Guess how long the average Mr. Money in the Bank has held the briefcase over all 25 winners so far. 95.5 days.
Guess how long the average has been for the 6 women to win Money in the Bank. 41.6 days. Less than half the time.
But you might be thinking “Hey. They’ve had 25 men hold it for many years before the women ever had a chance. You can’t compare that to the few examples of the women.”
Well, here’s the real kicker: if you COMBINE the FULL TOTAL of EVERY woman to have ever held the MITB briefcase, except for the very first one (Carmella), guess what the total collective time comes out to.
2 days, 6 hours and 17 minutes.
Oh, and if you want to know the total average time that equates to? 10 hours and 51 minutes.
I’m not here to bore you with math. What I’m calling attention to, though, is how every single woman to have won Money in the Bank has cashed it in within 3 hours, or by the next day, save for Carmella, the first one. By the way, she held it for 2 days until they reset the match and had her have to win it again, wherein she then held it for 287 days.
Clearly, she’s the outlier, and when you have all of her successors (5 out of the 6 women in total) cash in that quickly, that’s not just a coincidence. That’s a pattern. And it means something very specific: WWE does not like to have the Women’s Money in the Bank stick around for more than a hot minute.
Why is that the case? Surely, it can’t be because they just happened to run into a situation where all 5 of the last 5 years, they conveniently thought “The best possible scenario is for a cash-in to happen immediately and it just so happens to keep happening like that.”
It isn’t about creative direction for the best title situation. This has to be a matter of them not wanting to keep it around and needing to deal with what to do with it going forward.
Having two people hold a Money in the Bank briefcase at the same time means having to write up methods for those people to tease cashing in, but not doing it. WWE either doesn’t have the creative muscles to flex handling double the load, or they don’t even want to try in the first place, and they just see it as too daunting of a task that isn’t worth the headache.
And since the men’s Money in the Bank typically means more to the grand scheme of things going forward, they put all their eggs in that basket and figure “let’s just get the women’s out of the way as soon as possible so we can focus entirely on the men’s.”
Of course, they tend not to do that, either. Look at how Austin Theory was booked last year, or how Otis dropping it to The Miz was handled two years prior, or how two years before that, Braun Strowman was a sacrificial lamb, or Baron Corbin the year before him…which then takes us back to that year before Corbin. If you forget, that is when Dean Ambrose cashed in during Money in the Bank 57 minutes after winning it, so they could have all three Shield members as champion within the span of a few minutes.
This becomes transparent. The gimmick has worn off in WWE’s eyes and is no longer as fun of a journey to track like it was the first 10 or so people, and with having 2 (men’s and women’s) every year now, WWE definitely wants to knock one out immediately, and then, it’s up to the men’s to either be something they truly have a plan to execute further down the line, or, more likely, they just have a guy hold it and think “We’ll figure it out later.” Then, they dawdle until they lose interest, or they sometimes even have that person fail just to stop having to think about it anymore.
This year, with the 2023 Money in the Bank, I’d like to see WWE step away from this pattern, laziness and, let’s be honest, fear of creative ineptitude, and actually allow the women’s Money in the Bank winner to hold it for more than a day or so.
And let’s be clear. By that, I don’t mean that a week is okay. That’s negligible. Having someone hold it for one month isn’t going to make a big difference. When the average men’s run is over 3 months long, that’s what you should be striving for.
Also, the call is for WWE to allow the women to hold it longer—not to “switch up the role” and just have the men’s winner cash in within a day or so to compensate.
WWE has an entire team of writers, as well as a whole team of producers AND the talent themselves who can be responsible for creative input. If you’re telling me having 2 people hold onto a briefcase for 3+ months is too mentally taxing for them to figure out, when they really only need to cover a few minutes of television per week (because we’ll be focused on other content, feuds and segments)…then I’m sorry, but the problem isn’t the gimmick. The problem is a lack of creativity, organization, planning and effort.
This year, WWE is in a position where nobody on the men’s or women’s side makes any real sense to have a quick cash in.
Would you really want Cody Rhodes to win MITB, come out on Raw, say “I want a match with Roman Reigns tonight” and be done with it? Or to call his shot and say “I want a match at SummerSlam” and all the mystique is gone, and he might as well have just won a No. 1 contender’s match instead?
