WWE can’t give into the Logan Paul temptation at Money in the Bank

The Post’s Joseph Staszewski brings you around the world of professional wrestling every Tuesday in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle.

There are plenty of reasons why Logan Paul would be the perfect person to win Money in the Bank — WWE just needs to ignore them.

Paul, 28, is a crossover star in a way, no one else in WWE is right now with his own podcast, 23 million YouTube followers, and 25 million on Instagram. In comparison, Roman Reigns, who now has the fifth longest world championship reign in WWE history, has seven million on Instagram.

So Paul getting to grab the briefcase on Saturday at he O2 Arena in London and earn a shot at any championship at any time and any place would be picked up and played up by every major sports and entertainment outlet. It will create endless buzz every time Paul is around in anticipation of his cash-in. It would give WWE an easy vehicle to make him a champion in a way that would add to this heel persona.

It sounds way too good to be true – and it is.

The rumor around Money in the Bank is that WWE wants the men’s cash-in to be successful again after Theory made use of his for the United States championship last year – in still one of the worst booking decisions of the Triple H era to fix a Vince McMahon error.

While WWE is acknowledging the contract can be applied for any championship, having it again used on a non-world title would only further diminish its importance.

So with Roman Reigns’ historic run unlikely to end via cash-in, that leaves Seth Rollins and the “workhorse” world heavyweight championship. Paul is the exact opposite of a “workhorse”. He isn’t wrestling every week on Raw or on the live event loops. He’s a special attraction who has already main-evented a pay-per-view against Reigns.

So unless Paul wins Money in the Banks and is going to cash in and beat Rollins and then quickly drop the title back – the YouTube sensation being the world heavyweight champion defeats the purpose the belt was created for just months into its existence.  

Secondly, I’ve always been of the belief that a Money in the Bank winner should be held by someone on TV regularly and be a vehicle to elevate a talent to the main event — unlike when Brock Lesnar won in 2021. Paul fits neither of those two criteria and him winning will feel like a reversal back to some tired Vince McMahon booking. The outcome could give us some insight into how much control the executive chairman is wielding over creative right now.

It’s why Damian Priest or L.A. Knight would make much better choices – both are on the cusp of the main event and would bring strong stories along with them.

Paul instead should be used as a decoy in the match – the guy no one wants to see come out on top after not even having to win a qualifying match. You tease it happening, so your actual winner gets a bigger pop.

On paper, Paul appears to be a clear Money in the Bank choice. Let’s hope WWE tosses that paper aside.  

Snake Charming

It was very interesting that at this stage of The Bloodline story, The Usos’ have turned their ire to Paul Heyman – even calling him a snake within the family over the past 40 years. It makes me wonder if the elders will come for Heyman when his is finally removed from the group to allow the family to reunite. And does Heyman lead a heel group against a reunited Bloodline? There is still next week, but I’d also like to see The Usos actually come to the aid of Solo Sikoa against The Brawling Brutes to put some doubt into his mind.

Money Melo

The first night of NXT’s Gold Rush was supposed to be about Seth Rollins vs. Bron Breakker. And while the match absolutely delivered both in the ring and the ratings, it felt like an even bigger night for NXT champion Carmelo Hayes. He got treated in high regard by Rollins in a backstage segment, was cooking Baron Corbin on the mic for much of their promo and he and Trick Williams came to Rollins’ aid after he was attacked by Finn Balor. That turned into Hayes appearing on Raw and wrestling — and losing — to Balor. It feels like the Rollins-Hayes dream match is inevitable. Maybe Survivor Series?

The 10 Count

Loved The Miz attacking Tommaso Ciampa from behind and beating him down with viscious intent before their match. Miz can get caught up in comedy too much sometimes and kind of play The Miz. Adding an edge back is good for the character and this feud.

While MJF and Adam Cole have no real reason to work together in a quest for tag team gold, their teaming up in the blind-draw tournament is certainly a new story for the AEW champion. It kills some time before they need to square off again and Cole being able to manipulate MJF’s needing to prove he’s better than everyone is different than anything we have seem from the Long Islander.

Finn Balor was excellent in the video package on Raw, that evil intent back in his eyes. WWE has done about as much as they could have to make his match against Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank feel important after Balor’s character had lost a little cache.

Von Wagner’s childhood story about dealing with trigonocephaly — a condition where the baby’s skull has fused together before birth – as a child really tugged at the heartstrings. It was also shot and produced superbly. Let’s see if this leads to anything big for him.

Johnny TV (John Morrison) joining the QTV group actually makes some sense. But that segment — outside Anthony Bowen’s important moment of the crowd chanting “He’s gay” in support of him — led by the unestablished Harley Cameron, might have been one of the worse and coldest reveals of a talent in a while.     

Athena has really found something persona and style-wise in Ring of Honor. She cut a fantastic promo after a super physical match with Keira Horgan to retain her world championship and end their trilogy and last Sunday beat Billie Starkz on the Forbidden Door pre-show. Athena could become a good heel foil for Kris Stantlander down the road and her versus Willow Knightingale in the Owen Hart Tournament semis will be a great showcase.  

Miro seems to think going godless, sexless and titles is the way back to glory. His promos feel different than anything in AEW right now. He and Andrade — who is becoming Collision’s can’t-miss workhorse feel right at home on the show.

Thought Isla Dawn and Alba Frye came off like they belonged against Shayna Baszler and Ronda Rousey, even in defeat. Have a feeling WWE will introduce redesigns of the men’s and women’s tag championship now that both sides are unified or else why do it? Rousey also finally get her “competition” with Liv Morgan back earlier than expected.

Becky Lynch has the amazing talent of making even WWE’s hottest and brightest talent look a wee bit less impressive compared to her as she did with her “main-event-side-piece” line to Rhea Ripley on Raw. It’s a blessing and a curse — as talent will need to step up to meet her eventually.

While Cody Rhodes’ story with Dominik Mysterio is a toothless means to a Brock Lesner end, it got his dog Pharaoh making his “Monday Night Raw” debut and a pretty hilarious tweet from wife Brandi as people called for her, too. I know Brandi was always better as a heel, but man — as a mom now — she could certainly add to her husband’s presentation at the right moment.

Wrestler of the Week

Bryan Danielson, AEW

“The American Dragan” added to his legacy by wrestling with a broken forearm and producing a Forbidden Door main event with Kazuchika Okada that lives up to the hype and still left some things for a rematch. Danielson adjusted the way the worked, the finish and got to be the first person to tap out the multi-time IWGP world champion for the first since 2015.

Match to Watch

Becky Lynch vs. Zelina Vega vs. Trish Stratus vs. Zoey Stark vs. Bayley vs. Iyo Sky, Women’s Money in the Bank match (Sunday, 8 p.m., Peacock )

The women’s field is absolutely loaded and each one would make a fantastic Mrs. Money in the Bank. But what makes this fascinating are the two main stories coming to this. Zoey Stark and Trish Stratus come in feud with Becky Lynch. Can The Man overcome that and Iyo Sky and Bayley has plenty of internal strife between them in Damage CTRL. Does one cost the other? With three established star and three women trying to get there, WWE’s decision will be fascinating.

Honorable mention: Samoa Joe vs. Roderick Strong, Owen Hart Foundation Memorial Cup (AEW Collision)

Around the Ring

• AEW officially announced All Out for the United Center on Sept. 2.

• The “AEW Fight Forever” video games finally launches to the public on Thursday — Wednesday if you order the digital only All Elite Edition