WWE Money in the Bank 2023 Post-Show Media Scrum: Cody Rhodes, London WrestleMania, Drew McIntyre, NXT Europe

WWE held a post-show press conference following Saturday’s Money in the Bank 2023 event in London, England.

Some of the notable highlights include:

• During his portion of the press conference, Cody Rhodes gave his thoughts about the idea of WWE holding a future WrestleMnaia event in London. Rhodes stated “I don’t know if John knew something I didn’t know, though. I thought he was about to say it’s happening. Like, “Oh wow”. He’s the man, so John can say what he wants. Again, though, he might know something we all don’t know. So I hope that does happen for London. That would be very special and I’d be all about it.“
• On the topic of some of the fans chants during the event being potentially inappropriate or distracting from the matches, Rhodes stated “I am of the belief that if the crowd — and this is an area where I disagreed with my father actually — but I’m of the belief if the crowd wants to play, let ’em, let it ride, let it happen. Now, be mindful, sometimes you got — I particularly have a younger fan base — a lot of young kids. I don’t know if all these chants are acceptable for them. So, if you guys are gearing up as London, as the United Kingdom, gearing up for a potential WrestleMania, maybe keep that in mind.“
• On the topic of if winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship would count towards his “finishing the story” storyline, Rhodes stated “I don’t wanna be a downer, but no. Now, winning the World Heavyweight Championship would be outstanding, it would be amazing. It is the title on the flagship show, Monday Night Raw. And what Seth is doing with it is a special thing. And you’re going to see that title will mean far more in five minutes. And then in 10 minutes — every second, it gains equity. But finishing the story was always, always, about the title that my dad didn’t get. And I’m not going to spoil anything because the Peacock people will murder me. But you’ll probably hear some news about my documentary at some point soon, finally, because these people have been filming me for gosh knows how long. And it’s covered a lot in there, as far as that’s what the story was. He really did hold it, and he held it in the Garden, and it ate me up. He never got it. So that’s finishing the story.“
• During his portion of the press conference, Damian Priest gave his thoughts about his Men’s Money in the Bank victory and potential of becoming a World Champion in the future. Priest stated “Being able to represent your culture, your heritage is always something important, especially for me. You know, Puerto Ricans love them a good flag. So, if I could represent it, it’s an honor. And to your point, being able to be the first Puerto Rican to do it since Pedro, it’s wild, and it’s because there’s been so many Puerto Rican legends since.“
• During his portion of the press conference, Seth Rollins stated that every time he defends his WWE World Heavyweight Championship, he is “building it up” in terms of prestige. Rollins stated “We knew from day one that that was gonna be the goal. You look at what Roman’s done for the Universal Title. It’s very special. There’s no comparison. We are working every single day, whether it’s here tonight, whether it’s Newcastle, whether it’s Sheffield, doesn’t matter where we go, what we’re doing, this title’s gonna be on the line anytime I can defend it, and that’s part of raising that prestige. Very old school in that way, you know? Very Ric Flair, very Bret Hart, very Triple H. And so that’s the way I’m going to do it, by hook or by crook, man. I’m going to fight, leave it all out there, and do my best.“
• During WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s portion of the media call, Levesque stated that Saturday’s Money in the Bank 2023 was the highest ever grossing arena event in WWE history and that this past Friday’s SmackDown show in London was the highest ever grossing SmackDown show in WWE history as well.
• On the topic of potential injuries from Money in the Bank 2023, Levesque stated that the only injury was someone had rolled their ankle on the stage on their way backstage. Levesque did not provide any other details nor who was the person who suffered the ankle injury.
• gave his thoughts on if WWE will actually hold a WrestleMania event in London in the future. Levesque stated “First of all, I’d like to say thank you to John Cena for putting me in an unenviable position right now. No matter what I say, I’m gonna get battered for it. Look, as I said earlier, I have been coming here since the early ‘90s, and it’s spectacular. Some of my favorite events here ever, and the favorite things I did in my career have happened here, even sometimes without the benefit of television or it being broadcast anywhere else. But we used to do the — what was it called? — Insurrection or whatever we did here, years ago here, and they were always amazing events. The crowd here, the people here, the reaction here is always off the charts. As far as WrestleMania goes, it’s tough. I wish it was that easy. I wish it was as easy to say as, “Like, man, that’s phenomenal there. Let’s go.” We’d be going to a lot of places. But I can say this. If you look at this year alone, 2023 alone, four of the last five premium live events that we have done have been in international destinations. And you can look back in the years prior to that, skip the COVID one, but look into the years prior to that. It’s not really been a common occurrence. Montreal sold out record sales. Puerto Rico sold out record sales. Saudi sold out record sales. London here sold out record sales. It bodes well for international. We are a global company. We intend to be a global company. We intend to be global. So never say never for any of it, right? The intent is there. It’s a lot more difficult than it appears, but the intent is there. And if there’s a way to get a lot of these international events done, we’re hell-bent on doing them.“
• On the topic of Drew McIntyre’s surprise return and reason for his lengthy absence from WWE, Levesque stated “It’s always a funny thing, the amount of speculation that happens around things. I read stuff. We see stuff all the time, right? Like, 75% of it is completely off base. If Drew had an issue, it’s news to me. He just was out with an injury and getting some stuff fixed. And while he was out, he had something else he wanted to get fixed. So we did it. And here he is. He’s an amazing performer. He is one of the highlight superstars in this time frame in this era. Thrilled to have him back. Hopefully he’s here for the rest of his career. That’s how I feel about it. He and I speak about it all the time. When all this stuff was coming up, it’s funny, we were talking on the phone here and there, and he’d be like, just laughing. Like, “Oh my God, have you read this now?” It just is what it is.“
• On the topic of the current status of WWE’s launch plans for NXT Europe, Levesque stated that those plans have been delayed due to WWE’s sale process to Endeavor and upcoming merger with UFC. Levesque stated “Yeah, it’s just slowed down the process. I think — I’m terrible with time — at some point, I don’t know, the end of the year, last year, whatever it is, we said in 2023 it would happen. Not having a crystal ball to see where everything was headed in that moment in time, obviously, this transition with this merger with UFC, with Endeavor, and TKO, it’s changed the time frame. But I think the intent is still the same. I mentioned it under the premise of WrestleMania and premium live events going global. We’re a global company. We’re looking to be everywhere. And I think as you pointed out, there are a lot of amazing talent here internationally. And we’d love to explore that and give them opportunities to shine on the biggest stage possible and see what we can do with that. It’s just going to take a little bit of time.”

WWE Money in the Bank 2023 post-show press conference full video:

Source: PostWrestling.com