Planet Kayfabe: MITB, more harm than good? Submitted by Paul Matthews on 03/04/2021 at 02:23 PM
Planet Kayfabe: The Future of MITB Thoughts and Suggestions
By: “KC” Paul Matthews
Rest in peace, Jim Crockett Jr.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Planet Kayfabe. Life has been a bit busy here. I gave up wrestling for Lent last year and honestly, when I watched Raw the day after Easter last year it was so bad that I found other ways to occupy my time. I also moved last summer and didn't even have a computer to type on until a couple of months ago. As far as social media goes, you can search for the “Planet Kayfabe on NoDQ” page on Facebook and contact me there if you wish. Twitter was a good way to keep in touch and was fun for a bit, but I had to delete it. It was a difficult decision because I had over 1.5 thousand followers and it was an easy way to promote my columns and also live-tweeting events was fun, too, but in recent years Twitter has just become more of a problem than what it's worth. I've been off it for a year and I do not regret it at all. I know I'm going off a bit here, but I grew up with the social media generation going back to MySpace when I was in high school. It was harmless fun, but Twitter especially seems to be a toxic environment and more of a negative force in the world that is becoming increasingly divisive by the day. I know I'm prone to hyperbole, but the world would really be a better place without that hate and anger spewing trash app, but even if was gone a new version would just rise from its ashes, so, its better to just step away. If you have thought about deactivating Twitter, just do it. (Trust me, Kayla Braxton... You're doing the right thing.) If you wish to contact me, check out that Facebook page or email me at kcanodq@gmail.com or simply leave a comment below.
We first saw the Money in the Bank Ladder Match back in 2005 at Wrestlemania 21 in Los Angeles, California. That's where Edge would win the match and the MITB briefcase. He would hold the briefcase for 280 days before cashing in on John Cena at the Elimination Chamber. It still remains one of the more memorable cash-in's and would cement Edge as a main event level singles star and in 2006 he was the hottest heel in the business. The MITB would become a Wrestlemania tradition for a few years and I think most would agree this was the best period for MITB and it was a nice addition to Wrestlemania cards. During this period there is only one winner, Mr. Kennedy, that people would say was a flop.
In 2010, during a period of WWE focusing on year round themed PPV's, Money In The Bank became it's own show. This year is where I feel the MITB concept started to jump the shark. We had the MITB match at Wrestlemania which was won by Jack Swagger, who cashed in on the next Smackdown and had one of the worst world title runs in WWE history losing a series of non-title matches clean and coming off as a fluke. Four months later, WWE held it's first Money in the Bank PPV where two of its namesake ladder matches were held won by Miz and Kane respectively. Kane being a made man. The Miz being a Superstar that WWE hoped would turn into a decent young top star capable of of carrying himself during their required long promo segments for top guys.
The Miz, who, love him or hate him was a career mid-card joke who was suddenly hot-shotted to the main event. He would cash-in on Randy Orton in memorable and actually quite promising fashion by countering the RKO and hitting his own finish for the win. Of course, we all remember the reaction of the “Miz Girl” that WWE cameras isolated in the crowd showing a very angry young fan who would subsequently become a hit on the internet for a short time. Yeah, it's crazy to think of a time when actual young people watched wrestling, huh?
The Miz's run as world champion wasn't much different than the rest of his career. He successfully defended the title against a 61 year old Jerry Lawler, with help from Michael Cole. He was routinely helped by his boy Alex Riley and always portrayed as the undeserving fluke many fans thought he was. At Wrestlemania XXVII, The Miz would successfully retain his title against the biggest star in the WWE at the time, John Cena, but with help from The Rock who wasn't so much helping Miz, as much as he was laying out a challenge to Cena for the next year's Wrestlemania. So, was anyone talking about Miz's big Wrestlemania main event win over John Cena? No. By the time Rock laid out his challenge to John the next day it was if that awful main event never happened... perhaps for the better.
Dolph Ziggler would win MITB in 2012, again, another young talent that WWE could have done more with. He was certainly popular enough at the time, but for whatever reason McMahon never had much faith in Dolph as a top guy. He had a successful cash-in, but it has been said by multiple people in the company that it was just done to pop the crowd and they had no intentions on ever actually pushing Ziggler. Former WWE writer Kevin Eck said the day that Dolph cashed in that McMahon held a meeting with the writers and said “I want to make it clear. We are not pushing Dolph.” and it was just done to keep the Raw after Wrestlemania crowd hot. In 2013 Damien Sandow would win MITB. I'm sure many people have long forgotten, but Sandow got over pretty well as The Miz's comedic sidekick. It was a surprise to many when he won MITB, but not a surprise that WWE never had any serious intentions on making Sandow a main event player. This would also be considered one of the more major MITB flops.
Seth Rollins would win in 2014 in probably the most memorable run and cash-in of the MITB PPV era of the briefcase. He would successfully cash-in during the main event at Wrestlemania 31, capping off what was an excellent show. Rollins would hold the WWE Championship for 220 days, only having to vacate it due to injury. Most would probably agree this was his best run as a singles star in WWE.
However, since Seth things have taken a bit of a dive. The !~OMG HISTORIC~! First ever women's MITB ladder match was won by Carmella, who didn't actually win it. The case was retrieved by comedy geek James Ellsworth and given to Carmella declaring her the winner of the match. For a match the first of its kind in WWE, it was a very poor decision to go with a hokey, cheap finish to get them started. It's finishes and runs like this that really made me feel MITB has run its course, but I'll get into more of that later.
In 2019 Brock Lesnar would win Money In The Bank in a surprise return. Whatever. I don't think this hurt or helped the MITB concept as much as WWE found an easy out on not forcing themselves to put the case on someone they have no intentions on pushing.
