We’ve got a new US Champion!
Lily is selling credit cards now!
And WWE strapped the rocket to two news stars, and one of them was good.
In this company, a 50% success rate isn’t actually that bad.
I’m Oli Davis, and this is my review of WWE Money in the Bank 2022… in about ten
minutes.
Before we get into that though, hey, if this is your first time watching WrestleTalk, please
give us a subscribe and enable notifications to always on for daily wrestling news videos.
We’ll have another video up today with all the backstage fallout Money in the Bank.
The show opened on the women’s Money in the Bank match, with Raw wrestlers Becky Lynch
(who is now 85% sunglasses), Look At My Back Raquel Rodriquez, I Thought She Was Injured
Shotzi Blackhart, Is She A Heel Or Not Lacey Evans, former winners Asuka and Alexa Bliss
and, let’s all agree this now, Definitely Never Going To Win The Big One Liv Morgan.
Despite Raquel not being able to pull off her first spot in the match - deadlifting
Liv and Becky on a ladder - she remained the most dominating presence throughout.
The Lady Omos, if you want to compare it to the men’s main event.
Just much, much better.
The action got a bit messy at times, but overall, this was a very exciting ladder match that
the Las Vegas crowd were super into.
Liv’s insane sunset flip powerbomb onto Evans off the top of a ladder and Becky’s
senton onto Asuka off a ladder onto another ladder were the most spectacular spots.
In the final sequence, Becky took out everyone, ready to climb the central ladder.
She was my pick to win going in.
The briefcase is always better on a heel, it creates a looming threat to Bianca Belair,
and it can start her climbing back up the metaphorical winning ladder.
Oh but here comes Liv Morgan for one last hope spot, before Becky just pushes her off
and wi-oh my god Liv Morgan just won Money in the Bank.
A really fun match and a great result for someone who’s been on the precipice of breaking
out for the better part of a year.
Becky had a meltdown at ringside, a nice receipt for Liv after Lynch cheated to retain in their
title feud back in January.
I now cannot wait for WWE to beat Liv for six months before letting her cash in.
Bobby Lashley and Theory fought over the United States title next in a surprisingly exciting
match.
Lashley got some fantastic counters off Theory’s more, let’s say, surplus set ups, like forward
rolls before facebusters.
He needs it for the torque!
Lashley had him scouted on multiple occasions, catching Theory’s leaps midair with power
move reversals.
I thought the match was building towards Theory retaining, especially after he speared Bobbles.
But then Lashley made Theory tap in the Hurt Lock.
No interference, no cheating.
Theory, a guy I thought was being built to take on John Cena at Summerslam, just lost
in one of the most decisive ways possible - through submission.
It was a shocking, not unpleasant result.
It’s nice to see Bobby with a title again.
Although I’d much prefer an MVP.
But it weirdly moves the US title out of that potential Cena vs Theory match, which was
one of the more exciting parts of that feud.
The idea that Cena could become US Champion again, after his 2015 reign that was so good,
we all forgot we’d hated him for ten years and have loved him ever since.
But Oli remembers, John…
Oli remembers.
Oh well, I guess they’ll have nothing to fight over now…
Liv Morgan cut an affable babyface promo backstage.
She’s just so happy and she’s off to celebrate.
That’s definitely the last time we’ll see her then.
Bianca Belair defending her Raw Women’s Title against Carmella was easily the most
predictable result on this card.
Carmella wasn’t even supposed to be here today, not being the first choice for this
match, replacing Rhea Ripley because of a scull slam or cranium crush or whatever WWE
is calling concussions this week.
The crowd still popped for Belair’s always impressive power spots, but Carmella’s near
falls weren’t believable.
Belair hit a KOD in 7 minutes to win clean.
Carmella jumped her afterwards, which was both a lame post-match angle, and a depressing
sign that Ripley will be out longer than expected, and this feud will drag on.
It’s a Premium Live Event, which means you better believe there’s going to be an awkwardly
integrated brand partner.
Thankfully, this wasn’t a zombie match or a pizza battle royal or water gun fight.
By WWE standards, this was relatively harmless.
Alexa Bliss got to her locker room, where Lily the doll had bought her some tiny roller
skates using the Capitol One Credit Card, but had never asked for Alexa’s foot size.
They’re too small!
Oh you!
Lily has now completed the age old transition from murderous possesed doll to sitcom room
mate.
I know what will get this show back on track.
A match we’ve seen in every possible variation 49 times over the last four weeks!
The Usos vs The Street Profits for the tag team titles Undisputed Tag Team Titles.
