wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s WWE Money In The Bank 2022 Review
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...WWE Money in the Bank 2022
July 2nd, 2022 | MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
Couldn’t start this show on time and of course, Peacock doesn’t allow you to start an event over so I was going to wait until it finished to start it. However, Peacock STILL didn’t upload the replay until after I went to bed. What a joke of a streaming service.
Money in The Bank Match: Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka vs. Becky Lynch vs. Lacey Evans vs. Liv Morgan vs. Raquel Rodriguez vs. Shotzi
The women’s MITB matches have been hit or miss. I’d rank them like this: 2018 (****), 2019 (***¾), 2017 (***½), 2021 (**¾), and 2017 Smackdown episode (**¾). This match is mostly loaded though so we’ll see how it goes. In fact, the only two people in this match I don’t really care for are Raquel and Evans. I liked that everyone went outside to start, leaving the Asuka/Becky rivalry to get renewed inside. I could watch them wrestle all day. Pretty much everyone kind of brought something different to the table from Raquel’s power to Shotzi’s risk-taking. There’s no getting around it but some spots in this match just didn’t work. They looked sloppy, were botched, or just didn’t come off well. Evans was the first one to really get close to the briefcase but Raquel interrupted and then Liv flipped over Raquel into a huge sunset flip bomb on Evans. That was likely the biggest spot in the match. The Asuka/Raquel exchanges were a bit of a mess but had loads of potential and a program with them could work. Becky had things wide open for a win but Liv interrupted and climbed a ladder next to her. Liv nailed the most important spot of the match, stopping herself from falling outside with her foot on the rope, knocking Becky down, and pulling down the briefcase at the 16:29 mark. That was really good, but some moments held it back from being great. All I know at the end though is that Liv won and that’s such a feel-good moment because she has deserved this for a while. She is constantly getting better, showing off new moves, and is over. [***½]
WWE United States Championship: Theory [c] vs. Bobby Lashley
I’ve been told over and over not to discuss my feelings on Will Ospreay’s outside of the ring actions so I will do the same with Theory and not bring it up. Lashley had the crowd firmly in his corner. He ran Theory over at every turn early, so the champ regrouped outside and started using his agility to turn the tide a little bit. Lashley got posted and that gave Theory the opening to take control. That segment was kind of dull but Lashley rallying by throwing him around was a fair bit of fun. The press slam spot was sick and got one of the best reactions of the night. Theory hitting a Spear of his own was pretty cool too. Lashley avoided A-Town Down and won with the Hurt Lock in 11:00. I thought that was really good. Lashley has continued to shine as a face, Theory was a good heel, and they had added some good late drama here. [***¼]
Liv Morgan was interviewed about winning and she obviously doesn’t know who she’s cashing in on. She only gets one opportunity and she won’t waste it. WrestleMania sounds good but she wants to celebrate for now.
WWE Raw Women’s Championship: Bianca Belair [c] vs. Carmella
In a lot of ways, Carmella has become the female equivalent of The Miz. She nails her character and has racked up accomplishments, fans don’t give her enough credit for how good she is, and she can be inserted into almost any angle and make it work. Meanwhile, Bianca is so good that I’d have her be the one to beat Roman Reigns. Carmella played into the character early, stopping to make sure she looked good. Bianca popped up immediately on a shoulder block and shoved her, proving this is a heated fight. Bianca still didn’t take her totally seriously, stopping to taunt and flip around a lot. Carmella only got a relatively short time to get her offense in as this kind of felt like it was only a little bit above a squash, which is fine. Bianca’s stalling vertical suplex is the best ever. Carmella talked trash, ate a shot, and fell to the KOD in 7:11. Fine for what it was. [**¼]
And here’s where the problem lies. After the match, Carmella jumped Bianca to apparently continue the feud. This was mostly one-sided and there’s no need for it to keep going. Especially with SummerSlamahead as Bianca should work a healthy Rhea or someone different like Asuka at such a big show.
WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship: The Usos [c] vs. The Street Profits
Holy shit, the CGI Usos are TERRIFYING. The Profits went through the crowd during their entrance. The teams started with some solo interactions, playing into the build to the match where they had some singles bouts. Leave it to WWE to build a tag match with individual singles outings. Dawkins became the face in peril which isn’t a role he typically finds himself in. Montez takes the heat and he does the hot tag, so I liked this role reversal. It helped make the Usos look like a genius tandem. Montez got the tag but had his hot run cut off by a superkick, making the whole thing even more logical. Cutting off the traditional tag formula just to build back to it isn’t seen often and I dug it here. This section took a while but the tag to Dawkins led to a sweet hot tag. The shoulder block into the back suplex was a great, unique spot. The Doomsday Blockbuster near fall was one of the best of the year. Montez’s somersault outside was also sick and really helped amp this match up down the stretch. The Usos survived another close call on a frog splash and won soon after with 1D in 23:01. One of the best tag matches of the year, regardless of promotion, and certainly tops for WWE. I loved how they used tag formula but with a variation on it that made it feel different. [****½]
Post-match, it looked like Ford’s shoulder was up on the pin. See, unlike Carmella/Bianca, this is fine to continue and run it back at SummerSlam.
A vignette aired that many feel is related to Bray Wyatt but a closer look on Twitter suggests Edge.
WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship: Ronda Rousey [c] vs. Natalya
The rare case of a build in WWE being better than expected because Natalya has been shockingly funny in how she mocks Ronda. Ronda’s second run has been so terrible. Part of it is booking her as a face when she was much better suited to a heel at the end of her first run. The biggest issue with Natalya getting PPV title shots is that you know she isn’t going to win 9 times out of 10. Or 99 out of 100. This had just as little drama as Carmella/Bianca earlier but with less interesting personalities. Despite these women being friends in real life, part of this felt like it was two people who didn’t know each other. There was no chemistry, things didn’t click, and the crowd was dead for most of it. The highlight was Ronda’s Sharpshooter, which she did with Shawn Michaels taunt pose. They went into a series of submission counters before Ronda won with an arm breaker in 12:33. That was pretty lame and didn’t click at all. [*¾]
The most important thing to come from that match was that Ronda banged up her knee and was weakened. That triggered something for the crowd to actually react to.
WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship: Ronda Rousey [c] vs. Liv Morgan
Liv ran right into an Ankle lock that scared the fans because she’s exactly the kind of wrestler WWE would have lose in this situation. However, she managed to kick free and roll Ronda to up to win the title in 0:27. [NR]
What a goddamn feel-good moment. Liv deserves this and I’m so happy for her. The outpouring of excitement and praise from wrestlers around the world only adds to how special this was. The entire show is worth it just for that moment.
They ran a video to hype the Roman/Brock SummerSlam match. It’s wild that they keep doing this when they’ve literally only ever had one good match and it was the first.
Money in the Bank Match: Drew McIntyre vs. Madcap Moss vs. Omos vs. Riddle vs. Sami Zayn vs. Seth Rollins vs. Sheamus vs. Theory
Yes, at the last minute, Adam Pearce added Theory to the match. I love the idea of Sami as an honorary Bloodline member. Theory has go away heat with a lot of fans so they didn’t like the addition. A lot of this match was the typical stuff you expect from this gimmick. Big spots, guys moving in and out, and close calls with the briefcase. Highlights included everyone piling ladders on top of Omos, Sami taking a powerbomb onto a ladder, Riddle doing Orton spots, and Sami just being smarter than everyone to gain an upper hand. Omos got back in the fight only for everyone to work together on a team-up powerbomb through the announce table. Smart way to get him out of the action. Of note, Theory didn’t help in this spot. Butch ran in to stop Drew from winning. Man, they could do so much with Dunne AS Dunne, including bangers with Drew and having him in this kind of match. In the end, Theory snuck in and knocked Riddle off the ladder (who was coming off of hitting a super RKO) and won in 25:56. Better than the women’s one as it was cleaner though the ladies had a few better ideas. Regardless, about what I expect from this match. [***¾]
