WWE Money In The Bank 2026 Review
Money In The Bank is one of the most exciting nights (or afternoons, in my case) on the entire WWE calendar, and that night has arrived once again.
The Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana is the host for the festivities this year. As of ten minutes before the pay-per-view began, WrestleTix is reporting that 328 tickets were still available to purchase, with an overall setup that would hold 13,263 people. So, it probably won’t be a 100% legit sellout, but it’ll be close enough that WWE will probably refer to it as one during the broadcast.
There are five matches on the card, with two titles on the line, two Money In The Bank Ladder Matches, and a kaiju grudge match between Oba Femi and Bronson Reed.
Let’s have some fun.
Roman Reigns vs LA Knight – World Heavyweight Title Match
The crowd was loud for the usual “watch these various wrestlers arriving at the building earlier” montage, but they exploded for the entrance of LA Knight. My goodness. They popped big for Roman, too, but that reaction for the challenger was something else.
Is this the final opportunity for LA Knight to become a World Champion in WWE? He’s 0-4 in World Title matches in his WWE career, to go with being 0-2 in NXT Title matches. A month from now, he’ll be celebrating his 44th birthday, and even though that age doesn’t mean anything like it used to in the wrestling business, he’s certainly closer to the end of his career than he is to the beginning of it.
There are some clear boos when Roman is on offense or when he plays to the crowd. It’s still a strong face reaction overall, but there’s a very noticeable chunk of the crowd that wants LA Knight to finally reach the top of the mountain.
Right when I say that, Knight drops Roman with a clothesline and plays to the crowd, and there is a teeny, tiny amount of boos that can be heard. If I had to put numbers on it, I’d say Knight’s crowd reaction is 95% face, while Roman’s is anywhere between 60-75% face. Either way, the crowd is loud and raucous, and that’s what matters most.
Somewhere, Conrad Thompson is crying about Roman Reigns again, as the pace of the match is slow. We know what Roman is bringing to the table with his matches, but it’s not like LA Knight is going to be mistaken for 1996 Rey Mysterio Jr. himself.
There’s a knot forming on the temple of Mr. Knight. There’s also a very small amount of blood coming from it. I believe it happened when he was sent into the ring post a minute ago.
“13,000 just came out of their seat!” – Michael Cole, after LA Knight hit a big superplex. As he says it, the shot switches to the hard camera, where you can literally count about a dozen people standing up. Never change, pro wrestling.
Our first “this is awesome” chant is heard after Knight kicks out of a Uranage. You know what? This has been awesome so far. Lots of back-and-forth action, and the red hot crowd has been excited for all of it. I’ll say it for the millionth time… the thoughts and opinions of people like Conrad Thompson don’t matter at all when live crowds all over the world still react for Roman Reigns and his matches the way they do. That’s why he gets pushed the way he does.
Roman goes for a Spear, but it is countered by a BFT for a 2.99999 count. The crowd REALLY bought that as the finish. There are shocked faces everywhere the camera looks. On commentary, it is mentioned that nobody has ever kicked out of BFT. I don’t know if that’s true, but wow, what a moment that was.
Roman counters Knight and hits a Spear… for a 2.99999 count! Once again, the crowd REALLY bought that as the finish of the match. These two are cooking.
Another “this is awesome” chant.
Roman goes to hit a Spear through the collapsible part of the barricade by the timekeeper, but Knight sidesteps him, and Roman crashes through the barricade. Knight capitalizes by powerbombing Roman through the announce table, then throwing Roman into the ring for a big elbow drop… for 2.99999! YET ANOTHER fall that the crowd truly believed was the end of the match.
Roman crotches Knight on the top rope, then drops him with back-to-back Superman Punches, but Knight is shaking his head, constantly fighting back to his feet. Roman hits a big Spear, and that is finally enough to get the win. The champion retains in a banger.
Both men brought a fantastic performance here. That was the best match of LA Knight’s career, and I don’t know if it’s even close. He stepped his game up big time. Props to both men for taking the crowd on a ride. Great, great stuff here. 4.5 Stars
After the match, Roman spots 946 in the crowd. Royce Keys looks like he’s about to direct the group to the ring, but suddenly, Solo Sikoa and The Usos show up behind them. After a few seconds of trash talk, the six men brawl into the concourse of the arena. They’re fighting through multiple places in the arena, and have now made their way out of the building. An SUV shows up, and Jaida Parker is shown as the driver. She has the 946 boys hop in, and they drive off, bringing the segment to an end. Sure seems like a War Games match is being set up.
Lola Vice vs Sol Ruca vs Lash Legend vs Tiffany Stratton vs Jacy Jayne vs Roxanne Perez – Women’s Money In The Bank Ladder Match
These women have a tall task ahead of them if they’re looking to follow the show opener.
The crowd is very reserved for the start of things here.