Worse, do you want to see Rhodes cash in at Money in the Bank itself, score a cheap pin over The Tribal Chief, and have his big “finish the story” moment be that he capitalized on a weak, beaten down guy who had just wrestled a match? That’s not a heroic, triumphant conquering victory, is it?
Do you want to see Seth Rollins go from just winning this World Heavyweight Championship—the belt that for some reason isn’t carrying the same lineage as the other belt with the same exact name as it, and instead, is already being viewed as the bronze medal since Roman has the gold and silver belts—to losing it already? Doesn’t that cheapen the title and make it seem like WWE is desperate to play hot potato with the belt purely because they’re antsy that people are too tired of Roman holding his forever, and they want to compensate since they know he’s not dropping his titles any time soon?
And when it comes to the women, not only has Asuka JUST won her title, but Rhea Ripley is a relatively fresh champion, too. She only won it at WrestleMania. And if you’re thinking this is a good means to solve the problem of the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships being on the opposite brands (for example, by having a SmackDown star like Bianca Belair cash in on Rhea to take the blue title to the blue brand), then what do you do with the other one? You’d have to have another cross-branded match specifically set up just to have that champion lose, which not only would be seen coming from a mile away, but it would also CONTINUE to defy the “hard brand split” we were supposed to have gotten with the 2023 WWE Draft that has been going on for a full month now with WWE still having people cross over between shows.
So unless WWE plans to just have someone cash in, lose, and wipe the slate clean for the pure sake of, again, “getting it out of the way so they don’t have to think about it for the next year”—IE, a total waste whatsoever—they’re going to have to keep both briefcases in play for the next few months.
Ideally, I’d like to see one of them last until at least SummerSlam, while the other one could last later into the year, if not into 2024. Who, what, how, when and why all that would come to play would certainly depend on their plans for these championships and challengers, along with what the current mindset is for WrestleMania 40.
The field hasn’t been remotely set regarding the competitors, but I feel like this year, we’re likely in for another complete waste of both Money in the Bank briefcases.
Roman’s not being cashed-in on. Not unless they have Rhodes win and call his shot in advance, which, again, spoils the point of the surprise potential any time cash-in concept.
Rollins could be cashed-in on if they’re planning the long game with him and they have someone in mind they want to hold it for a while. Basically, let him have a decent run with the belt and then, he loses it from a cash-in. However, I still think Gunther is winning the belt next and I don’t think he’ll capture it via MITB. I don’t even think he’ll be in the match whatsoever to be vying for this briefcase.
I don’t think Ripley’s losing her title any time soon and I don’t think giving the belt to Asuka was just to transition it to someone new, either, so it wouldn’t shock me if WWE has no plans to have any of these four champions lose to a cash-in.
The temptation is there, I’m sure, to then have 2 failed cash-in attempts and then not have to worry about it anymore, but I submit my challenge to WWE to put in the work to have both the man and woman who wins this year hold the briefcase for as long as you need. Sometimes, Money in the Bank would have been incredibly useful as a tool to get the title off someone who is injured, like what happened with The Undertaker and the whole Mr. Kennedy/Edge fiasco. Keep it as a backup plan! Give yourself the easy out and the potential to tell good stories going forward for BOTH divisions!
Keep it on them until you reach a point where it makes sense for them to cash in and WIN, or until you feel you need to have them cash in and lose, but to build to something better. Everything should be in the interest of building something up, rather than what happened with Otis, where WWE simply got cold feet, took the briefcase away from him, and promptly said the equivalent of “We’re done playing with you. You aren’t the shiny fun toy. Your push is done. Go back into the midcard.”
The Royal Rumble has been half or fully wasted for the past 10 years or so. Money in the Bank is running into the same rut. The longer and more often WWE keeps throwing it all away, the quicker these things will turn into the way everyone sees the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal trophy—as in, completely worthless because the winner typically is only pushed for 2 weeks, maximum, and then, they act like it never happened.
Let’s see if this post holds up well by the time July 2nd is over, or if someone’s already cashed in their briefcase within 24 hours of winning it.
Somehow, based on history’s track record, I fully expect WWE to have an itchy trigger finger and get rid of one of them (it wouldn’t shock me if it is the men’s this year just to buck the trend) almost immediately.