Roman Reigns pinned for the first time in over three years!
Shayna Baszler randomly turns even more heel on heel partner Ronda Rousey.
And oh my god I think they just killed Logan Paul.
Quick, someone chuck a bottle of Prime at his corpse.
I’m Oli Davis and this is the WrestleTalk review of WWE Money in the Bank 2023.
After the James Bond-themed opening video package nearly made Adam Blampied faint in
delight next to me.
Mission Impossible is better, Adam.
The show kicked off in a big way with an excellent men’s Money in the Bank ladder match.
LA Knight wasn’t just the bookies favourite going in, he was the crowd’s favourite - continuing
he’s mega overness with the London crowd from the previous night’s SmackDown.
Logan Paul, meanwhile, was over like crazy in the opposite sense.
As in everyone hates him.
But unlike last year, when everyone was booing him and WWE just went: babyface, this is the
Triple H era that really does go with the crowd sentiment - so the opening spot was
the match’s six other wrestlers beating the crap out of him while everyone cheered.
And that wasn’t just a one-off bit to satisfy the crowd early.
I’d argue this backbone of the match psychology was built around Paul, and the threat of him
winning instead of LA Knight.
The next spot saw Logan try to team with Damien Priest in Luke Owen’s favourite ‘me and
you’ heel team up spot, which ended with Paul hitting a massive frog splash off the
apron onto Priest on a ladder match, for Logan to just bounce off him when the ladder didn’t
break.
Paul was writhing on the floor, undoubtedly in immense pain, when one of the crowd threw
a bottle of his own Prime drink at him!
Yes, my country.
It’s stuff like that that makes me patriotic.
Like when David Blaine suspended himself in a see through box above the Thames for 44
days going, I am so intense and fearless, and we pelted eggs at him.
The final Paul spot, possibly ever, because oh my god I think he died, came near the end
when Knight pushed Logan and Ricochet off a ladder.
I think both men were meant to springboard off the top rope through two tables outside,
a near impossible sequence of balancing acts to pull off, but Ricochet was going to do
it no matter what, flipping himself and Logan through sheer force of will even though they
had both fallen over, sending Paul diving head first into the centre of the Earth.
With the Logan threat nullified, Knight was ready to win the match.
But in an excellent piece of camerawork, which has really improved under Triple H, Priest’s
hand came up from the bottom of the shot like it was the front cover of an Evil Dead DVD,
and took him out.
Priest is the men’s Money in the Bank briefcase winner - one of three very worthy winners
along with Knight and Paul, and arguably the one with the most storyline potential as we’ll
come onto later.
Someone throwing a bottle of Prime at Logan Paul wasn’t the only thing that made me
patriotic.
Liv Morgan wearing a Union Flag outfit also made me love my country.
Oh Canada!
Yes, I am saying the Union Flag.
Not the Union Jack.
That’s correct.
Is Liv being flown from a ship in the sea?
No!
Then it’s a Union Flag.
Not Jack.
I will die on this hi- Ronda Rousey’s costume effort, meanwhile,
was just scrawling an M on her forehead.
I’m told it's a Dragon Ball Z reference, but it reminded me more of Rimmer from Red
Dwarf.
As this match started, El Fakidor Laurie Blake turned to me and drolly observed: it's a shame
WWE have forgotten Shayna Baszler is the best thing in this, and then proceeded to bore
me explaining the colour scheme of her outfit was referencing the Sons of Horus Space Marine
Legion, who were the very first legion to betray the emperor during the Horus Heresy.
I’d already grown bored with both him, and the match.
But joke’s on me, because WWE continued their streak of booking shock conclusions
in otherwise disinteresting women’s matches on Premium Live Events.
Out of nowhere, after 8 minutes of working over Liv, Shayna suddenly turned on Ronda
with no provocation at all - choking out Rousey and letting Morgan and Raquel become the new
tag team champions.
While exciting, it feels very soon for Ronda and Shayne to drop the belts.
They reportedly begged for a run for months so they could help establish the division.
They even unified them with the NXT titles and… they lose them after a month with no
build of dissension.
This could be a case of Triple H wanting to make Shayna the NXT boss of old, or perhaps
it’ll signal yet another Rousey hiatus with speculation she’ll make her return to WWE’s
partner promotion the UFC for one last run.
Gunther vs Riddle was actually my most anticipated match going into the show, but it didn’t
quite live up to my admittedly high expectations the same way Gunther vs Ali smashed my low
ones last month.
They still worked incredibly well together, with stiff strikes and back and forth counters.
Gunther targeted Riddle’s ankle and eventually chopped his foot into submission to win.
I somehow bought more into Ali’s near falls in Saudi Arabia than Riddle’s here.
