This year’s Money in the Bank ladder matches will consist of 7 men and 6 women vying for the briefcases. While filled with talented Superstars, I feel like the matches this year come off a bit lacking as far as potential goes. There’s a good chance both winners will fail their cash-ins and MITB will once again be relegated to mostly a waste.
No one stands out to me—for either match—as a go-to option that will use that briefcase to win a world title and upset the system. Instead, I feel like all four champions are relatively safe for the next few months, with only Asuka in jeopardy to lose her title. But even then, I don’t think we’ll see some game-changing cash-in or anything of the sort.
WWE has one more episode of SmackDown to convince me otherwise, but the way I see it right now, picking winners for this year isn’t so much about who will use this to catapult themselves to the next level, but rather, who is the best option to fail and have the least negative blowback.
With that in mind, I want to rank the 6 women and 7 men from worst to best as far as how I perceive the chances WWE could do anything decent with them if they were to win.
Let’s get started with the women’s match.
Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
6) Zelina Vega
I hate to rank her so low, as I’m a fan of Zelina Vega and I think she’s underutilized and in many ways, underrated. However, if I’m being 100% honest, I think she stands the lowest chance in WWE doing something with her holding the briefcase.
Her big moment was the Backlash title shot. I don’t think she’s going to top that at any point this year. Frankly, I’m surprised she’s in the match and that they didn’t give her spot to Bianca Belair or Charlotte Flair.
Another year, with another set of champions and a title situation that wasn’t so up in the air for establishing new belts, and I would be more vocal about giving her a shot. Right now, I think if she were to win the briefcase, there’s a chance she’d even lose it to someone else; but at most, she’d just lose her cash-in to make the champion look stronger.
5) Trish Stratus
In theory, Trish winning is interesting. She’s a Hall of Famer with more title reigns to her name than the vast majority of women who have been in the company. On paper, that should put her toward the top of the list, right?
Well, after seeing Trish during this run, I think it would be a mistake. She just doesn’t have it in her to have a long, solid title reign. At best, she could cash in, win the belt for a shock, and drop it a few weeks or maybe 2 months later. But that would depend on there being a babyface champion for her to do that against, and right now, we have powerhouse Rhea Ripley as a heel on her brand, and on SmackDown, Asuka is more of a heel, Flair is perpetually tweener-heel and Belair could very well be turning heel herself. I can’t picture Trish and Zoey branching away from the Becky Lynch feud and going to SmackDown, nor do I think Becky is beating Rhea any time soon to facilitate Trish winning this briefcase.
If Trish were to win, I think she’d strut around with the briefcase and WWE would have no idea what to do with her. They’d be pulling another one of those “We’ll figure it out in the future, maybe, we hope” booking scenarios, which lead to things like Otis losing his briefcase to The Miz.
4) Bayley
Bayley has an advantage over Trish in that she’s a more regular part of the roster, but not much more than that.
At this point in her career, Bayley’s being used as a stepping stone more than the featured act. It seems like her only real goal right now is to put Iyo Sky over with their inevitable feud upon the split of Damage CTRL, which I think likely has been stalled out due to Dakota Kai’s injury.
Bayley could win the briefcase and lose, and it wouldn’t be the end of the world. However, it wouldn’t do her any good whatsoever. She’s not the type of heel that fans would relish in seeing get humiliated—particularly by heel Asuka and heel Ripley. So why go in that direction, then?
Granted, they could do something where she’s holding the briefcase, Iyo Sky eventually wins the title, and Bayley cashes in on her. That’s one possible solution. But is that the best case scenario, or just an idea that isn’t as bad as it being a complete waste?
3) Zoey Stark
I like Zoey Stark, but she’s not ready for this responsibility/burden. Eventually, I think she’ll get there. But I wouldn’t put the belt on her until sometime in 2024.
Yes, the briefcase can last that long. And maybe that’s something to ponder about. But with her current character, I don’t think she’d do well holding that for the next 10 months or so—as when I say 2024, I don’t mean any time heading into WrestleMania, but after that. I think it would be a struggle to see her do this storyline with Trish and Becky, then just hold the briefcase and not challenge for the belt at any point and continue to have to excuse why she isn’t taking advantage of a beaten down champion.
But I still rank her higher than some others because I think her being a fresh face on the roster means more of an unknown element to her holding the briefcase, which could be fun. Fans wouldn’t know what her likely outcome would be, because there hasn’t been enough established about her potential. That would put the title in at least some jeopardy, and I think if she were to win a cash-in, people would at least be interested and excited that a newer talent won the belt, rather than it defaulting to the same names all the time.
2) Becky Lynch
Becky is the biggest star of the bunch. There’s no question about that. She’s the one holding this match together and the fan favorite pick to win, if not also the betting odds favorite, too.
If The Man takes the briefcase, I won’t be shocked. I likely won’t even argue that it’s a bad decision until WWE actually executes the cash-in, as that will be what makes or breaks it.
