It’s been a while since I wrote something, so I figured Money in the Bank was the best place to get myself back into the swing of things.
In my absence, you’ve no doubt been entertained by the other fantastic writers we have on show here at the brand spanking (relatively) new SLTDWrestling.com.
As usual, their stuff has been top notch, but my four eyes have been drawn to the seemingly never-ending contest between Duckman and Grant Cook to see who can shoehorn a song lyric into an article title.
Today, my tuppence-worth has been well and truly thrown into the hat with my tenuously-titled Money (in the Bank) for Nothin’ and the Belt’s for Me. A bit of a stretch, but I think it works. Dire Straits FTW!
It may have escaped your notice, but WWE’s annual Money in the Bank (MITB) PPV happened this past Sunday. Seth Rollins was the latest man to be crowned Mr Money in the Bank, so I figured there was no better time to analyse the success, failure or impact that winning the lunchbox of destiny has had on the men who have climbed the ladder to try to be WWE’s next big star.
In my eyes, the concept for Money in the Bank was, initially, tremendous.
It came at a time when WWE needed something fresh to try to elevate up-and-coming stars to the next level in the same way that becoming Intercontinental Champion had in the 1980’s and early 90’s, and the King of the Ring had after that. King of the Ring had been off the PPV map for a good few years by the time the first Money in the Bank match was held at WrestleMania 21.
It grabbed our interest and let our imaginations run wild because although it was something we’d never seen before, it was a ridiculously simple idea. It wasn’t some convoluted way to push someone down our throats. It was a way to elevate fresh young talent to the next level. For someone to get to “the next level” all they had to do was literally climb the ladder and grab the brass ring. Genius right?
Well, that’s the purpose of today’s article. I’d be a liar if I said that every Money in the Bank winner has worked out. The proof’s in the pudding. They haven’t. But what I’m going to try to do is gauge how successful Money in the Bank has been in launching the careers of new stars since its inception way back in 2005.
We’ve been treated to 15 different Money in the Bank matches in the last 9 years. Initially, it was a once-a-year shot, with the match taking place at WrestleMania. Of course, that was before WWE decided to milk that cow dry by turning it into an annual PPV and giving us two matches, but that’s another story for another time.
I’m going to run down (and not in a Nick Hogan-esque way) all previous Money in the Bank winners and assess whether their wins worked out in the long run by giving my verdict at the end of each cash-in in dollar signs.
Go and make yourself a drink, sit down and join me for this wee trip down memory lane!
Event: WrestleMania 21 (2005)
Participants: Christian, Chris Jericho, Canadian Wrestler X (figure it out!), Edge, Kane, Shelton Benjamin
Winner: Edge
Edge winning the first-ever Money in the Bank match
By common consensus, regardless of the genre of entertainment, the original is always considered the best and, for my money, it’s true with Money in the Bank.
The Cash-In: Picture the scene folks. It’s the start of 2006 and Edge still hadn’t cashed in his title shot. Time was running out. There was a 12-month expiry date on the title shot. You may not remember this, but for a few years there, WWE had a short-lived PPV at the beginning of January – New Year’s Revolution.
As the 2006 PPV calendar kicked off, WWE decided to bring in the New Year with a bang.
An Elimination Chamber match headlined the PPV, pitting the defending champion John Cena against five other men – Carlito, Chris Masters, Kane, Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels. Cena overcame the odds – as has become his mantra – to retain the title.
But…Vince McMahon appears to tell us the show ain’t over til the fat lady sings. I’m paraphrasing obviously. He introduces Edge!
Arguably the hottest heel in the company at the time wanders down to the ring, spears Cena twice and becomes the NEW WWE Champion! Tremendous stuff, and the crowd popped for it!
The Aftermath: The unpredictable nature of the cash-in, especially because it was the first one, made it a really important moment, not just for Edge, but for the WWE as a whole. It cast doubt on what you thought was going to happen.
I’ve said it a couple of times already, but the original is almost ALWAYS the best and Edge being the first-ever Money in the Bank contract holder and the first man to successfully cash in his briefcase, means that this probably stands alone at the top of the tree.
It catapulted Edge into superstardom and while he may have got there eventually, winning MITB certainly expedited his rise to prominence.
