Steven Conway will update this guide with the latest information all the way up until the start of Money in the Bank.
When and where
Date: Saturday, July 2, 2022,
Time: 8 pm EST
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena
The Card
RAW Women’s Title Match: Bianca Belair (c) Vs. Carmella
SmackDown Women’s Title Match: Ronda Rousey (c) Vs. Natalya
Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, with Seth Rollins, Riddle, Sheamus, Omos, Sami Zayn and Drew McIntyre.
Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, with Becky Lynch, Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, Alexa Bliss, Shotzi, Asuka and Lacey Evans.
U.S. Title Match: Theory (c) Vs. Bobby Lashley
Undisputed Tag Team Title Match: The Usos (c) Vs. Street Profits
Supplemental content
Gunther’s Intercontinental title reigns should mark a change in WWE’s philosophy toward the title, and why Bobby Lashley should win the U.S. title. Read more here.
Hell in a Cell was headlined by a match that will talked about for years to come. Read more here.
How we got here
Women’s Title Matches
WWE did not bother with much in the way of angles for these matches. They threw together multi-person matches and said the winner would get the title shots. Rhea Ripley been getting a renewed push as a heel since joining the Judgement Day faction. She won a four-way match to get the shot, but on the June 20th episode of RAW, Belair announced Ripley wouldn’t be medically cleared to wrestle. A five-way match was held to name a new challenger.
The title match suffered one of the biggest drops in quality possible as Carmella won the five-way. Instead of Belair against Ripley, which was likely to be very good, Belair will have to work harder than ever to have an average match with Carmella.
Natalya won a six-person match on June 3 to get the shot at Rousey. Natalya has worked with Rousey a lot behind the scenes. She presents a good challenger in she’s likely to have a good match with Rousey while putting over the champion in a strong way.
Money in the Bank Matches
Early promos indicated these matches would be for a shot at WrestleMania, but that idea was dropped along with the original football stadium venue for this event. Instead, we are back to the stipulation that whoever captures the briefcase can cash it in anytime for an immediate title shot.
There have been qualifying matches on RAW and SmackDown the last few weeks to determine the participants. McIntyre and Sheamus fought to a double disqualification in theirs, but the storyline GM Adam Pearce put both in the match anyway. They teased a reversal of fortune for the two on the June 24 SmackDown. Pearce announced Paul Heyman had exerted some vaguely-described influence to have them removed from the match…unless they teamed up and defeated the Usos. McIntyre and Sheamus were able to co-exist and win that match, thus giving them an official qualifying win.
Others won straight qualifying matches. Rollins defeated AJ Styles and Omos defeated Riddle on RAW. Zayn defeated Shinsuke Nakamura on SmackDown. Madcap Moss was added on the July 1 episode of SmackDown after winning a four-way match over Happy Corbin, the Miz and Ezekiel.
WWE seemed to realize it was a better match with Riddle involved after all on the June 27 episode of RAW. Perhaps the unusually good segment rating for his match with Roman Reigns on SmackDown helped. They held a Battle Royal on the 27th for the last spot. Riddle won that won by eliminating the Miz to clinch a spot in the match.
On the women’s side, Asuka got a clean win over Becky Lynch to claim her spot as part of an angle about Lynch’s career slump. Bliss and Morgan defeated Nikki A.S.H. and Doudrop in a tag team match to win their spots. Gonzalez defeated Shayna Baszler, Evans beat Xia Li and Shotzi won her spot with a victory over Tamina.
They added Lynch to the match on the 27th when she won a “Last Chance” Elimination match among all the woman who’d lost their qualifying matches.
Can @WWERollins become a 2x Mr. #MITB? pic.twitter.com/WdIlHosXJR
— WWE (@WWE) June 20, 2022
Usos Vs. Street Profits
The Street Profits had been tangling with the Usos and RK-Bro, chasing both tag team title before they were unified. With the Usos holding both championships and Randy Orton out with an injury, they were left as top contenders to the Usos and will receive a title shot here despite losing to the Usos in both tag team non-title matches and singles matches.
The did give each member of the Street Profits singles wins over the Usos to make them look like stronger threats.
Theory Vs. Bobby Lashley
Lashley and Theory brought back an old wrestling trope from the 70s and 80s with a posedown in the ring June 13th. Theory attacked Lashley by squirting him in the eyes with the bottle of oil used to make the muscles glisten. On June 20, Lashley attacked Theory to extract revenge. In doing so, a challenge was issued to Lashley. If he won a gauntlet match against three opponents, he’d get a shot at Theory’s U.S. title. Lashley defeated Chad Gable, Otis and then Theory himself to win the gauntlet match.
Podcasts
The WRAP: Money in the Bank Preview
The WRAP: Another Vince McMahon scandal