Tiffany goes for a Swanton from the top of a ladder to her fellow competitors at ringside, but she essentially powerbombed herself, with her head looking to have smacked the ground on her landing. She didn’t get any air at all on the move, and basically went straight down, not giving anyone time to catch her.
She seems to be okay, though. As Jacy Jayne grabs another ladder and sets it up in the ring, Tiffany is the first woman to enter the ring to stop her.
“Is that a leftover from WeeLC?” – Corey Graves, as Roxanne grabs a stepladder to use as a weapon. Michael Cole, either not paying attention or being a true moron, responds with “Yeah, that or Hornswoggle!”
Roxanne goes to set up a ladder, and the crowd pops for it. Interesting. She doesn’t get far, though, and is thwarted by Lash.
A “Roxy” chant breaks out. The crowd is solidly behind the heel here.
Spot. Another spot. Spot. A different spot. Spot. Another spot. Spot. Yet another spot. That has been the story of the first few minutes of this one.
A “this is awesome” chant breaks out, which is weird, because the crowd has been pretty quiet for most of what has happened so far.
With a ladder set up as a bridge between the ring apron and the announce table, Sol just hit a Frog Splash from the top of the ring post, putting Lash through the table. A “holy shit” chant breaks out. That was a pretty looking spot. Well, not for Lash, but you get the point.
After carnage galore, Roxanne is the only woman left in the ring, and she eyes the ladder to a big pop. Tiffany shows up and stops her to boos. After Roxanne takes Tiffany out with Pop Rox, the crowd goes nuts as Roxanne climbs the ladder, only for Sol Ruca to stop her.
Sol Snatcher from damn near the top of the ladder takes Roxanne out!
After some more wild offense, Tiffany and Lash are fighting at the top of the ladder in the ring. Tiffany uses the briefcase as a weapon, bouncing it off of Lash’s skull a few times, sending Lash crashing to the mat. That leaves Tiffany to grab the briefcase, becoming a two-time Money In The Bank winner. The story there is interesting, with Tiffany’s on-screen bestie, Chelsea Green, currently holding the WWE Women’s Title. As much as I would’ve liked to see Roxanne win this, Tiffany’s win makes
The match itself was fun. Not something that’s going to be considered a classic or anything, but all six women worked hard and did their job to make this an entertaining match from start to finish. 3.5 Stars
Oba Femi vs Bronson Reed
In another episode of one of my favorite shows, Wrestling Fans Have No Rhythm, we get the side-by-side shot of Oba making his entrance with a montage of fans attempting to do his strut, and almost all of them look horrible doing it. It’s such an easy thing to do, but… say it with me… Wrestling Fans Have No Rhythm, and they make it look like an impossible task.
Oba with a release vertical suplex to Bronson, literally shot-putting Bronson several feet across the ring. Big Bronson lands on his ass, and that couldn’t have felt very good. Mighty impressive spot from The Ruler there, though.
Speaking of impressive spots, Bronson just did a picture perfect suicide dive, hurling himself between the top and middle ropes, crashing into Oba at ringside.
These two are just dropping bombs on each other. Oba will hit Bronson with heavy artillery, but Bronson will respond with some of his own, only for Oba to hit back with more of his own, and so on. That’s what this match should be.
Austin Theory and Maxxine Dupri appear at ringside. With the distraction, Logan Paul tries to run in on the other side of the ring with a steel chair, but the referee sees him. He ejects Logan, and in THAT distraction, Maxxine hands brass knuckles to Bronson, who hits Oba with them twice and then lands a Tsunami… for a 2.999 count! Wow.
Fall From Grace! Oba picks up the win. That was a lot of fun. It was everything it should’ve been, and everything it needed to be. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the match ended in disqualification or something, in an attempt to protect Bronson, but Oba getting the win makes sense. He’s clearly the “next big thing” in WWE, and he can’t be taking losses via pin right now. 3.5 Stars
Stephanie Vaquer vs Liv Morgan vs Becky Lynch – Triple Threat Match for the Women’s World Title
Will we see Tiffany Stratton make her presence known here? It would follow suit for what WWE likes to do with their women’s Money In The Bank winners. We’ve seen three different women cash in later in the same show that they won the briefcase, with another woman cashing in the following night. That means half of the women who have won Money In The Bank didn’t wait a full 24 hours to cash in. We’ll see, I guess.
The crowd is very back-and-forth tonight. Red hot for the opener, quiet for the next match, hot again for the next match, and now they’re back to being quiet for this one. I suppose that bodes well for the main event.
There are no disqualifications in Triple Threat matches, so Becky goes to grab a table, waking the crowd up for the first time since this match began.
We’re had multiple awkward moments in this one. Someone will either be late to arrive for a spot, or two of them will seem to almost forget what the next spot will be… each time, it leads to two (and sometimes all three) women kind of just standing around. That’s especially disappointing with all three of these women being solid veteran performers.