But with her babyface character, I just feel like if she won, she’d cut a quick promo about how she’ll wait for the right time, but first, she needs to get Trish Stratus out of her hair at SummerSlam, before moving on to the title scene. And then, she’d probably just outright challenge Rhea Ripley to a match for Payback in September and that would be it.
If that’s the plan, you can just have a No. 1 contender’s match. You don’t need to waste Money in the Bank.
But that’s if WWE wouldn’t have some dumb backwards roundabout way to do both parts of that angle, either. We’ve seen in the past how they can do some pretty ridiculous decisions with this briefcase that benefit no one and the only purpose is to get people talking, even if it is a negative reaction.
For instance, why was Braun Strowman given the briefcase just so Brock Lesnar could attack him and render it null? Why did Austin Theory cash in for a United States Championship shot, lose the match, then challenge for the title a few days later and win, instead of just winning in his cash-in?
It wouldn’t shock me if Becky were to win and they pulled some stupid decision like that again, with her calling out Ripley for a title match on Monday Night Raw, having that as the main event, Trish and Zoey interfere to cost Becky the win, Becky fights them at SummerSlam and then comes back around to “I had you beaten, Rhea. So I want another match” for Payback.
And frankly, if that’s all they’d have planned, I wouldn’t want to see it.
1) Iyo Sky
That leaves Iyo Sky as the only one that I think WWE can get something positive out of, and even that is a bit of a stretch to imagine.
If I look at this list and divide it into 2 sections of “already had the belt” and “never been champion”, Iyo is the one without a title reign that I think is the most sound and reliable. She could beat Asuka for the WWE Women’s Championship and I would believe it. Then, she could feud with Bayley, who would be jealous of her success. Likely, Iyo would eventually lose the belt to Flair, who would probably lose it to Belair at WrestleMania, given how the power dynamics are on SmackDown right now.
But even then—the best case scenario, in my mind—I still think that this doesn’t suit Money in the Bank all that well. Why would Iyo have to cash in to beat Asuka? Or, why would she just waste MITB, call her shot (the most boring option) and beat Asuka then? And wouldn’t a surprise cash-in render Iyo more heelish since Asuka has spent more time on the main roster as a babyface? I’d think the crowd would potentially turn on Iyo and make Asuka the hero out of that scenario, so that’d be difficult to pull off well.
I wouldn’t want to see Iyo lose a cash-in, even if it was due to some mistake from Bayley that leads to their split, but I can see that being a scenario, too.
Like I said, I don’t have a lot of faith this year that either men’s or women’s winner will make it out of their cash-in looking better and/or with the championship, and if WWE is going into this year knowing full well that they plan on having both winners fail, I’d rather Iyo not be the sacrificial lamb so her credibility isn’t ruined for the future like what happened with Baron Corbin and Damien Sandow.
Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
General rule of thumb that we can just get out of the way from the start: nobody is going to successfully cash in on Roman Reigns and beat him for his championship. It just isn’t happening. That already rules out all 7 of these men involved in that cash-in whatsoever, outside of just having them lose for the sake of it.
That means I’m looking at this more as who could be useful for the World Heavyweight Championship scene than anything else, with the chance of the Intercontinental or United States Championships being factored in. Keep that in mind.
7) Butch
We can all agree Pete Dunne’s had some great matches and he’s fun to watch in the ring, right? At least, that’s a general consensus.
But we can probably also all agree that he’s too small to fit the traditional mold of what WWE would want as a world champion. Plus, he’s not much of a talker, so it isn’t like he’s got that to offset his size. He isn’t a flashy, marketable character like Rey Mysterio, nor does he have the popularity and groundswell of support like Daniel Bryan did.
What he has going for him is that he’s an entertaining wrestler who is from England and will get a huge pop as an underdog local hero type who won’t win this match. It just isn’t happening.
He could win the United States Championship with a cash-in, but that’s such a cop out that I hate entertaining the thought that WWE went into Money in the Bank this year just planning on that being the only viable way to use the briefcase.
6) Santos Escobar
It pains me to have him this low, as I’m a huge fan of Santos Escobar. But if I’m being realistic, he stands no chance whatsoever in having an eventful cash-in. At the moment, he’s second-fiddle to Rey Mysterio in the Latino World Order. He’s effectively booked at the United States Championship level, without holding or even contending for that title at this moment. Rey is the main-eventer of that group, Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro are the tag team members and Escobar is the midcarder.
Again, unless the game plan is to have him cash in on Austin Theory and beat him for the US title, I think Escobar holding the briefcase would be met with positivity, but overwhelming doubt that he’d beat Rollins or Reigns.
And even though I’d be down for Butch or Santos winning the midcard title, even in a cash-in, I feel WWE has other plans in place.
5 and 4 Tie) Ricochet / Shinsuke Nakamura
Theoretically, could Ricochet break the barrier and become a main event talent? Of course. He’s got a lot of talent that gets consistently overlooked. Could Shinsuke Nakamura do the same? Well, the guy did top the NXT roster for quite a while and even won a Royal Rumble, so at least back then, they were interested in making him a high level star.
