WWE MONEY IN THE BANK 2023 HITS & MISSES: Men’s & Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Matches, Rollins vs. Balor, Bloodline Civil War, more.

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK 2023 HITS & MISSES
JULY 1, 2023
LONDON, ENGLAND AT THE O2 ARENA
AIRED ON PEACOCK, 3:00 p.m. EDT, 12:00 P.M. PDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Michael Cole and Wade Barrett

HITS

Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match; Damian Priest defeats Logan Paul, LA Knight, Ricochet, Santos Escobar, Butch and Shinsuke Nakamura

This was the first of these matches I’ve enjoyed in quite a while. You had a field consisting of no former world champions and all “first timers” in the Money in the Bank ladder match except for Ricochet and Nakamura. Priest winning is a solid call and with the Judgment Day faction having traction for some time, there’s story to be told with him and Finn Balor, which we’ll discuss later.

I thought the match had a blend of everyone going at it without multiple time periods of people laying on the outside of the ring. Everyone trying to get at Logan Paul at different times throughout the match made sense. Speaking of Mr. Social Media Influencer and YouTuber Mr. Paul, he continues to show he belongs in the ring and doesn’t feel like a “celebrity guest wrestler.” I could have done without the Spanish Fly he and Ricochet did towards the end of the match, but thankfully nobody got hurt. Speaking of dangerous spots and Paul there was a spot earlier where he executed a frog splash on Priest on a “bridge” ladder with the ladder not giving way. That’s the risk of these matches but, man that spot could go bad.

LA Knight continues to get the love. I’m glad they didn’t give him MITB but rather gave him enough teases of winning in the match that the crowd will still be behind him perhaps in a bigger way now. I suggested he be the one to beat Austin Theory on a recent Smackdown post show, but we’ll see if they go that way. Butch got enough offense but not in a pandering way to his hometown country. I roll my eyes at the moon sault off the ladder to multiple people only because it seems so phony, like everyone is standing waiting for it to happen. Finally, Shinsuke looked like he had a little pep in his step. I don’t see a big push coming out of the match, but it’s nice to see him into what he’s doing.

Intercontinental Championship; Gunther defeats Matt Riddle. Drew McIntyre returns to confront Gunther.

I don’t consider this a big hit. The match never really had a chance to grow, and it didn’t seem like they wanted to make Riddle feel like a threat to Gunther. I think they wanted to make Gunther look dominant with the looming possibility of facing a returning Drew McIntyre at SummerSlam. You want Gunther to look strong heading into that match. It’s just crazy because Mustafa Ali seemed more like a threat at the last PLE, Night of Champions than Riddle. That being said, in a promotion where you get several distraction-like finishes, they had Gunther win clean. It proves Gunther was better than Riddle on this night and you get a satisfying resolution to a match whether you like the result or not. Riddle now has to regroup.

The Drew return was solid as well and as I said earlier, sets up a likely match at SummerSlam. I’m wondering if Drew takes the IC title and Gunther moves towards the World Championship picture. We’ll wait and see on that.

Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match; Iyo Sky defeats Zelina Vega, Zoey Stark, Trish Stratus, and Becky Lynch

This became a hit as the match got going. There were a lot of times where multiple people were laying around, but it didn’t ultimately detract from the match. I was particularly interested to see how Trish would work, considering this wasn’t around when she was active (at least for the women). I thought she did well, and I enjoyed the continued interplay with her, Zoey and Becky. Their issues are clearly not over and I wonder if Lita returns to team with Becky against Zoey and Trish at SummerSlam. That could be fun.

There were cool ladder spots including the Code Red by Zelina on Zoey and the Stratusfaction by Trish to Becky. At one point Becky and Trish temporarily worked together to give a double powerbomb to Iyo Sky. Speaking of Iyo, like Butch did earlier, she did the moon sault off the ladder onto multiple people. Maybe it was me, but looking at the replay it didn’t seem like the women’s were standing around and waiting so I liked that. At one point I thought it was cool that Zelina used Trish as a bridge to climb the ladder.

As Brandon LeClair pointed out in his report, the handcuff spot was creative. It needed to be as such given, they’ve done handcuffs so many times. After Zoey failed to cuff Becky to the ropes you wondered if and how they would come into play. Anyway, after Iyo got screwed by her Damage CTRL partner Bayley, and it seemed like she had no chance, I like how she recovered and cuffed Bayley to her former Horsewoman partner Becky. It was a creative way to end the match and give MITB to whom I thought was the correct choice in Iyo.

