PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

ONGOING WWE MONEY IN THE BANK 2023 PRESS CONFERENCE COVERAGE

Welcome to PWInsider.com's live, ongoing WWE Money in the Bank 2023 press conference coverage.

Kayla Braxton was the host.

The first talent out was Cody Rhodes.  He noted his back wasn't feeling great.  He talked up the idea of a Wrestlemania coming to London and said perhaps John Cena knows something "we" don't and put over the UK fans.

When asked about his momentum coming out of Wrestlemania, he said John Cena told him he can be the champ without holding the title and to keep an eye on the numbers in the different markets and merchandise.  Cody said he has and he feels his momentum is going in the right direction but he came back specifically with one goal in mind - the WWE title.

On crowd reactions and chants, Cody said that he feels if the crowd wants to play, let them play.  He said that if London is gearing up for a Wrestlemania, keep that in mind but you don't get that in every market and place they go.  It's something special.  Let the fans rock.  He sometimes he has to ask what the meaning of the chants are and whether they are good or bad.  The idea is to bring the audience and the volume up, not down.

Cody said that winning the World Heavyweight Championship would be important but it wouldn't be closing his personal story.  That story was always about the title Dusty Rhodes didn't get.  There's a documentary coming from Peacock soon that they've been filming him forever for.  The World Heavyweight title is something that is gaining importance by the minute but that's not the end goal for him, even if he wins it.

The next talents were the MITB winners, Damian Priest and IYO SKY.  Bayley was with SKY.  

When asked about issues between the two as if they were real, they went into storyline mode and said they won and did what they said they were going to do.

Damian Priest said to be in this position was mindblowing.

They were asked a storyline story about whether they were going to ask advice from former MITB holders.  Priest said he doesn't ask advice on how to do a chokeslam.  It would be silly not to take advice from someone who's been there but he's going to do his own thing.

Priest was asked about Bad Bunny, so Priest blew him off as well as the idea of him joining Judgment Day.  Priest said the person asking the question had a better chance of joining Judgment Day and that was a zero chance.

Priest said the last question better be good.

The last question was again, storyline, about whether Priest and Finn Balor had any issues.  Priest said no and that he wasn't there to cash in on Finn.

IYO was asked who she wanted to cash in on and Bayley said they needed to be patient.

Lots of silly storyline questions as if we were in the Bill Apter era - and I love Bill.

Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan came out next.  They said "jealousy" may be why Shayna Baszler attacked Ronda Rousey tonight.

World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins was out next.  He said that he wants to defend the title in the vein of Ric Flair and Bret Hart and names like that.  He wants to bring prestige to the title.

Rollins said Finn beat the hell out of him tonight and he loves a crowd that cheers who they want to see win.  He felt the love out there and it was a good time.

Rollins praised Carmelo Hayes and said he would love to get in the ring with him.  He joked that if he didn't say Nathan Frazier, Frazier will ask why he didn't give him the rub.  He said there's a lot of really great talents in NXT.

Rollins was asked about the "threat" of Damian Priest cashing in on him.   Rollins went into story mode and said he knew there was a chance Damian could get involved tonight and he was prepared but it didn't seem that Finn Balor was.  MITB changed Seth's life and he hopes it can change Priest's life, but not at Seth's expense.

Paul Levesque was the final guest.  He praised the UK and the UK media.  He said it's always one of his favorite places to be on tour.  He said that he loves that the fans come here and make a spectacle of themselves from start to finish.  It was an amazing week for them on tour and it'll close out in Cardiff.

Tonight was the highest grossing arena event in the history of WWE itself.  Last night was the highest grossing Smackdown in history.  They had over 37,000 fans over the last few nights.  They'll have official numbers soon but sponsorship, viewership and social media engagement were the highest in MITB history.

He was happy to announce the only injury tonight was someone walking back from the ring rolling their ankle on the walk back, but he didn't want to identify who.

On LA Knight, Levesque said "Good things happen to those who wait."

Levesque praised GUNTHER's work and said he beats the living crap out of you better than anyone else.  He talked up Drew McIntyre's return.

John Cena didn't have anything to do this afternoon, so he decided to pop by.

Levesque praised Seth Rollins and IYO SKY's work.  He said Damian Priest showed what MITB means.

On the main event, Levesque said storytelling is what they do.  He said that all types of stories are great but sometimes things just hang with you after you see a great movie.  That's what these four were doing.  There's a moment where the biggest household name across the board and he's elevated tag teams to main eventing Wrestlemania and so many others.  His hat is off to everyone involved.

Levesque was asked about Wrestlemania coming to London one day.  He joked that he wanted to thank Cena for putting him in a situation where he's going to be ripped no matter what he says.  He put over past events here but said Mania is tough.  He wishes it was that easy but he can say this - four of the last five premium events have been in international destinations.  That wasn't a common occurrence.    They are a global company and intend to be so never say never.  The intent is there and it's a lot more difficult than it appears but if there's a way to get the big international events done, he intends to do them.

He was asked about another European show in the next year.  HHH said there's not a place in the world that doesn't know who or what WWE does.  It's  just a matter of geography of gettiing there and factoring in live TV and the amount of people you need to get to those places to put on that spectacle.  That all takes a lot of planning and logistics but they are working on it.  They want to be everywhere in the future and be a global company.

Levesque said locking Drew McIntyre down is a priority.  He said if Drew had an issue, it was news to him.  He said Drew was out getting something fixed.  He said he's a highlight star in this era and he hopes Drew is with him for the rest of his career.  

Levesque was asked about NXT Europe and where things stand on that front.  HHH said the company being acquired slowed down the process.  They said it would happen in 2023 but he didn't have a crystal ball to know what was going to happen.  He said the planning is still the same.  There are a lot of amazing international talents and they want to explore it and give them that stage.  Just give them a little time.

 

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!

• Tweet