The field has been set for this year’s Money in the Bank match, as six competitors will be vying for a chance to win the briefcase and the contract that damn near secures a future title reign for them in the next few months.
Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens and Alberto Del Rio will get that opportunity, having won their qualifying matches to earn a spot in the ladder match. But what about those men who lost that chance? What if this year’s Money in the Bank match was the complete opposite, featuring the losers of the qualifiers instead of the winners?
It’s an exercise in futility, but it’s something that I feel would be interesting to examine, as we all have our opinions on who should win and who shouldn’t even climb up a couple of rungs as they should be nowhere near the title picture.
With that being said, here’s the ranking as far as I’m concerned, from the least likely person I could have seen winning to the guy who stands out above the rest as the favorite.
6. Zack Ryder
Poor Zack Ryder has had a better year in 2016 than what he went through in 2015, but at the same time, has cemented himself as a bit-player. It’s weird to think that a championship victory could be anything but a good sign of things to come, as that’s a big bonus to your credibility and your overall value on the roster. However, dropping it the next night made all the doubters have enough ammo for a long, long time. It sealed the deal that he was just a transitional surprise more than a true champion that the company would invest any time in. The lack of follow-up meant that it was for the shock value and nothing else.
Because of that, even if Ryder were to win the briefcase, he would have been viewed as the next in line to lose his cash-in attempt. I doubt anybody—even fans of him like myself—would have ever imagined that he could be the next to hold the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, and even if he did, everybody would expect him to drop it soon after in a rematch or to a new challenger.
Ryder basically would have amounted to a talented guy who fills out the numbers in the match and takes a few bumps, but is ultimately unsuccessful.
5. Apollo Crews
Apollo Crews is very new to the main roster, having been given the promotion from NXT after WrestleMania. Since that debut, nothing much has happened. He’s yet to be given a proper feud and frequently doesn’t appear on Monday Night Raw, being pushed aside to wrestle on Superstars or Main Event instead.
As such, it seems like he might have been brought up too early. When you linger around and don’t accomplish all that much, you project an image that the company doesn’t value you enough to spend time thinking of ways to utilize you. If you aren’t a priority for television programming, then you aren’t someone they want to invest in, so you must not be ready to put any real trust in.
Stranger things have happened than for a new guy to get a massive push out of nowhere, but Crews doesn’t strike me as being another example of that. He’ll get his time to shine and either prove himself or screw things up, but while the story that would be told if he were in the ladder match would be of the rookie surpassing the odds and coming out on top, I wouldn’t have bet on him. Crews is someone I can picture doing well throughout 2016 and finding himself in a midcard title hunt, no doubt, and possibly even being a contender for next year’s briefcase, but this year is just far too early.
4. The Miz
The biggest factor working against The Miz in this hypothetical scenario is that he’s the current Intercontinental champion. Normally, WWE doesn’t double-up on accolades. Just as anything else, exceptions have been made, such as Seth Rollins momentarily holding the United States Championship or Rob Van Dam holding the Intercontinental title and the briefcase, but that’s a rarity.
For a long while, The Miz was stuck as a lower-card guy, off filming movies and busying himself with other projects. It felt like months would go by and he’d do nothing but a few MizTV segments rather than get in the ring. With Maryse by his side and the championship on his shoulders, he has a renewed vigor that can carry him back into the upper midcard and possibly main event scene in WWE, but would Money in the Bank be the route WWE would go to do that?
My guess is no. The Miz already went through a cash-in which granted him his sole world title reign so far, and he doesn’t quite have the momentum to take down a guy like Roman Reigns. Right now, the company needs him more as a trustworthy midcard champion to work with younger guys and propel new feuds, since he’s good at carrying a program purely on his mic skills, even if his opponent would struggle in that regard.
I certainly wouldn’t hate the idea of The Miz being champion again, but I also feel like I’m probably in the minority when it comes to that. In either scenario, there are bigger fish to fry and he already has his job to take care of with the Intercontinental Championship.
3. Dolph Ziggler
The Showoff goes through spurts where he gets a massive push and then is devalued, only to have a resurgence slowly build back up before he’s humbled yet again. It’s almost impossible to tell at this point when WWE will be high on him enough to make him the sole survivor against The Authority and when they’ll have him in a Kiss Me Arse match or jobbing on multiple consecutive episodes of SmackDown.
