WWE Money in the Bank 2018 review: What we learned, takeaways, future projections

RAW Women’s Championship Match

Nia Jax (c) vs. Ronda Rousey

What we learned: We learned quite a bit with this match, didn’t we? First of all, we learned that Ronda Rousey is the real deal. I’ll be the first to admit that I was a bit hesitant when she arrived on the scene, but she’s been extremely entertaining to watch. While the promos and such still need some work, her in-ring performances have been so much fun. She looked great in her debut at WrestleMania, but could she get it done on her own? She answered with a resounding yes on Sunday night. She took a lot of hard bumps in this matchup and showed all of her critics, including myself, that she can do this. Great stuff.

As for Nia Jax, we learned that she’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in the women’s division for a long time to come. This was one of the best performances of her career and all the more impressive because there was a lot of pressure on her to perform with so many eyes on this match due to the Rousey factor. She showed no signs of being overwhelmed in the moment, and this match was action-packed from start to finish with no down time to speak of. Even the bear hug portion of the bout was entertaining (take notes, Big Cass), and I enjoyed this from start to finish.

And speaking of the finish,this went down exactly as I thought it would. Well … almost. I predicted that Natalya would win the Money in the Bank match and turn on Ronda, but Alexa Bliss coming in and stealing the show worked just as well if not better. Ronda still technically won the match since Bliss hit her with the briefcase first, causing Nia to be disqualified. She then chucked Rousey over the announce table (think she ever thought she would do that?) before turning her attention to her former best friend and stealing her title to become a five-time champion. Perfectly done all the way through here.

What’s next: The fallout should be incredible. It’s a bit surprising that creative would go back to Bliss vs. Jax after their long program leading into Nia’s win at WrestleMania, but at least we know this works. Nia will certainly be out for revenge, and a match between she and Bliss will happen soon, perhaps at Extreme Rules. As for Ronda Rousey, you have to think that there are big plans for her at SummerSlam, so it will be interesting to see where she fits into this whole thing. I just can’t say enough good things about how all of this played out and am very much looking forward to watching the continuation.