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WWE Money in the Bank (2023) -- Results & Afterthoughts

The 2023 Money in the Bank was the 14th annual Money in the Bank professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American promotion WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on Saturday, July 1, 2023, at The O2 Arena in London, England. This was the first Money in the Bank to be held outside of the United States as well as WWE's first major event to be held in London since Insurrextion in May 2002 and England in general since Insurrextion in June 2003. It was also the first Money in the Bank to livestream on Binge in Australia.

Seven matches were contested at the event. In the main event, which was SmackDown's main match, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated The Bloodline (Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa) in a "Bloodline Civil War" tag team match, which was the first time that Reigns was pinned since December 2019. Additionally, Raw's Damian Priest and SmackDown's Iyo Sky won the respective men's and women's Money in the Bank ladder matches. In other prominent matches, Seth "Freakin" Rollins defeated Finn Bálor to retain the World Heavyweight Championship, which was the main match from Raw, and Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan defeated Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. The event also saw surprise appearances by John Cena and Drew McIntyre, both appearing for the first time since WrestleMania 39 in April 2023.

Results:

Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Damian Priest def. Butch, Santos Escobar, LA Knight, Shinsuke Nakamura, Logan Paul, and Ricochet

Nothing but action from bell to bell, with the UK crowd (obviously) pulling for LA Knight to win this and completely against Logan Paul winning this in any capacity.

Most of the match had everyone ganging up against either Paul or Damian Priest since they were the bigger guys in this match. Ricochet was the MVP of this match with craziest spots by far but I was impressed with everyone's showing in this match. A great showcase for WWE's undercard that tends to get overlooked a LOT, myself included.

After this, I really want to see a program between Nakamura and Butch and/or Santos Escabar. Logan Paul versus Ricochet should be in the books for either SummerSlam this year or WrestleMania next year if it's not already. They've teased it enough here and at Royal Rumble that these two guys want to show off all of their athleticism. I say give them the platform to do so. Even though Paul botched the landing, that apron dive Springboard C-4 from Ricochet was pure insanity. Imagine if they hit that off the fall from the landing from off the ladders like it looked like they were going for originally!

This match played with everyone's emotions at the end when it came down to who was going to grab the briefcase. I thought Knight had it in the bag after disposing of the opposition only for Priest to emerge from the shadows and snatch victory for himself. I can't complain there, despite the fact that Knight desperately needs the rocket strapped to his back immediately (he's not getting any younger and he's straight money), but I'm willing to give Priest a chance to see what he can do. He's the only member of Judgment Day's younger members that hasn't seen any sort of singles accolades. Crazy to look at Priest now and remember this is the same dude that was Punishment Martinez in Ring of Honor roughly a decade ago.

WWE Undisputed Women's Tag Team Championship - Raquel Gonzales & Liv Morgan def. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler (champions)

This felt like a TV match for the most part to me until Shayna's turn at the end that felt like it came out of left field. I'm failing to see what was the point of putting the unified belts on Shayna and Ronda when they were going to split the team up in the first place when they could've dropped the titles to Fyre & Dawn instead a few weeks ago.

I'm fine with Shayna being injected back into the singles divisions as she never got a good solo run after that stupid storyline/feud with Becky Lynch where she was biting people like she was a goddamn vampire. If this means that we could potentially get solo matches between Ronda and Rhea or Rhonda and Asuka down the road, then I'm all for it. Shayna vs. Ronda at Summerslam could be a sleeper hit.

I will give Ronda some props for her Dragon Ball Z-inspired gear and face paint, drawing cues from Majin Vegeta, but Liv Morgan's Spice Girls-inspired gear looked even better.

Speaking of Liv Morgan, I don't think enough people give her props for the little things she does as a babyface underdog. Her selling is great and she's come a long way in terms of fundamentals to say that she was trained entirely in WWE's system.

Gunther def. Matt Riddle

Can't say that I'm surprised that WALTER would retain here. Nowhere as unforgettable as some of his previous title defenses, but I thought they had a great narrative here with WALTER working and targeting Riddler's ailing achilles/wrapped ankle. Proved to be Riddle's downfall as WALTER busted out an Achilles lock to force Riddle to submit.

Drew McIntyre would make his return in the post-match celebration and would lay out WALTER to stake his claim as the next challenger for his gold.

Can't say that I'm overly thrilled about that, but whatever. I just want WALTER to last as Intercontinental Champion until WrestleMania season next year for he can be in the conversation as one of Roman's next challengers for the Undisputed WWE Championship.

Cody Rhodes def. Dominik Mysterio

A loss here doesn't hurt Dom-Dom at all, especially with Mami in his corner. Dom's the heel that everyone loves to hate and much like his match with Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania, a loss doesn't hurt his stock value at all. Him and Rhea's act is so over to the point that WWE can't do anything wrong with them right now. He'll easily bounce back from this loss.

Cody needed this win to put him into capable footing to set the stage for his next match in his ongoing feud/series with Brock Lesnar.

This match was exactly what it needed to be. Short, sweet, and to the point. It didn't overstay its welcome at all, even with Rhea's interference and Dom's "chicken shit heel" antics.

Bravo, WWE. That secret was WELL kept under wraps that Cena was coming to this show. Yo, Hasbro and Mattel. I NEED a John Cena GI Joe crossover figure in my collection ASAP.

