Money in the Bank (2019)

The 2019 Money in the Bank was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 10th annual Money in the Bank and took place on May 19, 2019, at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brand divisions.

Twelve matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, unannounced entrant Brock Lesnar won the men's Money in the Bank ladder match. Bayley won the women's ladder match in the opening match, and later cashed in the contract to win the SmackDown Women's Championship from Charlotte Flair, who herself had just won the title from Becky Lynch. In her other title defense, Lynch retained the Raw Women's Championship against Lacey Evans. In other prominent matches, Kofi Kingston defeated Kevin Owens to retain SmackDown's WWE Championship, while Seth Rollins defeated AJ Styles to retain Raw's Universal Championship.

Production

Background

Money in the Bank is an annual professional wrestling event produced by WWE since 2010, generally held between June and July. The concept of the show comes from WWE's established Money in the Bank ladder match, in which multiple wrestlers use ladders to retrieve a briefcase hanging above the ring. While the briefcases at the 2018 event contained contracts that guaranteed the winners a match for a world championship of their respective brand at any time within the next year, the 2019 contracts allowed the winners the choice of either brands' world championships. Since the 2017 event, each year's show has featured a men's and a women's ladder match, and beginning with 2018, each features eight wrestlers, evenly divided between the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. Male wrestlers competed for a contract to grant them a match for either Raw's Universal Championship or SmackDown's WWE Championship, while female wrestlers competed for a Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship match contract. Announced on March 4, 2019, the 2019 event was the 10th Money in the Bank and featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands—the only to feature the 205 Live brand. The 2019 event also moved Money in the Bank to the May slot of WWE's pay-per-view (PPV) calendar, taking place on May 19, 2019, at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. The event aired on pay-per-view worldwide and was available to livestream on the WWE Network. Tickets went on sale on March 8.

Storylines

The event comprised 12 matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live, and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live.

At WrestleMania 35, Becky Lynch defeated Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair in a winner takes all triple threat match to win both the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships. She was then double-booked to defend both championships at Money in the Bank. For the Raw Women's Championship, NXT call-up Lacey Evans attacked the double champion on both Raw and SmackDown following WrestleMania. Evans was subsequently drafted to Raw during the Superstar Shake-up and defeated Natalya to earn a Raw Women's Championship match. For the SmackDown Women's Championship, former champion Charlotte Flair took offense that she lost her title despite not being the one who was pinned at WrestleMania. Lynch exclaimed that she would not freely give Flair a rematch and demanded new challengers. Among the named challengers was new SmackDown draftee Bayley. Flair then defeated Bayley to earn a SmackDown Women's Championship match.

On the April 22 episode of Raw, Chief Operating Officer Triple H scheduled two triple threat matches with the winners facing each other to determine Seth Rollins' next challenger for the Universal Championship. New Raw draftee AJ Styles defeated fellow draftees Rey Mysterio and Samoa Joe in the first triple threat match, while Baron Corbin defeated Drew McIntyre and new draftee The Miz in the second. Styles then defeated Corbin to earn a Universal Championship match against Rollins at Money in the Bank.

On the April 16 episode of SmackDown, WWE Chairman/CEO Vince McMahon introduced Elias as "the biggest acquisition in SmackDown history". Both were then interrupted by fellow new draftee Roman Reigns, who attacked Elias and performed a superman punch on Mr. McMahon. The following week, Shane McMahon challenged Reigns to a fight for attacking his father. Reigns came out and was attacked from behind by Elias, who assisted Shane in beating up Reigns. Elias then challenged Reigns to a match at Money in the Bank and Reigns accepted.

During "A Moment of Bliss" on the April 29 episode of Raw, Alexa Bliss revealed Raw's four participants for the men's Money in the Bank ladder match: Braun Strowman, new draftee Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, and Baron Corbin. On SmackDown the next night, SmackDown's four participants were revealed: Ali, new draftee Finn Bálor, Andrade, and Randy Orton. On Raw the following week, Robert Roode (formerly Bobby Roode) had the chance to replace Ricochet in the ladder match if he could defeat Ricochet, but was unsuccessful. Sami Zayn then defeated Strowman in a falls count anywhere match on the May 13 episode of Raw after interference from Corbin and McIntyre, taking Strowman's spot.