Verdict: $$$$$
Event: WrestleMania 22 (2006)
Participants: RVD, Matt Hardy, Shelton Benjamin, Ric Flair (yes, Ric Flair), Finlay and Bobby Lashley
Winner: RVD
RVD’s Money in the Bank cash-in is one of the most memorable of all-time
To this day, Van Dam remains the only man to give his opponent prior notice that he’d be cashing in his briefcase in at an upcoming PPV.
When Van Dam announced he was cashing in his title shot, John Cena was once again the champion. Van Dam informed Cena he was cashing in his title shot in his yard, at his house – ECW’s One Night Stand in 2006.
The Cash-In: In front of one of the most rabid wrestling crowds I’ve ever seen, Van Dam (with the aid of a Spear from Edge, and none other than Paul Heyman himself counting the 1…2…3) got the best of Cena, maintaining Money in the Bank’s 100% record of crowning new champions and creating new, fresh, main-event stars.
The Aftermath: Despite the raw emotion of Van Dam’s win, and the fact that wrestling fans WANTED it to happen, you just felt that, unlike with Edge, WWE were never QUITE happy with Van Dam representing them as their champion and Van Dam’s reign didn’t quite have the long-term effect we, or he, had hoped.
Verdict: $$
Event: WrestleMania 23 (2007)
Participants: Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Edge, Mr Kennedy, Randy Orton, CM Punk, Finlay and King Booker
Winner: Mr Kennedy
Kennedy triumphed in the Money in the Bank match in 2007, but the Ultimate Opportunist still ended up with the briefcase
Mr Kennedy’s seemingly unstoppable rise to the top continued as he was crowned just the third “Mr Money in the Bank” in history, seeing off his perhaps more-fancied opponents.
Unfortunately, as popular as Kennedy’s win had been with those in attendance, a spanner was thrown into the works just over a month later.
Kennedy suffered an injury and, despite the fact that the contract was “valid for a year”, WWE made the decision to switch the briefcase to someone else to allow Kennedy to heal.
Who did they turn to? The Godfather of the ladder match, the Rated-R SUUUUUPERRRRRSTARRR, EEEEEDDDGGGE.
In a match that took place on Raw with the briefcase on the line, Edge defeated Kennedy to once again become the WWE’s most-bankable star.
The Cash-In: The first time around, Edge waited some 8-9 months to cash in his title shot. This time, he wasn’t hanging around. It was time to shake things up. And quickly.
The night after Edge won the briefcase, he took advantage of a beaten and battered Undertaker during a SmackDown taping.
Taker had already gone through a brutal steel cage match with Batista, which ended in a draw. He was subsequently attacked by Mark Henry and to top it all off, Edge appears and successfully cashes in his title shot to become the World Heavyweight Champion. Edge was 2 for 2 in Money in the Bank cash-ins.
The Aftermath: It’s kind of hard to talk about the aftermath of Edge’s second cash-in because his subsequent title reign only lasted a couple of months before, ironically, it was cut short thanks to an injury.
One thing you can say is that the move to SmackDown definitely helped Edge’s career because he was often overlooked on Raw for the likes of John Cena and Shawn Michaels (among others). The move to WWE’s blue brand allowed Edge to blossom as a main-event heel, and he was terrific at it.
Verdict: $$$$
Event: WrestleMania 24 (2008)
Participants: Mr. Kennedy, Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin, Carlito, John Morrison, CM Punk and MVP
Winner: CM Punk
Punk climbed the ladder to become ECW’s only Money in the Bank winner
By this point, Money in the Bank was fast becoming a WrestleMania tradition. A staple of the card where you knew that virtually everyone in the match had a pretty decent chance of walking out the winner.
Secretly, most fans in attendance would’ve wanted CM Punk to come out on top, and that’s exactly what they got.
I still remember getting carried away with the excitement of Punk winning MITB that year, because it’s a WrestleMania that stands out as one of the best in recent times.
Holding the briefcase virtually guaranteed that Punk would become a World Champion, as MITB was fast developing a reputation for showing us who WWE’s next breakout star would be.
The Cash-In: During a live Raw broadcast, Batista attacked Edge, which allowed Punk to, ironically, take advantage of “the ultimate opportunist” to win his first World Championship.
The Aftermath: In the weeks and months that followed, it became blindingly obvious that Punk’s first World Championship reign was going the same was as RVD’s had done a couple of years earlier.
