Hello and welcome to Team SLTD’s Money In The Bank predictions today we have @callumowen98 and @MikeJC821 aka The Wrestling Brain and Mouthing Off With Mike JC giving their picks and opinions, and for the first time in close to 18 months there will be a capacity crowd for a WWE PPV for this Sunday night’s Money In The Bank, and what a card we have ahead of us, so let’s not waste any more time and we’ll kick off with the Raw Tag Team Championship match.
Predictions:
TWB – @callumowen98 (The Wrestling Brain)
MO – @MikeJC821 (Mouthing Off with Mike)
Don’t forget you can also listen to the latest SLTD RoundTable Podcast where the team break down our Money in the Bank Predictions. Click Here to Listen NOW!
AJ Styles and Omos (C) vs Viking Raiders
Raw Tag Team Championship
TWB: This one I think is pretty easy to call so I’ll keep it short and sweet, there’s no chance that AJ and Omos drop their titles to Erik and Ivar, I sense we’ll see the champs head into Summerslam to face RKBro.
Winners and still Raw Tag Team Champions – AJ Styles and Omos
MO: I don’t understand why it’s so hard for WWE to book The Viking Raiders as a credible team. Ever since they came up from NXT they’ve been booked as jokes who are obsessed with what Vince McMahon probably thinks is the goofiness of being a Viking and carrying turkey legs around. They are still doing that even with this feud. The Viking Raiders earned this opportunity what feels like forever ago but I believe it was the end of May, and it took them this long to get that title shot.
Then this title shot was originally scheduled for the upcoming episode of Monday Night Raw further proving how much WWE didn’t care about this match and it was only moved to this show because of the unfortunate injury to Bayley who would have been getting her third title opportunity in as many months which was annoying in itself but instead Carmella was awarded a title shot for no reason and the match was switched to Smackdown.
For that reason I feel this should be the pre-show match and the Mysterios/Usos match should be on the main card. Regardless of my opinion of its placement, WWE hasn’t portrayed Erik and Ivar as credible challengers and they certainly aren’t going to give Omos his first loss for this match they don’t care about, so the champs retain.
Winner: AJ Styles & Omos
Rey and Dominik Mysterio (C) vs The Usos
Smackdown Tag Team Championship
TWB: Now personally if I were given the choice, this match should be on the main show rather than the pre-show, with the talent involved and how much of a story there is between the teams it’s almost doing it a disservice putting it on before the PPV starts.
Seeing The Usos dominate Smackdown alongside their cousin Roman Reigns over the course of the last few months has been excellent and it’s been good to see both Jey and Jimmy be elevated to the main event status.
Watching the Mysterio’s wrestle together is a joy, and it seems to me that Dominik is growing with confidence week in week out, and now with fans back I think he’ll continue to flourish.
I think it makes far more sense for The Usos to become champions, they can then stand next to Roman Reigns holding the Tag Titles which will further enhance the dominance within The Bloodline.
Winners and new Smackdown Tag Team Champions – The Usos
MO: Last-minute match added to the pre-show, and I think an argument could be made to switch this to the main card and put the Raw tag title match on the pre-show but more about that later. The Usos and Roman are all on the same page finally, and the story to get them there kind of was a little lacklustre, one week Jimmy Uso was “Nobody’s Bitch” then the week that followed he was seeking Roman’s approval and when Jey got tired of them fighting Jimmy just decided to take Jey’s place for three weeks then Jey just came back with no real explanation and they are just all a team now when they should have been from day one.
The Mysterio’s just came back from injury after being taken out by Roman, and obviously, this is all about revenge for them and I think that will get in the way of their focus to keep the titles and The Usos will be champions once again.
Winner: The Usos
Rhea Ripley (C) vs Charlotte Flair
Raw Women’s Championship
TWB: Following last month’s DQ finish at Hell In A Cell, Rhea Ripley once again defends her title against perhaps her greatest nemesis so far in her career, Charlotte Flair, now contrary to a lot of wrestling fans opinions, I like Charlotte, I think she’s been one of the most consistent wrestlers in the last 6 years and honestly if she beats Rhea on Sunday I genuinely wouldn’t complain.
I’m not sure whether Ripley has hit the ground running yet, there’s a whole lot of confusion at least with me, on whether she’s a face or heel so I don’t know if as a fan we should cheer or boo her against Flair.
