WWE Money In The Bank 2026: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

WWE/X Add Wrestling Inc. on Google: Preferred Source Google Discover After several scheduling changes on WWE’s part, the latest edition of Money in the Bank has finally come and gone. Did it live up to the hype? You’re in the right place to find out.

As usual, the company presented a five-match card, with the titular MITB matches, two singles bouts, and a Triple Threat. It was a show of highs and lows, and not just because of all the ladder acrobatics. At times, this year’s show felt like a bit of drag, but things undoubtedly picked up by the end, with one of the better briefcase battles in the main event.

You’ll find our opinions on all that and more below. Anyone looking for a detailed rundown of the PLE should check out our WWE Money in the Bank results. Once you’re all caught up, go ahead and dig into all the moments we loved and hated below.

WWE/Getty Images It’s become a trend in recent years where whenever the women of WWE get the chance to mix it up in a match like Money in the Bank, WarGames, or the Elimination Chamber, it can go one of two ways. It can either be an absolute car crash of a match that has the crowd on its feet thanks to how genuinely dangerous it is, or it’s still a car crash but mainly because it’s a disjointed mess that really doesn’t do anyone any favors. Funnily enough, this was a bit a both, as it was messy but also terrifying at times, so it evened itself out. However, the thing that let this match down is very simple: Tiffany Stratton was the winner.

Nothing against Stratton as a person or anything, but this was a classic case of WWE going back to old habits and trusting what has worked in the past rather than taking a risk and pushing a new star into the main event scene. Look at who won the men’s match for example — Penta is now going to be in and around that main event spot potentially for the next year, which isn’t something that some may have thought when he joined the promotion.

Now look at the rest of the field in this year’s women’s match and think of the possibilities for everyone other than Stratton winning. Lash Legend is an absolute beast and will naturally get her time to shine, but was there really any harm in giving her the briefcase? No. Sol Ruca and Lola Vice fall into the same category, they will more than likely get pushed up the card eventually, but wrestling moves so quickly that if you don’t strike while the iron is hot, people unfortunately get bored of waiting, especially in the women’s division. I can accept Jacy Jayne losing, given she is the WWE Women’s United States Champion, but double champions have happened before. And then there’s poor Roxanne Perez. She was the obvious choice to win this match, and a lot of the time in wrestling, the obvious choice is often the correct one.

I get that this sort of ties into the story of Stratton being friends with Chelsea Green who is the current WWE Women’s Champion, so you can have the blow-off between that friendship somewhere down the line, but it’s the least interesting avenue to go down. It worked in 2024 for her, but that was when Stratton was in the position Ruca, Vice, and Legend are in now. It was fresh and exciting back then, but no longer. The end result is a shame, too, because the match itself was genuinely entertaining.

WWE There wasn’t much I liked about tonight’s show, other than the main event, but I had to give some props to LA Knight, despite his loss to Roman Reigns in the World Heavyweight Championship match that opened the show. While I truly don’t know where Knight goes from here, especially with who is holding the Money in the Bank briefcase now, and the packed title scene on “WWE SmackDown,” he does at least deserve his flowers for this match.

Despite a few clunky moves, like trying to get Reigns up for the powerbomb to send him through the commentary desk, this is the best match I’ve seen from Knight in quite some time, possibly ever. While it was formatted exactly like all of Reigns’ other matches this year, a very slow start, into a slow build, then finisher after finisher at breakneck pace, for whatever reason, probably my own idiocy, I still had some hope for the “Megastar.”

Knight got quite a few good moves off in this match, including a burning hammer, and an actually really nice spear to Reigns, as the “Tribal Chief” was gearing up to hit one of his own with the momentum of running the ropes. Knight at one point also caught the spear with a counter into the BFT, which was cool. I held my breath both times he jumped up to the top rope, both for the superplex, then for the top elbow drop, but he kept his balance and the moves looked solid. There were plenty of near false that sold me a ticket throughout the match that looked excellent, and Reigns has one of the best kickouts at 2.99 in the game. If Knight had to lose, at least he looked good in doing so, in a solid Reigns match, which even went about the length of a usual Reigns main event in 2026, despite opening the show.

I hate the fact that Knight lost, as his future is really uncertain, but I did end up really enjoying this match by the end of it. I like the fact that Reigns is winning all of his matches in 2026 with no interference from the Bloodline, and I also loved that Royce Keys and the 946 were shown in the crowd calling him out after the victory. The post-match brawl between the faction and the Usos and Solo Sikoa helps get them all toward Survivor Series: WarGames, but I’d also like to see a one-on-one match between Reigns and Keys sometime in the future.

WWE Oba Femi needs to continue stacking victories if he’s going to dethrone Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 43, as everyone (myself included) believes, but booking him in a match against The Vision’s Bronson Reed, in Reed’s first televised match back after being on the shelf with injury, wasn’t my favorite thing. Despite loving Femi, and being happy to see Reed back, all jacked and healthy, this wasn’t a match I was really looking forward to.

Outside of the outcome being pretty predictable, the interference by The Vision was inevitable. Breakker wasn’t going to be out there before competing in the Money in the Bank ladder match, so of course, it was Austin Theory, Maxxine Dupri, and Logan Paul to attempt and assist Reed.