God damn my sarcasm, they actually had match of the night and it was incredible.
Just as a sidebar here, this was the first time we got SmackDown commentary from Micahel
Cole and Pat McAfee.
On a floating title with half Raw stars.
I know Money in the Bank pay-per-view concept inherently requires brand crossover, but the
line of separation between Raw and SmackDown becomes thinner by the month as WWE finds
itself lacking in star power through injury and incompetent booking.
This match, however, was incredible.
Somehow, despite having worked together so many times, both teams feel like they’re
still coming up with new spots.
The last ten minutes of this match was superb, with genuine fight forever vibes - don’t
worry, I’m sure they will continue to on WWE weekly TV going by the finish angle.
The near falls from both sides were outstanding, but the Usos isolated Ford and hit a 3D to
ultimately retain.
But that’s not all, folks.
As the Usos walked up the ramp, Ford was shouting at the referee.
A video replay showed that Montez’s shoulder was off the mat in the pin.
It’s actually annoying it was such a good match, because it gives WWE an excuse to continue
lazily booking them against each other.
A weird vignette then played, with shots of a church, a gold medal, a graffitied street.
The commentators sounded confused, but Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful sure isn’t!
This isn’t the return of punk Fiend Bray Wyatt, it’s apparently to tease Edge’s
comeback, with each visual a reference to his past opponents, like Christian and Kurt
Angle.
In the first true SmackDown match on the card - seriously Roman we, um, we kid of need you
to wrestle on the PPVs sometimes - Ronda Rousey defended her SmackDown Women’s Championship
against Natalya.
They both tried really hard with worked over body parts, submission exchanges, seemingly
having rehearsed this match within an inch of its life.
Everything was right on paper, but it couldn’t overcome the story’s two major obstacles:
1.
Nobody believed Natalya was going to beat Ronda Rousey, and 2.
Natalya’s character just isn’t that engaging.
But it turns out it didn’t really matter.
Because no one will remember that match, they’ll only remember the angle afterwards.
Ronda made Natalya tap in the arm bar, when Liv Morgan cashed in to become the new SmackDown
Women’s champion.
You told me you were going away to celebrate.
Ah, I’ve been worked!
It feels great.
There was a great bit of tension as Ronda briefly got an ankle lock in, but Morgan reversed
to win.
And rather than dick all over that moment, Rousey hugged her and raised her arm, effectively
getting her over, making this feel like a genuinely huge deal.
Unfortunately, for me, the main event put a dampener on the night.
Before it the men’s Money in the Bank match even got started, Adam Pearce went all Vegas,
saying he sees your seven competitors, and he raises you one more: Theory.
What is Adam Pearce?
Are you a heel, a face?
Oh, you’re just whatever WWE needs for storyline purposes in that moment regardless of overall
consistency.
I get it.
I wish they could’ve replaced Omos with Theory instead because he can’t, erm, what’s
the word, wrestle.
That’s right, he can’t wrestle.
He did admittedly provide one of the spots of the night, a seven man powerbomb on him
through the announcer’s table, but overall I think he’s a detriment to anything that
requires him to actually, you know, wrestle.
There were a bunch of fun character bits running through this.
Drew and Sheamus’ forever feud, Sami Zayn sneaking in at every available opportunity,
the crowd dying whenever Madcap Moss did anything.
But the big one for me was Riddle capitalising off that Roman Reigns match momentum, working
his way back into the title picture by winning Money in the Bank.
He had the night’s actual best spot: a Super RKO on Rollins off the top of a massive ladder.
The crowd were going crazy for him, as he’s so close to being a genuine main event star.
Theory ran up to stop him, the perfect final jeopardy spot, with Theory’s last second
inclusion being a great tease that he could win, but Riddle valiantly fights him off.
But, instead, they didn’t do that, and Theory just won.
In true WWE style, they finally strap the rocket to make a new guy.
But it’s the wrong new guy.
At least we got Liv.
Theory then called out Cena after the show went off air, where I predict he’ll put
his briefcase on the line instead of the far more thematically appropriate US title he
lost earlier.
What did you think of Money in the Bank?
Let me know in the comments.
Nick Khan sized premium live events continue to be my favorite thing, with a three hour
run time being the perfect duration to not really get bored of anything.
The tag title match was excellent, Bobby’s US title win was a nice surprise, and Liv’s
briefcase win and cash-in will hopefully be a historic moment.
The rest of the show’s booking and action was either frustrating or forgettable.
Money in the Bank 2022 is 72%.
Now watch on to check out Tempest’s instant Money in the Bank reactions…