WWE Money in the Bank 2018: Card, Predictions, Analysis

WWE Money in the Bank 2018, the biggest party of the early part of summer, airs this Sunday, June 17, live on WWE Network. The show is headlined by two Money in the Bank ladder matches, as well as a Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship, and more. Here’s the complete Money in the Bank card as we know it.

WWE Money in the Bank 2018 Card:

1. Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Ember Moon vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Becky Lynch vs. Natalya vs. Lana vs. Naomi vs. Sasha Banks

2. Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Braun Strowman vs. Finn Bálor vs. The Miz vs. Rusev vs. Bobby Roode vs. Kevin Owens vs. Samoa Joe vs. TBA (Big E, Kofi Kingston, or Xavier Woods)

3. Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Championship: AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

4. Raw Women’s Championship Match: Nia Jax (c) vs. Ronda Rousey

5. Smackdown Women’s Championship Match: Carmella (c) vs. Asuka

6. Roman Reigns vs. Jinder Mahal

7. Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass

8. Bobby Lashley vs. Sami Zayn

9. Intercontinental Championship Match: Seth Rollins (c) vs. Elias

10. Kickoff Match for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship: Bludgeon Brothers (c) vs. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson

As always, we’ve got your complete rundown of the card and analysis below, featuring predictions for all ten matches. Make sure to drop a comment and let us know who you think’s winning, and be here on Sunday for our open discussion thread and live results. If you want to read our predictions for the NXT TakeOver happening the night before, click here.

Kickoff Match for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship: Bludgeon Brothers (c) vs. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson

What Should Happen: The Bludgeon Brothers haven’t wrestled a tag or a singles match that’s gone longer than five minutes since rebranding. The Club are fine as “good hand” workhorse types, but have less than no momentum, especially after joining up with Finn Bálor’s version of the club and then abandoning him completely without ever mentioning it. Somebody needs to step up to the Bludgies, but it won’t be these guys.

What Will Happen: Five minutes tops in the pre-show, ending with a Killer Bomb on Anderson. If we’re lucky, the Bludgies continue the attack after the match and somebody else runs out to set up the next five-minute title defense. These guys are like Goldberg if Goldberg did nothing but chinlocks and clubbing forearms.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – Finally, the payoff for the Bullet Club cross-promotional battle for abs dominance is upon us. (If you don’t believe this is happening open your dang eyes and/or watch more New Japan, you casuals, because why else would Karl become Abs Anderson at the exact time noted beautiful specimen of junior heavyweight manhood Taiji Ishimori was introduced as the new Bone Soldier???) The Good Brothers are beating the Bludgeon Brothers somehow, I think!

Elle Collins – How the Bludgeon Brothers champions and it still feels like WWE is totally wasting them? Well, wasting Luke Harper anyway—that guy’s the best. On the other hand, it’s not like WWE seems to have big plans for Gallows and Anderson either. In the absence of actual storylines, I’ll go with inertia and pick the Bludgeon Bros.

Raj Prashad – Gallows and Anderson appear on the rise, so naturally Bludgeon Brothers are going to crush them.

Bill DiFilippo – Bludgeon Brothers, solely because WWE made that crazy good video about Luke Harper’s journey to where he is now and it would be very weird, to me, for them to not hold onto the titles after that. Or maybe it would be. Who knows.

Robby Kalland – WWE insists on shoving the Bludgies down our throat so I expect another squash match here.

Intercontinental Championship Match: Seth Rollins (c) vs. Elias

What Should Happen: From an in-ring performance perspective, this is the most important match on the card. If Elias can show he can hang with top-level Seth Rollins in an exciting and engaging one-on-one Intercontinental Championship match and steal the show, he does a lot for himself in the eyes of fans. He’s already hung with Roman Reigns and had some GOOD matches, but nothing you’d say was notably great. That could happen here, especially on a card full of filler, bullshit angles, and Get Out Of Push Free ladder matches.