You never truly felt that Punk was given the chance to show what he could do. He didn’t have the look of a “WWE guy” and it felt like WWE just gave him the belt because, well, they kind of had to.
Bizarrely, Punk never actually, technically lost the World Championship. He was written out of a Championship Scramble match (remember those!) in September of that year after a backstage attack by Legacy, and replaced in the title match by Chris Jericho, who went on to win the big gold belt.
Describing Punk’s first run with the World Championship as largely uneventful would be kind.
Verdict: $$
Event: WrestleMania 25 (2009)
Participants: CM Punk, Christian, Shelton Benjamin, Kane, Finlay, Montel Vontavious Porter, Kofi Kingston and Mark Henry
Winner: CM Punk
Punk’s second Money in the Bank win led to his memorable series of matches with Jeff Hardy in the summer of 2009
At WrestleMania 25, Money in the Bank turned five and with a 100% record of crowning new champions, it’s fair to say that now, the most unpredictable match in WWE was leading to a quite predictable outcome.
Once again, for the second year in succession, Punk outdid his fellow competitors to retain (if that’s the right word) the MiTB briefcase.
To date, Punk remains the only man to win two consecutive Money in the Bank ladder matches at consecutive WrestleManias.
The Cash-In: In a far more effective way than in previous years, Punk cashed in his title shot on arguably WWE’s most popular babyface at the time, Jeff Hardy.
Hardy had just gone through an outstanding ladder match with Edge to become the new World Champion. But his joy was ultimately short-lived as Punk defeated him after two GTS’s.
The Aftermath: This was the year where Punk really shone and his feud with Jeff Hardy over the World Championship in the summer of 2009 was the best of that year.
They had countless stellar matches, including a phenomenal TLC encounter at SummerSlam, and proved that you didn’t have to be on the juice to get over with the paying fans. Their chemistry together was unmatched and I shudder to think of what else they could have been capable of if Hardy hadn’t chosen to leave the WWE in September of that year.
Punk’s second run as, for want of a better phrase, Mr MITB worked far better than his first run and it was the precursor for what he’d go on to achieve just a few short years later.
Verdict: $$$$
Event: WrestleMania 26 (2010)
Participants: Shelton Benjamin, Christian, Kane, Matt Hardy, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, Montel Vontavious Porter and Dolph Ziggler
Winner: Jack Swagger
Swagger’s Money in the Bank win was a surprise to many
2010 was a big year for MITB. We were treated to three of the now iconic ladder matches, the first one being at WrestleMania 26. To date, it’s the LAST MITB match to have taken place at a WrestleMania.
The Cash-In: Swagger didn’t waste any time cashing in his title shot.
At a SmackDown taping two days after WrestleMania, Swagger pounced following Edge’s attack on then World Champion Chris Jericho to become the latest man to hold the big gold belt.
The Aftermath: Here’s the problem with Swagger’s run. He had all the physical attributes and if you were to build a prototypical pro-wrestler from scratch, he’d look something like Swagger.
Problem is that the dude can’t cut a promo. That’s cool. Not everyone can cut a promo. He should’ve had a mouthpiece instead. He’s also missing that charisma that the TOP guys have to get over. Swagger didn’t have it.
Fast-forward less than 9 months later and he’s effectively Michael Cole’s sidekick during his WrestleMania feud with Jerry Lawler. Remember when that was a thing? Sigh…
If there was some form of time machine that existed, then we could’ve brought Zeb Colter back from the future to be Swagger’s mouthpiece, and maybe, just maybe, Jackie boy might have been a long-term main-event player. But there isn’t, we didn’t and he wasn’t.
Verdict: $$
Event: Money in the Bank (2010) – MITB match for a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship
Participants: Christian, Matt Hardy, Big Show, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, Kane, Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes
Winner: Kane
Who’d have thought that Kane would be Money in the Bank?
So, 2010 was the year when WWE decided to milk the Money in the Bank cash-cow for all its worth.
Hey, why have one MITB match when we can have two…on ONE show…with title shots for BOTH championships! That’s exactly what happened here my friends, and it’s become the norm now.
The second MITB match of 2010 saw an experienced, credible, RANK OUTSIDER win the lunchbox of destiny – the big red monster Kane.
If this MITB encounter was a football (that’s soccer to my American readers) match, and you’d put a bet on it, it’d be what we call here in the UK a coupon-buster. Nobody thought Kane would win this. And if they tell you they did, then they’re fucking lying.
The Cash-In: Simple, yet very effective.
Rey Mysterio had won the World Championship the previous month at Fatal-4-Way. He managed to retain the Championship against Swagger at MITB, only for Kane to appear and defeat the perennial underdog (and ultimate babyface) to become the World Champion. Cheap heat, but effective.
The Aftermath: Despite coming completely out of left-field, Kane’s run was pretty enjoyable for the most part.
I mean, yes, we’d seen his feuds with Undertaker and Edge before, but the inclusion of the World Championship into the mix breathed new life into them and, to be honest, he probably deserved that run. While it was by no means spectacular, there have been less successful runs with the World Championship.
Verdict: $$$
Event: Money in the Bank (2010) – MITB match for a shot at the WWE Championship
Participants: Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Edge, John Morrison, The Miz, Evan Bourne, Ted DiBiase and Mark Henry
Winner: The Miz
Money in the Bank, with a dash of AWWWEEESOMMMEEE!!!
2010: MITB 3 – This Time…It’s Terminal. You bored of 2010 yet? I was.
Three MITB matches in one year was just overkill and it diluted what had, until then, been a really innovative match.
The experienced hands in the match – Orton, Jericho and Edge – lent a sense of credibility to the match and you probably always felt that one of those men would walk out with a briefcase in hand.
However, there was something else happening. The Miz had gained a fair bit of traction as an up-and-coming, smug, jackass, mid-card heel.
To be fair, he fit the WWE bill for a modern-day superstar – he could talk, he was marketable and he’s no worse in the ring than others like Cena, Hogan or Rock ever were. Except when he tries to do a figure-four, but that’s a story for a whole ‘nother time!
Miz came out on top to earn a future shot at the WWE Championship. Not the World Championship, the WWE Championship. Don’t adjust your eyes, or think I’ve mistyped that. That ACTUALLY happened.
The Cash-In: After teasing a cash-in on several occasions, Miz eventually succeeded and won the WWE Championship by defeating no less than Randy Orton, albeit after Orton had been attacked by the Nexus. Remember them?!?!?
The Aftermath: Much like Swagger’s run, Miz’s was fairly uneventful, but that wasn’t because he couldn’t talk. It’s cos they booked him like a pussy. And his feud leading to WrestleMania 27 involved Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler.
Then, when it came time to defend that gaudiest championship in history, he was nothing more than a pawn in WWE’s game to use WrestleMania 27 as the place to build what would go on to main-event the following WrestleMania – The Rock vs John Cena.
Bear this in mind guys. The Miz has WON a main-event match at WrestleMania. The Miz SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP AT WRESTLEMANIA. Let that sink in. Think how many legends never wrestled for the WWE Championship at all, never mind at WrestleMania or even managing to RETAIN it there.
Say what you want about it, but for that reason alone, Miz’s run with the belt ranks up there as one of the most unlikely and shocking of all-time.
Verdict: $$$
Event: Money in the Bank (2011) – MITB match for a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship
Participants: Wade Barrett, Kane, Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater
Winner: Daniel Bryan
Bryan’s rise to the top of WWE started with Money in the Bank
When 2011 rolled around, there was a youth movement in the WWE.
Thanks to his run as the leader of the Nexus, Wade Barrett had firmly established himself as one to watch and potentially a future WWE/World Champion.
Indy darling Daniel Bryan had also burst on to the scene as a WWE superstar, and the likes of Sheamus and Cody Rhodes were proving why they’d been highly rated for a long time.
If we’re all being honest, they were really the only four credible threats going into the match, with Barrett probably being the favourite. Barrett was, and in some ways still is, the typical WWE heel – an eloquent foreign guy who Americans should boo cos he’s not from ‘Murica. They don’t take kindly to foreign folks there. Just ask Zeb Colter!
What nobody could’ve imagined in their wildest dreams was independent wrestling sensation, and former ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson (now wrestling under his shiny new WWE moniker Daniel Bryan), winning the match and earning himself a future shot at the World Championship in the process.
