WWE Money In The Bank 2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s annual review of WWE Money in the Bank, the show with two briefcases on the line, two championships on the line, and one angry R-Truth fulfilling the hopes and dreams of an entire fanbase by making his triumphant return! As we tend to do for WWE PLEs, we are going to cover everything in the column this time around — though you can of course still check out our MITB results page if you missed the show.

Are ready to proceed with caution alongside new Ms. Money in the Bank Naomi and sing Seth Rollins' song when he cashes in? Did we thrill at Octagon Jr.'s PLE debut and sympathize with the tragic Lyra Valkyria? Most importantly — what did we think about Jacob Fatu screaming "I hate you, Solo!" From Roxy to Cody and Giulia to Jey, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about WWE Money in the Bank 2025.

In typical WWE fashion, the 2025 Women's Money in the Bank ladder match opened up Saturday's main roster festivities, and, in typical WWE fashion, the women set a high standard for everyone to follow.

Rhea Ripley, Giulia, Roxanne Perez, Alexa Bliss, and Stephanie Vaquer — hats off to you all. This match was a great opener to Saturday's Money in the Bank event. Sure, maybe this year's Money in the Bank match wasn't the spotfest that last year's was. What this match lacked in stunts and twenty foot drives from the top of ladders, however, it made up for in great wrestling that stayed true to all participants' characters.

Giulia and Perez's character work was great as well, and Vaquer did a good job at selling her fatigue, as commentary repeatedly reminded us of her three matches in the past twenty-four hours. Bliss didn't do much, but I'm not quite sure if she has a good, consistent character right now, so we'll give her a pass. Ripley and Naomi's character work, however, really made this match stand out.

I'm really impressed with the way Ripley fit in the match. You would think that she would just overpower the match, pummel everyone, and climb the ladder and win. No, she was actually well-balanced in the match, and the way she used ladders as weapons specifically intrigued me. When Ripley had an opportunity to climb up the ladder to claim the briefcase — and she had a good handful of opportunities to scale steel and grab that briefcase — she instead used the ladders as weapons. When you think about it, it makes sense Despite being one of WWE's more seasoned wrestlers, Ripley has never been in a Money in the Bank ladder match before. She's never been in a ladder match before. Considering her status as a powerhouse, it makes a lot of sense to have "Mami" stay mostly to the ground, and to have her use those ladders as weapons rather than as a vehicle to ascend up towards the briefcase.

Speaking of ascension: Naomi deserves this briefcase. After four Money in the Bank ladder matches, Naomi 100% deserves this accolade. This isn't even from a backstage workhorse perspective, as valid as that is. Naomi's heel character will go down as one of the best gimmick changes in the 21st century, and it is this unhinged, crazed, unpredictable "proceed with caution" character that makes her the perfect vessel for the Money in the Bank briefcase. Ms. Money in the Bank is supposed to be unpredictable — they are supposed to lurk in the shadows, white briefcase in hand, just waiting for the most opportune time to strike a world champion. Is that not Naomi's entire character? Does Naomi not beckon her opponents to "proceed with caution," because she can strike at any moment? Out of all eight iterations of Ms. Money in the Bank, Naomi's current character was made for that briefcase. It will be such a joy to see where she takes it.

Written by Angeline Phu

If you're like me, your Saturday mornings are pretty busy. Brunch plans, well-deserved mornings in, and possible preparation for Money in the Bank watch parties all probably got in the way of catching NXT and AAA's collaboration, Worlds Collide, live when it aired nice and early at noon local time. If you're like me, you checked our Full and Final Money in the Bank card just before the show, and were reassured that we just had two Money in the Bank ladder matches and two non-ladder contests to go through before you could go to bed (or the post-show), content with another quick, easy, and efficient WWE premium live event.

If you're like me, you probably didn't know that Dominik Mysterio and Octagon Jr. got added to the card during Worlds Collide. If you're like me, you probably saw Mysterio and Octagon Jr. take to the ring right after the Women's Money in the Bank match, and wondered just what on Earth was going on. I'm not saying that Mysterio and Octagon Jr.'s match for the Intercontinental Championship was bad. It wasn't. I'm just saying that it was not good enough to stick onto the Money in the Bank card last minute, all willy-nilly. They had, like, some chemistry, but I'm going to be completely honest: I had no idea what was going on until after the match ended.

