Money in the Bank 2023 was greatly inflated on Saturday night. The O2 Arena in London is sold out for one night that could change the course of WWE forever.
Many of them came out as major winners, especially some stars who were on the verge of a major breakthrough.
Damien Priest and Io Sky grabbed the men’s and women’s Money in the Bank bags, Gunther still retained the Intercontinental Championship with dominance, and Cody Rhodes made a statement by shutting down Dominic Mysterio.
John Cena was there to rile the crowd in London and gave Grayson Waller a surprise, and The Usos got some needed revenge against Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa.
Other stars, however, weren’t so lucky, seeing the opportunity slip through their fingers.
LA Knight was the crowd favorite in the men’s MITB match, but couldn’t win. Chyna Baszler turned against Ronda Rousey, ending the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship after less than one month.
Finn Balor failed to win the World Heavyweight Championship from Seth Rollins as promised.
Here are the winners and losers from a great night of WWE events.
It looks like the stars have finally lined up with LA Knight. He was on top of the world heading into Money in the Bank 2023. The world was on his back.
The crowd at the O2 Arena was on fire at The Megastar. They encouraged him over everyone else, even the ever-popular Shinsuke Nakamura and UK-born Butch.
The WWE agents knew this was going to happen. That was the focus of this match. In the end, he booked like the unstoppable star of the show, trampling his competition before heading to the top of the ladder.
However, it was not for Knight. It’s possible that WWE considered giving him the briefcase but decided against it. Instead, Damien Priest took his shot.
WWE could build Knight’s momentum before finally handing him the big win. A match with Logan Paul would be money. However, he fell short on his first shot in a shortcut to gold.
It was not an L.A. Knight match at Money in the Bank. It was Damien Priest. Often a forgotten member of Doomsday, Punishment needs a big break.
There is no reason why a priest should not have his money when the time is right. The doomsday dynamic is evolving, but this group was always designed to redeem the druid.
He was Edge’s first recruit. Finn Balor might be seen as the leader of the crew, but the Eagles seemed more poised to win a world title recently than Prince.
The new creative era for WWE will be defined by decisions like these. The commitment to the druid paves the way for multiple stars to take the next step towards top billing.
Punishment will earn this with every chance it gets. It’s great to see his efforts being rewarded.
Ronda Rousey and Chyna Baszler promised to revitalize the women’s tag team division. They were heavily publicized as the winners in a way that previous Women’s Tag Champions weren’t.
However, after just 33 days, The Baddest Woman on the Planet and The Queen of Spades not only lost gold, they visibly broke up.
Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan are two good wrestlers who could challenge for the Women’s World Championship. They are better as members of a tag team.
Morgan is Rodriguez’s third partner and is established as fully interchangeable with Shotzi based on the last booking.
This all continues the terrible tradition of dismantling women’s tag teams once they lose the gold medal, leaving the new champions without strong competitors.
Gunther is the most dominant champion in WWE. Even Roman Reigns looked more vulnerable in his title defenses than the current Intercontinental Champion.
He entered a match against Matt Riddle with confidence and came out with more confidence. It was a dominating show against one of Monday Night Raw’s top stars.
While Drew McIntyre is back at Gunther’s expense, he has created an even bigger star for The Ring General to take on at SummerSlam 2023.
At this point, it’s impossible to imagine losing the Intercontinental Champion anytime soon. The Honky Tonk Man’s reign record of 454 days would surely be broken, and it would take even longer for The Ring General to fall.
Before John Cena made a surprise appearance at the O2 Arena, Cody Rhodes showed why he’s the most obvious heir to The Champ.
His match with Dominik Mysterio was an amusing old-school match between a top face and a top heel. Ex-Con didn’t have a chance of defeating The American Nightmare, but he made sure it was a fun ride to lose him.
Both men came out of this one better. Rhodes looked like a world champion already. Meanwhile, Dom has shown that he can compete at a higher level with a high-ranking man.
Together, they had the hottest match of the night without trying too hard. The crowd loved it all.
Despite his heartbreaking loss at WrestleMania 39, The American Nightmare has as much momentum as ever.
WWE did its best to deliver surprises to the London crowd, and nothing was bigger than the unannounced appearance of John Cena.
The Champion came to spark a future where WWE could bring WrestleMania to the United Kingdom. Although nothing has been officially announced, this provocation would not have taken place if it were not possible.
All Elite Wrestling has shown that wrestling can completely fill a stadium in the UK, breaking the 60,000 mark in terms of tickets sold for All In 2023, which will take place at Wembley Stadium. This without even announcing a single match.
WWE could sell Wembley for WrestleMania, though it may come down to politics and money in order to make this a reality.
WWE is learning the value of commitment to fans in the UK for the big shows. London PPVs should remain a constant for years to come.
Few in WWE history are more Superstars than John Cena. While The Champ has been known to receive mixed reactions, it now receives universal raves and cheers of support.
This makes each corner its own. Getting Grayson Waller in the ring with Cena was special. He’s a 33-year-old up-and-coming talent who’s instantly taken over from working with The Champ.
A heated crowd in the UK panned the young talent, and he never backed down. He really bit into every cheer in his direction while not letting Cena verbally hit him.
This was a much better interaction than any Cena and Austin Theory had, and Waller could benefit more from working with The Champ.
If Waller gets this match with Cena, he will be established as a future high heel in the business. Hopefully, the champ will be in better shape than he was at WrestleMania 39.
The women’s Money in the Bank ladder match could have gone in a number of directions, but WWE stuck with the presumed favourite. Ayu Sky pulled it out, and crawled over Bailey to take the bag.
It was a significant moment of WWE’s commitment. Genius of the Sky is getting more popular by the month in the main list.
Her match with Bianca Belair at WWE Backlash was a huge turning point as many were hoping to win the WWE Women’s Championship.
Sky will probably do that soon enough now that it has its Money in the Bank briefcase. Fans have long been waiting for the Asuka vs. Sky match, and it will almost certainly happen after such a huge win.
Once again, the Money in the Bank briefcase was won by a rising star who was still waiting for his big break. Sky could become a big name before long as the Friday Night SmackDown champion.
Finn Bálor has had a major character rehab while building towards his rematch with Seth Rollins. While it was unlikely that he would defeat Prince Messiah, many expected him to appear close.
Instead, it was a 12-minute battle that didn’t get to the top of the gear and spent the final two minutes focusing on Damien Priest at ringside. A simple distraction was enough to cost Balor the World Heavyweight Championship.
While it’s possible that Prince might make his way to a rematch, this should have been his big moment. It was this opportunity where he was able to establish himself as a main event star for the red brand.
This did not happen. At this point, it seems likely that punishment will overtake the Prince since the briefcase should allow him to overthrow Messiah when the time comes.
On September 27, 2020, Roman Reigns and J. Uso got hitched first. In his first WWE Universal title defense, he defeated The Tribal Chief and knocked out his cousin to keep him.
Since that time, Jey has reluctantly fallen out with The Bloodline. Eventually he would stick to Reigns’ vision, but that was only after obvious abuse from the clan chief.
Helping Sami Zayn shake Jey out of his haze, and Jimmy Uso turning against The Bloodline was the last straw. This cleared the way for Jey to once again enter the war with Reigns.
In the bloodline civil war, Ji was beaten by Reigns and Sulu Sekua. He was punished all the time for choosing his brother over the chief of the tribe.
However, when it mattered most, Jey got exactly what he needed. He scored a victory over Reigns, becoming the first man to pin Reigns in over 1,200 days.