What Will Happen: Rollins retains, unless they’re crazy. Elias is a lot of fun, but Rollins is the company’s MVP right now. The only way I can see Rollins losing is if they figured out they shouldn’t do another Lesnar vs. Reigns match at SummerSlam, and want to get the secondary championship off Seth so he can take the big one from Brock.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – Seth’s been doing a great job elevating the title, or at least keeping it on the level to which the Miz elevated it (and Reigns upheld while Marine filming was happening.) Elias doesn’t need a title, so I think he loses a really entertaining match.

Elle Collins – Obviously there’s a precedent for an obnoxious guy with a guitar being Intercontinental Champion, but Seth is so great right now that I can’t imagine him losing it to Elias.

Raj Prashad – Ready for Rollins and Elias to tear the house down? Rollins continues elevating the Intercontinental belt by retaining, but gets the best we’ve seen of Elias in a thriller.

Bill DiFilippo – You remember that SNL skit where Mick Jagger and Jimmy Fallon pretended to look in a mirror at one another and have a conversation? I want Seth Rollins and Elias to do that as “guys with thick beards and long, black hair” when WWE creative runs out of ideas in a few months ago. Anyway, Rollins wins.

Robby Kalland – Seth Rollins wins. I think this will be the best singles match of the night and I really hope they give it enough time because it can be a showcase for how good Elias is in the ring, when he often gets pigeonholed by his gimmick into just getting beaten over the head with a guitar. Rollins can continue being their best babyface and just generally their MVP and also put Elias over even more in the ring while still winning.

Bobby Lashley vs. Sami Zayn

What Should Happen: Literally anything within 30-60 seconds of the bell ringing, so we can all move away from this feud and forget we saw Sami Zayn slum it this hard for a month.

What Will Happen: It’s hard to overstate how bad this feud has been. Like, we rag on WWE a lot and nitpick them to death, but Sami Zayn vs. Bobby Lashley has actively been one of the most grating and illogical beefs they’ve ever put together. Zayn hates Lashley because he said he loves his sisters! Sami bets he DOESN’T love them, for some reason! And now Sami says Bobby Lashley probably wasn’t even IN the military, even though he very clearly was! But he bets he WASN’T! Lashley is a little bothered, but he’s smilin’! Just get to the really terrible vertical suplex already and let Sami do something else with his summer. Send Lashley back to Impact Wrestling Redemption, or better yet, a WrestleCon appearance where he sits quietly and doesn’t do anything.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – Lashley wins for the TROOPS. And for his SISTERS! This is as sure as the sun rising in the east. But oh my gosh if Sami Zayn somehow just destroyed him in like two minutes that would be incredible and I would laugh for three days.

Elle Collins – I want Sami Zayn to win here because he’s great and Lashley has not done one thing to make me interested in him since returning to WWE. But given the storyline, it seems like Lashley will probably win, to get his revenge on Zayn for talking about his sisters or whatever.

Raj Prashad – Lashley gets revenge for his sisters (and our sanity) with a win over Zayn. Hopefully this means the end of this feud.

Bill DiFilippo – Know what, from experience, sucks? Getting a root canal. Anyway, Bobby Lashley is going to win here, and I am going to wish I spend the time watching it getting a root canal, instead.

Robby Kalland – Sami beat up Bobby Lashley by way of sneak attack on an obstacle course on Raw, so I 100% believe this ends in like 7 minutes with Bobby winning.

Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass

What Should Happen: I’d make more fun of this feud, but compared to Lashley/Zayn, Big Cass/Daniel Bryan feels like Savage/Steamboat. Unless they’re okay pulling an Austin Aries with Cass and showing how he repeatedly can’t win a match he insists he’ll win, he’ll win here. Bryan beat Cass clean already and kicked his ass in the follow-up, and everything since then’s either been sneak attacks or backstage promos about how Cass is TALL And Bryan is SHORT. If Bryan just steamrolls him again, I mean, good for Bryan, that’s what we all want to see, but what do you even DO with that?

What Will Happen: Cass wins, probably with a heavy dose of cheating. I’m thinking an exposed turnbuckle or something so they can play up Bryan’s injuries and explain why he’s losing to the world’s least threatening 6-foot-9 7-footer. Another chance for Bryan to work a miracle.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – Daniel Bryan is going to literally murder Big Cass and then Big Cass is going to come back to haunt Smackdown as Ghost Big Cass, depicted by Tupac-style hologram.

