High stakes, over characters and uncertain outcomes are typically the most important ingredients in a successful wrestling event, and this year’s Money In The Bank has all three going for it. Throw in what’s likely to be a hot crowd, given it’s a rare PPV in Europe, and there’s a real chance this could be one of WWE’s best events of the entire year. I cannot wait.
But as excited as I am as a wrestling fan, I’m that nervous as a prognosticator. The Men’s Money In The Bank match could very believably go in three different directions. I can’t stop arguing with myself about the best long-term path for The Bloodline Civil War, and even the Seth Rollins and Finn Bálor title match has some intrigue given the build has been strong and Judgment Day is really popular. It’s really only the Cody Rhodes vs Dominik Mysterio and Gunther vs Riddle matches that I’m overwhelmingly confident about.
But reputations in the soothsayer game aren’t made during comfortable times. They’re made during the tumult, and I’m ready to step up and hopefully have a big performance. You can take a look at some recent events, as well as my overall WWE record below…
At the risk of patting myself on the back harder than The Miz, I’ll say that’s not half-bad. Hopefully I’ll put in a good performance here, and some of these 50-50 matches break the right way for me. You can my full analysis below…
Ronday Rousey And Shayna Baszler (Champs) Vs Liv Morgan And Raquel Rodriguez For The WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships
I don’t know how many people are left on Team Ronda Rousey. To be honest, I’m not sure if I’m still on Team Ronda Rousey. The potential is there. The star power is there. But her mic work continues to be a struggle, and there are times in which she looks too robotic in the ring, especially with interconnected move sets. She needs a manager desperately, something many of us have been saying for years, but at this point, I’m starting to wonder if this is just what it’s gonna be forever. I don’t know. Part of me really hopes it’s not, and part of me wants WWE to keep the tag belts on her because without them, it feels like we might be officially giving up.
Liv Morgan certainly doesn’t have the ceiling Ronda Rousey does, but she’s, without question, the person involved in the match fans care about the most. This is also her first match back from injury, and considering she and Raquel never lost the belts to begin with, I think they’re a real threat to win. Ultimately, I think it comes most down to what WWE wants to do with Ronda over the next few months. If they’re still trying to keep her at a star level, I think she should win here. If they’re ready to move on, then they should lose. I say they still trying to make it work, but who knows?
Predicted Winner: Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler.
Cody Rhodes Vs Dominik Mysterio
Dominik Mysterio is one of the best heels on WWE’s entire roster. I mean… is there a single person in wrestling getting booed more aggressively and booed by more grandmas than him every time he tries to open his mouth? It’s been a tremendous turnaround for someone who initially struggled to find an identity outside of being his dad’s inexperienced tag team partner. At this point, it’s pretty easy to see a future in which he’s maybe a tag team title holder with Damian Priest or even a United States Champion with a lot of interference victories thanks to Rhea Ripley. Beating Cody Rhodes, in my opinion, is a bridge too far though.
Look for this to be a really entertaining match. Dominik will likely pull out every dirty and heelish trick Iron Sheik style (RIP). At some point during the match, I’d expect him to literally flee and/ or run around the ring. We’ll probably get a big spot with Rhea Ripley too, but ultimately, Cody Rhodes needs to win this match. He would lose far more taking a loss against Dom than Dom would gain by getting a win against him.
Predicted Winner Cody Rhodes
Seth Freakin’ Rollins (Champion) Vs Finn Bálor For The World Heavyweight Championship
Seth Rollins is super over with fans right now, to the point where crowds will interrupt segments to start singing his theme music. Given he barely won the belt a month ago at Night Of Champions, you’d think there’s no way he could possibly lose it this quickly, but in my opinion, the whole point of creating this belt was to inject more uncertainty into the title picture. Roman Reigns hasn’t lost in more than a thousand days, and Gunther seems on his way to being the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion in history. Having Seth lose the belt so quickly would be a great way to remind fans that anything is possible.
That being said, Finn Bálor winning isn’t the only option WWE has to take the belt off Rollins. Someone is about to pick up the Money In The Bank briefcase, and it’ll almost certainly be cashed in on whoever holds this title. Roman Reigns isn’t losing to a cash-in, and fans collectively hated Austin Theory cashing in on a mid-card title last year. So, it’ll be this belt, the only question is who holds it when that happens. I think it’ll still be Rollins. So, look for him to win here and then get blindsided sometime between Money In The Bank and SummerSlam.
Predicted Winner: Seth Freakin’ Rollins
Men’s Money In The Bank Featuring (At Least) Damian Priest, LA Knight, Logan Paul, Shinsuke Nakamura, Ricochet, Santos Escobar And Butch
I put “at least” in the headline here because my prediction last year was screwed by Austin Theory being added to the match right before it happened. I shouted at my TV like an outraged Jesse The Body Ventura, knowing almost for certain he was going to win, and there’s a lingering feeling in the back of my mind that a similar thing could happen this year. Drew McIntyre is hopefully coming back at some point. Maybe. The same could be said about Bray Wyatt. Rumors are swirling Randy Orton might be healthy again for the first time in over a year. The candidates are right there.