Why was this match not made sooner? What kept Mysterio so occupied during the past four, three, two weeks of "WWE Raw" that we couldn't build up to this Intercontinental Championship match? I'm not opposed to the match itself, but I wish that WWE and AAA had given us something to hype up this Intercontinental title match. I understand if Octagon Jr. couldn't make it — we didn't even get a video package? The set-up to this match — if you can even call it that — was so sloppy, and so nonsensical. Mysterio and Liv Morgan would have lived if they took a day off to go explore the Los Angeles area. They didn't need to be wedged into the Money in the Bank card at the very last minute. We didn't need this ten minute, filibuster match.

If you got your much-needed bathroom break during "Dirty Dom's" title defense, good for you, I guess. You deserve it! I can say with a good degree of confidence, however, that if WWE's audience had to choose between having this match tonight versus getting to bed ten, fifteen minutes early, a whole lot of the WWE Universe would choose the latter (ladder, pun intended). If you're really aching for those extra ten minutes of wrestling, add it onto Becky Lynch and Valkyria's match — those two ladies were tearing it down. If you could not have survived without ten extra minutes of wrestling, add it onto either of the Money in the Bank matches (that's enough time for one more crazy, death-defying ladder spot).

I don't hate this match...but why did we need to have it?

Written by Angeline Phu

I have to start out by saying I didn't dislike the Women's Intercontinental Championship match; I actually really enjoyed it and these two women can work like no other and have great chemistry in the ring. However, there were just a few things about it that didn't sit right with me on what was an overall pretty solid premium live event. While I do think heel Becky Lynch works better with a championship, I'm not entirely sure her winning here was the right call, especially because Bayley didn't make an appearance to beat her down after the match.

Bayley's absence was really felt here, in my opinion. We haven't heard a peep about her since she was taken out of WrestleMania 41 and replaced by Lynch to team with now-former Women's IC champ Lyra Valkyria. I feel like her return could have easily happened tonight. She could have let Valkyria take on Lynch on her own, only to attack Lynch after she made Valkyria put the title around her waist.

Another thing I really wasn't too keen on in this match was the fact Lynch and Valkyria took each other out pretty decisively on the outside of the ring with a Manhandle Slam and a Nightwing. They were both laid out on the floor, only to fall into the common wrestling troupe of popping up right at the referee's count of nine to get back in the ring. If we're going to continue this feud, likely until SummerSlam at this point, a double count out finish here would have been interesting and definitely unexpected. Not more interesting than Lynch winning the title, I guess, but it would make sense for continuing the feud because Lynch could really heel it up and demand yet another rematch.

Now that Lynch is the champion, Valkyria could go for the automatic rematch clause that only exists in WWE when they want it to, which doesn't give a lot of substance to a third match. Getting Bayley back involved would have made a lot of sense here and would have been an exciting return for the women's roster on a big show. Hopefully, Bayley will return on "WWE Raw" on Monday to help Valkyria confront Lynch, but after tonight, I'm not entirely sure if I believe that's going to happen.

Written by Daisy Ruth

After months of gradual dissension between "The Tribal Chief" who never was and his enforcer, Jacob Fatu finally uttered the words "I HATE YOU" to close the circle on his relationship with Solo Sikoa. Things were going swimmingly for Fatu and Sikoa until the "WWE Raw" Netflix Premiere in January, but then when Sikoa failed to dethrone Roman Reigns in Tribal Combat he took some time out to reassess his position. In the meantime, left without an explanation as to where Sikoa had got to, Fatu went about bringing gold back to The Bloodline himself, doing so as he said he would – without Sikoa or Tama Tonga. 

His reign as United States Champion immediately shifted the power dynamic with Sikoa, given that he was less subservient to the supposed leader of the group and had been very vocal about going about things his way; JC Mateo was brought into the group without Fatu's prior knowledge, helping him retain the title despite his expressed desire for there to be no involvement. All while Nick Aldis had accused Sikoa of trying to screw Fatu over. Things have been rocky over the past few weeks, with Sikoa making it into the Money in the Bank ladder match while Fatu came up short in qualification, culminating on Friday with the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back as Fatu caught wind of Sikoa telling Mateo that he wasn't that much of a thinker. Naturally, that was paid off with a scheme cooked up by the man Sikoa said was "All gas and no brains," one that involved fighting The Vision away from giving Seth Rollins the premature win, ensuring that Mateo was taken out before finally clearing them out, so that he could be the one to "help" Sikoa climb and claim the contract. 

