Something strange is going on with Cody Rhodes

It’s one thing to predict the winners and losers at Money in the Bank 2023, but how about taking a guess at the match order for the event?

Money in the Bank takes place today (Sat., July 1) from The O2 Arena in London, England. It begins at 2 pm ET with the Kickoff show leading right on into the main course at 3 pm ET on Peacock in the U.S., WWE Network everywhere else, or your local cable pay-per-view provider.

WWE has announced seven different segments for the main card of this event. Here is my subjective view of how important each of these seven segments rank, ordered from most important to least important.

1. The Usos vs. Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa
2. Men’s ladder match
3. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
4. Women’s ladder match
5. Cody Rhodes vs. Dominik Mysterio
6. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez
7. GUNTHER vs. Matt Riddle

Main event

The Bloodline civil war tag match is the probable main event of this card. Neither ladder match has enough main event star power, and Seth Rollins’ world heavyweight championship is still a consolation prize. Just about all of Roman Reigns’ PPV matches are placed in the main event over the last year, and this one should be no different.

However, there is a strange thing going on with Cody Rhodes vs. Dominik Mysterio. SmackDown commentator Michael Cole stressed multiple times on the go-home show that Rhodes vs. Mysterio is a “massive main event” match at Money in the Bank. I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not, because it’s such an absurd claim.

This could be typical WWE speak in terms of over-hyping a match to sound bigger than it actually is, like WWE just did in May with its TRIPLE MAIN EVENT billing for Night of Champions. In most cases there is a way to justify such hyperbole. In this case, there is no way to justify that phrasing, as Cody vs. Dom is at best the fifth most important match on this card.

This makes me think that WWE has a big angle planned for Cody’s match. For example, a surprise return of Brock Lesnar could be in the works. I don’t think that’s nearly enough to give Cody vs. Dom the main event spot on this card, however.

The Money in the Bank ladder matches

One of the Money in the Bank ladder matches will open this card, and I’ll put the other one right in the middle of the card in Segment 4. WWE has a strong back end of the card in terms of workrate with the Bloodline civil war and Rollins vs. Balor, so I want to put the better ladder match in the opening spot to kick the show off as hot as possible. That means the men’s ladder match goes in Segment 1, and the women go in segment 4.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Men’s ladder match
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4: Women’s ladder match
Segment 5:
Segment 6:
Segment 7: The Usos vs. Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa

Everything else

Of the four remaining matches, I think GUNTHER and Rousey should go early in the night. The idea is to get the least important matches out of the way after the hot opener. I will keep some space between the women’s matches, so Rousey goes in Segment 2 and GUNTHER goes in Segment 3.

That leaves Rollins and Rhodes for Segment 5 and Segment 6, in some order. I think I’ll fall for WWE’s hype of Rhodes vs. Mysterio a little bit and put it closer towards the main event, in Segment 6. Rollins and the Bloodline are both stronger workrate matches anyway, so it could make sense to break it up with nuclear heat magnet Dominik and a potential Lesnar return in between.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at Money in the Bank 2023, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times:

Segment 1: Men’s ladder match (19 minutes)
Segment 2: Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (9)
Segment 3: GUNTHER vs. Matt Riddle (12)
Segment 4: Women’s ladder match (15)
Segment 5: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor (18)
Segment 6: Cody Rhodes vs. Dominik Mysterio (11)
Segment 7: The Usos vs. Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa (21)

That’s my prediction for the match order at Money in the Bank 2023. What’s yours?