Money in the Bank (2019) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event, produced by WWE for their Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands. It took place on May 19, 2019, at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. It was the tenth event under the Money in the Bank chronology.

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

Results: 


Kick-Off Show: The Usos def. SmackDown! Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowan in a non-title match



Bayley def. Nikki Cross, Mandy Rose, Naomi, Carmella, Dana Brooke, Ember Moon, and Natalya to win the Women's Money in the Bank briefcase


This was miles above and beyond the original Women's Money in the Bank match along with the one from last year, but damn I was cringing watching the ladies take some of these spots here. I thought Mandy Rose legitimately soccer ball kicked Carmella's knee out of the socket from that one spot, especially after how Carmella told her to back off - pretty loudly after the fact before she was checked out by the medics at ringside. Naomi's Bumblebee (from Teen Titans) outfit was spoiled a bit from her tweets earlier that day, but still cool nonetheless.

Ember hits the Eclipse from off the ladder onto Nattie.
The highlight of the entire thing was that Eclipse from Ember Moon off the ladder to Nattie though. Holy shit off that.

In the end, Mandy Rose had the match won when Sonya Deville carried her up the ladder on her shoulders after she was laid out by the returning Carmella (who Mandy "injured" earlier in the match), but Bayley shoved both of them from the top and grabbed the briefcase for herself. Can't say that I saw Bayley coming out of this as the winner, but whatever. I thought she was pegged to be in line for a shot at the SmackDown! Women's title anyway whenever Charlotte got her dirty hands on it again. We never got a proper finish to that feud anyway. From what happened later in this show, it looks like we're going to get that anyway.


Rey Mysterio def. Samoa Joe for the United States Championship in a squash


Joe's nose was broken in the opening spot of the match so they rushed to the finish and had Joe do the post match attack while his son Dominic looked on in horror. I haven't been keeping up with any storylines since the Superstar Shake-Up started post-WrestleMania and I think this sounds stupid right off the bat.


Shane McMahon def. The Miz via over-the-top escape (Steel Cage Match)


This match was a massive waste of time. Can someone explain to me why they are still continuing this Miz versus Shane McMahon feud post-Mania anyway?

For the love of all things holy, can Shane put his goddamn shirt back on? There's children watching for Christ's sake (laughs). I don't need to see Shane's oily, sweaty face on my television attempting to kill himself in these matches.


Cruiserweight Championship -- Tony Nese (c) def. Ariya Daivari via pinfall to retain the title


No offense to Nese and Daivari but this was a pre-show match from start to finish. I don't understand why this was on the main card when the vast majority of people who tune into WWE programming don't even watch 205 Live. This was also nearing the time where WWE was about to compete with the Game of Thrones finale at 9PM so they were doing a great job of giving their viewer base the easy decision to tune out.



Sami Zayn hides from Braun Strowman, gets attacked


They were playing this up like Strowman did it, but I personally couldn't buy into it. Since when did Strowman start stringing up guys like he was Spider-Man or Batman? C'mon now...



Raw Women's Championship -- Becky Lynch (c) def. Lacey Evans via submission to retain the title


Even back on NXT, I never thought Lacey Evans was a bad wrestler. There were some interesting moments here and there in this match, but ultimately, I don't think her and Becky click well in terms of in-ring styles. It's not either woman's fault - it's just something that happens in wrestling from time to time and there's nothing one can do to avoid it. Not everyone can adapt or work around every style underneath the sun. Perfect example? Gail Kim and Mickie James. Go watch any of their matches from WWE and TNA/Impact Wrestling and you can see they really don't click at all to say as good as as they are individually as in-ring talents.

I know Vince wants to push Lacey Evans to the moon, but an instant title shot against the most over female - or rather talent - they have from over the past year isn't going to do her any favors. Not to mention, the comparisons to Charlotte Flair aren't helping either.


SmackDown Women's Championship --  Charlotte Flair def. Becky Lynch (c) via pinfall to win the title


I didn't like this from a creative standpoint. I get that they wanted to play up that Charlotte took advantage of Becky being worn out from beating Lacey Evans and their "alliance" is what did Becky in at the end of the match, but it makes Becky's win at WrestleMania look like a fluke now since she didn't pin/force Charlotte to submit. Charlotte still gets to stay that a "Queen" reigns supreme over The Man and all of that hype for Becky over the past year didn't mean squat since she's still coming up short over her rival. On top of all of that, Charlotte is at title reign number 9. Vince must really be jizzing his shorts over Flair's daughter, huh? She's got two up over Trish Stratus' record now. Soon, that's going to be an afterthought.

If that wasn't bad enough, Charlotte beat the piss out of Becky and Bayley like they were some jobbers before she rammed herself into the corner post.


SmackDown Women's Championship -- Bayley def. Charlotte Flair via pinfall to win the title after cashing in Money in the Bank


Bayley took forever and a day to make up her mind to cash in the briefcase. I was half-expecting Charlotte to kick out of that Diving Elbow Drop, but she didn't and Bayley managed to pick up the win.

I'll give WWE props for this booking here though. When they try, they actually make these special "feel good" moments like this truly mean something. They got it right with Daniel Bryan at the height of the Yes Movement. That was echoed throughout Kofi-Mania leading up to his win at WrestleMania this year. Same goes for Becky Lynch once her "The Man" gimmick caught fire.