Perhaps it was because this match was more of a set up for the post-match angle: a returning
Drew McIntyre who we hadn’t seen since WrestleMania amidst reports he was frustrated with his
creative and contract.
He laid out Gunther with a Claymore, setting up the biggest threat to the IC title yet.
Dominic Mysterio vs Adrenaline in my Soul, something something Cody Rhodes came next.
One of the shortest matches on the card, half of it was Dom slapping Cody and then brilliantly
running away.
Dom was rightfully never presented as a serious threat to Rhodes, and much of his offence
only came because Rhea pulled Cody off not in that way.
Off the apron into the stairs.
Oh Buddy!
Cody won in under ten minutes.
A fun match, but one that makes the last month feel like a bit of a waste.
No-one is more or less over than they were previously after this finish.
I really think Brock should’ve cost Cody the match here, giving Dom a great heel victory,
and building the Lesnar vs Rhodes rubber match.
In possibly the most surprising part of the night, John Cena then made a shock in-ring
appearance, playing up to the London crowd, and then effectively announcing the UK will
get a WrestleMania.
Gee, I wonder where they’ll choose to run that show?
Have there been any major record breaking wrestling attendance figures in England recently?
This is, of course, a highly cynical anti-AEW move to nullify the success of All In.
I doubt WWE had any plans for a UK WrestleMania until two months ago when AEW announced they’d
be running Wembley.
It doesn’t matter how many tickets All In eventually ends up selling, because WWE will
announce 15% more than the actual capacity anyway.
That'll teach you Tony Khan to be such a mark for things like accurate data and... The truth.
With the Mania 40 location already announced, the earliest it can be is 2025.
I am so excited.
Grayson Waller also came out to eventually take an AA.
This segment ran way too long It's time for the anime and comic book cosplay
convention!
Sorry, I mean WWE Women's Money in the Bank ladder match.
I can make that dismissive joke, because in truth, this was my match of the night, and
easily the best Women’s Money in the Bank match of all time.
Because we had something better than crazy ladder spots.
We had two storyline pillars to provide emotional context for them.
On one side, there was IYO Sky and Bayley working together after months of tension,
until Bayley pushed IYO off the ladder, looking conflicted.
On the other, we had Becky Lynch taking on Trish Stratus and Zoey Stark, with Trish taking
an impressive array of bumps.
It’s so weird seeing Trish Stratus in a ladder match, but really cool.
It's like she really belongs in this era.
Becky and Trish were either working together to get rid of other people, or awesomely beating
the crap out of each other.
But it was another Becky foe that eventually proved her undoing.
In one of the best finishes of the year, IYO handcuffed Lynch through the ladder to Bayley,
meaning neither could get high enough to reach the briefcase.
IYO then poetically climbed over them both to win the match.
Incredible booking and performances from everyone involved, distilling pro wrestling to its
purest form - storytelling through physicality.
Finn Balor and Seth Rollins then worked a traditional heavyweight title match in the
TakeOver main event mold.
It was slower and more psychology heavy, with Finn and Seth making the most of their shared
context - having fought over the first Universal title all those years ago.
The real intrigue came when Priest walked down with his briefcase.
All of a sudden, the WrestleMania 31 triple threat threat was on, just like how Seth had
done.
But even though Finn had it won, Priest inadvertently, or maybe intentionally, caused a distraction
- letting Seth retain.
The main event was neither the World Heavyweight Championship defence, nor the match the Premium
Live Event is named after.
Because the Bloodline: Civil War story has been the hottest thing in wrestling all year,
and is one of the greatest feuds of all time.
And this was another perfect chapter in its epicness.
A 30 minute tag match that felt like 15, there was layer upon layer upon layer.
Solo’s perfectly measured facials when Roman barked to tag him in.
Jey going one on one with Reigns.
Several references to The Rock.
Of course came the usual Bloodline template - ref bump, visual pin, Roman back on top
- but the reason it became a template was so when WWE finally deviated, it’d feel
huge.
After a Roman Spear, Reigns pinned both Usos.
But Rudy’s count was slow enough for them to kickout!
Roman then looked like he started crying.
The Tribal Chief was having a meltdown.
So it was up to Sikoa to step up, the man Jimmy and Jey threw their acknowledgement
behind on SmackDown.
Suddenly Solo was the Tribal Chief, but he got taken out missing a splash through the
table.
But the best spot was Jey’s low blow kickout on Roman - the exact same spot we had from
Roman in their match at Clash of Champions 2020.
It allowed the Usos to get the win, with Jey being the first person to pin Roman in over
3 years - setting up an incredibly exciting SummerSlam direction.
I feel like I say this with every WWE premium live event.
It’s one of the best shows they’ve ever done.
We’re blessed to be living in this time for pro wrestling.
Money in the Bank 2023 is 97%.
Now go watch our brand new series playing AEW Fight Forever!