Cashing in one’s Money in the Bank contract has mostly led wrestlers to championship gold.
But occasionally, some of those don’t work out in the long run, and sometimes they fail
harder than Titus O’Neil at a promo cutting night at a roller disco.
So here’s to you, the pushed too early, or never quite pushed at all five worst Money
in the Bank cash-ins.
5.
Jack Swagger, Smackdown, April 2nd 2010
Jack Swagger won Money in the Bank at WrestleMania 26, where he found unhooking the briefcase
so difficult, the finish had to be edited for the home video release.
The following night on Raw, Swagger attempted to cash-in on John Cena - but he bailed to
Smackdown instead.
This was back when SmackDown used to be a taped show, so Swagger’s successful cash-in
on Chris Jericho the following night had a lot of its surprise already spoiled.
The most surprising part of the title win was Jericho’s shoe flying off when Swagger
powerbombed him.
His ensuing title reign contained nothing of note - with the amateur wrestler arguably
being pushed too early - and ended several months later to Rey Mysterio.
4.
Damien Sandow, Monday Night Raw, October 28th 2013
After John Cena’s return and subsequent World Heavyweight Championship win in 2013,
all eyes turned to Damien Sandow and his Money in the Bank briefcase.
The night after Cena won the title, Sandow claimed that Cena was still injured, and that
he’ll cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase right now to capitalise!
His masterplan of attacking Cena before the bell had one fundamental flaw, though: it
was against John Cena.
Sandow lost and never really recovered, destined for mid-card gimmick overhauls and an eventual
release from the company in 2016.
3.
CM Punk, Monday Night Raw, June 30th 2008
While CM Punk winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Edge on Raw back in 2008
was a great moment, similar to Swagger, he never really got anything from the following
title run.
The man himself agrees, admitting in his WWE documentary Best In The World that although
he was the champion, he was never “the guy”.
Punk never even lost the title, forfeiting it due to a storyline injury at Unforgiven
just a few months later.
It wasn’t until 2011 - three years after his cash-in - when he was fully positioned
as a top guy in WWE, ironically at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view of all places.
2.
Baron Corbin, Smackdown Live, August 15h, 2017
In the 2017 Money in the Bank match that had AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura and Sami Zayn,
WWE thought it better to indulge Vince McMahon’s big sweaty men fetish, with Baron Corbin winning
the briefcase.
One problem, though, was that Baron won during Jinder Mahal’s tedious WWE Championship
reign (a thinly veiled attempt at expanding into the Indian market), and original plans
reportedly had the Modern Day Maharaja not dropping the belt until WrestleMania the following
year.
After some rumoured backstage heat, Corbin found himself cashing in his shot in August,
when a John Cena distraction - yes, that guy again - caused him to get rolled up by Mahal
in seconds.
What makes this worse is that Jinder had just lost clean to Cena, meaning the fresh Corbin
couldn’t overcome an already beaten Mahal.
But at least it gave Jinder a clean victory, of which he had only two for his entire run.
Corbin found himself in the midcard for the rest of the year.
1.
Randy Orton, Summerslam 2013
In 2013, John Cena hand-picked Daniel Bryan to main event Summerslam with him for the
WWE title.
With Cena - the company’s top guy - about to take time off, it was hoped this would
be a passing of the torch to the next face of the promotion.
Bryan was a great wrestler and organically popular with the crowd, and when he won his
first ever WWE title in that match, it seemed our dreams would come true.
And then Randy Orton’s music hit.
With special guest referee Triple H’s help, Orton cashed in his Money in the Bank contract
from outta nowhere to win his seventh world title and begin a run of PPVs where The Authority
held down Daniel Bryan - to the point where fans reportedly complained to PPV providers
to ask for refunds.
WWE can pretend their grand masterplan was for Bryan to win the Championship back at
WrestleMania XXX, but, in truth, their hand was forced by fan reactions and CM Punk walking
out the company.
If The Authority backstage really had it their way, Bryan would’ve likely eventually dropped
into the midcard following Orton’s cash-in feud.
Speaking of CM Punk, was his infamous pipebomb promo a shoot?
Click the video onscreen now to find out!
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I’ve been Oli Davis and that was wrestling.