Stephanie almost missed Vaquer Inferno entirely just now. She’s usually picture perfect with that move, but she barely touched Liv on that landing. This match just isn’t working for me. It doesn’t seem to be working for the crowd, either. They’ve been really quiet except for the teased table spot, and also chanting multiple times that they wanted tables.
Stephanie sends Becky “through” a table (more just having her land on the table), and then she turns around to take ObLIVion, and Liv wins her title back. That was probably the most boring of all the possible outcomes. Sigh. 2.5 Stars, because I’m in a good mood, and I feel like being nice. That just wasn’t a great performance from any of them. No sign of Tiffany Stratton, by the way. That adds to the Chelsea Green intrigue, I guess. Unfortunately, WWE could’ve had an even better story to tell, though. If they were going to give the title back to Liv here, having Roxanne win Money In The Bank would’ve been a great idea.
CM Punk vs Kevin Owens vs Je’Von Evans vs Penta vs Trick Williams vs Bron Breakker – Men’s Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Main event time.
Strike that.
It’s “fucking clobbering time,” according to CM Punk, who said just that during his entrance. My bad.
I gotta say… I’m a little concerned for Punk’s health here. He’s not a young guy anymore, and he has had a pretty good amount of injuries over the last several years… injuries obtained by doing things a lot less strenuous than a Ladder Match, by the way. This isn’t the 30-year-old Punk that was winning back-to-back Money In The Bank briefcases nearly two full decades ago. Hopefully, he isn’t thinking of doing anything stupid here.
Say whatever you want about Lil Yachty, but not only does he clearly love pro wrestling, but he is dedicated to this role as Trick’s pal. He isn’t just showing up once or twice. Instead, he is a regular performer on WWE programming, often getting physical in the process. Whether you like him or not, he’s doing a really good job in this role.
The start of the match sees a slower pace than the early stages of the women’s MITB match from earlier. I would assume they’re saving up and building to the wild times.
The crowd hasn’t been as loud as I expected them to be. Perhaps it’s because they’re tired, but perhaps it’s because they thought this would be balls-to-the-wall from the very start, which it hasn’t been.
I think WWE needs to tone down the sensitivity of the ring mics. In this match alone, I’ve been able to hear wrestlers calling spots on a few occasions, and it happened a handful of times in the earlier matches, too. As I type that, I just heard Penta call back-to-back things with Punk. Come on, man.
Bron with a NASTY Spear to Je’Von at ringside, hitting him from the side and sending him crashing up against the barricade. The medical team is out to tend to Je’Von after that. Gnarly looking spot.
A stretcher has been brought out for Je’Von, but he’s fighting it. He wants to continue on, but he eventually gets strapped to the backboard and wheeled out.
Cameras cut backstage as Je’Von is loaded into an ambulance and driven out of the arena. The crowd seems to have had the wind taken out of its sails with Je’Von being taken out of the match.
KO hits Yachty with a Stunner after Yachty tried to climb the ladder himself to win for Trick. See? Yachty doesn’t have to appear as often as he does, getting physical as often as he does. He’s doing it solely for the love of the game.
With everyone down and out, an ambulance not only pulls back into the building, but drives right up to the ring, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin style. Je’Von Evans has committed all sorts of felonies to hijack the ambulance, and he gets out of the vehicle, taking an immediate beating to Breakker.
Je’Von takes everyone out with high spot after high spot, and the crowd wakes up for it. It doesn’t go anywhere, though, as Je’Von took multiple minutes to set a gigantic ladder up, and by the time he started climbing, Bron was back in the ring to stop him.
In a terribly convoluted and contrived spot, Je’Von climbs the giant ladder, but he’s next to the ropes, nowhere near the briefcase. He tries to grab the briefcase for some reason, but Bron tips the ladder over, and Je’Von lands on top of the ambulance, crashing through the roof. Yes, it was a cool looking spot, but it made Je’Von look like a complete moron. That wasn’t necessary.
Mexican Destroyer onto a bridged ladder, taking Bron out! Penta climbs to the top of the giant ladder, and he grabs the briefcase, winning the match to a good pop.
You’re going to get some varying opinions on this match. There wasn’t as much of a focus on high spots from the top of ladders or onto ladders, like there usually is in matches like this. The men involved here with very physical without the usage of ladders for big chunks of it, saving the ladder spots for big moments. That’s going to upset some people that wanted car accident after car accident. It’s also going to make some people happy, because it’s something different.
Personally, I’m in the latter (lol) group. The crowd wasn’t a huge fan of everything, but I enjoyed the break from the usual format that we always get in Ladder Matches. It could’ve been paced a bit faster, sure, but I still enjoyed it a lot. 3.75 Stars
Overall, this was a pretty good night of action for WWE. The “worst” match of the show was something I still gave an “average” grade to, so it’s hard to complain too much about what just went down. There was definitely enough to get fans excited, no matter what you’re into.
Thank you for reading.
