WWE Money in the Bank Review - July 1, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

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

It's not often WWE starts the show with the men's Money in the Bank Ladder match, but it did open the night on a high note. This was a lot of fun, largely because the outcome was genuinely unpredictable. We've seen what feels like a million Money in the Bank Ladder matches and most of them blend together, but this definitely delivered and was well structured. I could have done without that scary spot from Ricochet and Paul on the outside through the tables, though. Was the risk really worth the reward? Knight was obviously who I wanted to win, but Priest was a strong second choice. It makes sense with the story they're telling with The Judgment Day right now, not to mention that the dude deserves it.

Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez def. Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler to Win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship

There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about the match and the crowd clearly did not care until Baszler randomly betrayed on Rousey toward the end and cost them the titles. To my knowledge, no tension has been teased between the two as of late, so I have no idea where the hell that turn came from. Rousey and Baszler appeared to be on board with being the ones to elevate the women's tag team division, but that was obviously short-lived. The crowd popped for Baszler beating up Rousey, but will the crowds in the coming weeks be as invested? And who will be the babyface? Morgan and Rodriguez was essentially the afterthought, but I'm very curious to see what the explanation is for Baszler's actions and how it plays out from here.

Intercontinental Champion Gunther def. Matt Riddle

Fun fact: I attended my first and only PROGRESS show in July 2017 and it was headlined by Gunther (f.k.a. WALTER) vs. Riddle, and it was an absolute banger. This didn't reach those same heights, but it was still a damn good match. Drew McIntyre returning afterward to lay out Gunther was an awesome moment. The last time we saw him on WWE TV, he was being pinned by Gunther at WrestleMania 39, so it's logical for him to go back after the Intercontinental Championship given that wasn't one-on-one. That's quite the attraction for SummerSlam. Has McIntyre re-signed with WWE or is his contract status still in limbo?

Cody Rhodes def. Dominik Mysterio

The best part about this match was always going to be the crowd dynamic with Rhodes being so over as a babyface and Mysterio being so over as a heel. That was a treat. I didn't have high hopes for the match itself, and although it was solid, I was expecting more. In fact, the straightforward finish felt anticlimactic. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want Rhodes losing his third pay-per-view match since April with or without help from Brock Lesnar and I'd prefer not to see Mysterio kicking out of the Cross Rhodes, but this ended abruptly and came off more like a Raw match than a pay-per-view match.

John Cena Attacked Grayson Waller

Well, this was random, but I'm certainly not complaining. Most Cena returns at this point are either spoiled ahead of time by wrestling websites or flat-out advertised by WWE, so Cena coming back out of the blue here was a cool surprise. He didn't plant the seeds for his next match, but he did plant the seeds for a future WrestleMania in London. I mean, how could WWE not do it at some point with how much he riled this crowd up? And no, I don't think it's a coincidence they did this segment so soon after AEW sold so many tickets to their All In event at Wembley Stadium. I also really liked Cena's exchange with Grayson Waller, who now appears to be medically cleared. Amazingly, I'd argue this did more to benefit Waller than anything Cena did during the Austin Theory program.

IYO SKY def. Bayley, Becky Lynch, Trish Stratus, Zoey Stark and Zelina Vega to Win the Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match

This was far from a smooth match early on, which has been the case with most of the women's Money in the Bank Ladder matches since WWE started doing them. Some stuff didn't look good and the crowd wasn't as hot for it as they were for the men's. That said, it turned into an entertaining demolition derby down the stretch and the crowd came alive at that point. SKY was far and away the best option to win the whole thing and I'm happy she did. She and Bayley teased tension multiple times, so I have to assume that official Damage CTRL split is coming extremely soon.

World Heavyweight Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins def. Finn Balor

As well wrestled as this was, it suffered from such a predictable outcome because there was no reason to think Balor had a legitimate shot of dethroning Rollins despite all of WWE's efforts to convince viewers otherwise coming into this event. The focus also turned to Priest once he showed up at ringside toward the end with everyone wondering whether he would cash in or not. Ultimately, he did not, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Balor turn on Priest out of jealousy soon. There should be no rush for Priest to cash in. Hopefully it'll be for the World Heavyweight Championship down the road and he'll be successful.

The Usos def. The Bloodline

The storytelling with these four was stellar as always and it made for an excellent main event. Like most of Roman Reigns' matches throughout his title reign, it was slow early on, but they still captured that big fight feel and it turned into a hell of a match once they picked up the pace. The attention to detail was magnificent and The Usos kicking out of Reigns' stacked pin (shades of WrestleMania 37) was wonderful. I figured there was a chance Jey Uso might pin Reigns to set up a SummerSlam match between them, but I wasn't positive WWE would actually go through with it. I maintain Reigns' first pinfall loss since December 2019 should've been saved for when he loses the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, but I am happy Jey finally got his moment over Reigns, especially if he's not going to be the one to dethrone him. It also made for a memorable conclusion to the show.

Overall Show

WWE almost always hits a home run with Money in the Bank and this year's installment was no exception. In fact, this has to be one of the best they've ever done. That's in addition to the stellar stretch of shows WWE has produced on pay-per-view this year. They're on an incredible roll and I hope they can continue it with SummerSlam. I have the feeling they will based on the card it's looking like we're going to get. At any rate, this was a terrific show full of surprises, satisfying moments and an electric atmosphere in London.

SEE MORE: WWE Reviews