Money in the Bank ladder match

The Money in the Bank ladder match is a professional wrestling ladder match held by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) at their pay-per-view event, WrestleMania. The match can feature anywhere from six to eight wrestlers, with the objective being to retrieve a briefcase that is suspended above the ring. The briefcase contains a contract, which guarantees a match for any of WWE's three World Titles: the WWE Championship, ECW Championship, or the World Heavyweight Championship.^[1] The contract is valid for one year up to the next year's WrestleMania, and the briefcase holder—dubbed "Mr. Money in the Bank"—can cash in the contract for a World Title match (any of the three), at the date, place, and time of their choosing.^[2] The briefcase may also be defended in matches, similar to how championships are defended.^[3]

The Money in the Bank ladder match was first contested in 2005 at WrestleMania 21. Since the match's inception, three additional Money in the Bank ladder matches have been held at WrestleMania; the most recent being held at WrestleMania XXIV. The first winner of the Money in the Bank ladder match was Edge, who won at WrestleMania 21, and the most recent winner being CM Punk, who won at WrestleMania XXIV.

1 History 1.1 2005 1.2 2006 1.3 2007 1.4 2008 2 Match history 2.1 Official matches 2.2 Defenses 2.3 Cash-in matches 3 See also 4 References

The idea for the Money in the Bank match was introduced in January 2005 by Chris Jericho. He announced the idea on an episode of the flagship show Raw. General Manager Eric Bischoff signed it for WrestleMania 21 naming Jericho, Christian, Chris Benoit, Edge, Kane, and Shelton Benjamin as the participants.

Edge won the match, and then he carried and used the briefcase as a weapon for the next nine months—including once putting it on the line in a ladder match against Matt Hardy at WWE Homecoming, where the loser had to leave Raw. During his time in possession of the contract, he was known on-screen as "Mr. Money in the Bank". Edge cashed in his contract in January 2006 at New Year's Revolution, where he defeated WWE Champion John Cena in less than two minutes just after Cena had retained his title against five opponents in an Elimination Chamber match.^[4]

The Money in the Bank idea was revived by Carlito on a February 2006 episode of Raw. Mr. McMahon approved the suggestion and set up "qualifying matches" for the match that would take place at WrestleMania 22. It was later announced that the match was to be "interpromotional," and SmackDown!'s General Manager Theodore Long also set up qualifying matches to select three members of his roster to compete. In the Raw brand qualifying matches, Rob Van Dam (RVD) defeated Trevor Murdoch, Shelton Benjamin defeated Chavo Guerrero, and Ric Flair defeated Carlito. On SmackDown!, Finlay defeated Bobby Lashley, Matt Hardy defeated Road Warrior Animal, and Lashley won a "last chance battle royal."

Rob Van Dam won the WrestleMania 22 Money in the Bank ladder match after pushing Benjamin and Hardy off a ladder, while he was on another ladder, and retrieving the briefcase. That April, he defended the contract and won the WWE Intercontinental Championship in a "contract vs. title" match against Shelton Benjamin at Backlash. Rob Van Dam announced in May 2006 that he would cash in his contract at One Night Stand against Cena (interestingly, Van Dam is the only Money in the Bank holder to give the champion he challenged any advanced warning whatsoever). The match ended with Cena losing after Edge, the #1 contender to the title, interfered on behalf of Van Dam and speared Cena through a table. RVD then performed a Five-Star frog splash and Paul Heyman counted the pinfall.

The third Money in the Bank ladder match was held at WrestleMania 23, and was the first to feature eight participants from Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW. Qualifying matches began on the February 19 episode of Raw.^[5] On an edition of Raw the two former Money in the Bank winners, Edge and Rob Van Dam faced off, with Edge coming out on top to earn the first spot in the match.^[6]

The next night on ECW another cross-brand match took place, with CM Punk defeating Johnny Nitro to qualify.^[7] On that week's SmackDown King Booker defeated Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match following interference from The Great Khali to become the third man to qualify.^[8] On the next edition of Raw Jeff Hardy pinned Shelton Benjamin in a match to become the fourth man to qualify.^[9] The next night on ECW Mr. Kennedy defeated Sabu in an Extreme Rules match to earn the fifth spot.^[10] Two qualifying matches took place on the next SmackDown with Matt Hardy defeating Joey Mercury and Finlay coming out on top in a Triple Threat match against Montel Vontavious Porter and Chris Benoit to qualify.^[11] What was to be the final qualifying match took place on Raw between Carlito and Ric Flair. The match was deemed a no contest when The Great Khali interfered and attacked both men.^[12] The match was rescheduled for the next week on Raw, with Randy Orton, in storyline, bribing his way into the match, which was to be an Elimination match. Orton pinned both Flair and Carlito after performing an RKO on each of them.^[13] Edge and Randy Orton had recently stopped teaming together, and there was a lot of tension between them. They both attempted to get the other taken out of the Money in the Bank ladder match. Both failed, as Edge ultimately won a "last chance battle royal" after feigning injury to retain his slot.^[14] Orton was forced to fight Bobby Lashley on ECW to retain his spot.^[15]

Mr. Kennedy won at WrestleMania 23, after ramming CM Punk off the ladder using another ladder.^[16] During the next few weeks, he kept declaring that he would cash in the briefcase at WrestleMania XXIV. Kennedy, however, suffered an injury, and on the May 7, 2007 episode of Raw, he lost the Money in the Bank briefcase to Edge. Edge then moved to SmackDown and cashed in the briefcase after World Heavyweight Champion The Undertaker had competed in a steel cage match with Batista and was then injured by Mark Henry. Edge then speared The Undertaker to win the World Heavyweight Title on the May 11, 2007 episode of SmackDown.

