Naomi’s hard work and perseverance have finally paid off. On June 7, she made history by winning a thrilling Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match, becoming the first Black woman to earn the title of Ms. Money in the Bank. The victory marks a major milestone in her career, giving her the coveted briefcase that guarantees a championship match anytime, anywhere, against the titleholder of her choice.
For Naomi, defeating Rhea Ripley, Alexa Bliss, Stephanie Vaquer, Roxanne Perez, and Giulia to capture her first opportunity at a singles title run in years, signifies what WWE brass believes in Naomi and her recently rebranded look, theme music, and attitude, only a few years after she and her former tag team partner, Sasha Banks (Banks is now at AEW wrestling as Mercedes Moné), walked out of the company during a May 16, 2022, episode of Raw.
The two Black women walked out over frustrations that they, the women’s world tag team champions at the time, were being wasted by WWE’s creative department, which at that point, effectively meant Vince McMahon.
Naomi’s heel turn has resulted in some of the best character work of her career, and as she told Variety ahead of the Premium Live Event, remaining in character for much of it, she felt like it was time for her character to evolve into something a little bit darker and more aggressive, especially after the storyline involving her attack on Jade Cargill.
“I’d been thinking about this for a while, about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do if I was going to change,” Naomi explained to the outlet. “I wanted to do something completely opposite and outside of the box, from the bright, the glow, the neon colors, and the bright, bubbly stuff. With what I did to Jade, and leaving a crime scene, it popped into my head – oh man, this is perfect. Caution tape is universal. Everybody knows what that means when they see it.”
Although happy with her new look and persona, Naomi remained somewhat apprehensive about how her character would be received by the fans, but the reaction to her so far has done nothing but reassure her that she made the right call.
“It’s everything that I wanted it to be,” she remarked. “It feels good to be able to change the audience perspective of me in such a quick period of time. That’s something I was definitely nervous about, because they’ve seen me as a good character and a ‘good girl’ for so long. To just completely switch it up – you never know how or if it’s going to work, or whether or not fans are going to buy it. That was a big challenge for me.”
Naomi continued, “To see the reaction and the live response, that’s what I care most about. The fans are engaging with me and interacting with me during the show, that’s the key. I definitely feel the energy, so I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing, which is being absolutely nasty.”
Naomi is Ms. Money In The Bank! The Women’s Division better proceed with caution #MITB
pic.twitter.com/aDVEEcXvyk
— USA Network (@USANetwork) June 7, 2025
Post-match, Naomi joined Big E on WWE’s post-Money in the Bank show and the former member of The New Day, who has watched Naomi over the past 16 years, gave her a bouquet of verbal flowers regarding the work she has put in and what she deserves.
“I have known this woman for 16 years and to see you have your best run now, to see everything you’ve been through over the last several years, to see your growth, to see you go to TNA, be a World Champion, to see everything you’ve put up and endured. And I know that the people and I, we don’t even know the half of everything that you had to deal with.”
Naomi, who was taken aback by the kind words from Big E, thanked him before admonishing the crowd for chanting that she deserved this moment after she appeared to nearly cry while sitting at the desk.
For Naomi, coming from feeling underutilized by WWE’s top brass to now being seen by McMahon’s son-in-law, and Chief Creative Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, as the next women’s world champion has to be validating, and the rest of the women’s roster had better proceed with caution unless they want to meet the business end of Naomi’s caution-tape-wrapped boots.
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