I have to go for Charlotte on this one, it’s an unpopular decision but Rhea’s run as champion just hasn’t done it for me, and I think a reset on who she is as a character is needed.
Winner and new Raw Women’s Champion – Charlotte Flair
MO: Man, WWE really knows how to ruin the excitement for anything and everything and this is one of those. This storyline has been really bad. Charlotte is acting like she’s bigger than the title ever since she came back after Mania, so she’s going out of her way to make the thing she claims to be obsessed with winning less important. Then you have Rhea whose basically been willingly acknowledging that she doesn’t believe Charlotte’s crap and trolling her by saying she’s just going copy her to make her feel stupid for doing it.
That’s horrible storytelling when they could have just acknowledged from day one that Rhea couldn’t beat Charlotte in a straight-up match since their first meeting at Wrestlemania and not acknowledging that is just dumb, but they have been doing is not it.
With that said, I think we all expect that Becky will be as soon this coming Monday and that she will be the one to challenge the champion and if that’s the case I don’t think WWE is that brain dead to do another Becky versus Charlotte match and expect us to be okay with it just because Becky is back. We want something new and that has to be Rhea Ripley versus Becky Lynch, just because Becky may be back if her opponent is Charlotte that’s annoying. So for that reason solely because I don’t think WWE is that brain dead I’m picking Rhea Ripley.
Winner: Rhea Ripley
Bobby Lashley (C) vs Kofi Kingston
WWE Championship
TWB: I think this is another easy one to predict, and in fact, it became, even more, easier on Thursday night, when it was reported that Goldberg would be returning for a match at Summerslam against Lashley, so I hate to not talk in-depth about a World Title Match but really there’s nothing to debate, Lashley, retains.
Winner and still WWE Champion – Bobby Lashley
MO: WWE won’t stop doing this thing where the champion has to lose a lot going into their title match because they actually think that if they lose a bunch we will fully believe in the challenger and then get disappointed when the challenger doesn’t win. They think we as fans are that dumb, and that’s the build to this match.
Lashley losing to Xavier is not that big of an upset as they want us to believe because Xavier Woods is a very good wrestler, but when he beats the WWE Champion six days before a championship match and then the champion cuts a good promo about himself getting soft which as mention the promo was good and did it’s job made Lashley more serious about this match because to him he fully expects to beat Kofi as quickly as Brock Lesnar did, and him losing to Xavier makes him weak in his eyes.
I hate this kind of storytelling because it helps nobody. You’re going out of your way to say the champion is made about losing to someone smaller and then the person who beat him got nothing in return for doing so. Kofi, on the other hand, beat Lashley back in June, with help from Drew and still needed to earn a title shot, then when he lost that opportunity he still got a title shot a month later…how does that make any sense. Sure Kofi has done a great job trying to portray that he deserves to be here, but why should I care about Kofi getting a title shot if that’s how he got here? This match will go exactly how we all expect, Lashley retains and we move on.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
Roman Reigns (C) vs Edge
Universal Championship
TWB: As stacked as the men’s MITB is, this is the match I’m most looking forward to, the build of it has been excellent with Edge being one step ahead of Roman and the rest of The Bloodline at all times, and now with The Mysterio’s seemingly being his backup it means that the numbers game won’t be against The Rated R Superstar.
This will mark Roman’s first PPV match as a heel with fans outside of Wrestlemania, so I’m incredibly intrigued what reaction he will get, as he may actually get cheered because the majority of supporters have been crying out for him to be a bad guy and now they’ve got their wish, they might decide that they like him after all.
One man I could see playing into the finish of this is Seth Rollins, now whether or not he has the briefcase (more on that later) it definitely feels that we’re getting him vs Edge at Summerslam, so I’m almost certain that he’ll show up at some point looking to cost Edge.
I think Reigns is the safe bet here, he’s been the best wrestler for WWE during the pandemic era, and his title reign must continue.
Winner and still Universal Champion – Roman Reigns
Post-match: I’m assuming this will main event, I think Rollins will consider cashing in if he has the contract but instead he and Roman will continue to beatdown Edge, this leads to the return of John Cena who can make the save and layout both Reigns and Seth as him and Edge stand tall to end the night and sets up two huge matches for Summerslam.