But if we assume for a second that the possible winners are the ones already announced, I think the most likely candidates are Damian Priest, LA Knight and Logan Paul. Priest is, in my opinion, the best pick from a storyline standpoint. He’s really come into his own this year, had a terrific, match of the night performance with Bad Bunny at Backlash and a win could help push Judgment Day into even loftier heights.
LA Knight doesn’t make a lot of storyline sense, but he’s getting more popular by the week, despite some terrible booking. Fans are comparing his mic work to The Rock’s, and a win here, supported by good creative for the next month, could turn him into one of the company’s biggest stars. And Logan Paul is Logan Paul. He’s over-delivered in every match so far, has history with Seth Rollins and could do WWE a ton of promotional good by carting the briefcase everywhere he goes for a few months. I broke down the men’s Money In The Bank match more fully here, but the end result is I’m picking Damian Priest. Am I confident though? No.
Predicted Winner: Damian Priest
Women’s Money In The Bank Featuring (At Least) Iyo Sky, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Zoey Stark, Trish Stratus and Zelina Vega
Just like with the men’s match, there’s a chance we could see someone added, but as most of the biggest stars on the women’s side are 1) already champions, 2) involved in major storylines or 3) off due to pregnancy, I’m pretty confident the ultimate winner will come from this group. I think we can throw out Zelina Vega, who was fantastic at Backlash but just isn’t ready for this level of step up to the main event. I also don’t think Zoey Stark has a real chance, as she’s good in the ring but needs to improve her mic skills. So, that leaves Iyo, Bayley, Becky and Trish. Initially, I thought Becky and Trish would screw each other, setting up another match at SummerSlam. I still think that’s probably going to happen, but the segment between Becky and Rhea on Raw this past week made her seem like more of a real possibility.
Let’s leave her aside for a second and instead focus on Iyo and Bayley. WWE has been teasing a Damage CTRL break-up for what feels like six months. One of the two winning the case would be the logical next step, as it would cause dissension within the ranks. The case for Iyo is that she’s an up and coming talent and has been getting good crowd reactions. She also has good chemistry with Asuka and a cash-in on here could b a really great moment. The case for Bayley is that she’s one of the best in WWE on the mic and she’d have a ton of fun possible storylines if she won it again. I think it’s going to be one of those two or Becky, who is Becky Freakin' Lynch and will always be a good choice to win anything and everything.
Predicted Winner: Iyo Sky
Gunther (Champion) Vs Matt Riddle For The Intercontinental Championship
I feel really confident about Gunther here for two reasons. First, I think most people want to see him break Honky Tonk Man’s record for the longest reign in Intercontinental history, and in order to do that, he’ll need to hold the title until November. But even if WWE doesn’t actually care about that, you’d have to think the match where he finally loses would have a better build this one. I’m not saying Triple H and company didn’t put in some work here. They did and involved the rest of Imperium and Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in it, but Riddle has, at times, sorta felt like the odd man out in his own storyline.
Second, Riddle is not nearly as hot as he was before he took time away, allegedly to deal with some behind the scenes issues. Prior to the Randy Orton injury and immediately afterwards, he was among the most over babyfaces on the entire roster. He needs to regain that spark because it’s just not the same as it was before.
Predicted Winner: Gunther
The Usos Vs Roman Reigns And Solo Sikoa
I remain convinced the long-term plan is for Roman and Solo to feud with each other, but I have no idea what the timeline might be. I could see Solo turning on Roman here in preparation for a match at SummerSlam, or I could see the two working well together and teaching The Usos a lesson. Maybe Jimmy and Jey go away for a month or so, Roman and Solo establish some kind of new hierarchy, and the storyline moves into an entirely new phase. Maybe other family members show up and interfere, creating a messy outcome. Maybe The Usos pick up a clean win and spend the next month talking about how Roman doesn’t play well with others.
Good WWE storylines put in the character development work to set up a final payoff that’s really satisfying. More often than not, it’s pretty easy to tell where these storylines are ultimately going, but they’re still satisfying when they get there. Great WWE storylines put in so much character development work that they set up multiple possible outcomes that would believably make sense. That’s what is going on here. We know The Usos, Solo and Roman Reigns so well that any direction this goes in, there’s the potential to tell more satisfying story. I’m going to pick The Usos to win here, but pretty much every possible outcome is on the table.
Predicted Winner: The Usos
As always, you can catch Money In The Bank live for free with a Peacock subscription. The event happens this Saturday July 1st in London at 2 PM ET.