Elle Collins – Daniel Bryan should win, and I’m confident he will win. Then if we’re lucky Big Cass will go away.

Raj Prashad – Big Cass has to win one eventually? Thinking he takes this one by brutalizing Bryan.

Bill DiFilippo – My hope is they are continuously keeping Daniel Bryan in this weird holding pattern to re-establish him as a giant killer-type guy. My fear is they’re going to have Cass win under *~ CIRCUMSTANCES~* so we can do this again at the next PPV so, uh, they can keep Daniel Bryan in a weird holding pattern so he has something more fun to do. I’ll pick Cass winning with the hopes I am wrong.

Robby Kalland – Daniel Bryan and we finally move on to a new Bryan feud. Please.

Roman Reigns vs. Jinder Mahal

What Should Happen: I’m not trying to be overwhelmingly negative here, but yes, this pay-per-view features a Big Cass singles match, Sami Zayn and Bobby Lashley feuding over sisters and obstacle courses, the fifth Nakamura/Styles match in just over a month, Carmella in a championship match and Jinder Mahal vs. Roman Reigns. Holy shit. This feels like one of those WWE shows where the card looks so bad on paper everyone busts their asses and makes something good out of it. I really, really hope that’s what they’re doing.

What Will Happen: The other Singh brother returns to cause a distraction, allowing Mahal to hit Khallas for an “upset” win. Reigns acts distraught about it, but shrugs it off by Monday and announces he’s the new number one contender to the Universal Championship. And then everybody just goes along with it, because reasons!

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – My expectations for this PPV are high because the build, at least on Raw, for it has been so bad it has reminded me of the build for Fastlane 2018. Despite a month+ of garbage television leading up to it, that was a really fun show full of good wrestling. It might be garbage, but Reigns vs. Mahal could be the Orton vs. Roode of MITB, especially if it’s not too high on the card. And uhhhh I’ll say Mahal wins and we continue the Roman Reigns Can’t Win Big Matches storyline.

Elle Collins – I think Jinder wins! Nah, I’m kidding.

Raj Prashad – Why is Reigns-Mahal a thing? Why is Reigns-Mahal a thing? Why is Reigns-Mahal a thing? Fine, Reigns.

Bill DiFilippo – When in doubt, Roman wins. When not in doubt, Roman wins, too. Roman wins.

Robby Kalland – As hilarious as it’d be for Jinder to win, this has to be Roman. The question is more how long they give this and what awful bump poor Sunil Singh has to take.

Smackdown Women’s Championship Match: Carmella (c) vs. Asuka

What Should Happen: This should go about two minutes, max, with the first 90 seconds being James Ellsworth showing up to get kicked five or six times in the face by Asuka. Duck a superkick, hip-attack Carmella in the chest so hard it shatters her entire ribcage, and boom, Asuka Lock.

What Will Happen: … not that, unfortunately. I think it’d be a great idea to give Asuka the win you know she should have here and let her be Smackdown Women’s Champion heading into SummerSlam. Then you build up Charlotte Flair as her number one contender, and play up the fact that Charlotte’s the only person who’s ever beaten her clean, one-on-one. Can Charlotte do it again, now that she’s the challenger instead of the champion? You get another incredible women’s championship match on your pay-per-view, and you stop trying to make the “fetch” that is Carmella happen. She’s a good character, but not the person on a roster this deep with talent to be building pay-per-view championship matches around.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – Literally all of my spiritual energy (women’s division) is currently being used to visualize Smackdown Women’s Champion Asuka into being. Let her have it! Come on, WWE! She deserves it! I think there’s a good chance that Asuka wins, but definitely room for Carmella to retain via chicanery (TM Dave Schilling on The Masked Man Show.)

Elle Collins – It’s probably Asuka’s time. I love Carmella and I’ve enjoyed her time with the belt, but Asuka can be a worthy opponent for a lot more people going forward than Carmella really can.

Raj Prashad – It would be the most WWE thing for Carmella to pin Asuka clean. *Carmella pins Asuka clean*

Bill DiFilippo – Asuka wins because Asuka should always win. This is canon and should manifest itself on Sunday.