MO: The build to this match has made absolutely no sense. Roman Reigns came out on Smackdown with Paul Heyman three weeks ago and Heyman is listing everyone Roman beat and says there’s nobody left for Roman to beat. That wasn’t an invitation for Edge to come out, Roman wasn’t looking for Edge, he wasn’t expecting Edge, but according to Edge on screen from his mouth Roman has been ducking him and Roman fears Edge just because Edge used a chair leg as a prop while putting a crossface on Roman at Wrestlemania.
Roman beat both Edge and Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania he pinned both guys at the exact same time, therefore he doesn’t and shouldn’t “fear Edge” because he got pinned. Edge’s entire argument as to why he “deserves” a title shot is 100% not true at all. Edge took a break after Mania, Roman wasn’t ducking him Edge chose to go home for two months. Why wasn’t Roman worried about Edge? Because he already beat him. So none of this has made any sense, and Edge going out of his way to say that he’s “in Roman’s head” is not how mind games work. You’re not “living rent-free in someone’s head by acknowledging that you’re doing so”, there’s no way that Edge could actually believe that’s a thing.
With all that said, there’s absolutely no way Edge is winning here. Nobody wants to see Edge as the champion and I hope that this is his last title shot ever. I don’t need to see an eleven-time world champion hall of famer in the title picture, I’d rather see him in compelling stories against people he’s never faced before with no title in the picture and according to rumours he will be facing Seth at Summerslam and that match absolutely doesn’t need a championship.
Asuka vs Naomi vs Alexa Bliss vs Nikki Ash vs Liv Morgan vs Natalya vs Tamina vs Zelina Vega
Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
TWB: Honestly I don’t know who to pick here, there doesn’t seem to be an outright favourite and it’s even tougher to picture any of these eight becoming champions in the near future. I’m going to be hedging my bets completely and throwing out a curveball, and say none of these competitors will win the match.
So this is what’s going to happen, during the pre-show Liv Morgan will be found injured backstage by Sonya Deville, she then has to scurry around backstage to find another entrant as the Women’s MITB is opening the main show, and after everyone else has made her entrance that’s when we get the return of Becky Lynch, to a monster pop who goes onto the winning the match, as for Liv obviously it’s Sonya who’s revealed as her attacker so that sets up a match between those two at Summerslam, whilst Becky goes after Charlotte or Bianca Belair dependent on what’s happening with Sasha Banks right now.
Women’s Money in the Bank Contract Winner – Becky Lynch
Also as a side note imagine the start of the PPV we see the return of Becky and close it with the return of John Cena
MO: First things first, why are the tag team champions in this match? There’s no reason why Natalya or Tamina should be in this match, those spots could have gone to literally anyone else. You just called up three new women to the Smackdown roster and you give these last two spots Natalya and Tamina. No offence to them as people Natalya in particular is a great worker but they should be defending their tag titles not in this match that they have absolutely no chance of winning.
Zelina just came back and unless there are plans for her to get a push I don’t see her winning. Asuka won it last year. As far as I can tell there are no plans for her to win again. Naomi is in there for spots and we all know that so I don’t think there’s any chance of her winning one bit. So that brings us to the other three Alexa Bliss, Nikki A.S.H., and Liv Morgan. These three to me have the best chance of winning. It really comes down to who you want to take the title off of. If Rhea remains champion for a while I can totally see Nikki or Alexa chasing her after SummerSlam.
Liv Morgan on the other hand needs this win probably more than anyone on the entire roster. We all know how good she is and management has finally seen the talent she’s had and the hard work she’s put in to get better and for that reason, I think Liv is going to win and she will hold the case for a pretty long time until the time is right and finally become champion. No need for a failed cash in down the line I think we’ve had enough of those, for now, use this to get someone new like Liv over.
Ricochet vs Riddle vs John Morrison vs Drew McIntyre vs Big E vs Kevin Owens vs King Nakamura vs Seth Rollins
Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
TWB: This is going to be an absolute banger, honestly with the competitors, we’ve got this may be the best Money In The Bank match ever, and compared to the women’s one there are 3/4 people I could picture winning the briefcase and benefiting from it.
I look at someone like John Morrison and think how perfect would the briefcase of been for you 10 or so years ago, when he was being positioned as a babyface, I think that time has now passed but we’re going to get some insane spots out of him.
Another guy we’re going to get some crazy spots out of is Ricochet, honestly, I don’t think we’ve seen the best out of him on the main roster at least, but this is definitely his time to shine and I think he’ll very well be the MVP of the match.
