As we are in the spirit of Money In The Bank, backstage news stories from former WWE creative writer; Kevin Eck, have come to the forefront. Eck has posted numerous stories on Sporting News regarding the reasoning behind giving some superstars the honor of being Mr. Money In The Bank. In this story, Eck revealed that Vince McMahon backtracked after giving former WWE superstar, Damien Sandow, the MITB briefcase.
Here’s what Eck wrote in his blog:
“There was much internal debate over who should win the 2013 MITB ladder match for a guaranteed shot at the World Heavyweight Title. Nearly all of the competitors: Sandow, Barrett, Rhodes, Dean Ambrose, Cesaro, Fandango and Jack Swagger had some support among the writers and producers.”
“My choice was Barrett, I thought he had future world champion written all over him ever since he made his main roster debut in 2010 as the leader of The Nexus. A solid worker and terrific talker with good size, Barrett had somehow gotten lost in the shuffle, but giving him the briefcase would put him right back in the title picture where he belonged.”
“As the MITB pay-per-view grew closer, McMahon narrowed down the potential winners of the match to Barrett and Sandow. I pushed for Barrett, but Sandow had his share of backers, including a producer who strongly advocated for him, I just didn’t see it. It was nothing personal against Sandow, who was a nice guy, played his character well and was decent in the ring, but not everyone is cut out to be world champion. “The Intellectual Savior of the Masses” was an entertaining mid-card act but I didn’t think that character could headline pay-per-view world title matches.”
“Ultimately, McMahon made the call to go with Sandow. I firmly believed it was the wrong decision and I privately told some of my colleagues that Sandow was destined to be the first MITB winner to cash in the contract and lose.”
“After winning the MITB ladder match, Sandow began losing a lot more matches than he was winning. McMahon explained at the time that the losses wouldn’t hurt Sandow because he still had the briefcase. However, one of McMahon’s favorite sayings is “perception becomes reality.” The perception was that Sandow wasn’t world champion material and McMahon eventually saw him that way as well.”
“When discussing Sandow at a booking meeting a few months after the MITB pay-per-view, McMahon said, “I think we went with the wrong guy.” So, on an episode of “RAW” that October, Sandow attacked then-champion Cena and cashed in the contract, only to have a weakened Cena rally to win the match. I’d love to be able to say “I told you so,” but Barrett may very well have suffered a similar fate if he had won the MITB ladder match instead of Sandow, because McMahon eventually soured on him as well.”
