Money in the Bank 2017: Great Wrestling, Awful Timing, and One Historic Mistake

The Hype Bros and The Colóns give the Kickoff show a conventional tag match built around Zack Ryder’s return from knee surgery. The Colóns sensibly target the repaired leg and spend the middle portion isolating Ryder, which gives Mojo Rawley a straightforward hot-tag role. Rawley’s burst of offense wakes up the crowd, while Ryder returning for the closing stretch gives the match a small emotional hook. The Hype Ryder finishes things cleanly after eight and a half minutes. Nothing here feels especially inventive, but the structure is coherent, the comeback has a purpose, and Ryder getting the winning moment makes the match more useful than most disposable Kickoff bouts.

The first women’s Money in the Bank ladder match is better in execution than its infamous finish suggests. The five wrestlers work through a steady series of ladder setups, saves, and increasingly dangerous collisions without letting the match become completely shapeless. Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair generate the strongest crowd reactions, while Natalya and Tamina provide enough physical resistance to keep the climbing sequences competitive. Then James Ellsworth knocks Lynch from the ladder, climbs himself, and hands the briefcase to Carmella. The heel logic is understandable, but the visual of a man retrieving the prize in the first women’s edition overwhelms thirteen minutes of good work and immediately creates controversy.

The Usos and The New Day already show the chemistry that would define one of WWE’s strongest tag rivalries of the era. Kofi Kingston absorbs a focused isolation segment before Big E changes the tempo with explosive offense, and the final minutes stack saves, blind tags, and near falls without losing clarity. The Midnight Hour appears to give New Day the championship, only for Jimmy Uso to pull his brother out before the three-count. The champions then deliberately take the countout and leave with the titles. The wrestling is strong enough for a higher score, but a pay-per-view match this good deserves a real finish rather than an obvious device to extend the program.

Naomi versus Lana is built around uncertainty because Lana has almost no established singles résumé on WWE television at this point. She works carefully, targeting Naomi’s leg and keeping the offense simple, but several strikes and transitions look hesitant enough to expose the experience gap. Naomi provides most of the match’s pace and eventually strings together the cleaner offense. Carmella’s briefcase tease creates the loudest reaction before Naomi traps Lana in a submission and retains. The match avoids becoming a complete disaster, which is an accomplishment given the setup, yet it still feels like a developmental experiment placed in a championship slot on pay-per-view.

Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton produce a better match than their Backlash meeting largely because the St. Louis crowd is deeply invested in Orton’s homecoming. Mahal works the knee for long stretches and gives the match a clear target, while Orton sells well and gradually builds toward his familiar comeback. The loudest sequence comes when Orton attacks The Singh Brothers after they threaten his father, including an RKO through the announce table. That detour also costs him the championship when Mahal catches him returning to the ring and lands the Khallas. The work is solid and the atmosphere helps, but another interference-centered finish makes the rivalry feel repetitive rather than escalating.

Breezango against The Ascension is an impromptu payoff to a Fashion Files mystery rather than a match with serious pay-per-view ambitions. Tyler Breeze and Fandango get the expected crowd sympathy, while Konnor and Viktor control briefly without convincing anyone that the result is in doubt. The match lasts under four minutes and never develops beyond a short heat segment followed by Fandango’s comeback. A small-package pin gives Breezango the victory and sends the storyline back to television. The segment is harmless and the characters remain entertaining, but nothing about the wrestling, stakes, or runtime justifies treating it as more than filler between the championship match and the main event.

The men’s Money in the Bank ladder match is the reason this event remains easy to recommend despite its booking problems elsewhere. Baron Corbin attacking Shinsuke Nakamura before the bell immediately changes the structure, allowing five wrestlers to build escalating chaos before Nakamura’s dramatic return. Sami Zayn is especially outstanding, taking dangerous bumps while repeatedly threatening to win, and AJ Styles supplies several spectacular counters around the ladders. The closing Styles-Nakamura faceoff earns a major reaction before Corbin overturns the ladder and takes the briefcase. Nearly thirty minutes fly because the match keeps introducing fresh combinations, credible winners, and memorable risks without losing the central objective.