There was controversy in 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.
The bout had the stipulation that if Priest retained it, Rollins couldn’t challenge for the title again as long as Priest held it, but if Rollins won, Priest would have to leave The Judgment Day. Down the stretch, Rollins hit with the falcon arrow, and the referee stopped counting at 2 despite Priest never kicking out.
There was a delay, and then Drew McIntyre walked out with MITB so he could cash it in, and the bell rang. Drew hit the future shock DDT before Priest clotheslined Drew, who then hit a big kick to Priest before CM Punk showed up and attacked Drew. Punk hit him with a chair, choked him with a cable, and nailed him in the face with the title. Priest pinned Drew for the win.
There had been speculation as to whether it was a mistake on the referee’s part, whether Priest forgot to kick out, or if there was a timing issue with Drew interrupting. While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that Priest simply didn’t 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?”
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