WWE Adds Second Show To MITB UK Weekend With Cody Rhodes And More

It was announced last month that WWE's Money in the Bank premium live event would emanate from the O2 Arena in London on July 1. Following a positive response to the announcement, the company has now revealed that "WWE SmackDown" will take place the night before MITB at the same venue, with the show airing live and in a primetime slot from the United Kingdom for the first time in history. The promotional graphic released alongside the news features several WWE talents, including 2023 men's Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes, Seth "Freakin" Rollins, Jimmy and Jey Uso, and Drew McIntyre. 

The details regarding Money in the Bank came on the back of WWE's Clash at the Castle event last September, which was the promotion's first major show in the United Kingdom since SummerSlam 1992. Clash at the Castle was headlined by UK-born McIntyre challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Once the occasion was over, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque disclosed that the premium live event had broken several records, including becoming WWE's largest European gate ever.

The "SmackDown" episode set for the O2 Arena on June 30 will be the organization's first TV taping in the UK since November 2019, when the blue-branded show and "WWE Raw" were taped on the same night in Manchester, England. Before that, WWE had been filming its flagship shows twice a year across the pond since October 2004. Those tapings started following the discontinuation of the annual UK-exclusive Insurrextion and Rebellion premium live events.