During Roxanne Perez vs IYO SKY vs La Catalina, all three women simply stood in the ring and hit each other.
One after another. Forearm. Response. Another response.
It resembled what might happen if an old boxing game collided with Final Fantasy’s turn-based combat system and nobody bothered to separate the files afterwards.
I liked it.
That was generally the feeling throughout this Women’s Money in the Bank qualifier on the September 21 episode of WWE RAW. There were bigger moves, prettier sequences and at least two occasions when the television production slightly betrayed what was about to happen, but the whole thing had an appealing international weirdness to it.
A Japanese wrestler, a Chilean AAA champion and a Texan were fighting in San Antonio for a place in a ladder match in New Orleans.
Professional wrestling remains an unnecessarily complicated way of deciding who gets a briefcase.
Everyone Had a Reason to Win
The interesting thing about IYO SKY vs Roxanne Perez vs La Catalina was that you could reasonably make a case for any of them winning.
IYO was perhaps the most obvious.
She’s spent enough time around ladders to qualify for some sort of trade certification, and she entered as the 2026 Queen of the Ring. Money in the Bank suits her particular brand of controlled lunacy because it rewards someone willing to jump from objects sensible people use primarily to change lightbulbs.
La Catalina offered the more intriguing option.
The Chilean (isn’t there another good Chilean in WWE right now?) is the AAA Reina de Reinas Champion and has travelled a wonderfully strange road back towards WWE after being released in 2021. She now occupies that slightly confusing wrestling space where somebody can appear on WWE television while carrying another promotion’s championship and leave viewers asking perfectly reasonable questions about where exactly she works.
She is associated with NXT.
She is also an AAA champion.
Who knows. Wrestling employment has become a bit like checking the ownership structure of an international conglomerate.
Then there was Roxanne Perez.
Perez felt, at least beforehand, like the least interesting winner. Her place within Judgment Day has grown slightly stale, and she has sometimes seemed to be the female member with the least emotional investment in whatever Judgment Day is arguing about this week.
Perhaps that is exactly why winning mattered.
Three Women, Three Shades of Red Hair
The opening few minutes established something important.
All three women had dyed red hair.
Perez had the darkest. IYO’s was brighter but less complete. La Catalina appeared to have negotiated directly with a neon sign.
This contributed absolutely nothing tactically.
It was still worth noticing.
More relevantly, IYO and Catalina briefly recognised that Perez was the common problem and worked together. Their double dropkick looked excellent, before the temporary arrangement inevitably collapsed because wrestling alliances in triple-threat matches have roughly the same life expectancy as supermarket sushi left on a radiator.
IYO brought the gymnastics. Catalina brought the power. Perez kept appearing at inconvenient moments.
Perez attempted an outrageous double pin and hit Catalina with a sharp hurricanrana, while IYO answered with a moonsault to the outside onto Perez.
Catalina then decided this wasn’t sufficiently irresponsible and launched herself from the turnbuckle with a crossbody onto both women.
There are easier ways of getting noticed at work.
La Catalina Made Herself Very Difficult to Ignore
For anyone approaching this primarily through searches for La Catalina 2026, this match was an extremely useful introduction.
She did not feel like the third person added to facilitate an IYO-Perez match.
Her offence had weight.
The corner attacks were particularly enjoyable, with Catalina throwing herself backside-first into both opponents before producing a Fisherwoman Suplex. She later countered Perez’s springboard offence by simply introducing her knees to the situation.
Perez still found ways back in.
At one stage she hit a double DDT on both opponents. Elsewhere, Perez’s Fujiwara armbar targeted Catalina’s arm, an apparently minor tactical detail that became increasingly important as the match went on.
That is the useful thing about wrestling when it is constructed properly. Something can happen seven minutes earlier without somebody immediately shouting that it will definitely matter later.
Then it matters later.
Catalina struggled to establish her La Reinera properly because of the damaged arm.
Cause. Effect.
Very old-fashioned, really.
IYO SKY Does IYO SKY Things
IYO remained the match’s gravitational centre.
A backbreaker on Catalina looked vicious. She found close falls on Perez. She fired a missile dropkick into both opponents. She continued moving around the ring with that peculiar IYO SKY quality where ordinary wrestling ropes appear to operate under slightly different laws of physics when she approaches them.
The match began looking appropriately battered as it neared the finish.
All three showed exhaustion. Moves became slightly more desperate. Opportunities became shorter.
Then came one of my favourite tiny details.
Roxanne Perez Protecting La Catalina Was Brilliant
Perez and Catalina ended up seated together in the corner awaiting IYO’s Bullet Train attack.
Catalina was positioned slightly ahead of Perez. Before IYO arrived, Perez subtly pulled her tighter against her own body.
It lasted seconds.
It was also excellent.
With Catalina held tightly against Perez, there was less space for Catalina’s body to snap backwards into her when IYO’s knees arrived. The two could absorb the collision together rather than Catalina effectively being driven into Perez as a second impact.
Nobody mentioned it.
Why would they?
The purpose was not to create a memorable television moment. It was two wrestlers protecting each other while simultaneously pretending they wanted to inflict grievous bodily harm upon one another.
That contradiction is professional wrestling reduced to its purest form.
Twenty seconds later they can go back to trying to pin each other.
You Could See One Spot Coming. It Didn’t Matter
Another small moment was worth mentioning precisely because it wasn’t perfect.
Perez and Catalina were positioning for IYO’s incoming offence, and the camera briefly caught IYO’s legs moving across the frame toward the turnbuckle.
You knew what was coming.
Perez and Catalina were also visibly arranging themselves into the required position.
Was the illusion slightly broken?
Yes.
Did it ruin anything?
Not remotely.
There is something strangely endearing about occasionally seeing the machinery underneath wrestling. Three people are trying to create something dangerous while cameras surround them and thousands of people watch. Occasionally you notice somebody moving into position.
Nobody died of disappointment.
IYO hit the Bullet Train.
Then she landed the Over the Moon Moonsault on Catalina.
Perez, crucially, moved.
IYO had just hit her finisher and enjoyed approximately enough time to register that fact before Perez returned and hit PopRox.
One, two, three.
What Is Happening With Roxanne Perez in 2026?
Perhaps the more interesting question coming out of the match is this.
Roxanne Perez in 2026 has occasionally felt caught between versions of herself.
Judgment Day gives her visibility but also risks making her another component within a faction that constantly generates its own internal noise. Perez does not necessarily need more people around her. Her best quality has always been the sense that, underneath the presentation, she’s a wrestler capable of solving problems very quickly.
This match brought some of that back.
She did not overpower Catalina.
She did not outfly IYO.
She survived both.
Perez attacked Catalina’s arm, cut off IYO’s aerial opportunities, and, when the decisive opening appeared, stole the match immediately.
There is potentially an exit route from Judgment Day somewhere in that.
Perez already feels slightly less committed to the group’s excesses than some of those around her. Money in the Bank could exaggerate that distance. A briefcase creates selfishness almost automatically because wrestling has spent decades teaching people that friendship is lovely until somebody receives a title opportunity.
Whether WWE actually takes Perez towards a babyface turn is another question.
But suddenly, she has somewhere to go.
That matters.
Because before the bell, Perez was the woman I least wanted to win.
Fourteen minutes later, I understood why she did.
That is a reasonably good use of television.
Three chased one briefcase.
Perez waited for the gap.
The moon missed Texas.