He had everyone in the building including Sikoa convinced that he was doing The Bloodline's bidding, only to pull the rug at the last minute and let Sikoa know what he truly thinks of him by putting him through a ladder before leaving. It was cathartic and it was the right time to pay that off, creating a natural United States Championship feud between the powerhouses of the Anoa'i dynasty and marking the true break-out run for Fatu. There is also the question of where the Guerillas of Destiny will fit into things when they return, as well as Jimmy Uso's presence as a continual thorn in the side of the group – picking up the win over Mateo on Friday. All of which bode well for a new chapter of Bloodline storytelling, and at the very least played into a very enjoyable and entertaining stretch in the match itself.

Written by Max Everett

This is admittedly a minor complaint with a logical response — what can I say, Money in the Bank was a pretty good show! But I did leave it wondering what the possible in-universe rationale could be for the total absence of a pair of massive stars in the form of CM Punk and Sami Zayn.

Again, there's a logical response — outside kayfabe. The logical place for Zayn and Punk to interfere, outside of their own match or segment (a possibility basically nixed when Dominik Mysterio challenged Octagon Jr. at Worlds Collide earlier in the day) was the men's Money in the Bank ladder match, but the men's Money in the Bank ladder match was positively stuffed with interference and angles. Not only did Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed interfere on behalf of Seth Rollins' faction (which really needs a name, can we get on that?) but then Jacob Fatu and JC Mateo came out to counter them, playing up the confrontation from last night's "SmackDown" — and then after all that, Fatu turned on Solo Sikoa and cost him the match, allowing Rollins to ultimately win. So yes, the match was already too long and there was already a lot going on; fair, I concede this.

However, I really don't think it would have made things that much more complicated or taken that much more time to get Punk and Zayn involved. Just have them run in at some point during the Bron/Bronson vs. Jacob/JC faction warfare, right? If you rewrote the entire structure of the middle of the match, you could make it three-team faction warfare in that moment, but if that's too complex, you really could just do the thing where Zayn and Punk run out and start punching Reed and Breakker and they all go straight to the back. It just doesn't make any logical sense that they're not here. The only thing preventing them would have been taking a few finishers at the end of "Raw" Monday night, which ... come on, man. Jey took some finishers on "Raw" too, he's still wrestling in the main event. Penta took a Curb Stomp and a Tsunami on "SmackDown" 24 hours before MITB — the same moves Zayn and Punk took four days earlier — and he was still full go, no problems, just fine for the ladder match on Saturday. The idea that Zayn and Punk were incapacitated for a full week from those moves is ridiculous, and if they wanted to do that, Zayn and Punk should have at least gone through some tables or something.

Oh, I can hear you now. "But Miles," you say, "the middle of the match actually had a really well-done structure that made Fatu look amazing and wove the two stories together so deftly that they didn't actually need Punk and Zayn, which was both impressive and extremely helpful in a match that was already bursting at the seams in terms of people involved and stretching the limits of ladder match duration like an elastic waistband after Thanksgiving, surely that narrative accomplishment trumps any minor plot hole you think you might have found for your Wrestling CinemaSins YouTube channel in 2015," and yes, you're correct. I am doing my best here. It was a pretty damn good show, okay?

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Logan Paul talks a lot about creating viral moments, but the viral moment in the MITB main event didn't come from him. It came when a hooded man entered the ring to attack John Cena. After revealing himself to be R-Truth, he clocked Cena with his title before leaving through the crowd. Cody Rhodes took advantage to nail the champ with a CrossRhodes to win the match.

The internet lit up immediately talking about Truth's return. For better or worse, it has overshadowed the entire PLE. Then again, fans have been chanting "We Want Truth" during every show since Truth took to social media to announce his contract wasn't being renewed. It wasn't just the fans who have been upset at Truth leaving. Employees were also caught off guard. Rhea Ripley showed support by wearing one of his shirts backstage (but removed it before being on camera).

WWE doesn't seem to listen to fans often, but this time they did the right thing. Truth is one of the few universally beloved wrestlers in the business and didn't deserve to go out like that. He will reportedly go by his real name, Ron Killings. His new shirt is also listed by his name. It'll be interesting to see how Killings is portrayed moving forward and how/if his contract situation will be used for TV. Hopefully his return to TV will be worth it. Since it was only decided within the last 72 hours that he would be back, hopefully it'll be meaningful. He's been an instrumental part of Cena's storyline as of late and it'd be nice to see him to continue to get something substantial. It's unknown at this point how long his contract is for, but for whatever time is remaining, he should now get a proper way to end his decades-long career.

Written by Samantha Schipman