Riddle has been one of the most entertaining superstars in the past year or so especially since moving to Raw, but it’s not all comedy with ‘The Original Bro’ he can pretty much step into the ring with anyone and have a memorable match with, I can’t see him winning on Sunday, for now, though his role is being half of RKBro who as previously mentioned I can see feuding off against AJ and Omos in the very near future.
Because of the stipulation of Drew McIntyre not being able to face Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship again, I don’t see why Drew should win the briefcase on Sunday night, I think it’s time for him to be out of the main event picture for now and have his rivalry with Jinder Mahal before heading over to Smackdown in a few months.
Big E is definitely someone I can picture holding the briefcase, it’ll elevate him to a new level which is where he should be at, and considering right now on Raw we’ve got the WWE Champion feuding with his former New Day stablemates it’ll be an easy transition and storyline for him to win on Sunday before cashing in on Lashley.
King Nakamura is one I can completely rule out, I feel his position is always going to be an upper mid-card, and right now with the whole King gimmick, he doesn’t need a briefcase to go alongside it.
Kevin Owens is my second favourite, it feels he’s been in the background for the majority of the year so far, so a win on Sunday would easily push him back up the pecking order. It also feels that he has unfinished business with Roman Reigns so that feud being revisited would be very enjoyable especially with fans returning. The other option with KO would be him moving to NXT and cashing in on Karrion Kross, after being brought in by Samoa Joe which would bring their rivalry full circle.
However my pick for Sunday night’s Men’s Money In The Bank is Seth Rollins, in terms of who the current Universal Champion is and who he’s feuding with, Rollins just makes the most sense, the history with Reigns is so well documented so the thought of Seth lingering around with the briefcase with Reigns knowing first hand what he’s like could make for some really captivating months ahead. The argument will be made I’m sure of Seth not needing it, he’s already an established star but as the saying goes he’s ‘Best For Business’.
Winner – Seth Rollins
MO: It’s been said before but this is the best collection of competitors in a single Money in the Bank match ever. All of these guys I think have a claim to be being the next contender except Drew who shouldn’t even be in the match at all. He had three title matches in a row that he didn’t deserve. He just kept getting title shots to counterbalance the laziness of WWE booking. This spot should go to someone else and it’s not Drew.
Big E was on a roll for a while and earned his way here, Kevin Owens ended his Mania feud with Sami Zayn by winning their Last Man Standing match to get here, Ricochet earned his way in by beating AJ Styles thanks to interference. Shin beat Corbin for like the fifth time to get here. Morrison defeated Randy Orton also via distraction, and Riddle earned his way in by beating Drew in a hell of a match, Drew would win the ‘last chance’ match to get in. Now on paper, there are only two possible winners, those people are Big E or Riddle. Big E because it would be the next big step in his main event push that is inevitably happening down the line, and Riddle because of this storyline with Randy Orton that people speculate might centre around the briefcase down the line and lead to some manipulation by Orton and their team break up.
Morrison and Ricochet are both in there for the exact same reason to bring some athleticism to the match and do some crazy stunts that only they can do with a ladder, would it be nice if either of them won it absolutely but right now it’s just not realistic. Shinsuke is doing the King thing right now and I think he’ll have more to do in the coming weeks hopefully, Kevin Owens is expected to take time to heal up after this match we expected it to happen after Hell in a Cell and that didn’t happen.
As for Drew, he’s stuck in whatever this stupid storyline is with Jinder, and he just doesn’t need to win this because he needs to be out of the title picture for a little and work his way back up whether that’s after a downward spiral or not. As for Seth he absolutely doesn’t need the briefcase he can get in the title picture after his SummerSlam clash with Edge on his own, and it’s time for someone new to have the briefcase.
So after all that I think I’m going to pick Big E, I think there’s more you can do between Riddle and Orton that doesn’t include the briefcase, and Big E is poised for bigger and better things and the briefcase would be the best jumping-off point to get him there.
Winner: Big E
So, that’s all for our Money In The Bank predictions, will we get a Rollins and Lynch double that Callum’s holding out for, will we see Charlotte Flair once again become champion and will we see the return of John Cena, we’ll know sooner rather than later. Feel free to follow us on Twitter @callumowen98 and @MikeJC821 and check out the latest episode of the SLTD Wrestling Roundtable as Adam, Callum and Ty, talk all things about Sunday Night’s PPV but until next time, stay safe, stay well and enjoy Money In The Bank.
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