Pantoja’s WWE Money in the Bank 2025 Review

WWE Money in the Bank 2025

June 7^th, 2025 | Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California

So, I’ve admittedly been pretty out of it when it comes to wrestling lately. WWE was doing a lot of stuff I didn’t like, AEW wasn’t catching my eye, and I became hyper-focused on baseball. I’m still all in on baseball, but I checked out Double or Nothing, and some of the matches got me intrigued, so I wanted to try and get back into the swing of things, especially with things like the 5STRA Grand Prix and SummerSlam on the horizon.

Hell, if things go well, I may even review Worlds Collide.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Alexa Bliss vs. Giulia vs. Naomi vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Roxanne Perez vs. Stephanie Vaquer

If there’s one aspect of wrestling that I was still checking in on, it was the women’s side of things. Honestly, WWE has kind of become like nWo-era WCW in some ways because there’s one group always killing it (women/cruiserweights) while the main event folks are kind of just there being dull. Really good action from the start here. Rhea and Alexa were the most popular, while Stephanie and Roxanne looked completely locked in. Rhea was a great powerhouse, but she was actually most impressive when she was giving for others. She was on the receiving end of cool spots like a dope Roxanne springboard moonsault and Vaquer’s Devil’s Kiss on the ladder. I liked when Stephanie tried to climb the ladder with Giulia on her back. They continued on with the big spots and close calls. Using the drone camera for some of the fighting atop the ladder was a really nice touch. I don’t like the way they have wrestlers look at each other so they can time moves in stereo. It feels super awkward. In the end, Naomi pulled down the briefcase after 25:11. A very good Money in the Bank match with some dope spots and a bunch of talented women. [****]

WWE Intercontinental Championship: Dominik Mysterio [c] vs. Octagon Jr.

This started because of an interaction the two had at the Worlds Collide show earlier today. I appreciate the attempt to get AAA folks on a card like this, and shoutout to Octagon Jr. for getting this payday. That said, the crowd has no reason to care about Octagon other than their hate for Dom, so it’s a choice. There’s not much to cover here. The match was mostly filler and gave Octagon a chance to show off some of his aerial stuff before a Liv distraction set up the Frog Splash for Dom to retain in 4:55. Basic stuff here. [**]

WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship: Lyra Valkyria [c] vs. Becky Lynch

Their Backlash match was good (***½). If Becky loses here, she can’t challenge again. Becky jumped Lyra before the bell, and that set the tone for an aggressive match. This has been heated for weeks, and they went out there and had a match where you felt like they didn’t like each other. Even simple things like Lyra trying a submission had something added to it with her stomping on Becky’s head. Becky’s gear also kind of sold this as more of a fight than anything else, which is another small thing I appreciated. I was surprised they had Lyra kick out of the Bret’s Rope Man Handle Slam. They kept going back and forth until they started jockeying for position on pin attempts. Becky got one over on Lyra with a handful of tights to win the title in 15:20. A step up from their first match, and I’d really like to see a third match with some kind of stipulation. Great stuff here. Lyra had to raise Becky’s hand as the winner as part of the stipulation. She did so, but Becky overdid it, having her do it to all four sides and put the title around her waist, so Lyra planted her with a German suplex and hit Nightwing. [****]

Money in the Bank ladder Match: Andrade vs. El Grande Americano vs. LA Knight vs. Penta vs. Seth Rollins vs. Solo Sikoa

I love that WWE figured out how bad tough guy Solo was and has just allowed him to be a goober. He’s so good in that role, which we saw early when he got beaten up by the babyfaces in the match. Early on, a ladder fell right on Andrade’s crotch, and it looked brutal. Someone check on that man. I like the idea that Seth felt like the biggest threat, and people kept doing what they could to cut him off. They’d battle each other in between, obviously, but nothing more. As I’ve said about these ladder matches before, they’re almost always really good, but we’ve seen so many that it’s hard for one to stand out. This was indeed very good, but was another in a long line (the opener was in the same vein). For example, Penta doing a Mexican Destroyer on the ladder should be a sick spot, but it’s one I’ve seen before, and those things lose their luster over time. Anyway, the Solo/Seth stand-off that led to an OTC chant and then a CM Punk chant hammered home that Seth is the biggest star in the match. He’d got a lot of stuff going on. The biggest spot was probably when Americano hit Penta with the plate in his mask, only for Knight to suplex him off a ladder. The crowd ate that up. Seth and Heyman called out Bron and Bronson, who cleaned house. Then, Jacob Fatu and JC Mateo showed up to even the score. Jacob hitting Bronson with a popup Samoan was sick. However, when Solo went to climb and win, Jacob turned on him. I fully expected HHH to wait on that moment as he likes to overcook things, so I’m glad we got the turn here. He destroyed Solo with a uranage through a ladder. With the ring clear, Seth climbed the FIREBALL-branded ladder only for LA Knight to cut him off. The fans fully believed it was Knight’s time, but Seth took him out and then got the briefcase to win in 33:35. Great stuff here, but again, will I remember much outside of Jacob’s turn in a couple of days? [****]

Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso vs. John Cena and Logan Paul

This is a choice for a PPV main event. While I’m still all in on Cody as the guy, and I like Jey Uso, Jey’s title reign hasn’t hit, Logan is not really someone I enjoy, and this Cena retirement tour has been terrible. Like a lot of cases where we have a tag match with no stakes headline a PPV, this felt like a glorified house show match for most of it. The heat segment on Jey took forever, and it really felt like we were just killing time until the Cody hot tag. Thankfully, Cody’s hot tag was a blast. He’s really been firing on all cylinders the past few years. It also worked to have Paul and Cena start arguing. They have big egos and don’t have the connection that Cody and Jey do, so that made sense. Paul had the best spots of the match as he held the drone camera for a move only to take a superplex instead, and then he also had a sweet Asai moonsault through the announce table. With the referee distracted, someone dressed in all black ran in and jumped Cena. He revealed himself to be R-Truth to a huge pop, though he was more serious than usual. Cody then hit Cross Rhodes to win in 24:00. Mostly generic, but it picked up well enough after the hot tag. [**¾]

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

Impossible to give a five-match card with three **** bouts a low score. I enjoyed the in-ring stuff here but the problem with WWE and their PLEs rang true here. It all feels too corporate with the Fireball ladder, the Prime cart, the ads, everywhere, and the millions of commercials. Still, strong show in the ring.