In 2020 Otis would win MITB. I have a feeling that years down the road from now, Otis will be like Kennedy and Sandow where people don't even remember this person winning or that they were once kind of over for a short period. Otis would lose his case to The Miz and once again The Miz, 10 years later, was Mr. “Money In The Bank” again. The Miz would go on to successfully cash in his briefcase on WWE Champion Drew McIntyre at Elimination Chamber a few weeks ago back in February and at the age of 40 regain the WWE championship for the second time. If you're a lapsed fan and don't watch much, if you're wondering if WWE has spent the past 10 years booking Miz as some strong heel or even a smart heel, the answer is no. He's been a midcard geek doing midcard geek things and suddenly we were expected to take him seriously as WWE champion again.
Miz's run would only last 8 days anyway. He would lose to Bobby Lashley, who is 44 years old. If you're wondering why I'm pointing out age, it's because two years ago I wrote a whole piece on WWE having an age problem and how they let young, talented wrestlers spin their tires in NXT for 5 or 6 years before calling them up in their 30s and rarely ever actually give someone a real push until they are like 34 when they should be presenting guys 10 years younger and through their late 20s more on Raw and Smackdown. Look, all respect to these guys and I'm not saying put them out to pasture when they hit 40, but everyone in that Elimination Chamber match was about or over 40. Then a 40 year old cashed in, won and lost a week later to a guy who is 44. I've said it a thousand times in the past. The WWE spent too much of the 2010's relying on nostalgic part-time legends and aging wrestlers instead of presenting more young talent in key spots. Now look. Who watches WWE? On average, it's dudes in their mid 50's and almost no teens or kids watch anymore. It should be the other way around, but its not partly because every time I turn on my TV I see guys I watched in 2005 or in the 90s. Whatever, though. That's a different topic that I'm sure I'll get even more into once again some day. Advanced age or not, I don't think Miz's run with MITB helped the prestige of the concept or the world title and half of it has to do with WWE putting it on Otis in the first place when they had no intentions on even pushing him as a serious contender.
Another problem with the MITB is how WWE routinely poorly books the briefcase holder. Most of the winners have found themselves to be booked on losing streaks for months before sneakily winning the company's top prize on a fluke. That's my main problem with Money In The Bank. The company books themselves into a corner. Has these matches every year. Throws a bunch of talent in a match that they may or may not have plans for in the future. Someone wins it and then they have to come up with an idea of what to do now until they are ready for this person to cash-in. So, they usually end up losing a bunch of matches and looking like undeserving jokes before they cash in and suddenly become world champions over night that we are supposed to take seriously all of the sudden.
The Money in the Bank stipulation is like a built in hot shot booking plan. It worked with Edge. He was the first and a star on the rise and a wrestler they had actual plans for. It worked with Seth Rollins because he had already been over as part of The Shield and was protected being closely aligned with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. It doesn't work when you have lowly midcarders winning in fluke fashion and going on a series of losses only to cash in for a quick pop and never go anywhere after.
If WWE ended the MITB concept, I'm sure initially many people would be upset. It's been around since 2005 and it's part of our routine and something many fans grew up on at this point. The actual ladder matches themselves are also usually very fun, but you could have a 6-man ladder match for any reason. Throw the IC or US belt up there for them to chase at Wrestlemania every year. Who cares? Money in the Bank, while being one of WWE's more exciting match concepts, the stipulation itself has only cheapened the world title. Could you imagine in any sport, take boxing or MMA for example where some no-name prelim guy came out at the end of a main event and knocked out the title holder and was considered the new champion? I know it's wrestling and goofy things should be expected in a goofy world, but 16 years later, I think MITB has done more harm than good and it is evident that WWE themselves sometimes wish they didn't have to put the contract on someone and be forced to push someone they don't have any concrete plans for. The concept is also very limiting as well. On any given year, it's most likely that a heel will win because the whole cashing in concept in inherently a heel tactic and any time babyfaces tried doing the babyface thing they failed like John Cena and more recently Braun Strowman.
Some final thoughts. I understand the internet would be up in arms without MITB, but, relax. It's just a 6 man ladder match. You could do those at any time for any reason. I know most of you reading this feel the Hell in a Cell PPV has cheapened the Hell in a Cell match and wouldn't be sad to see that event go away. Well, it's kind of the same thing. Even without that Cell PPV we could still have the occasional HIAC match. Without Money in the Bank, we can still have the occasional 6-man ladder match for a title or even a shot at a title.
If you're still not convinced, I have another solution that would involve keeping MITB, with one major change. It's the cash in concept that needs to go. At least, the concept of randomly cashing in anywhere at any time needs to go because any time there is a briefcase holder the world title suddenly feels like the 24/7 championship. If you're going to keep the MITB event, I'd prefer it if they just had the cash-in rule be that you had to make a match at least 24 hours in advance. Any match the contract holder wants, but it has to be announced 24 hours ahead of time. This way we avoid most of the silly flukes and the world title can at least be challenged with some dignity instead of just passed around like a toy. Doing things this way, we lose that surprise cash-in pop, but as we have seen WWE relies too much on that pop like they're crack. Yeah, pops are nice, but it kind of sucks when you pretty much whore out your company's top title just for one pop from one crowd on one night with no plan or intention on pushing your new world champion as a serious contender.
Thank you for reading this edition of Planet Kayfabe everyone. Leave a comment below with your thoughts. I appreciate you sticking around and if you're a first time reader I hope to see you next time as well. For NoDQ, I'm KCA, Take care and God bless.
