WWE Money in the Bank 2025

WWE Money in the Bank 2025

Los Angeles, CA - June 2025

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, the WWE Universal Champion was John Cena, the World Heavyweight Champion was Jey Uso, the RAW Women's Champion was IYO SKY, the SmackDown Women's Champion was Tiffany Stratton, the US Champion was Jacob Fatu, the Intercontinental Champion was Dom Mysterio, the Women's US Champion was Zelina Vega, the Women's Intercontinental Champion was Lyra Valkyria, The Street Profits held the WWE Tag Team Championships, the New Day were the World Tag Team Champions, and Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez were the Women's Tag Team Champions. 

The Women's Money In The Bank match opened the show - Guilia vs. Roxanne Perez vs. Naomi vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Stephanie Vaquer - in the annual multi-person ladder match. Ripley came in as the favorite, but they made a big deal out of this being her first ladder match (which is kinda crazy). I liked the visual of the 3 veterans standing across the ring from the three relative newcomers, though its worth noting that Vaquer is only one year older than Bliss and Rhea Ripley was the 2nd youngest woman in the match. There were some good moments, but also some clumsy ones, and the amount of cooperation was a little excessive at times. I'm all for matches like these having cool, explicitly-planned and coordinated spots, but the focus of the combatants should always be on winning the match (for example, the "stereo" Code Reds on the ladders was a great visual but also essentially took both Bliss and Perez out just as much as their opponents). There was also a brief moment of unfortunate calamity when Perez and Guilia attempted to squash Ripley between the legs of the ladder and the darn thing wouldn't close, forcing Ripley to lie there, selling, instead of rolling out or fighting back. The crowd was into things, but chanted for tables at one point, which was an unfortunate distraction. I also did not like the very obvious change in camera work as Naomi made her ascent. At first, I thought it was signaling for the arrival of Jade Cargill to cost her the briefcase - I don't watch SmackDown regularly, but has that storyline been dropped or something? - but it ended up being the set-up for her victory. In a match with quite a bit of telegraphing going on, the production team shouldn't be getting in on the action. Vaquer, Giuilia, and Perez all showed the future of the division is strong, but I didn't necessarily see any of them have a "star-making" turn the way Tiffany Stratton did last year. In fact, it may have been Alexa Bliss who stood out most as a talent that is over with the crowd but inexplicably directionless considering how many more good years she probably has and how selfless she has been as a performer. (3/5)

Next up - Dominik Mysterio vs. Octagon Jr. for Mysterio's Intercontinental Championship was next. Mysterio's current anti-lucha thing is too close to what Gable is doing for me. This was a decent 5-minute match, but nothing special, more like something you'd get on TV rather than a fully built-up PPV-worthy match. This also showed, to me, that Mysterio still has a bit of a ways to go before he can really be considered a reliable upper midcarder without a fully-established, experienced opponent up against him to keep the crowd fully engaged for the duration of anything longer than this. In front of a less enthusiastic audience, I'm not sure this match would've been received as warmly. Too short to be offensive, but not long enough to work as anything but "filler." Even filler can be fun and inventive, though, and this wasn't. (2/5)

The Intercontinental Championship was on the line next as Becky Lynch, sporting some killer Sabu-inspired ring attire, went up against Lyra Valkyria. I liked the bulk of this match more than their previous outing and thought Valkyria was especially good here with all of her offense looking crisp and impactful. There was less emphasis on submissions and more "heat" to this match and Lynch did an excellent job of making Valkyria look like she had her number for most of it. Unfortunately, after the ass-kicking that Lynch withstood, we got a very underwhelming, poorly-produced finish in which Lynch, according to Michael Cole, pulled Valkyria's tights, a cheap heel tactic that needs to be seen by the audience to register properly. Like their Backlash match, this was just a hair short from being "must see" but more because of the poor production choice for the finish than anything else. (3.5/5)

