Continuing on with this year’s fantasy booking for extra Money in the Bank briefcases, let’s focus on the question “What if NXT UK had ladder matches?”
With this setup, there are two matches to take into account: one for the women’s division and one for the men’s singles division. The tag teams are part of the tag team lineup.
Let’s dive right into this with my breakdown of how I personally think this would go down, and I invite you to do the same in the comments below!
Women’s Division – List of Competitors
There isn’t a ton of options to work with, but we can still get quite a good match out of this roster.
- Isla Dawn — She’s been in title contention before and is a babyface who has been featured quite a lot.
- Jazzy Gabert — She was awesome in the Mae Young Classic.
- Jinny — She’s one of the top heels right now for this division.
- Kay Lee Ray — I still can’t quite get a good feel for Kay Lee Ray. Is she a heel or a face? Is she good or not? What’s up? I need to start paying more attention, as I think she’s a heel, but I just don’t get those vibes.
- Nina Samuels — Why not?
- Piper Niven — The most prominent babyface of the match, for sure, since Dakota Kai is still injured.
- Rhea Ripley — Ripley obviously is a threat as a former champion and one of the tallest women in the match.
- Xia Brookside — Xia would be the young, tiny, bright-eyed underdog.
I had thought Charlie Morgan and Millie McKenzie were actually on the roster. I guess not. That meant only one woman (other than Toni Storm, of course) had to be left off this list to make it 8, and I feel like the superstar who had the least likely chances of winning was the only one that had any reasonable cause to be eliminated, so that’s why Killer Kelly isn’t on this list.
With that being the field of competitors in the match, which one of them would more than likely walk out with the briefcase?
Winner and Plans
With Storm as champion, I would lean toward a heel winner. However, I don’t think this would necessarily be someone who would cash in and win. By that rationale, I wouldn’t go with any of the bigger names like Gabert, Jinny or Ripley.
Actually, I’d give this to Nina Samuels on a whim, and have her fail her cash-in attempt. Eventually, Gabert should take the title from Storm, but Samuels should be a feud before that point, and a failed cash-in that leads to a normal feud could be interesting.
Not everyone can win, and even though that seems to doom Samuels, I think she’ll be able to bounce back from it. If not, and there’s too much hesitation and worrying that she’d be buried by this, then it should go to Jinny, who should manipulate the briefcase to make it a fashion accessory and wait a loooooooooong time before cashing it in.
Men’s Division – List of Competitors
Narrowing down this list to eight wasn’t actually as hard as I was anticipating it would be.
- Alexander Wolfe — Representative of Imperium, who would want to secure the title stays on WALTER.
- Dave Mastiff — Why wouldn’t the big guy be in here? He’d be the anchor.
- Kassius Ohno — Ohno is fighting for a top heel spot on the brand. He’s basically #2 or #3 right now and he would be the veteran who people would think had a solid chance of winning.
- Jordan Devlin — While Devlin is not the top heel right now, he’s still hovering in that area, too.
- Ligero — I almost put him in 205 Live, and my instinct was to put Eddie Dennis in here, but he’s injured, so to balance out the heel/face lineup, Ligero goes in. Why not, right?
- Pete Dunne — Representative of British Strong Style and a former UK champion.
- Travis Banks — I almost put him in 205 Live, too, but I figured he would be a good midcarder, essentially, who could play the part of an underdog who just might win.
- Wolfgang — Representative of Gallus. The Coffey Brothers are in the tag team one.
I feel like this covers pretty much every aspect, particularly as there’s an NXT UK tag team ladder match to factor in for people like Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Flash Morgan Webster and more.
Winner and Plans
It can’t go to Wolfe, Ohno, Devlin or Wolfgang, unless it’s a waste. WALTER needs to keep that title for a while and I don’t see any of them feuding heel/heel with him, or turning face to start a feud.
I can’t picture Ligero or Banks really stealing it away, either, which narrows the list to Dunne and Mastiff.
Between the two, I’m torn. Does Dunne win and straight-up challenge WALTER to some sort of gimmick match like a Last Man Standing match, or does Mastiff get it and that’s how we take the belt off WALTER somewhere down the line?
That’s a tough call that I don’t think I’d be able to make without the rest of the creative team pitching ideas of where to go a year from now.
Those are my thoughts on the issue, but how would you imagine WWE would do this if it were to happen? Tell us your fantasy booking scenario in the comments section below!
