WWE’s Money in the Bank qualifying matches continued on tonight’s episode of Raw where two superstars moved on to this year’s event which takes place in under two weeks. Every year, one woman and one man fight off five others superstars to ascend the top of a ladder and grab the Money in the Bank briefcase. If they can do so, they will secure a future title shot whenever they want, valid for one calendar year. On SmackDown, three wrestlers qualified for their respective matches and they will now go up against recent NXT call-up Lyra Valkyria and Chad Gable.
Valkyria has been a force to be reckoned with since her debut on the main roster in April following the WWE Draft. As a former NXT Women’s Champion, she has quickly won fans over with her in-ring abilities. Her debut match was against Dakota Kai in the Queen of the Ring tournament opening round which she won, making it all the way to the finals before falling to Nia Jax. Still, she has shown a lot of heart and resilience, refusing to back down from a fight. She warded off both Shayna Baszler and Kairi Sane — two of WWE’s most dominant female wrestlers — to earn the opportunity at her first Money in the Bank ladder match.
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As for Gable, it was unclear if he’d even be able to show up for the match given the state he was left in after last week’s WWE Raw. He appeared, claiming that you can’t kill him, and ended up pulling out a sneaky victory over Bronson Reed and Braun Strowman. He and the Alpha Academy are undergoing some emotional turmoil as their work around their dysfunctional relationship.
So far the match card for Money in the Bank is fairly scarce considering the show is just 12 days away. In years past Money in the Bank has featured roughly seven matches, but even with the ladder matches it’s still only sitting at three total. That third match is Seth Rollins challenging Damian Priest for the World Heavyweight Championship which Priest claimed he wanted to cash in on Rollins out of respect, but ended up cashing in his contract on Drew McIntyre instead. With LA Knight and Logan Paul in the midst of a storyline for the United States Championship, that will most likely be added to the card as well, though only time will tell.
Stay tuned to Comicbook for updates on WWE.
