Uso his World Title against Logan Paul. Logan once again showcased that he is far better at wrestling that he has any right to be. And the match ultimately came down to Cena & Cody after Logan hit a springboard moonsault through the announce table taking himself & Jey out. The referee was distracted by this allowing Cena to once again grab his title and strike Cody Rhodes with it, however unlike at Wrestlemania he was then attacked from behin by none other than R-Truth/Ron Killings. Truth had seemingly been released from the company a few weeks prior following SNME, and crowds both in arenas and online refused to let that slide and constantly shouted for Truth until WWE had no choice but to take back their decision. This attack allowed Cody to pin Cena for the win and hand Cena his first loss ever since Wrestlemania. However of course, he still has the WWE Championship with only 19 dates left before he retires and if he still has that belt “ruins wrestling,”
This year especially, the PLE’s/special events feel like they are coming faster than ever. And this will continue to be the case. Just in the next 2 months we have Night of Champions, another Saturday Night’s Main Event, a second Evolution (an all women’s PLE) & the first ever 2-night Summerslam. And with Money in the Bank now behind us, we will (at-least for a while) have to keep one eye out whenever a world champion is having a match or doing anything to see if that briefcase is going to be cashed in.