For a lot of people, this moment felt like redemption for all of the times WWE dropped the ball with Bayley over the last few years, notably with how unceremoniously her and Sasha Banks lost the Women's Tag Team titles to the IIconics at WrestleMania. A lot of people on social media are calling this move a F-U to Sasha Banks who has been sitting at home on sabbatical from the company.

While I'm happy that Bayley got to dethrone Charlotte on her shortest Women's Championship reign to date, I'm holding my breath on celebrating for her until I see what the long-term plans are for Bayley. As far as we know as fans, Bayley could lose the title right back to Charlotte on SmackDown! Tuesday night, only to hot potato it back and forth with her like Sasha Banks did a few years ago over the course of several months. One more thing to note though is that after this title win, Bayley is official a grand slam champion for WWE, holding both RAW & SmackDown! Women's Championships, NXT Women's Championship, Women's Tag Team Championships, and winning the Women's Money in the Bank briefcase over the course of her career. Only accolade she hasn't won yet is the Women's Royal Rumble match.


Roman Reigns def. Elias via pinfall


After what felt like an eternity for that Elias segment, Roman hit a Superman Punch and followed up with the Spear for the win to close this out in like a minute flat. I don't see how anyone expected anything more here.

Elias might as well be El Kabong at this point...
On a side note, I'm sure people are going to be making memes of Elias sneaking up behind Roman for months (or rather years) to come. That was just begging to be made into a meme.

Universal Championship -- Seth Rollins (c) vs. AJ Styles


When this match started, I had a sense of deja vu from AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura last year, whereas there was a lot of hype and anticipation for that match, given their history in New Japan. In the same vein of that match there was a lot of anticipation for this match as well, given that this was Rollins and Styles first match against each other in WWE. I thought this match started out pretty tame, but they won me out by the end.

I still don't think it was wise to give this match away on one of this throwaway PPVs between one of the Big Four PPVs (WrestleMania, Summerslam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble) though. Maybe they are looking to stretch this out over the summer and make a program out of this "dream match" sorts. Then again, this could be an one and down feud just like that.


Lars Sullivan destroys Lucha House Party


As soon as they handed a live mic to Kalisto, I went to the bathroom once I heard Lars' music hit. From carrying piñatas to the ring and tossing candy to kids in the front row, I'm surprised that WWE doesn't have them selling tacos and nachos in concessions at this point. This act is dead in the water.


WWE Championship -- Kofi Kingston (c) def. Kevin Owens via pinfall to retain the title


I was happy for Kofi getting his moment at WrestleMania but let's all be real here. He sucks in this role. The honeymoon period is over and let's go ahead and put the belt on someone else. Kofi is one of those babyfaces that does better chasing rather than actually having the belt.

Color me surprised though as I thought Kevin Owens was pegged to take the title from Kofi here, but Kofi squeezed out a win in his first singles title defense - without the help of the New Day in his corner to boot.

By the way, what the fuck is up with that dent in Kofi's chest and that huge bump on his abs?

I still don't get what was the point of Kevin Owens removing Kofi's shoes and tossing them into the crowd. My best guess, like I jokingly mentioned to a friend last night, was that maybe KO thought they were the source of Kofi's powers like Hammer Man? (Shrugs) Who knows, I don't write nor book this shit...

Hammer Man for those not old enough to remember that SatAM cartoon...

Brock Lesnar wins the Men's Money in the Bank contract def. Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Randy Orton, Andrade and Ali


"Brock wins LOL" is starting to become the new meme that needs to be on a T-Shirt or something.
Everyone seemed like they saw the Women's Money in the Bank earlier in the evening and said, "Hold my beer" in terms of crazy and stupid bumps to take from bell to bell. I thought Finn Balor either had a death wish or must have pissed in all of the boys' Cheerios to get beaten like a drum in this match. His spine has to be in turmoil after the sick bumps that he took in this match.

Dat bounce, yo. 

My back hurt watching that.

Ali and Andrade trying to kill themselves here.


Going into this match I was pulling for Andrade to win this 200%. Anyone else seemed like a waste of time. Drew McIntyre doesn't need it as he can easily shift into the main event picture by the end of the year. Finn Balor is a former Universal Champion and current Intercontinental Champion; they aren't moving him up the ladder anytime soon. Randy Orton can jump back into the main event scene anytime he pleases. Mustafa Ali can play up the underdog role and slowly move his way up the ladder to recover some of that lost momentum that he gave towards Kofi's cause earlier this year. WWE can pull the trigger on Ricochet anytime since he's new to the main roster and they haven't beaten the tar out of his credibility (yet). And Baron Corbin... (Busts out laughing) Just no. They tried that already and John Cena personally made sure that WWE avoided that travesty. To be fair though, Corbin did a hell of a job thrashing guys in this match. I'll admit that much. He's a good hand to have around if you just need a big guy throwing around guys into furniture. I wouldn't want him the ring general for any of my matches though.


Afterthoughts: 


I think Chris Jericho's sarcastic tweet hit the nail on the head concerning the finish of the Men's Money in the Bank match in a nutshell.


As funny as this meme is, it's also a very sad, yet very true symbolic representation of the booking in the main event. 

As much as I laughed hysterically at the finish, it's a bad look all around and shows that Vince McMahon has absolutely no faith in pushing new stars, despite having the largest talent roster in company history.

I didn't mention it earlier in this write-up but BotchaMania's Facebook page has a wonderful post on all of the referee fuck-ups and botches from this PPV.
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