But as much as these guys are great, they’re feuding with each other and Bronson Reed, who is looking like a bigger threat to the world title picture despite NOT being in the match.
That doesn’t give me a lot of faith that WWE has any plans whatsoever to give either of them the briefcase, let alone go all the way with them cashing in on Seth Rollins (or, of course, Roman Reigns). It just isn’t in the cards.
Maybe one of them could cash in on Gunther. Even still, I don’t think that’s happening until Honky Tonk Man’s record is broken on September 7th, which isn’t that far off, but I also don’t think Gunther’s dropping the belt to either of these guys, and it is more so someone like a babyface Damian Priest, maybe Johnny Gargano, or possibly Chad Gable who will beat him.
I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to Gunther losing the belt that way. It would help keep him strong. But there are better uses of the briefcase than for Ricochet or Nakamura to be the ones to beat him via a cash-in, as I think both would find themselves having a run-of-the-mill title reign after that like they’ve done so many times in the past.
3) Damian Priest
Maybe, just maybe, WWE is high enough on Priest that they’d consider having him either be the one to beat Gunther like mentioned above, or get at least a quick world title reign in the future.
I doubt it. So much so that if Priest wins the briefcase, I’ll start counting down when I think he’ll lose his cash-in due to something with Finn Balor and start a feud with him (like the Bayley/Iyo scenario I mentioned).
But I’m a fan of Priest and I think he’s got main event potential, so if they were willing to play around with pushing someone to that top spot, he’d be one of my major picks I’d like to see get that opportunity.
I just don’t see him being the guy to beat Rollins, now that they’ve already had a mini feud. And while I’m sure some people out there think Rollins could beat Balor, lose the title to Priest, and then that’d be an interesting way to have a three-way feud, I don’t think Seth is dropping that title until at least the fall.
2) LA Knight
Don’t get your hopes up, but WWE would be deaf not to hear the reactions this guy is getting. That means you can never fully count out the possibility they listen and decide to give him the ball to run with.
Now that could be the United States Championship, mind you. That could be their way to not have him divert world title plans and try to tell the fans “This is the best we can offer you. Be happy with it.” People would likely be annoyed and the buzz would settle down rather fast, because people want to see him get a push to the main event, rather than the midcard, but he hasn’t won a middle-level title yet, so it’s not too crazy to ask for that first.
But I think we’re getting something else. I think WWE is hearing this reaction he’s getting, so they’re planning on having him be the sentimental favorite who comes thiiiiiiiis close to winning, only for…
1) Logan Paul
Logan Paul takes out LA Knight to win the briefcase. He pisses everyone off. They look at it as him getting a ton of heat. Maybe the backup plan for LA Knight is to move him into a United States title picture with Austin Theory and he might win the title outright as a consolation prize. Perhaps they don’t even bother following through with it, kind of like how Cody Rhodes not winning at WrestleMania was met with “wait for it”, only for his follow-up plans to be a side feud with Lesnar and now, Dominik Mysterio, which obviously does not make up for failing to win the title on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
But more than anything, I think Logan Paul is going to not only win this, but he’s the best choice to win, because failure is almost 100% certain with these briefcases and he’s the best fall guy.
If LA Knight wins the briefcase, they have him try to cash in on Roman and he loses, people will be pissed. The same goes for if he cashes in and fails to beat Rollins. It will annoy fans.
But if Logan Paul tries to cash in on Rollins and loses, then everyone can point and laugh at him and they’d be okay with Money in the Bank being a failure again this year.
Plus, if Paul isn’t around all that often, it is a good excuse for why MITB isn’t in play every week. In theory, whoever holds the briefcase should be constantly watching both champions and would jump at any opportunity once they’ve wrestled and are beaten down. But if Paul only shows up a few episodes, then you’re not thinking of why he’s not cashing in. You’re just used to him not being there.
In the meantime, he carries that briefcase around for photo shoots and interviews and podcasts and such, constantly promoting the brand. And when he does cash in, suddenly, they get a media coverage spike for that, too.
If by some chance he wins the title, he’ll do so in a way that fans will write it off as not being a legitimate win, so it won’t devalue Rollins, who would likely just win it back at the next event and then yay, everyone is happy again, and they have Logan Paul as a former WWE champion for all future media coverage.
That isn’t my preferred scenario. I’d go with the failed cash in. But it does make me wonder if that’s the plan, just to get people talking and to rile fans up, as WWE loves to do that.
Remember, this is a company that perpetually tells you to “be patient” only for things to not pay off and then, “well, plans changed” or they want you to just forget about it and move on. This is also a company that has used the motto for over a decade that “it doesn’t matter if you boo or cheer, so long as you’re making noise”—and a Logan Paul Money in the Bank win, with or without a successful cash in, gets people making noise. Even if it is mostly balking at the idea.
Who do you think stands the best chance to make something useful out of this year’s Money in the Bank ladder matches? Drop your predictions in the comments below!