If Bryan just winning the briefcase was beyond the wildest dreams of most of the smarky fans, imagine how they felt when…
The Cash-In: After Big Show defeated Mark Henry in a Chairs match at the TLC PPV in 2011, Bryan cashed in his title shot and became the World Heavyweight Champion. It was a truly amazing moment, and one that long-term Danielson fans will cherish for a long time.
The Aftermath: Instead of allowing us to get behind Bryan’s win, WWE chose to do something fairly risky and they turned him heel at the end of 2011/beginning of 2012.
He became a chickenshit heel, who’d gloat when he won after outsmarting the bigger “dumb” guys. Hell, I’m sure at one point, he either proclaimed himself to be the “World’s Toughest Vegan”. Either that, or someone said it on commentary. I’m positive that I’ve not imagined that.
After teasing that Bryan would lose the title in a variety of different ways before WrestleMania, including a VERY close 2-count from Santino Marella at Elimination Chamber, Bryan walked into that year’s Showcase of the Immortals as the reigning and defending World Champion.
Members of the IWC set their pants to jizz and sales of Kleenex went through the roof.
Just as we all thought Bryan and his opponent Sheamus would open the show with a competitive World Championship match, the bell rings, Bryan gets a kiss from his then (on-screen) girlfriend AJ Lee and turns around into…A BROGUE KICK. After 18 seconds, it was done. Kaput. Finito. Over.
But it didn’t have the effect that WWE thought it would. Instead of helping Sheamus, it actually hindered him. To the point where he’s still suffering from it now. All that 18-second match did was make the fans get behind Bryan even more.
While never looking like a World Champion (especially not by WWE’s standards), Bryan’s spirit, charisma and frenetic wrestling style brought him a whole new-found respect from wrestling fans and, aside from another man we’re going to talk about in just a little while, his cash-in was one of the more memorable that we’ve witnessed in recent years.
Verdict: $$$$
Event: Money in the Bank (2011) – MITB match for a shot at the WWE Championship
Participants: The Miz, Rey Mysterio, Jack Swagger, R-Truth, Alberto Del Rio, Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne and Alex Riley
Winner: Alberto Del Rio
Even Money in the Bank couldn’t get ADR over!
For everything that I’ve just said about Daniel Bryan, long-time readers of this column know that unfortunately, I can’t say the same for my good friend Mr Del Rio. River Bert. Juan Bland Latino. The Million Dollar Flan, Ted Di-Bi-Ese. And so on. And so forth…
You know you’re doomed from the start when your ring announcer is more over than you are.
Yes, Del Rio is technically sound. But timing slapping your leg when you kick someone and having a good suplex doesn’t make you one of the best pro-wrestlers in the world.
In 2011, WWE had HEAVILY pushed Del Rio. He won the Rumble, wrestled Edge in his last match for the World Championship and was moved to Raw. Our love/hate affair with Mr Del Rio continued apace with the 2011 Raw Money in the Bank match and, to be fair, Del Rio was the favourite here.
I mean look at the other guys on the card. No disrespect, but they don’t scream WWE Champion material. Don’t get me wrong. Neither was Berty. But he was the best of a bad bunch.
The Cash-In: Del Rio cashed in his briefcase at SummerSlam after CM Punk had defeated John Cena to become “undisputed” WWE Champion. Kevin Nash Jacknifed Punk post-match, which allowed Del Rio to FINALLY fulfil his dessstineee.
The Aftermath: Sadly for Berty, things went downhill from here and, among the bigger, more established stars like Cena, HHH and CM Punk, he just felt like a complete afterthought, and in a move that surprised no-one, CM Punk defeated Del Rio at Survivor Series to regain the title and begin his 434-day reign with the belt.
Verdict: $$
Event: Money in the Bank (2012) – MITB match for a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship
Participants: Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, Christian, Dolph Ziggler, Tyson Kidd, Sin Cara, Tensai and Santino Marella
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Ziggler’s cash-in was arguably the loudest Money in the Bank pop EVER
Just two years ago, a lot of wrestling fans out there got what they wanted as one of “their” guys was crowned Mr Money in the Bank. No, I’m not talking about Santino. I’m talking about the show-off himself. A man who I have no problem admitting I have a mancrush on – Dolph Ziggler.