I guess they needed to be out there to pass the brass knuckles to Reed, for the “Big” man to hit Femi before nailing him with a Tsunami, but I still didn’t love it. Reed could have gotten into his own boot to reveal the knuckles, and turned to the camera with a sly grin on his face, mouthing “thank you, Logan” or something, before hitting “The Ruler.” Or, Reed could have promised Paul Heyman backstage that the others wouldn’t get involved, that he’d take out Femi on his own, but Femi still would become the first man to kick out of Reed’s Tsunami.

I liked that Femi did kick out of two punches with brass knucks, plus a Tsunami, which made him look strong as hell. I just think kicking out of just the Tsunami would have been equally as effective. This match just fell a bit flat to me, especially after the worst parts of The Vision showed up, despite me knowing that would happen. But, I guess I am intrigued to see where this goes with Heyman, who was seen watching the match backstage, though hopefully, it doesn’t lead to him fully aligning himself with Femi, as he doesn’t need a mouthpiece.

WWE/X It was unanimously agreed upon by our crew that the main event was the best part of tonight’s show. There were plenty of great moments during that match (more on those soon), but one throughline deserves an extra shout-out. Midway through the bout, Je’Von Evans was stretched to the back and into an ambulance, only for the emergency vehicle to make its way ringside a few minutes later. It was soon revealed that Evans himself was driving the ambulance, and he worked his way back into the match before eventually being pushed from the top of a particularly tall ladder by Bron Breakker, which catapulted him through the top of the vehicle.

In a match full of exciting spots, this one stood out. Not only was the moment truly incredible to watch, but I also appreciated how much build-up it received. As soon as Evans was lifted out of the ring area after putting up a struggle, it seemed like something cool was going to happen, and the pay-off was well worth it.

If I had to nitpick a little bit, I didn’t necessarily love that Evans foolishly started climbing the ladder when he was nowhere near the briefcase, but I’m willing to forgive that considering the end result.

WWE Just 29 days since she dropped the title to Stephanie Vaquer in Chile, Liv Morgan beat Vaquer and Becky Lynch in a triple threat to reclaim the Women’s World title.

It was Vaquer’s first defense with much of the story revolving the chase that never needed to happen; Vaquer said she would defend the title against the both of them, so WWE booked a number-one contender’s match between them, which ultimately ended in no-contest after Vaquer attacked the both of them to make the triple threat she always wanted.

In that time as champion, as a result, she made a grand total of zero defenses. Speaking of zero defenses, that was also the numbers Morgan was putting up in her first 100 days as champion when she initially beat Vaquer at WrestleMania. She held the title for 47 more days, making just two defenses before dropping the title in Chile.

There have been just six defenses of the Women’s World title in the 10 months of this year thus far. There have been 14 WWE Championship matches in contrast. Morgan has held the title for the majority of that time and will continue on as the year begins to wind down, so it doesn’t seem as though the title is going to get better treatment. Where else is there to go with Morgan as champion? It’s not as though there was a deluge of options for the other part of the year she held it.

It was also abundantly clear a little after the bell had rung that she was going to win the title. The seams were on display and everything was working towards her stealing the victory. The bout trudged along in that regard, with everything feeling largely inconsequential when it did not involve the evident protagonist of the match.

What’s more annoying is that this was a match that came with promise. No matter the feelings toward Morgan’s character and the persistence on suffocating shows with her omnipresence, she is a good worker more than capable of staging great matches. That same can be applied and amplified when it comes to Vaquer and Lynch. This didn’t deliver on that promise and the result went down like a fart at a funeral. It’s frankly nauseating trying to envision the follow-up segment on “WWE Raw.”

WWE In genuinely one of the best, if not the, best Money in the Bank matches of all time, Penta ascended to claim the briefcase and put himself one more step away from becoming World Champion. This was a match that did everything right, whether that was continuing the feud between Kevin Owens and CM Punk, presenting Bron Breakker as an unstoppable force, or making Je’Von Evans out to be the bouncy daredevil.

Owens and Punk stayed true to their promise of ensuring neither one of them claims the briefcase, fulfilling Sami Zayn’s prophecy of Friday night at the same time. Literally anytime one of them made the climb, there was the other to dash that plan. That eventually boiled over with both men fighting before the barricade, putting themselves into the perfect position for a Breakker spear through them and it.

That wasn’t the first time the barricade came into play either, with each of Trick Williams, Punk, Owens, and Penta thrown into the timekeeper’s area and Evans looking to launch over it onto them. Breakker speared Evans into the Shadow Realm and he was stretchered out to be taken via ambulance.

Williams had Lil Yachty getting involved on his behalf, and Yachty got the chance to sell a Stunner as a reward. There were a whole bunch of ladder spots with some oohs, ahhs, and out-and-out “ouchie ouchies.” And then Evans drove the ambulance back into the venue and to ringside to make his grand return to the match.

A big a** ladder was brought into the fold, standing above the briefcase when set up, and Evans wound up being the one cast from it through the roof of the ambulance. A truly insane spot, enough to make one ignore that ambulance roofs aren’t generally made of wood. But that was not all.

Penta then used the big a** ladder to bridge a littler ladder so he could spike Breakker onto it with a Destroyer. Then, and only then, did Penta climb the big a** ladder to the loudest pop of the night.

This match was wall-to-wall excitement with a result to match. I was a proponent of Penta beating Roman Reigns in Mexico City, so to have him just one step away from being able to actually win the title is exciting. Here’s hoping it’s a promise made good on.