Bloodline Civil War: The Usos (Jimmy & Jey) defeat Undisputed Univeral Champion Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa (w/Paul Heyman)

I’ll admit I was heading into this match thinking, “ok, the Usos are going to win but Solo is going to take the pin.” As the entrances were happening, I started saying to myself wait a minute, this whole thing is about Roman losing the Bloodline and control in general, therefore he is the ONLY person that should be taking the pin here.

They could have shaved off a lot of time. It took a while to get going and the only thing that kept me going was the crowd chants. I’m wondering if this match was supposed to go shorter but given how into it the crowd was, they called an audible in the ring and went longer a) just to let them have some fun and b) to further the story of them getting into Roman’s head. They clearly did and Roman expressed his frustration when he said, “England is the dumbest place of all time, a bunch of idiots.” (Maybe he’ll try to skirt out of a potential WrestleMania in London if he hates it so much?). I loved how Paul Heyman asked Roman “do you want him (Jey) to sit at the head of the table with your sons?” Having Paul mic’d up in these matches is so key.

The match went long and no need for me to point out all the offense as you can recap it in Wade Keller and Brandon LeClair’s reports. There were several key spots for me. You had the combination Samoan Spike by Solo and Spear by Roman on Jey. There was the Guillotine by Roman on Jimmy and Cole calling back to the Hell in a Cell I Quit match where Jey quit when Roman had Jimmy in the same move. Then came the tributes. As Solo usually does for his uncle Umaga, the running splash into the corner (one of the Usos did it as well). I don’t know if anyone picked up on this, but Jey did a series of punches at one point to (I forgot sorry) and held his hand up for a second like The Rock used to do before delivering the final blow.

You had several false finishes into which the crowd bought including Roman’s Spears and the Uso’s One and Done, and the combo Spear and Samoan Spike I mentioned earlier. I liked the sequence where Jey hit a Superkick, then Roman hit a Superman punch, another kick by Jey, and then the Spear by Roman to a near fall. I, like Michael Cole, did not see the low blow Jey hit on Roman to cause the kick out. I’m assuming that’s to protect Roman as he took the pin.

As they have done for so long with the Bloodline story, they left you wanting more. The Usos were ecstatic, but you could tell there was conflict as they had just beaten their family. Earlier in the match you could see Solo didn’t want to tag Roman in, so we’re headed for conflict between those two men. With Jey pinning Roman, you wonder if a title match is in the offing perhaps for SummerSlam.

I want to talk about dethroning Roman for a minute. I think conventional wisdom is that the person who dethrones Roman should be the next flag bearer of the company, a top babyface around whom they should build. I’ve fallen into that category, but now I’m not so sure. Andre the Giant ended Hulk Hogan’s reign of over four years to serve a story. The Rock ended CM Punk’s 434-day reign in 2013 basically to set up a title match against John Cena. Andre the Giant was not going to be a signature champion in 1988 and The Rock was not going to be the guy in 2013. I’m not saying it HAS to be Jey, but maybe it should be considered? As PWTorch.com com contributor Doc Bruce Hazelwood talks about, Roman didn’t beat Jey in that Hell in a Cell match back in 2020. Jey quit because Roman had Jimmy in the Guillotine. Talk about “finishing the story.” If anything, Jey has a story to finish. If it’s not Jey, maybe it’s Solo? I don’t know. It doesn’t HAVE to be either one of them. My point is I’m not sold the person to dethrone Roman MUST be the “next guy.” Tell the story that makes sense and will resonate with people that have been on board with this Bloodline story from the beginning.

MISSES

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship; Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan defeat Shayna Baszler & Ronda Rousey

I thought this was atrocious. It’s a shame because I didn’t think the match was half bad until the finish with Shayna turning on Ronda. Now, I had to rewind to figure out if there was a point where it made sense? The only thing I could come up with (and this was like looking for a needle in a haystack) was when Shayna had Liv in an armbar while Ronda simultaneously had (her buddy Kurt Angle’s) the ankle lock on, Raquel knocked Ronda into Shayna while making the save breaking both submission holds. Was that her issue? I don’t know. I get doing things out of nowhere for shock value but there had been no indications of tension between the two leading into this match and they haven’t even been teaming for that long. What, since the fall of last year? They JUST won the tag titles on Raw it feels like and not a week ago they won a damn tag team championship unification match for crying out loud. Their partnership (I think) was gaining traction and then you pull this. Plus, as Todd Martin pointed out on the post-PLE VIP roundtable, they make the titles feel meaningless when a coholder just gives them up by attacking their partner.