Ziggler’s a real example of a guy who fans are naturally drawn to. We can see that this guy works his ass off, has terrific matches, is charismatic, marketable and, to be honest, really ticks all the boxes. He’s a brilliant worker and you can’t really fault him.
Cynics and critics will say “it’s only smarks that like him”. Those fans who say that are the same fans who give the impression that being a “smark” is akin to being a paedophile or a murderer.
Yeah, “smarks” DO like Ziggler, but it’s not just because it’s cool to like the people that WWE don’t want us to like. It’s because, like it or not, ALL wrestling fans are capable of making up their own minds about who they want to boo, and who they want to cheer.
Anyway, back to the point…
Ziggler had had a little taste of the main-event before and after a series of stop-start pushes, it felt like Ziggler’s time had come in the summer of 2012 as he was rewarded with the SmackDown Money in the Bank briefcase.
The Cash-In: Twas the night after WrestleMania 29 and all around the house, not a thing was stirring. Not even a mouse. Because Alberto Del Rio (who had become World Champion and weirdly, a babyface) had just wrestled.
Something happened next that really livened things up. Words truly can’t do the THUNDEROUS ovation that Ziggler got justice. Watch it for yourselves here:
I STILL get goosebumps, chills and mark the fuck out when I see that.
The Aftermath: For a brief, shiny moment, it seemed like everything in WWE was right. I mean sure, Cena was WWE Champion, but what else is new? Ziggler was on top and it felt too good to be true. That’s probably because it was.
Up stepped the career-killing, on-screen xenophobe Jack Swagger, who gave Ziggler a concussion and it all fell apart. Ziggler’s stop-start push that had finally started for real got, erm…stopped. Since then, he’s floundered a lot in the Bermuda Triangle that is the WWE midcard. It’s a damn shame because regardless of what the WWE do to him, he’s STILL over with the crowd.
For whatever reason, WWE seem to have made up their mind that Ziggler will never be “the guy”. Sure he’s maybe said some things that he shouldn’t, but who in WWE hasn’t? Hell, Randy Orton’s a walking Wellness Policy violation, and he’s still pushed.
WWE’s failure to capitalise on the organic reaction to Ziggler from the fans is proof positive that his face just doesn’t fit. The man is a licence to print money, but they’ve made their minds up. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Verdict: $$$
Event: Money in the Bank (2012) – MITB match for a shot at the WWE Championship
Participants: Chris Jericho, The Miz, John Cena, Kane and The Big Show
Winner: John Cena
Money in the Bank was the last big accolade Cena had to win in WWE
Just looking at the participants should’ve been a dead giveaway to most of us about who’d win this one.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to bitch about John Cena. I’ve spent the last 12 years doing that. All I’ll say is this – while his win may have been predictable, you can understand why WWE did it.
Cena’s their most marketable commodity, and to have him near the top of the card – or in the title picture – makes good sense from a purely business point of view.
Regardless of how stale he is, regardless of how many Foghorn Leghorn-style promos he cuts, regardless of who’s heat he leeches, Cena prints that money, money, yeah, yeah for WWE. I’d do the same if I was them.
Cena became the first man since RVD to let his opponent know in advance when he’d be cashing in his opportunity. But…unlike when RVD did it, Cena wasn’t gonna cash it in on PPV. Instead, he told CM Punk that he was gonna cash in on WWE’s Raw spectacular – Raw 1000.
The Cash-In: After a highly-competitive, compelling encounter which, to be honest, was pretty standard fayre when Punk and Cena wrestled, Cena won the match thanks to Big Show’s interference. Although he won the match, sadly for Cena and his legions of fans, he didn’t win the belt.
The Aftermath: Cena would have to wait almost another year, and go through another series of Big Show matches, before getting his hands on championship gold again at WM29.
Cena’s MITB win served two purposes – 1) it allowed WWE to turn CM Punk heel and create a story between him and Rock for the Great One’s return at the Royal Rumble in 2013 and 2) it gave WWE a reason to put the belt on Rock so he could do the honours for Cena before leaving again after WM29.
Again, a lot of people may not have liked it, but in the end, money talks and Rock vs Cena made WWE a shit-load of it.
Verdict: $$$$
Event: Money in the Bank (2013) – MITB match for a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship
Participants: Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, Damien Sandow, Dean Ambrose, Jack Swagger, Fandango and Antonio Cesaro
Winner: Damien Sandow
Sandow – the only man to LOSE his Money in the Bank cash-in match in WWE history
Much like the previous year’s winner, there were high hopes for Sandow.