Robby Kalland – They’re pretty clearly committed to heel champ Carmella so I expect her to escape with the belt by way of some shenanigans.

Raw Women’s Championship Match: Nia Jax (c) vs. Ronda Rousey

What Should Happen: Kick, wham, armbar. I like Nia Jax, but if it took her 10 minutes to barely beat Alexa Bliss, Ronda Rousey should be able to just judo throw her into the dirt and break her arm like it’s nothing. Unless the Natalya turn happens, this whole thing makes little to no sense. And even then, you know?

What Will Happen: It seems like the most obvious thing in the world to have Natalya turn on Ronda here, revealing that she and Nia Jax are now part of Stephanie McMahohn’s corporate Welcoming Committee or whatever. It’s even more likely that Natalya will win the women’s Money in the Bank match, turn on Ronda seconds after she wins the Raw Women’s Championship and then cash in on her to win the belt herself. It gets Ronda her first WWE “loss” via a cash-in, lets you have that SportsCenter moment of “Ronda Rousey became WWE Champion in her first singles match BUT WAIT,” and you’ve got a built-in feud for SummerSlam.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – Nia retains. I think defeating Rousey, “the baddest woman on the planet,” is a smart first defense for a long-ish championship reign. I think this match will be either the best or second best of the night or very terrible.

Elle Collins – I don’t think they’re putting the title on Ronda yet. I think we get a messy ending of some kind that lets Nia keep the belt for now, or maybe somebody cashes in and gets it, but it’s not Ronda’s time yet.

Raj Prashad – If Natalya somehow wins Money in the Bank, I’m thinking she cashes in mid-match and takes the pinfall. Regardless of what happens with Natalya, there’s no way they throw Rousey in a title match and she doesn’t win, right?

Bill DiFilippo – There’s no way Ronda is losing this early in her WWE career, right? Unless there’s a disqualification or something, she’s winning the title and then holding onto it for a while.

Robby Kalland – I can’t imagine Ronda Rousey’s losing her first title match, but, hey, Asuka did! Still, there will be some cool feats of strength from Nia, but ultimately Rousey gets her to tap.

Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Championship: AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

What Should Happen: We finally get the New Japan Pro Wrestling-style showdown between these two we’ve wanted since they signed in WWE, with a big championship on the line and some real sports build, right? Or do we just keep kicking each other in the … yep, okay, we’re just gonna keep kicking each other in the dick, that’s fine. Dick away, gentlemen.

What Will Happen: We already had to write this match up at WrestleMania, again two weeks later at the Greatest Royal Rumble, again two weeks later at Backlash, again on Smackdown, and now again at Money in the Bank. The “last man standing” bit loses its power because the last match ended with a double 10-count, suggesting both guys could just lose via dick kick, and it even robbed Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano at TakeOver: Chicago of its logical match stipulation. At this point, what do you even do? Give Nakamura the win via something dumb? Tying Styles’ feet together? Throwing him into a big spotlight? WWE last man standing matches are a World’s Fair showcase for bad match finishes. No matter what happens, my prediction is that we leave the match underwhelmed. Again.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – Literally all of my spiritual energy is currently being used to visualize WWE Champion Shinsuke Nakamura into being. However, I think AJ Style retains after a really good match.

Elle Collins – It needs to be Shinsuke. Let it be Shinsuke. This is the crossroads where he becomes either a top heel or “that guy who used to hit AJ Styles in the balls,” and I know which one I want him to be.

Raj Prashad – Over/under 5 low blows from Shinsuke? I’m taking the over all day. Somehow Nakamura and his violent low blows finally wins the belt.

Bill DiFilippo – Nakamura has to win one of these at some point, and him Kinshasa-ing AJ until he can’t answer a 10-count makes sense, I suppose.

Robby Kalland – Nakamura has finally dragged Styles down to his level and was the one to pick the stipulation, but somehow Styles retains here. I look forward to Shinsuke taking the US title off Jeff Hardy immediately and being a great heel US champ, but I can’t help but look at the other top guys on Smackdown and see a *lot* of heels led by Samoa Joe ready for runs at the babyface champ.

Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Braun Strowman vs. Finn Bálor vs. The Miz vs. Rusev vs. Bobby Roode vs. Kevin Owens vs. Samoa Joe vs. TBA (Big E, Kofi Kingston, or Xavier Woods)

What Should Happen: There are only two winners I want here: The Miz, so that Daniel Bryan can work his way up to winning the WWE Championship (from Nakamura!) at SummerSlam and get eaten up by the contract to set up a WrestleMania match; or The New Day, because Freebird Ruling the Money in the Bank briefcase would be fun, and I’d love to see Big E or Kofi Kingston actually get a main event WWE Championship run. Plus, it gets New Day out of the tag scene for a bit.

What Will Happen: Everyone (on the Internet) seems to be predicting a Raw win for the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match and a Smackdown win for the men’s version, so that leans things in Samoa Joe’s direction. Having a serious ass-kicker hold the briefcase for a while would be a nice change of pace from the cowardly sneak attacks and stuff they always do, and I think they should look to tell new and different stories with Money in the Bank if they’re gonna keep it around and multiply it. Let Joe cash it in and win, even. Make him look like the baddest dude in the world. Bad enough to rescue the President.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – My long term fantasy booking for this would be Balor wins and cashes in on the Universal champ to recover the title he never really lost, finally paying off his one real WWE main roster story besides not eating carbs. And this could happen! But I’m thinking Samoa Joe wins and we get amazing menacing promos from him for a few months until he cashes in and takes his rightful place at the top of the wrestling world.

Elle Collins – The Miz. Okay, Rusev if they’re actually going to commit to pushing Rusev, but otherwise, the Miz.

Raj Prashad – If it’s Big E, he takes the briefcase and doesn’t look back. Strowman also makes sense here, but he doesn’t really need the rub from the briefcase to get to the main event level.

Bill DiFilippo – Please for the love of god, let Samoa Joe win and let him and Brock Lesnar have a match that goes way longer than the one they had at Great Balls of Fire last year. Also: Have Joe win that, too.

Robby Kalland – My heart says Braun. My brain says Finn Balor. There is no reason to give it to Strowman, because, like, he’s a giant and shouldn’t need a briefcase to win a title (but it’d be so much fun). Finn, however, seems perfect because he could manipulate that advantage to his advantage in a believable way.

Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Ember Moon vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Becky Lynch vs. Natalya vs. Lana vs. Naomi vs. Sasha Banks

What Should Happen: If we assume that Raw/Smackdown “one briefcase each” thing is valid (and is even going to happen), that’d suggest who from Raw winning? Ember Moon? We need at least one babyface to win the Money in the Bank briefcase from time to time to keep it from feeling like the War Games coin toss.

What Will Happen: Accepting that, I’m still going Natalya. It gives a Raw woman the win in what’ll probably be the opening match of the show, it sets up the Ronda Rousey bullshit we already discussed, and it lets you have only one briefcase to focus on and include on your weekly shows because the other one already got cashed in. It seems economical from a booking standpoint, even if we don’t need to see any corporate swerves on the MMA celebrity from the worst talker in wrestling.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – Winning this match could be the best thing ever for Becky Lynch’s career and I really hope she wins. However, I suspect a heel will get this briefcase, and if it’s Natalya I won’t be surprised.

Elle Collins – I’m going to be optimistic and say Becky Lynch wins this, because she really should, but let’s be honest; anything could happen.

Raj Prashad – With a packed Women’s Money in the Bank match, my gut says Natalya. If she wins, I’d expect some madness in the women’s title match.

Bill DiFilippo – This feels like one of those times where WWE is gonna do something really silly, like Charlotte has her fingertips on the briefcase before Billie Kay and Peyton Royce come down and mess it all up, clearing the way for Lana to get the briefcase.

Robby Kalland – Becky Lynch makes a lot of sense here (especially if the other briefcase stays on Raw). She could be the transitional champ before the eventual Charlotte-Asuka rematch whenever they want to do that (SummerSlam?) and a Becky-Asuka program would be really fun.