I don’t know whom they want you to like or dislike here. Ronda is not exactly likable, and the crowd popped for Shayna’s attack. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to get sympathy for Ronda. They’re going to be disappointed. Anyway, I don’t know if Ronda’s contract is coming up or she’s going off TV for a while or, maybe they want to do a one on one with Shayna vs. Ronda at SummerSlam? If they want to do that here’s the problem. Shayna has been beaten to smithereens by booking since she came up in 2020. I thought combining her and Ronda was rehabbing her, but she had a way to go. I’m not at a point where I care about that match.

If you’re happy Raquel and Liv are champions again, that’s fine but, I hated how this was handled.

Cody Rhodes defeats Dominik Mysterio (w/Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley)

I was going to give this a push but matches and/or segments are either hits or misses. I didn’t hate this match. The result was correct. I expected a lot of Rhea Ripley involvement, and there was. Dominik got heat as he needed to get especially when he started the Three Amigos, paying tribute to his Papi. Earlier he got the referee distracted to set up the dive that put Cody through a table.

I just feel like Dominik didn’t do enough dastardly acts to try and beat Cody. Dominik is built on being slimy and sneaky. They did some but, Dominik just ends up being beaten clean with no real story told. The match left me wondering what I’ve wondered for a while and that’s can he have feuds outside of his father? He did fine on TV in the build but, I don’t know if I care about him much coming out of this match.

John Cena Proposes WrestleMania in London, Interplay with Grayson Waller

It’s always fun to see John Cena but you hold your breath just waiting to hear what he was going to say. This was strange. The crowds have not been misaligned in a while. The international crowds haven’t been “bizzare-o world” in a long time now. Perhaps he was thinking about when HE was active? The product stunk and people like him and Roman Reigns were stuffed down everyone’s throat as babyfaces. The storytelling save for a few deals here and there were hideous. Not for nothing too, it’s cringeworthy when Cena panders to the crowd. I hated when he did it when he was active especially when he was trying to get the crowd to cheer him. Anyway, I won’t lament more about this. Enough people here at the Torch have said the same thing. The interplay with Grayson Waller was silly. Trying campaign for Australia to get a WrestleMania over London makes Australia, a very likable country I might add, look like the “heel.” On the positive side I was encouraged to see Waller get screen time with Cena. He held his own.

By the way hat tip to my friend Ryan Droste over at Top Rope Nation for pointing out how WWE is teasing a WrestleMania in London after AEW has All In coming this August. Coincidence? Hmmmm….

World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins defeats Finn Balor to retain.

There’s not a ton to say here. I was going to grade this a soft hit, but I changed my mind. Like the Cody vs. Dominik match, I didn’t hate it and the right person won. Rollins and Balor always work well together. Go look up their series of matches in 2018 if you don’t believe me. This just didn’t offer anything memorable, and it could have been on Raw. The finish involved Damian Priest, who came out with his newly won Money in the Bank briefcase. He distracted Balor as he was about to hit his finisher, fueling tension in the Judgment Day. Just because I’m interested in what happens in the Judgment Day coming out of this match doesn’t make it a hit.

It’s interesting to have two Money in the Bank winners that might cause tension within their factions. I’m sure Iyo and Bayley will have issues with Bayley knocking Iyo off the ladder before her win. Balor won’t be too happy with Damian because of the distraction. There are stories to watch moving forward.

Hits 4
Misses 4

Closing Thoughts

This continues the streak of good WWE PLEs. The weekly TV is hit and miss (no pun intended), but the PLEs are enjoyable and here they left you with some things to look for as we head towards SummerSlam.

We have a tie with the hits and misses so the tiebreaker is the crowd. You can never go wrong with UK crowds. They were fully engaged with this show and become a key part without taking over. Therefore, the hits have it and this report is adjourned. See you in a month for SummerSlam. By the way, SummerSlam will mark one year I have done the WWE PLE Hits and Misses report. I hope I have served you well and look forward to continuing doing as such. Salute everyone!

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!