I mean let’s face it. He’s got the look, the mic skills, the technical ability, as well as the charisma. Add those four things to the belief that he was a “Triple H” guy, and it seemed Sandow was destined for greatness. But…they just never really booked him that way.
The way Sandow won the MITB briefcase suited his gimmick down to a T. The intellectual saviour of the masses outsmarted his then tag-team partner Cody Rhodes to write his name in the annals of MITB history.
The Cash-In: So… I’ll try to make this quick. The night after SummerSlam, John Cena revealed that he was carrying an injury, and he’d need to take 4-6 months.
Of course, with the aid of his “super-powers”, he returned earlier than expected and in his first match back at the Hell in a Cell PPV, he won the World Championship from Alberto Del Rio.
The next night, Sandow came out and teased a cash-in. It looked like he’d changed his mind before blindsiding the new champ with a vicious assault. Talk about you can’t see me! He was cashing in after all!
Now remember folks. At this stage, EVERYONE who had cashed in their title shot had won the resultant “match”, including John Cena (even though he didn’t become champion).
In a 25-minute match that bordered on sublime, Sandow looked every inch the future World Champion. Unfortunately, Sandow came up just short as Cena found the strength within to retain his title.
The Aftermath: There was the usual outcry from Cena detractors, myself included. Why had Sandow been sacrificed for Cena at a time when WWE fans were crying out for something different? Just look at how over guys like the Wyatts, The Shield and Daniel Bryan were for proof of that.
Even some of Cena’s staunchest supporters were surprised that he’d beaten Sandow, and become the first man to defeat a MITB winner in a briefcase match. There was even some hope that, despite losing the match, Sandow would be groomed as a future champion. Sadly for Sandow, that’s never quite materialised. And it’s a shame.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think his gimmick is main-event, but he has all the ability you need to main-event. It’s just a shame that since that fateful October night, Sandow’s done nothing of note.
Verdict: $
Event: Money in the Bank (2013) – MITB match for a shot at the WWE Championship
Participants: CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton, Christian, Sheamus and Rob Van Dam
Winner: Randy Orton
Orton’s Money in the Bank win didn’t turn out as he’d have hoped
For the third year in succession, the winner of the “Raw” match (for want of a better phrase) didn’t hang around to cash in his title shot.
The popular choices would’ve been either Punk, Bryan or the returning Van Dam. However, WWE went slightly left-field and chose to go with the Apex Predator, and the walking charisma vacuum that is Randy Orton.
I like Orton. He makes wrestling look deceptively easy, and it’s not. He’s crisp, fluid and when you watch him, there’s no wasted motion.
Orton’s problem lies in the fact that he’s a hothead. He lets the crowd get to him and infuriate him, instead of just doing what he does best – which is be an excellent professional wrestler.
Sometimes I think Orton’s in the wrong era. He’s not a “sports-entertainer”. He’s a kick-ass wrestler, but when it comes to promos? Not so much. It’s a problem that’s haunted Orton for the last decade or more. And it was never highlighted more than last year, but I’ll get to that in a minute…
The Cash-In: It’s SummerSlam and in the WWE Championship match, it’s John Cena against Daniel Bryan with HHH officiating because he wanted to ensure the “right result”.
Bryan wins with a running knee FROM OUT OF NOWHERE (©Michael Cole) and becomes the new WWE Champion. Awesome right? Right??
BREAKING NEWS…THIS JUST IN…HHH DIDN’T THINK SO!
I wondered why he was hanging around the ring during Bryan’s post-match celebs. Seriously, it was so obvious something was going to happen. H was hanging around like a one-night stand who wants you to make breakfast for her, when all you wanna do is call her a taxi.
Then, in one shining moment, it all made perfect sense.
Randy Orton’s music hits and he saunters out in typical Orton fashion. In the ring, H spins Bryan round and delivers a vicious Pedigree. Orton cashes his title shot in and picks up the win without doing anything.
The Aftermath: From the moment that Orton cashed the briefcase in, it was never about him. It was about HHH. Orton felt like he was carrying HHH’s belt, instead of actually being booked, presented and actually treated like what he was – the WWE Champion.
