Columnist Rob Pasbani highlights all the crazy moments from the London event this weekend, plus the latest news from AEW, New Japan and the indies.
WWE continued their 2023 streak of delivering on big shows with the conclusion of WWE Money in the Bank. The big matches on the show absolutely delivered and we got good progression in the ongoing Bloodline storyline.
The ending of the match was truly shocking as Roman Reigns was pinned for the first time in three years. The last act of this match was perfectly constructed. A ref got knocked down moments before Jey Uso got the visual pin on Roman, but no ref to count. Solo Sikoa gets in and he and Roman stack up the Usos and fans think that’s all she wrote, but then they kicked out! Eventually, the Usos bested Roman and win with a massive splash off the top rope. It’s safe to assume we’re getting Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso at SummerSlam.
As some smart folks on Twitter pointed out, the ending had a parallel to Jey’s singles match with Roman during the Thunderdome era:
Here’s Roman’s reaction after the match:
The Men’s Money in the Bank match opened the show, and it was an insane car crash of a match. The scariest moment was between Logan Paul and Ricochet:
Logan didn’t come to play:
Damien Priest ultimately left the match victorious, and is now Señor Money in the Bank.
The women’s match was just as exciting, and had some crazy spots, including Zelina Vega’s psycho Code Red on Zoey Stark.
Not to be outdone, IYO SKYE also had a cool ladder spot.
The ending of the match was incredibly clever and I’m very happy that IYO SKYE won:
Cody defeated Dominick Mysterio on the card as well and Gunther retained his Intercontinental Title against Matt Riddle before a returning Drew McIntyre challenged him.
The one other notable moment from the show was the surprise turn by Shayna Bazler on her tag team partner Ronda Rousey:
Rousey allegedly has a “hard out” on her contract, according to Dave Meltzer, likely in the next few months and this is the angle that will write her off the show. Bazler is one of Ronda’s closest friends and ignited Ronda’s interest in pro wrestling, so this is the angle she wants to end this WWE run with. I can see the two facing at Summerslam.
During the post-Money in the Bank press conference, Triple H shot down rumors of trouble with Drew McIntyre. “It’s also a funny thing, the amount of speculation that happens around things,” Triple H said. “I read stuff all the time that’s printed and put out there. ‘Sources say.’ 75% of it is completely off base. If Drew had an issue, it’s news to me. He was out with an injury and getting stuff fixed. While he was out, he had something else to get fixed so we did it, and here he is.”
RIP Darren Drozdov, aka Droz. He was only 54 years old. Droz infamously was paralyzed from the neck down after a bad powerbomb, but maintained positivity for the rest of his life.
Rapper Lil Uzi Vert released a new song, “Nakamura,” which heavily samples the entrance theme for Shinsuke Nakamura. You can listen below.
Kota Ibushi’s first match back in Japan will be for the GLEAT promotion in August 4th.
Natalya was awarded six Guinness Book of World Record plaques for the following achievements:
Most WWE matches (female) – 1,514
Most WWE wins in a career (female) – 663
Most WWE PLE appearances (female) – 75
Most WWE Wrestlemania appearances (female) – 8
Most WWE RAW matches – 174
Most WWE Smackdown matches – 200
Happy 79th birthday to Hall of Famer Terry Funk, looking good!
MJF is continuing his feud with Adam Cole, even on Twitch streams. Here’s video of MJF calling up Cole during one of his livestreams:
Battleground Championship Wrestling held an event at the old ECW Arena this weekend that saw Bully Ray powerbomb Matt Cardona through a flaming table:
New Japan have two big shows on July 3rd and 4th streaming on NJPWWorld.com. View the lineups here.
If you still haven’t seen Forbidden Door, here’s an excellent highlight reel on the best match of the night – Omega vs. Ospreay
Daniel Garcia was recently invited to the cookout by Private Party’s Isiah Kassidy:
Do you enjoy pro wrestling? Knotfest Wrestling has a bi-weekly column filled with wrestling news. Read previous editions of this column here. You can always follow me @robinjection on Instagram and Twitter and @Squaredcirclpit.
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