WWE Money In The Bank: Top 3 Moments from the PLE

WWE Money in the Bank was another major show as the promotion continues to build momentum with its PLEs.

WWE Money in the Bank continued the international trend fans have seen the past couple of months, hailing from the O2 Arena in London. From start to finish, the audience was rowdy and vocal for a card that did not miss. There were rumors of major upsets swirling throughout the week and an element of surprise.

Money in the Bank in London delivered, and international PLEs are here to stay

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening was an unannounced appearance by John Cena. The future Hall of Famer echoed what some may already believe: That a WrestleMania is destined to take place overseas. The London audience also witnessed two new briefcase winners, shocking returns, and the further division of a historical family. Here are the top three moments of WWE Money in the Bank.

Enter “The Queen of Spades”

The result shocked an entire arena because no one saw Shayna Baszler turning on Ronda Rousey. However, the logic kept WWE from sticking the landing. It will be interesting to hear the reasoning for Baszler’s sudden change of heart. There was no tease of dissension, and the duo looked as dominant as ever, recently capturing the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship and unifying them with the NXT titles.

One could also call into question the purpose of working an entire match just to turn in the final moments. Whenever the dust settles from all of this, Rousey vs. Baszler will be fun due to the fact that Baszler is perhaps the only equal to Rousey roster-wide.

It’s been long overdue for Baszler to return to her NXT-level dominance. There was a glimpse of such back in the 2020 Elimination Chamber but no payoff at that year’s WrestleMania. It’s great that we may get there again, but it’s just odd this is the route taken, and that the Women’s Tag Titles had to be along for the ride.

Iyo in the Bank

https://twitter.com/WWEonFOX/status/1675253242870272001

“The Genius of the Sky” gets her moment, in perhaps the most beautiful Money in the Bank finish of all time. It cannot be overstated that this was the right call to elevate Sky, as it feels like she has been “next up” for some time now. This was evident by the response she received at Backlash in Puerto Rico.

The match featured all of the amazing acrobatics only possible by Sky. While the focus was on an unhinged Becky Lynch and the duo of Trish Stratus and Zoey Stark, Sky outsmarted the field. Using the introduced handcuffs to tie both Lynch and Bayley together through the ladder is already a top-five Money in the Bank finish. The finish also produced the best photo of the night with Sky celebrating atop the ladder above the visibly defeated faces of the still-handcuffed Lynch and Bayley.

It’s worth noting the symbolism of the finish as well, not in the sense of dissension in Damage CTRL, but in regards to whom it happened to. Bayley and Becky Lynch are notable members of the “Four Horsewomen” who the company has been debatably over-reliant on in past years. Sky literally climbing the back of her Damage CTRL teammate across from a helpless Lynch felt more like a passing of the torch.

1,294 Days

After 1,294 days without Roman Reigns suffering a pinfall, the unthinkable happened in front of a worthy audience. The excellence in the storytelling with The Bloodline was on display again. The “Bloodline Civil War” added another chapter to a saga that will be rehashed for decades. This tag-team match solidified the Usos as the most dominant duo of the past decade, one that not even the “Tribal Chief” could crack.

The nearfalls and callbacks showed how long we have been on this ride, and that the story being told has a purpose. The match felt like a game of Tug-of-War, with both sides seizing control only for that control to suddenly slip away.

At one point, Reigns would stack his cousins in a similar fashion he did to Edge and Daniel Bryan to win at WrestleMania, but the Usos kicked out! There was also a Clash of Champions 2020 moment where Jey Uso was on the receiving end of a low-blow kick out, but this time, Jey returned the favor to Reigns. The “Civil War” had a WrestleMania feel the entire way until the unbelievable three-count on Reigns happened.

One special aspect of this moment dates back years when Reigns was still a member of The Shield. Jey was the first to pin Reigns on the main roster, and he is the one to, once again, break Reigns’ pinfall streak. The endings to both matches are strikingly similar, which ties back into everything The Bloodline is doing having a purpose.

A SummerSlam match between Jey and Reigns may very well be on the way, and perhaps it was going to be Jey to dethrone Reigns all along. One thing is for sure, everyone is locked in on this story as it continues to thrive.