On Saturday night, there was quite a ruckus at WWE Money In The Bank 2024, which held at the iconic Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. The highlight was the electrifying match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, where Damian Priest defended his title against Seth Rollins.
The rules of the match stated that should Priest successfully retain his title, Rollins would not be able to issue a challenge for the berthing as long as Priest held the championship. On the contrary, if Rollins emerged victorious, the condition was that Priest would have to exit from The Judgment Day.
Towards the culmination of this high-stakes match, a Falcon Arrow manoeuvre was executed by Rollins. Even though Priest didn’t manage to kick out of this move, the match referee halted the count after the second.
The plot spiralled when Drew McIntyre made a dramatic entry cashing in his Money In The Bank briefcase. McIntyre launched a Future Shock DDT on Priest, who counterattacked with a clothesline. However, McIntyre was blindsided by an unexpected yet powerful kick from Priest. The tension reached its peak when CM Punk stormed into the scene and assaulted McIntyre with a chair, a cable, and even a face hit with the championship belt. This extraordinary chain of events resulted in Priest pinning McIntyre and maintaining his status as the World Heavyweight Champion.
Pundits and fans alike conjecture whether it was an oversight on the referee’s part, a failure on Priest’s part to perform a kick out, or if McIntyre’s sudden intrusion disrupted the match’s timing.
Dave Meltzer, a leading reporter at Wrestling Observer Radio, expressed his view stating that Priest didn’t manage to kick out as planned, in fact, he quoted,
“I’ve made some inquiries and the general consensus seems to be that he didn’t manage a kick out. It is possible, even though I wasn’t told this when I was watching it, that maybe there was a timing thing at play here. Perhaps the scheduled interruption, roll of music, and Drew’s subsequent entrance caused a timing disruption. But what I was told is that Priest didn’t kick out and seemed a bit dazed. Even Levaue, who was questioned about it after the show, acknowledged this by giving a vague response and hinting that it was part of the storyline. Then he made a point about focusing on how great the match was instead of Priest’s error. So yeah, Priest didn’t kick out, everyone acknowledged it and agreed that the referee indeed should not have stopped the count, but in that situation, the ref had pretty much no choice.”
It will be interesting to see what lies ahead for McIntyre after Punk thwarted his championship aspirations once again.
A footage of the contentious pinning attempt can be found below:
Seth Rollins should be the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion right now💯Damian Priest didn’t even kick out before the 3 count. The ref screwed Seth😑 #WWEMITB pic.twitter.com/O0IylyorNH
— Vondre Adams | Papi 500 (@big_papiMHG) July 7, 2024