The four participants from Raw in the women's Money in the Bank ladder match were also revealed by Alexa Bliss during a separate "A Moment of Bliss" segment on the April 29 episode of Raw: Natalya, Dana Brooke, new draftee Naomi, and Bliss herself. SmackDown's four participants were revealed on the following night's episode of SmackDown: Bayley, Mandy Rose, new draftee Ember Moon, and Carmella. On the May 13 episode of Raw, Bliss, who had lost her luggage, was replaced by new draftee Nikki Cross in a fatal four-way match between Raw's four participants. Cross won the match and later replaced Bliss in the ladder match as Bliss was not medically cleared to compete.

At WrestleMania 35, Shane McMahon defeated The Miz in a falls count anywhere match; during the match, Shane attacked Miz's father. Miz was then drafted to Raw during the Superstar Shake-up and attacked Shane as retribution. On the April 29 episode of Raw, during Miz's match against Bobby Lashley, Shane distracted Miz, causing him to lose, leading to a brawl. Later, Miz challenged Shane to a Steel Cage match at Money in the Bank and Shane accepted.

On the April 16 episode of SmackDown, New Day members Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were guests on "The KO Show" where host Kevin Owens congratulated Kingston for winning the WWE Championship by defeating Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35. With fellow New Day member Big E out with injury, Owens wanted to join New Day as their third member. Kingston and Woods accepted "Big O" as an honorary member and the three won a six-man tag team match later that night. The following week, after Rusev attacked Kingston during his match with Shinsuke Nakamura, a brawl broke out also involving Woods and Owens. Owens then turned on Kingston and attacked him and Woods, proclaiming that he wanted the WWE Championship. Kingston then challenged Owens to a match at Money in the Bank with his title on the line and Owens accepted.

At WrestleMania 35, Samoa Joe defeated Rey Mysterio in one minute to retain the United States Championship. Both were then drafted to Raw in the Superstar Shake-up, and Mysterio defeated Joe in a non-title rematch on the April 29 episode of Raw. The following week, another title match between the two was scheduled for Money in the Bank.

On the April 23 episode of 205 Live, Ariya Daivari defeated Oney Lorcan. General Manager Drake Maverick then scheduled Tony Nese to defend the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Daivari at Money in the Bank.

After losing the SmackDown Tag Team Championship to The Hardy Boyz (Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy), The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) were drafted to Raw in the Superstar Shake-up. Two weeks later, The Hardys relinquished the titles after Jeff suffered a knee injury. On the May 7 episode of SmackDown, The Usos appeared via the Wild Card Rule to challenge Daniel Bryan and Rowan for the vacant titles in a losing effort. The following week, a non-title match between the two teams was scheduled for the Money in the Bank Kickoff pre-show.

Event

Pre-show

During the Money in the Bank Kickoff pre-show, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) faced SmackDown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan in a non-title match. In the end, The Usos performed a double "Uso Splash" on Bryan to win the match.

Preliminary matches

The actual pay-per-view opened with the women's Money in the Bank ladder match, featuring Dana Brooke, Naomi, Natalya, and Nikki Cross from Raw, and Bayley, Carmella, Ember Moon, and Mandy Rose from SmackDown. The climax occurred when Carmella, whose knee had been inadvertently injured by Rose earlier, returned and climbed the ladder, but Rose's tag team partner Sonya Deville pulled Carmella off the ladder and performed a spear on her. Deville then lifted Rose up on her shoulders and ascended the ladder. As Rose was about to retrieve the briefcase, however, Bayley ascended the ladder from the other side, pushed Rose and Deville off, and unhooked the briefcase to win the match.