The fourth Money in the Bank ladder match took place at WrestleMania XXIV and was intended to be another eight-man match-up, consisting of wrestlers from Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. Qualifying matches began on the February 18 edition of Raw, as both Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy qualified by defeating Snitsky^[17] and Val Venis,^[17] respectively, in singles matches. On the February 22 edition of SmackDown, Shelton Benjamin qualified by defeating Jimmy Wang Yang in a singles match.^[18] Back on Raw, General Manager William Regal placed Chris Jericho in a match against Jeff Hardy with the stipulation that if Jericho won, he would be in the ladder match. Jericho defeated Hardy in that match on February 25.^[19] The following week on Raw, however, the two faced off again, this time for Hardy's WWE Intercontinental Championship. Jericho won the match and title, and it was revealed that Hardy was suspended from WWE for 60 days for violating the Wellness Policy.^[20] He was subsequently removed from the Money in the Bank ladder match and WrestleMania altogether, making this ladder match the first seven-man Money in the Bank match. Also on this edition of Raw, Carlito defeated Cody Rhodes to qualify.^[21] On a Smackdown/ECW live event on March 9th, then-United States Champion Montel Vontavious Porter defeated Jamie Noble to qualify.^[22] On the March 11 edition of ECW, CM Punk defeated Big Daddy V to qualify.^[23] And finally, on the March 14 edition of SmackDown, John Morrison defeated his tag team partner The Miz to be the last man to qualify.^[24]

At WrestleMania, CM Punk won the match after trapping Jericho's leg in a ladder and then climbing the ladder. Punk cashed in his title shot on the June 30 edition of Raw. A farewell speech by Jim Ross was interrupted by then-champion Edge who had him removed from the ring and then began to insult the crowd, saying that they will never get to see a world championship being defended on Raw. When he was about to leave the arena, Batista came out and assaulted Edge in retaliation for Edge cheating in a title match the previous night at the Night of Champions pay-per-view. Punk then performed a G.T.S on Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship, making it Raw-exclusive in the process.

WrestleMania	Winner	Other participants	Time	Note
21	Edge	Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin, Chris Benoit, Christian (with Tyson Tomko), Kane	14:17	Edge won by climbing a ladder and retrieving the briefcase hanging above the ring after hitting Benoit with a steel chair.[25]
22	Rob Van Dam	Shelton Benjamin, Ric Flair, Finlay, Matt Hardy, Bobby Lashley	12:21	Van Dam won by climbing a ladder, tipping over another ladder with Benjamin and Hardy on it, and retrieving the briefcase.[26]
23	Mr. Kennedy	Edge, CM Punk, King Booker (with Queen Sharmell) Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Finlay, Randy Orton	19:10	Kennedy won by climbing a ladder and grabbing the briefcase after hitting CM Punk with another ladder.[16]
XXIV	CM Punk	Mr. Kennedy, Shelton Benjamin, Chris Jericho, Carlito, Montel Vontavious Porter, John Morrison	13:54	Punk won by climbing a ladder and grabbing the briefcase after trapping Jericho's leg in the same ladder.[27]

Money in the Bank holder	Challenger	Event, date, location	Result
Edge	Matt Hardy	WWE Homecoming October 3, 2005, Dallas, TX	Edge defeated Hardy in a Loser Leaves Raw ladder match, where Edge retained the Money in the Bank contract and Hardy was forced to leave Raw.[28]
Rob Van Dam	Shelton Benjamin	Backlash April 30, 2006, Lexington, KY	RVD defeated Benjamin in a match where both RVD's MitB contract and Benjamin's Intercontinental Championship were on the line. As a result, RVD also won the Intercontinental Championship.[29]
Mr. Kennedy	Edge	Raw May 7, 2007, State College, PA	Edge defeated Kennedy to win the Money in the Bank contract.[3]

Money in the Bank holder	Title holder	Championship	Event (date)	Result
Edge	John Cena	WWE Championship	New Year's Revolution (January 8, 2006)	Edge defeated Cena to win the WWE Championship.[4]
Rob Van Dam	John Cena	WWE Championship	ECW One Night Stand (June 11, 2006)	Van Dam defeated Cena to win the WWE Championship.[30]
Edge	The Undertaker	World Heavyweight Championship	SmackDown! (May 11, 2007)	Edge defeated The Undertaker to win the World Heavyweight Championship.[31]
CM Punk	Edge	World Heavyweight Championship	Raw (June 30, 2008)	CM Punk defeated Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship.[32]

• Ladder match
• WrestleMania

v • d • e Current World Wrestling Entertainment championships and accomplishments Brand Championships Raw: World Heavyweight (reigns) • Intercontinental (reigns) • World Tag Team (reigns) • Women's (reigns) SmackDown: WWE (reigns) • United States (reigns) • WWE Tag Team (reigns) • Divas (reigns) ECW: ECW (reigns) List of current champions in World Wrestling Entertainment Developmental Championships FCW: Florida Heavyweight • Florida Tag Team Other accomplishments Diva Search • King of the Ring • Money in the Bank • Royal Rumble