The Men's Money in the Bank was next - Seth Rollins vs. Andrade vs. Penta Jr. vs. Chad "El Grande Americano" Gable vs. LA Knight vs. Solo Sikoa. LA Knight got the biggest entrance pop, but Penta was not far behind. Like the opening match, there were some noticeable gaffes caused by the wrestlers as well as the production crew. LA Knight didn't get in the right position for the big finish, forcing to Seth to clearly direct him to re-position for the Curb Stomp. Andrade slipped on the ropes when he attempted to springboard onto a ladder. The camera crew barely caught Bron Breakker's huge spear to Chad Gable, which, had it been captured properly, would've gotten a mega pop. I also didn't like that, once the run-ins began, the Creed Brothers were no-shows despite being shown backstage earlier in the show. Just sloppy booking/writing there. Penta got lots and lots of time to shine, but everyone getting cleared out by Breakker and Bronson Reed and being forced to sell on the outside for the final 8-12 minutes led to the credibility he earned dissipating and being forgotten. Jacob Fatu's turn on Solo Sikoa also didn't work for me. Again, in order for it to occur, not only did the 5 other competitors in the match need to sell on the outside, but so did Breakker, Bronson Reed, and JC Mateo. On top of that, Fatu's big "I Hate You" moment would've been better if it had been prefaced by Solo doing something heelish, disrespectful, or unthankful towards Fatu. Instead, Solo almost came off as sympathetic. I'll readily admit that, if I were a SmackDown weekly viewer, the story would've probably worked better - but if Michael Cole and company had put one eighth of the energy into getting that storyline over on commentary during the match as he did with the Chad Gable/El Grande Americano story, it would've really, really helped. Oh, and can we get a moratorium on Code Reds/Canadian/Mexican Destroyers? All in all, too sloppy to be considered a great match, the commentary was atrocious and way too focused on Gable, and I disliked that the final act shifted all the focus away from the most over babyfaces in the actual match, but the action was there and some of the spots were really hard-hitting. (3/5)

Main event time - Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso vs. John Cena and Logan Paul. The sloppiness continued here as we got all sorts of telegraphing and slo-mo maneuvers and, to my eye, most of it actually came from Jey and not Cena. The crowd was into this, but like Cena's match against R-Truth at Saturday Night's Main Event and against Orton at Backlash, this felt like another house show match being put on a PPV. The match got better as it wore on, with everyone hitting or at least attempting their big finishers and signature moves, but it was far from everyone's best night. At one point, Paul slipped on the top rope when he attempted his Buckshot Lariat (which actually ended up making it look even better and more realistic that Uso caught him with a superkick). Later on, Uso's spear on Cena looked "off," executed with such little speed and force that it was noticeable. The reason? Because it was really just a set-up for Uso to then, inexplicably and defying all logic, lie on his back, 100% vulnerable for a Logan Paul moonsault that did, in fact, put him through the table. Very convoluted spot. The aforementioned R-Truth returned, with Michael Cole summarizing that Truth and the WWE could not reach a deal on a new contract, R-Truth "left the WWE," but that the WWE Universe had protested so loudly that they demanded his return. Hmmm...that's one way to look at it, Mike. A more accurate description would be that R-Truth's contract was not renewed, they effectively wrote him off TV, but needed to negotiate a return because he was not only beloved by fans but also one of the most popular guys in the locker room and the WWE looked like assholes for not doing right by him. Anyway, it was a nice, feel-good ending, but still a weird one, positioning Killings into a main event role that nobody was really asking for and one that is a somewhat awkward fit (that also overshadows the fact that the "big return" we're supposed to care about is Cody's a few weeks ago). (2/5)

One of the "lesser" WWE PLEs in quite awhile, WWE Money in the Bank 2025's main event and TV-caliber Intercontinental Championship matches were sub-par and forgettable save for the return of Ron Killings. Both ladder matches were good but not great. The only match worth seeking out was the Lynch/Valkyria title bout, a match that was so good it almost makes me think the company needs a 3rd and 4th women's singles championship (I say "almost" because, truthfully, I still think any company with 8 singles championships, male or female, could stand to combine a couple). With a Kwang Rating of 2.70-out-of-5, I'd put this one in the category of...

FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand