Show

Money in the Bank

Match Results

Time and location

Sunday, Jun 17 | 7 PMET/4 PMPT

Allstate Arena
Chicago, IL

Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins def. Elias

CHICAGO — Seth Rollins is a self-professed fighting Intercontinental Champion who has lived up to the moniker, but he didn’t have an answer for Elias at WWE Money in the Bank — that is, until he used a time-honored (if slightly underhanded) tactic to pin his most dogged challenger yet.

Seth Rollins keeps the pressure on Elias in The Kingslayer's bid to defend the Intercontinental Championship at WWE Money in the Bank 2018. Courtesy of WWE Network

That Rollins resorted to chicanery is a surprise for a champion who has made constant competition the founding principle of his reign. However, it’s also a fitting end to this particular cycle, which has seen Rollins and Elias trade sneak attacks and the occasional exchange in tag team action, albeit little to no one-on-one confrontation. Elias took advantage of Rollins’ unfamiliarity throughout the match, catching The Kingslayer with a clothesline in the opening moments that landed him neck-first on the apron. The pain from the impact rendered the champion helpless against a mugging from the guitar-slinging challenger, to say nothing of a rolling Cobra Clutch that seemed as though it could end the match in a submission.

Even as The Architect slowly but surely began to rally, the lingering damage to his neck took something out of his high-risk, high-reward offense, with additional damage also sustained to his knee (tweaked off a leapfrog) and ribs (off a blocked Frog Splash). Superplex-Falcon Arrow combo aside, Rollins was fighting firmly from underneath, and when Elias attempted to finish the job by pulverizing the rest of Rollins’ body in a brief scrap on the outside, The Kingslayer was forced to operate on instinct and adrenaline. The champion reversed Drift Away into a roll-up that was quickly countered and countered again, and when Rollins finally found himself on top, he grabbed a handful of Elias’ pants, using the extra leverage to get the most hard-gotten pin of his title reign.

Elias was understandably frustrated that the decision was allowed to stand. After all, he had more than proven himself as a worthy challenger, but he forgot the one founding rule of a fight that Rollins learned long, long ago: When it comes down to it, win by any means necessary.

WWE.com