WWE Money in the Bank was a deeply bizarre show, filled with controversial match results and flat-out confusing decisions. There were several bright spots, most notably in the MITB men’s ladder match, which closed out the show and delivered a terrific hard-hitting affair worthy of the high expectations we place on WWE ladder matches.
But the show started off on a terribly sour note, with the historic Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match being won by a man. This is obviously a storyline setup, given how much the announcers hammered home the cheating and a promise to address the controversy on this week’s SmackDown Live. However, it still feels like a major misstep — for a supposedly historic match, wouldn’t you want a clear winner at the end and make it feel important, instead of just using it as a stepping stone?
I think that’s the main problem I had with Money in the Bank — it didn’t feel like a pay-per-view, it felt like a Sunday night edition of SmackDown Live. Aside from the ladder matches, nothing was changed or decided. Jinder Mahal is still the champion after his lackeys interfered, the Usos are still tag team champions after they literally walked out of their match, and Naomi is still women’s champion after barely pulling out a win over a lesser wrestler.
It’s a frustrating holding pattern that continues WWE’s frustrating trend of using PPVs as placeholders. Perhaps we’ll get some sense of direction as we head into SummerSlam season, but Sunday night’s show mostly left more questions than answers.
Below is the live blog for Money in the Bank. Like I said, go watch the main event, it’s great. Everything else was either skippable, depending on your taste for WWE comedy, or downright bad. There are some jewels, but you sure have to dig through some dirt to find them.
Baron Corbin def. AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Dolph Ziggler to win Money in the Bank ladder match
Shinsuke Nakamura didn’t even finish his entrance before Baron Corbin ran out and attacked him from behind. The match started with Nakamura out of commission.
Dolph Ziggler and Corbin teamed up for a bit before Corbin knocked him out. Because even the bad guys on this show hate Dolph Ziggler. Corbin wiped out Ziggler with a sick Deep Six on the floor in one of the match’s early highlights.
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn went at it for a while, because they’re destined to do this forever. And by “do this,” I mean “fall onto ladders like they have a death wish.” It’s way better than I’m making it sound. Dolph is the first one to set up a ladder and climb for the briefcase, but Sami dragged him down. Sami hit the Blue Thunder Bomb on Ziggler and made the climb before Corbin took him down.
Next it was AJ Styles and Corbin getting some one-on-one action in the ring, which is always enjoyable to watch. At one point Styles, Ziggler, and Corbin were all on the ladder, but they all fell off after hitting moves on each other. Ziggler got back on the ladder, fighting off Styles and Zayn, and Zayn had another highlight moment by hitting a Sunset Flip powerbomb off the ladder, making Ziggler go splat.
Zayn and Owens did what they do best, which is have a scary move together. This time it was Sami throwing a dragon suplex on Owens, which made the latter crash on the apron and fall to the floor. Soon after, Styles laid out Zayn with a massive forearm onto a ladder, leading to Corbin beating him up near the announce tables.
Corbin chokeslammed Styles onto a ladder and got into the ring, but Zayn took him out with a Helluva Kick. He climbed the ladder to the briefcase and fought off Ziggler, but Owens dragged him down and hit a dick kick. He almost got the prize himself before Styles got involved again. They fought to the apron and Styles nailed an Attitude Adjustment through a ladder on the outside.
Styles went for the briefcase once again, but Ziggler pulled the ladder away, leaving Styles hanging for his life above the ring. Styles just fell flat into the mat, making a sickening thud.
Just as Corbin started to climb, Nakamura came back out and beat the hell out of him. The King of Strong Style ran like a house afire, laying out everybody with his signature moves and hitting Zayn with the Kinshasa. He drug a ladder into the ring and started to climb it, but Styles got on the other side.
If you’ve seen Nakamura vs. Styles in New Japan Pro Wrestling, you know this is a fire matchup. Sure enough, they fought each other for a while. Nak got the upper hand and set up the Kinshasa, but Styles came back with the Phenomenal Forearm.
Please, give us more Nakamura vs. Styles. The crowd went electric with them in the ring together.
Of course, this is still WWE, so Corbin pushed them both off the ladder and scaled it to grab the briefcase, winning the match. The Lone Wolf now has a shot at the WWE Championship whenever he wants it.
Breezango pins The Ascension
This match was originally not on the card, but it got set up by a “Fashion Vice” segment where Tyler Breeze and Fandango find out who’s been attacking them. Turns out it was The Ascension, who are still employed, believe it or not.
Anyway, they have a match, and it’s every SmackDown tag match you’ve seen. Nothing to write about. Fandango got the win with a flash roll-up on Viktor. The Ascension will never not be The Ascension.
Jinder Mahal (c) pins Randy Orton to retain WWE Championship
Mahal, of course, beat Orton at Backlash to become the WWE Champion, so we’re getting the rematch here. As always, he came out flanked by the Singh brothers, who are either his bodyguards or actual children, depending on the size difference.
