The World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest vs. Seth Rollins match at the WWE Money in the Bank 2024 Premium Live Event from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, sparked controversy.
The bout had the following conditions: if Priest retained the title, Rollins could not challenge for it again as long as Priest held it, and if Rollins won, Priest would have to leave The Judgment Day. Rollins hit with the falcon arrow down the stretch, and the referee stopped counting after two, despite Priest never kicking out.
There was a delay before Drew McIntyre walked out with MITB to cash it in, and the bell rang. McIntyre executed the future shock DDT before Priest clotheslined McIntyre, who then delivered a powerful kick to Priest before CM Punk arrived and attacked McIntyre. Punk assaulted him with a chair, choked him with a cable, and nailed him in the face with the title. Priest defeated McIntyre by pinning him.
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
There had been speculation that it was a referee error, that Priest forgot to kick out, or that McIntyre’s interruption was timed incorrectly. While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that Priest did not kick out.
Meltzer said, “I had asked around, and basically the story I heard was that he didn’t kick out. I think there’s a possibility that there might have been a timing…. this is not what I was told when I watched it [but[ maybe there was a timing thing where it was supposed to be like one or two, and then the music hits, and then because Drew’s coming down right away. And then maybe like that’s supposed to be the thing in the music, but when I did ask it was, ‘he just didn’t kick out.’ And you know, that was that so whether he was rocked, whatever it was, I don’t know. But yeah, yeah, you know, there was a very, very noticeable thing and Levaue even was asked about it after the show, and just kind of gave this thing of, well, ‘I need to talk to the referee,’ because he basically said, yeah, the guy didn’t kick out and he talks the referee way held up the count. But he also said it like Triple H, ‘I’m doing this,’ which basically saying, ‘wink wink.’ The storyline. But then he started with everyone’s going to be on Priest’s case, and Priest wrestled such a great match, and why be so negative, you know, everyone’s gonna talk about how he screwed up. But it’s like he had such a great match. So that was kind of like the way it was, so yeah, it was he didn’t kick out, and they said that he didn’t kick out, and the referee stopped the count, and the referee shouldn’t stop the count, but the ref in that situation. Boy, did he have no choice. Boy, did he have no choice. What could he have done?”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