Interesting to tease/hype up a WrestleMania in the UK and/or Australia like that though. Has to be a badge of honor for Grayson Waller to get to interact with Cena here too.

Women's Money in the Bank Match
Iyo Sky def. Bayley, Becky Lynch, Trish Stratus, Zoey Starks, and Zelina Vega

Cool choice of Siryn from X-Force-inspired ring gear for Becky Lynch here.

Zelina Vega was my favorite to win this match, but she came up short. Regardless of that, she still had a great showing in terms of athleticism. Most of this match had the two heel teams ganging up on her and Becky Lynch so we got a good display of seeing the babyfaces fighting from underneath against the odds.

To say that this is the first ladder match that Trish Stratus has participated in her entire career, she definitely earned her stripes in this match from the bumps and bruises she took firsthand here. She deserves her flowers for being able to hang with the current crop of girls in this match. She didn't shy away at all from taking any of the daring bumps in this match.

Zoey Stark is lucky that she wasn't killed or her neck broken off that Code Red spot with Zelina Vega, especially after seeing what happened to Dante Martin in AEW off a similar spot.

Bayley screwed Iyo Sky out of winning the match, only for that decision to backfire in her face when Iyo handcuffed her and Becky together to take the briefcase for herself. Fine with me to split up Damage CTRL. With Dakota Kai on the bench for a VERY long time due to her injury, this is the best course of action. I'm ready to see Iyo doing a singles run on the main roster, especially if this means we get her and Asuka in a lengthy feud on the main roster. That has been LONG overdue.

WWE World Heavyweight Championship - Seth Rollins (champion) def. Finn Balor

Not a bad match, but I hate to say it but I'm over Finn in this role as the leader of Judgment Day. He's easily the least interesting member of that group. I have to wonder if WWE Creative realizes this and are opting to splinter him off with something with JD McDonagh.

They already planted the seeds of tension in the group with Priest opting not to help him while he taunted Seth with a potential cash-in. That distraction cost Finn the match after he was thrown off the top rope and hit with the Curb Stomp for Seth could retain.

I have been saying it for months now that Finn Balor feels like the odd man out in this group of young heels with their futures well ahead of them in this company. That's not saying that Balor's days are behind him, but at this point, the Judgment Day doesn't need him as Balor needs them to stay relevant in my eyes. Rhea, Dom, and Priest can easily carry this group on their own now. There's no question about that now after all that they've accomplished, despite the rocking beginnings with this group when they were split off from Edge.

WWE has continued planting the seeds of cracks within their faction on post-MITB episode of Monday Night RAW. I do think it's entertaining that Rhea Ripley is trying to pretend as if nothing's wrong and everything is fine when Balor and Priest are falling out right in before her eyes.

If you ask me, Seth Rollins has nothing to fear in terms of a cash-in attempt on him as long as Balor and Priest aren't seeing eye-to-eye over who should take that title from him. What Rollins should be worrying about is the return of Bobby Lashley, who should be back sooner more than later. In terms of other opponents and possibly challengers, you can count Brock Lesnar and Cody Rhodes out of the picture since they are pretty much preoccupied with feuding with each other for another month or so, so he's off the hook there too.

The Bloodline Civil War - The Usos def. Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa (w/ Paul Heyman)

The first 2/3rds of this match was pretty tame in my eyes, but once they cranked it up on the Bloodline family narrative and the near-falls towards the end that's where they hooked me into this.

I totally thought that the Usos were done once they had the big referee bump that we've come to be used to in a lot of these big Roman Reigns matches over the last two years that allowed Roman and Solo to double team the Usos and pile their bodies up like so many before them. When they kicked out in unison and WWE gave us the picture perfect reaction shots of Heyman, Roman, and Solo it was cinematic and narrative perfection. It's moments like that is why I'm glad I didn't doubt the direction of this storyline when Cody Rhodes didn't "finish the story" at WrestleMania. This storyline isn't any less hot nor Cody hasn't lost much steam. I'm convinced that it has to be one of the Usos who has to dethrone Roman over anyone else at this point. If not them, then they have to play a major role in that outcome. Sami Zayn planted the seeds for Roman's downfall and the Usos have be able to knock down the house of cards for whoever is going to dethrone him can drive it home by taking that belt off of him.

As of this posting (7/8/23), the Usos held "Tribal Court" on Friday Night SmackDown! and held Roman Reigns on trial for his actions, only for that "disrespect" to be spat back into their faces as Reigns faked his submission to the Usos and seemed to willingly hand the title of Tribal Chief to Jey Uso. That proved to be a hoax to get the Usos to lower their defenses, which worked like a charm to allow him and Solo Sikoa to lay them out with a vicious beatdown to end that episode of SmackDown! with that night. Jey's pinfall victory has earned him a one-on-one match against Roman Reigns, set for Summerslam.

The skeptics, myself included, thought that the Bloodline storyline would have lost steam after WrestleMania but it couldn't have been farther from the truth. This is the machine that is carrying WWE completely right now and it's showing no signs of slowing down in any capacity as fans are heavily invested in where this will go next from week to week. WWE has a cinema quality program with this narrative and they would be foolish to take anything away from this while the fires still hot.

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