Before the match started, WWE honored a handful of territory-era legends such as Sgt. Slaughter, Ric Flair, Larry Hennig, Greg Gagne, Baron von Raschke, and Orton’s own father, Cowboy Bob Orton Jr. St. Louis was a wrestling hotbed for many decades, so it was cool to see these men get their proper due in front of a modern-day audience. All of them were in attendance at ringside.
Orton almost hit an RKO right at the start, but Jinder slipped it and regrouped on the outside. He slid back in to eat a Thesz Press from Orton, who spent several minutes taking over the match. Jinder came back by dumping Orton over the ropes and beating on him outside the ring.
The match kinda picked up when Orton dropped Mahal onto the barricade in front of the row of legends introduced earlier. They went back into the ring and did some more back-and-forth action before Mahal started controlling the match. He locked in a Figure Four which Orton reversed and escaped from.
They continued doing stuff, wrestling at roughly the same speed as the old-timers sitting up front. Orton hit his powerslam and draping DDT off the middle rope. He set up and actually hit the RKO, but the Singh brothers put Jinder’s foot on the rope to break up the pinfall. The referee saw this blatant cheating and ejected both men, who jawed with the legends on their way out.
Of course, the brothers grabbed Cowboy Bob by the scruff of the neck and Randy went after them, destroying both men on the outside. He put one Singh through the announce table with an RKO, went back in the ring, and walked into Jinder’s finisher for the pin.
So yeah, Jinder Mahal is still champion. We’re really making this a thing, huh?
Mike and Maria Kanellis made their SmackDown debut and cut a promo
I didn’t care about this, but my colleague, Marc Normandin, certainly did. Read his takes about the segment here.
Naomi (c) def. Lana by submission to retain WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship
This is Lana’s first singles match on the main roster, after a handful of dates on NXT house shows. She showed up on SmackDown Live a couple weeks ago, wanted to get into the Money in the Bank match, and was refused. So she attacked Naomi, who decided to get her revenge by putting her title on the line. So here we are.
If you like NXT developmental matches, then this would be your jam. But as a PPV title match, it’s pretty underwhelming. Lana is predictably rough as a novice wrestler, and there isn’t much worth writing about.
Carmella walked out to tease cashing in her briefcase, but called it off. Lana nearly took advantage of the distraction, but Naomi recovered and hit a submission move to get the tap-out and keep her title. Carmella continued taunting Naomi with the briefcase, but nothing came of it.
The New Day def. The Usos (c) by countout, Usos are still WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions
The New Day return to PPV after The Revival attacked and ran them off Raw. Naturally, they came over to SmackDown and immediately got a title match against The Usos.
The Usos spent much of the match working over Kofi Kingston. Kofi recovered and got the hot tag to Big E, who went wild with a flurry of suplexes and his massive spear through the ropes. Kingston tagged back in and tried to hit his finisher, but the Usos chop-blocked him and applied a half-Boston Crab for a submission attempt. Big E distracted an Uso from the hold.
Kofi hit an SOS for a close two-count and Big E got back into the match, hitting a Big Ending on Jey, which only got broken up by Jimmy at the last second. The New Day hit their Midnight Hour dual-finisher, only for Jey to drag his brother outside. Then the Usos took their ball and went home, accepting the countout loss to save their titles.
If you like really good wrestling with a bizarre, unsatisfying finish, then this show is off to a great start!
Carmella def. Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Natalya, & Tamina to win Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match
This match was made after a Fatal Five-Way No. 1 contender’s match fell apart. Before that match even started, all the women got into a chaotic brawl that ended with everybody laying on the outside, leading to Shane McMahon coming out and announcing the first-ever Women’s Money in the Bank match.
Tamina controlled the match early on, decimating every woman in the ring. Becky Lynch and Natalya, longtime rivals, used a ladder to take care of Tamina, but that alliance didn’t last long as Nattie slammed Becky onto the ladder.
Nattie was the first one to attempt to climb the ladder for the briefcase before Charlotte knocked her down. Carmella and Charlotte fought on the ladder for a while. Tamina pushed over the ladder, sending both women crashing to the mat. After some mini-brawls in the ring, Carmella eventually got the upper hand and tried climbing for the briefcase again, but Charlotte yanked her down and nailed a big boot on both Carmella and Becky.
Once again Charlotte got on the ladder and attempted to fight off Tamina, before both of them fell off. Charlotte speared Tamina into the outside and hit one of the biggest spots of the match, a corkscrew moonsault onto both Tamina and Natalya. Carmella tried climbing the ladder again, but Becky grabbed her and powerbombed her to the mat. Then it was Becky’s turn to climb, but James Ellsworth tipped over the ladder, sending her to the outside. Ellsworth himself climbed the ladder and unhooked the briefcase, tossing it to Carmella for the victory.
Yes, that’s right. A man won the first-ever Women’s Money in the Bank match. And SmackDown GM Daniel Bryan has taken notice.
Absolutely unacceptable and cheap. The circumstances surrounding the Women's #MITB match will be the FIRST thing addressed on #SDLive.
— Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) June 19, 2017