Considering the names on this list, I would put Ziggler towards the top of the potential winners for that reason, as you never know when another push is around the corner. Even if a title reign wasn’t in the cards, Ziggler is the type of guy I could see WWE giving the briefcase to and then having him drop it to someone else down the line or failing to successfully cash it in. He’s popular enough with the crowd that the audience would get behind hearing his music, just as they did when he took the title off Alberto Del Rio after WrestleMania 29. That same crowd would be equally as upset if he were to come out, try to cash in on Roman Reigns, and fail. Imagine the heat!
Just as the case is with The Miz, though, being a former world champion is both a positive and a negative. His credibility is up there so they could give him another belt, but it’s almost always more fun to do something different than to retread on familiar ground. Would WWE want to see another run with the briefcase by Ziggler or take a chance on someone who hasn’t done that gimmick yet? There’s only been one guy to be a two-time Money in the Bank winner, and he’s not exactly their favorite person right now.
2. Sheamus
With the upcoming brand extension, don’t be surprised to see Sheamus as a world title contender yet again. From pretty much the start of his career, WWE has valued him as a top guy, even if others didn’t think the same thing. He’s won the Money in the Bank before in 2015 as well as the King of the Ring, the Royal Rumble, 4 Slammy Awards, 4 world title reigns, and 2 United States Championship reigns. That’s impressive.
When you factor in that he could have also received a push from appearing in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, and that he’s a heel—which most MITB winners have been—you start stacking up a number of check marks in the column of him being one of the most likely choices to win.
Then again, would anyone want to see this happen? The guy wasn’t able to get The League of Nations to work and as I had mentioned before, there are bigger fish to fry, which applies to Sheamus as well. His victory wouldn’t come as much of a shock as someone like Ryder or Crews, but it would also be met with an unenthusiastic groan and complaints from the audience that there were plenty of guys not in the match who should get titles before him. The list would pretty much run down everybody who is going to be competing in this year’s ladder match except for Alberto Del Rio, as they’re pretty much on the same line.
Sheamus being pushed is never a surprise to me, but it’s always a shock to see how much value they assign to him that I’ve felt is a bit too much than he deserves. Thankfully, there’s another person on the list who surpasses him so much, the idea of The Celtic Warrior holding that briefcase again wouldn’t have even been an idea worth entertaining.
1. AJ Styles
Based on this list, there’s nobody who would have been the favorite to win more so than AJ Styles, and it isn’t even close. For all the reasons listed beforehand of why the other men could have won, they’re all negated when it comes to the freshness of Styles as your Mr. Money in the Bank.
It would be the first true accolade to his name in the company which would also be a flexible situation so as to not back the company into any corners. If WWE didn’t want him to be a champion for months, they’ve got time. If they need someone to take over from an injured champion, he’s obviously popular enough to fill those shoes. Judging by his recent heel turn that happened after he lost his qualifying match, he also could have been someone to use the briefcase as a catalyst to turn heel, which would give him massive heat if he were booked to cash in on the right opponent that the fans wouldn’t have just cheered to see lose the belt (ie, not Roman Reigns or John Cena).
Now that we know the plan was to have John Cena and AJ Styles face off, his lack of an inclusion in the ladder match makes more sense. Until that revelation, it felt extremely odd that he wasn’t at least competing in that match, as one would think he’d be a favorite even among those who qualified, if not just another great guy to make the match quality go up. In an alternate dimension where this crop of guys are those climbing the ladder, though, Styles stands above and beyond the rest and there’s no question about it.
A world title is coming his way, undoubtedly. Whether that happens as a result of something like this or the Royal Rumble or just out of a regular title change down the line, it’s pretty much a guarantee. This would have been an obvious victory for him and I don’t think many people would have complained it, either, except maybe for how predictable it would be.
What do you think of these “losers” and their chances to win the Money in the Bank ladder match? Would you rank them any differently than what I have down here? For that matter, would you have preferred this to be the match rather than what we’re getting? Tell us what’s on your mind in the comments below!