Orton’s suffered tremendously because of that over the last year. He was booked like a pussy. Like HHH’s bitch. Hell, the WWE Championship was VACATED for almost half of 2013.
Even when it wasn’t, there were screwy finishes galore which only served two purposes – 1) to piss off fans who’d paid their hard-earned cash to see decisive victories on PPV and 2) to make Orton look weak. Congratulations WWE. You succeeded on those fronts.
No wonder there was no heat on Orton from the moment he won the Championship again at Hell in a Cell to the time he lost it at WrestleMania 30.
Nobody believed he could win. And that’s NOT how a heel’s meant to be booked. You make them dangerous, unpredictable, and/or volatile. Orton’s one of the best at portraying those characteristics. He deserved better than being treated like a complete pussy from the minute he cashed in his briefcase. It’s actually disrespectful when you think about it.
If I had to sum up Orton’s time with the briefcase, his cash-in and his subsequent main-event run in one phrase, it’d be “it’s all about The Game”.
Verdict: $$
Money in the Bank’s Legacy and The Future
Seth Rollins is the current Mr Money in the Bank
The latest man to add his name to the list of MITB winners is Seth Rollins, who won what I believe was one of the best MITB matches certainly of recent years, if not of all-time. It remains to be seen what they’ll do with him.
Will it affect his career in the same way as it has done for the likes of Edge, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan – all guys of a similar build and background to Rollins – and catapult him to superstardom, or will he end up like Swagger, Ziggler, Sandow et al, seemingly forever consigned to the Bermuda Triangle that is the WWE mid-card? Only time will tell.
There are better qualified men than me to talk about Rollins’ potential and what the future holds for him, but I genuinely see long-term money (pun intended) in him as a main-event babyface.
Everything Rollins does is designed to pop the crowd. In today’s watered-down, diluted WWE, the energetic in-ring style Rollins and his former Shield team-mates really stands out.
Sooner or later, WWE will need to move with the times and let these young guys be the focus as the stars of Cena and Orton burn out. But like I said, there are better qualified people than me who can talk about exactly how to do that.
What about the future of the match itself?
Call me a cynic, grumpy or stuck in the past, but I think that what made Money in the Bank stand out was the fact that it was a once-a-year, one-off spectacle that was saved for the biggest show of the year.
What it’s become since is a gimmick match that’s diluted. It doesn’t have the same meaning that it once did and yes, I know that times change, but I can’t help but feel that if WWE made the actual prospect of being in the match itself seem like a big deal, and make it a one-off again, that it would mean more.
In recent times, the calibre of wrestlers (as well as their potential) hasn’t been that great, but because it’s a marketable commodity, WWE feel like they have to have two of these matches a year when the stark truth is that they don’t.
Anointing your next star SHOULD be a big deal. There’s only ever usually one man who wins the Rumble each year. There was only one man who was crowned King of the Ring. And there should only be one man crowned as Money in the Bank.
From that point on, it’s WWE’s job to build and present their midcard talent like they actually matter, so that it gives the fans a reason to invest in, and care about, them.
Develop their characters, let them be a little more off-the-cuff than they’ve been allowed to be in recent times. Give these guys a chance. Let them sink or swim. If it works out, you’ve potentially got a new star who will give you 5-6 years as a top guy. If it doesn’t, nobody can say you didn’t try.
Money in the Bank has become one of the focal points of the wrestling calendar and while it doesn’t mean as much as it once did, it’s a great way for WWE to show us just exactly who’s going to be the guys they focus on in the immediate future.
I know I’ve covered a lot, but what do you think? Does MITB mean as much as it once did? Which cash-in/briefcase win means most to you? Who’s the one guy who should’ve won a MITB match but never did? Don’t be scared to discuss that below, or if you’ve any CONSTRUCTIVE feedback to give me, you’ll find me on Twitter @George_SLTD.
This took a lot of time and effort, so I appreciate all of you for sticking with me.
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That’ll wrap it up from me. I’ll try and write something once a week for the foreseeable future and after hearing about what happened on Raw last night, it seems a certain someone has returned to save me. No, not you Miz… I’m talking about Chris-t Jericho!
Peace out,
George
SLTD Wrestling's resident Scottish Nightmare. Some of my content may not be suitable for younger readers or those who are easily offended!
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