WWE MONEY IN THE BANK – Predictions
Inglewood, CA, the home of CHAMPIONS such as the Clippers Kawhi Leonard. However, this weekend, there is a different caliber of champion coming to town when WWE runs Money in the Bank out of the Intuit Dome. The yearly pay-per-view that grants a story deus MacGuffin to your favorite wrestler, assuming your favorite wrestler isn’t Solo Sikoa, LA Knight, Penta, Andrade, or El Grande Americano.
Last time, Mike took a commanding, perhaps insurmountable, 3-point lead out of AEW Double or Nothing after going 7-2 on the night (leaving me to go 4-5). Who do we disagree on this time? Who will be in the lead after two events? Who will leave Inglewood as a winner? All we know right now is that the third one won’t be the Clippers.
Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Solo Sikoa vs LA Knight vs Penta vs Andrade vs El Grande Americano vs Seth Rollins
ADAM: Well, I would be a bit of a hypocrite if I didn’t take Rollins after writing that intro. Seems interesting that they went with El Grande Americano instead of Punk, so it makes you wonder what the collision course is going to be between Punk and Rollins (again) in the not-too-distant future. Step one is putting the case in Rollins’ hands and letting him stand out in front of his faction with Hayman holding it for a while.
SETH ROLLINS
MIKE: I’m still salty that Grande Americano won that triple threat and is in this match over CM Punk. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cute ha-ha gimmick. Good for a laugh, but not what people paid to see. Kind of like a comic that gets sent out to do a quick five for a studio audience before they film a sitcom. The smarky part of me thinks his addition to this match is an ego thing by Triple H to prove they can get any silly gimmick over. The logical part of my brain thinks Punk is a solidified main eventer, they can just move into the title picture whenever they want. He doesn’t need to be in this match, plus it avoids him being yet another match with Rollins. Meanwhile, Americano gets the surprise win and gets some more heat on him, along with Gable being an athletic worker who will add to the overall match.
It also means there’s no way either of the Hispanic wrestlers in this match is winning. So we can cross Penta and Andrade off the list. Obviously Rollins is the most expected winner, which makes me really want to make the case for him not winning, but it’s pretty hard. The company seems to have placed the upper mid-card ceiling over LA Knights’ head, and Solo does not look to be on world title trajectory ever since the new bloodline lost to the OG’s. There’s really no other option but to just go chalk on this one.
SETH ROLLINS
Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Alexa Bliss vs Roxanne Perez vs Naomi vs Giulia vs Stephanie Vaquer vs Rhea Ripley
MIKE: This one doesn’t seem as clear-cut to me as the men’s ladder match. Despite an awkwardly booked past few months, Ripley remains among the hottest acts in the company. Does she really need this, though? It’s also a path back to the world title that doesn’t fit her character, in my opinion. Someone who does need it is Alexa Bliss. The company seems to have no clue what to do with her since she returned. I just hope to god they don’t get roped into Wyatt Sicks’ silliness once Bo Dallas is ready to come back from injury. She would be more valuable to the company if she went back to her early WWE roots when she was a heel who was, and I mean this as a compliment, just a total bitch. It’s time to bring back the Goddess of WWE.
ALEXA BLISS
ADAM: Mike has the right if this is the least predictable match on the card. Kind of feels like it’s worth taking a dart throw because there’s a non-zero chance that the way Creative picked the winner was via dart throw. I’ll go with the newcomer getting a rocket push.
ROXANNE PEREZ
Side note, do you think part of Triple H wants to pull off a Women’s hair vs hair match before AEW can?
Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso vs John Cena & Logan Paul
ADAM: Traditional thought would tell you the outcome here is the baby faces winning, hence why it’s a tag match, however…. By gawd, is that Travis Scott’s Music?
JOHN CENA & LOGAN PAUL
MIKE: If Travis Scott shows up hopefully this match is the main event so I can turn the tv off early. The John Cena heel run we wanted for so long has felt bland. It hasn’t felt much different from his decades of babyface work. He gets mixed to opposite reactions that go against what they are trying to do and undercuts the product. The other aspect of bad guy cena that’s consistent with good guy Cena is that his promos are still community theater levels of overacted and unbelievable. Just give the baby faces the win. Cena won’t lose anything by taking the L and Paul is in the match to take the pin.
CODY RHODES & JEY USO
Women’s Intercontinental Title Match: Lyra Valkyria ( c ) vs Becky Lynch
MIKE: They should do a storyline where Valkyria begins to think she is actually a bird. This way the bird wings she wears to the ring wouldn’t look so ridiculous. She could get a beak, make bird noises for promos, and fly on a zip line down to the ring. All joking aside, Valkyria immediately becomes my favorite wrestler if she changes her entrance them to “imma bird motherf*cker”.
They decided to spice up this rematch by adding the stipulation that if Valkyria wins, Becky Lynch can never challenge for the IC title again while Lyra is the champ. However, pet the stipulation, if Lynch wins, Valkyria faces a horrendous punishment. Something that truly makes this match a life-or-death situation. If Becky wins, Lyra has to…raise. Her. HAND!!! This prediction comes down to two possible ideas: Lynch wins to set up a rubber match, or they double down on pushing Valkyrie by having her beat her fellow Irishwomen again. I think we’re headed to an eventual rubber match. Can we also skip to the part where Lynch joins Rollins’ group?
BECKY LYNCH
ADAM: (In an Irish accent) If you can’t be good, add a random stipulation to the match.
I understand that the added stipulations here add stakes, but if they really wanted stakes, they should have made this a hair vs hair match.
BECKY LYNCH
Four matches predicted, two disagreements and one disgruntled Editor-In-Chief of Talent Alone who can’t make up the difference in the competition this PLE.
Be sure to tune in next time when we predict…. some other pay-per-view I’m sure.
