This year, the Money in the Bank match is being relegated entirely to SmackDown, leaving all of the Raw superstars out of the running to hold the briefcase.
In my mind, this is awful, but that’s what happens when you have a brand split and you don’t want to put the ladder match as a cross-branded special attraction for SummerSlam.
In a different world, that would be the (brief)case, but in this world, the blue brand has full control over one of WWE’s best gimmicks of the past twenty years.
However, if we’re talking about the possibility of other worlds, what if it were Monday Night Raw which had the Money in the Bank match this year and not SmackDown?
Which superstars on the red brand would be fighting in contention for a future title shot and who could possibly wield all the power to influence the Universal Championship’s direction for the next 12 months?
The Contenders – Men’s Match
Obviously, anybody who would not be fighting for the Universal Championship and who is considered the top stars of Raw would be fighting for the briefcase. Assuming Brock Lesnar was still the champion, he’s out of the running. Plus, that match isn’t quite his style.
Roman Reigns would be a guarantee, as would Seth Rollins and Finn Balor. I’d argue Dean Ambrose would be in the mix, too, as the third most important babyface on the brand. For the heels, Samoa Joe and Bray Wyatt are clear choices and a third option would go to Braun Strowman if he weren’t injured, but taking his place would be The Miz.
There would be a possibility that some less obvious people could get a shot, though, as Money in the Bank has often in the past included midcarders to bulk out the numbers and to make things less predictable.
Big Cass is one of those guys I could see WWE inserting into the match to utilize his size and to tease that he has a bright future ahead of him. Goldust could even have a bit of a resurgence with his heel turn, earning him a chance at glory. Likewise, R-Truth has been in that position before, even though he’s afraid of heights and spiders.
Elias Samson would have a shot, and while Mark Henry and Big Show never seem to be around anymore, with them being former world champions, they both could be announced as entrants and I don’t think too many people would question the validity of it, even though it would be confusing why WWE went with them considering their absence.
The Contenders – Women’s Match
With SmackDown’s roster, every active woman is competing in the match save for the champion, Naomi. This isn’t necessarily by design, but because the three other women on the blue brand are not in the right position to take another spot. Lana is just starting her in-ring career off, Nikki Bella is taking time off and Eva Marie has been dead in the water for months, basically just sitting out her contract until it expires and she can be officially nixed from the company’s lineup.
Raw, on the other hand, has two more people available to work with in comparison.
Assuming this worked the same with Alexa Bliss not participating as she holds the Raw Women’s Championship, there’s still Alicia Fox, Bayley, Dana Brooke, Mickie James, Nia Jax and Sasha Banks with the possibility of Summer Rae still being on the Raw side.
Emma is injured and Paige is out seemingly indefinitely, so they couldn’t be in the mix, which means either the Raw Women’s Money in the Bank match would consist of seven women or at least one of them would face Alexa Bliss in a separate title match, which I believe is the more likely scenario. The only reason it isn’t happening with SmackDown is that WWE likely saw the idea of a 4-woman ladder match as not as grandiose as 5 and thought nobody would care if Naomi defending her title was sacrificed to add one more extra person to that match.
As a heel, Bliss needs a babyface to fight her for the title, so we need to pull Bayley, Dana Brooke, Mickie James or Sasha Banks out of the ladder match. For my money, I’d stick with Bayley, as I think switching Extreme Rules and Money in the Bank on the pay-per-view lineup to give MITB to Raw could have saved us from the horrible “This is Your Life” segment. Plus, there’s already enough talent to choose from in the ladder match to make sure that’s a solid show.
Nia Jax could play the slow but dominant powerhouse role, per usual, with Mickie acting as a ring general, Dana Brooke and Alicia Fox rounding out the numbers and Sasha Banks being the favorite to win. Summer Rae is someone you can take or leave, but I’m frankly hoping she goes over to SmackDown anyway, and I don’t think her talents suit this style of a match coming right off an injury.
The Consequences / How it Would Play Out
When it comes to the booking of the matches, that’s harder to examine as not only is this the completely opposite brand, but we have no idea what WWE’s ideas for Raw’s superstars are for the future. That being said, we can still make a few educated guesses and give our thoughts on what we’d like to see happen.
With the men’s match, we know with Brock Lesnar as champion, there’s no way a title shot would be granted to someone like Goldust no matter what type of push he’s in store for. The same goes for Elias Samson, and since it’s been done already, we can rule out Mark Henry and Big Show.
We’re jumping a bit ahead if we think Big Cass would get the title shot, too, as he’s still far lower on the hierarchy ladder compared to the rest of the participants of the match.
Braun Strowman, if he were in it, would be a fantastic choice, and really anybody like Samoa Joe or Dean Ambrose could easily win it. The Miz could even be an outsider choice where he could hold onto the briefcase for an extremely long time specifically because he doesn’t want to try to cash it in on Lesnar, yet if anybody were to dethrone him, he’ll be waiting in the wings to jump on the opportunity.
Still, I’d have to lean towards this being a win for Finn Balor, who could do the good guy shtick of announcing he wants a title match in advance for Great Balls of Fire or SummerSlam, thus setting up a match we’re probably already going to get soon enough. Balor would lose the title shot, as he’s certainly not defeating Lesnar, but he wouldn’t go out like a punk like how they booked Damien Sandow against John Cena.
As far as the women’s match goes, I think the easy choice would have been Sasha Banks. Not only is she a former champion and one of the most popular women on the brand, but she’s also the perfect choice for someone who could sway back and forth between the babyface and heel role in terms of speculation. We would all be wondering if she would cash in on someone like Bliss to take the belt off her, or we could use this to set up the inevitable heel turn on Bayley for those two to feud again.
Alternatively, I would find it fun to see Mickie James hold the briefcase as she’s a bit of an unknown factor on Raw at the moment. Since she’s held the title more times than anybody on Raw, the threat of her adding another reign to her list of accolades would be looming as her history would prove she can get the job done on her own, but with this magic title shot, it’s a guarantee.
It will be interesting to see if any of these potential scenarios will end up being better ideas in retrospect to what we get with the real SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder matches this year, but until then, we’ll just have to hope this all works out for the best.
What do you think would happen if Raw had the briefcase this year? Is there anything you would have liked to see in particular? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
