WWE’s annual PLE, ‘Money in the Bank’ took place this past Saturday July 6th live from Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The show opened with the Men’s Money in the Bank ladder match that included Drew McIntyre, Chad Gable, LA Knight, Andrade, Jey Uso, and Carmelo Hayes. This was a standard MitB match for the most part, no new ground was necessarily broken in the match, but there were plenty of high spots and carnage candy thrown around throughout the contest and everyone had their opportunity to shine and moment where it looked like they might grab the briefcase. A couple notable moments happened with exchanges between Carmelo and Andrade; one saw Andrade hit a Spanish Fly to Carmelo off the ropes and onto a ladder, it was equal parts beautiful and painful to watch, and another moment when Andrade hit a sunset flip powerbomb to Hayes off the top of a ladder and onto another ladder propped between the ropes and the ladder set up in the ring, a dangerous and scary move but executed to perfection. Gable also cleaned house at a moment and used ladders to his full advantage taking out everyone in his path before suplexing a ladder onto Andrade, that was a new one to me. He also had a little back and forth moment with LA Knight before disposing of him with a belly-to-belly suplex onto a ladder that was positioned outside the ring between the apron and announce table. Just when things were winding down and it looked like Jey Uso was about to grab the briefcase after getting the better of an exchange with Gable, McIntyre javelined a ladder at Jey who was climbing a ladder himself, before hitting him with a Claymore Kick and climbing the ladder to retrieve the briefcase. Drew fulfilled the first part of his prophecy as Graves and Cole said, and it wouldn’t be the last time we saw him that night.
Then we moved onto the Intercontinental Championship match as the Underdog Champ Sami Zayn stepped toe to toe with Raw’s new ruthless and destructive rookie, Bron Breakker. These 2 men put on an absolute banger and probably earned themselves match of the night in my eyes, Sami Zayn just doesn’t miss when it comes to in ring work and Bron Breakker proved to the world that he’s more than just a one trick pony wrecking machine as he got a chance to really go with one of the most seasoned vets on a pretty big stage. The Canadian fans gave a loud and warm welcome to their guy Sami before the match and continued with “Ole!” chants early into the match. Many expected this match to be a pretty one-sided squash with Breakker either making quick work of Zayn and sending a message to everyone in the back or Breakker dominating most the contest but Sami stealing one away from him in the end, but that’s not how things worked out and I was so pleasantly surprised and happy with that. These 2 put on a very solid back and forth exchange for 15 minutes or better with Sami pulling out most his big moves from the bag and Bron displaying more of his arsenal than we’ve ever got to see yet on the main roster. The formula of the bout saw Breakker overpower and manhandle the smaller Sami, but Sami outsmart and outwrestle the younger and less experienced Breakker. Breakker’s Frankensteiner is the best I’ve ever seen I think, he hits it so quickly and so fluidly and as Cole said “he runs up the ropes like he’s running stairs!”. But in the end, the intelligence and wherewithal of the resilient champ overcame the power of the younger, more inexperienced challenger as Zayn dodged Breakker’s devastating spear and connected with a quick Heluva Kick for the victory to retain the title.
John Cena then made a pop-in appearance much to the excitement of the loud Toronto crowd and in rather unceremonious and (to me) heartbreaking fashion announced his inevitable retirement from professional wrestling in the coming months. He sang the praises of the Canadian crowd, before announcing that 2025 will be his retirement tour as he will be back on the first Raw of 2025 and the 2025 Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber will be his lasts, before his ultimate last WrestleMania in Las Vegas. All this before stating to any competitor in the back “If you want some, come get some, because the final time is now!”
The World Heavyweight Title match was next as the champ Damian Priest took on the newly returned former champ and challenger, Seth Rollins. There was an added element to this match though because not only was the title on the line but if Damian lost then he was to be forced out of the Judgment Day and if Rollins lost, he would not be allowed another title match as long as Priest was champ. If that wasn’t enough, there was also the added element of newly crowned MitB winner Drew McIntyre lurking in their minds as he promised earlier in the week that if he won the MitB ladder match he would be cashing in that night and walking out of Toronto as the champion. The crowd was into Rollins and loudly sang his entrance music on his walk to the ring. Both men started the match looking to end it quickly and get out of dodge with Rollins going for an early Pedigree countered by Priest into a suplex for a 2 count. Both men performed well in this match, but the predictability in waiting for McIntyre to show up and the lack of build to their actual one-on-one kind of hurt them here and just made something feel off as you were just waiting for things to heat up and break down within the contest. Rollins late into the match after both men had unleashed a lot of damage to one another, hit a Falcon Arrow to Priest for what was declared a 2 count but clearly looked like the pin and caused loud boos from the crowd and Rollins to become irate, but he couldn’t stew for long because McIntyre’s music hit and he came charging to the ring with briefcase in hand. He added himself to the contest making it a triple threat and hit a Claymore to Rollins who fell out of the ring and was setting up to hit Priest with one as well before his constant thorn in his side, CM Punk, made his presence known. Coming in through the crowd and beating down McIntyre in the ring before chasing him to the outside and unloading on him with a chair and choking him with an equipment cable, all before unloading a final shot with the World Heavyweight Title to Drew’s head as he stumbled his way back into the ring. This set Priest up who hit the South of Heaven chokeslam for the win. Rollins was collateral damage in all this as he is no longer allowed to compete for the title now while Priest is champ and given his already existing hatred for Punk he was livid after the match trying to get his hands on Punk who sat on the announce table grinning at the chaos he just caused again.
The Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match followed as Iyo Sky, Lyra Valkyria, Tiffany Stratton, Naomi, Zoey Stark, and Chelsea Green battled it out for a chance at the briefcase. Chelsea was the clear crowd favorite in Canada as they loudly popped for her during her entrance and chanted “Chelsea!” in the early moments of the match. All the women started the bout exiting the ring and going for a ladder except for Chelsea who hung back and instead stole Iyo’s ladder from her and attempted to knock the briefcase down with it instead of climbing it because she’s afraid of heights. After that moment of comedy to start the bout, things quickly broke down into chaos and didn’t let up as 2-3 competitors at a time battled it out in ring as the others were down ringside waiting for their moment to shine, which everyone basically did. About the halfway mark of the match is when things really started to break down and the carnage candy was in full display as bodies and ladders flew about. Zoey Stark flipped into the ring onto I believe Lyra at one point and incidentally bashed the back of her head off a ladder in what looked like an extremely painful moment, but she bounced right back and kept going. Naomi had her moment and nearly retrieved the briefcase, split leg DDTing Stratton from the ladder shortly after in a really neat spot. As things started to wind down later in the match, last year’s MitB winner Iyo Sky and Zoey Stark found themselves perched on top of the ladder and Iyo delivered a piledriver to Stark onto a ladder set up between the ropes and rungs of the ladder below them in an insane spot that looked like nearly killed both of them. Chelsea Green looked like she had her moment to shine just seconds later as she was alone in the ring climbing the ladder to the briefcase but as she reached the top, Stratton reemerged and pushed the ladder over, throwing Chelsea splat through 2 tables set up on the outside of the ring in the process. Stratton climbed up top and retrieved the case to become Miss Money in the Bank. This was a crazy, chaos filled match with a lot of the women that I’m a big fan of on the current roster in full display, so I loved it. This just further cemented my fandom for Miss Iyo Sky and Naomi I have respect for all the crazy spots all these women took throughout the matchup.
Then it was time for the main event as the Undisputed Champ Cody Rhodes teamed up with Randy Orton and Kevin Owens to take on the New Bloodline’s Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, and Jacob Fatu. Fatu is going to be a star in this company, he’s so fluid in the ring and he played the part of the muscle and the savior for the Bloodline multiple times throughout this match. One of the things that’s already getting hilariously annoying is how much they’re playing up Fatu’s criminal charges in his past, trying to make this guy sound like a risk to himself and others, that he’s unhinged and should still be behind bars. I suppose he’s fine with it or they wouldn’t be leaning on it so hard but I’m already kind of like “Alright already! We get it! He’s had a checkered past!” but maybe they find a way to build on that in his character that could be cool, but that is yet to be seen. On the other side of things Kevin Owens got the hero’s welcome just as his compadre Sami did earlier in the night and the crowd happily and loudly sang along with Cody’s and Orton’s themes as they made their way to the ring proving just how much of a loved and fan favorite this tandem of guys were. After some damage was already done to all the men involved and the match wound down, things started to turn into more of a bitter fight than a normal tag match and Solo incidentally knocked the referee down and out which saved his ass moments later after he was hit with all 3 men’s finishers. With the ref down crumbled on the outside by the ring steps Owens hit a splash to Fatu from the turnbuckle through the announce table and came back into the ring about to take out Tonga before Loa came to his aid and started beating down KO. Orton raced back into the ring and hit back-to-back RKOs on Tonga and Loa before getting hit with a Samoan Spike from Solo taking him out of the ring. Rhodes returned to the ring shortly after and blindsided Solo going for his trifecta of Cross Rhodes but was shut down after hitting 2 as he was setting up for the third as Fatu returned to the ring and leveled Rhodes, saving his Tribal Chief in the nick of time. Fatu helped Solo back to his feet and urged him to hit his signature Spike as he shoved the referee back into the ring to make the 3 count. This is probably setting Solo up for a 1-on-1 match for the Undisputed Title against Cody at Summerslam as him and his Bloodline now have a victory over Rhodes and his boys. Jacob Fatu looked like the star of the Bloodline here as well so I’m excited to see more of him in the WWE and excited to see this new Bloodline story start to develop further and get even more intriguing in the coming months.
