Well, not exactly a clean night at the office for WWE. The 2024 edition of botch-a-palooza — I mean, Money in the Bank — was an off night on the part of the wrestlers, rather than the booking. When is the last time you could say THAT about a WWE show?
In the ring, a lot didn’t land. A lack of timing, compatibility, creativity, and fluidity even from the most seasoned vets like Sami Zayn and Seth Rollins led to a multitude of bizarre mistakes that many matches couldn’t recover from.
The show wasn’t abysmal, but when guys like Zayn and Rollins are having bad nights, you know something is off and it was throughout the event.
Here are my Brass Ring Ratings for the event and here’s how they work … I call it like I see it. Period.
Drew McIntyre vs. Chad Gable vs. Jey Uso vs. LA Knight vs. Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes - Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
A good opener and a match that whet the appetite for the women’s ladder match to steal the show more than it did stand out as it’s own signature match on the card. Each guy had their moments and Carmelo Hayes served as a crash test dummy for the biggest bumps, but in the end it was a two man race between Jey Uso and Drew McIntyre. McIntyre getting the nod was the right call. He needed the MITB gimmick to further his story with Punk and with The Bloodline material sizzling on Smackdown, Jey will be involved in big business soon enough.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 3/4
Sami Zayn vs. Bron Breakker - WWE Intercontinental Championship
This was chalk full of surprises. Some good, some not so good. Zayn winning as clean as he did and with one finisher was a shock. If anyone on the roster was worthy of some protection, it was Bron Breakker. His gimmick is rooted in dominance, so losing so easily and so cleanly is going to hurt that perception. What comes next for him in the immediate future is important and needs to be big. As for Zayn, this match was about him and his legacy as Intercontinental Champion. Didn’t see that coming.
The match itself was extremely disappointing. It stalled out in second gear and the selling was the reason why. It’s hard to believe that it was hard to buy the pain Zayn was in, but I didn’t. He tried, but it didn’t connect with what we were actually watching. I blame Breakker for that. There has to be depth to selling your own offense and he appeared to be going through the motions rather than using body language and facial expressions to generate crowd investment in Zayn thanks to his powerful move set. It didn’t click.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO
John Cena Announcing his retirement
This was good business. Plain and simple. Cena on a retirement tour is going to generate interest in the product and sell tickets around the world. Cena was Cena out there and I can take or leave it without much issue. That aside, this was smart.
Damian Priest vs. Seth Rollins - WWE World Heavyweight Championship
What a mess. Priest had a bad night and Rollins wasn’t himself. That’s a recipe for disaster as it is. Compounding those major issues was a possible legit injury, which led to a referee mistake. Plus, the overall finish you could see coming from a mile away. Yikes.
Let’s tackle Seth first. Was he fully ready to come back? It didn’t look like it. Rollins was slow and plodding throughout and at times didn’t seem interested in the match. Same thing with Priest. He had the ref issue, but was bad even before that thanks to missing moves and overall lack of energy.
As for the ref stuff, that mistake can’t happen. Referees are supposed to always count the three in that situation, regardless of what the finish is. It’s impossible for the match to come back from an error like that, because the crowd is instantly taken out of whatever moment is brewing. I don't know if Priest was hurt or just missed the count, but either way, the ref had to count three and it didn’t.
Now, the Drew McIntyre MITB cash-in was predictable, but messy due to what happened with Priest in the match. The announce team didn’t seem to know for sure whether or not Drew was in a singles match or a triple threat. It didn’t matter in the end, but that confusion added to the chaos of everything. CM Punk costing Drew was just as obvious as the cash-in. The story is Punk torturing McIntyre and to do that successfully, I think you need repetitious instances like Punk costing McIntyre the title again here. For better or worse, it fit the story perfectly.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - O 1/4
Tiffany Stratton vs. Chelsea Green vs. Naomi vs. Zoey Stark vs. Iyo Sky vs. Lyra Valkyria - Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Whoa. This was messy at the beginning, but the messiness ended up adding drama to the latter parts of the match due to the danger involved. Zoey Stark played the Carmelo Hayes role in this and was the crash test dummy. She took multiple big bumps — one that was memorable for how cool it was and the other because of how big of a botch it was. Both looked like they hurt. Tiffany Stratton winning the match and now holding the briefcase was the only way to go with this. It’s a perfect gimmick for her to run with throughout the next year.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO
Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, & Kevin Owens vs. Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, & Tama Tonga
With nothing at stake, this was an interesting call as the show’s main event. Sikoa getting the win over Cody solidifies a claim to a title shot, which he’ll presumably get at Summerslam. The action was good in this and Jacob Fatu was stellar. He put in a stand out performance and is going to be a force in whatever is on the horizon with The New Bloodline. Outside of it being a totally fine match and the match of the night, that’s all it was, which is why it holding down the main event was weird.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO
What did you think of Money in the Bank 2024? Let us know in the comments!
Subscribe to the Brass Ring Media YouTube channel HERE.
Become a Brass Ring Media member HERE.