Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day—this time, focusing on the men competing in this year’s WWE Money in the Bank ladder match! Go ahead and check out the women’s edition of this as well if you missed it.
Once more, your question is simple: “Rank the 6 WWE Superstars competing in this year’s men’s ladder match from worst to best.”
By whatever criteria you decide, who are you hoping/thinking are the top picks to win the Money in the Bank briefcase this year for the men’s ladder match? Why does Superstar X rank #6 and Superstar Y rank #1 and so on?
Be sure to drop your comment below to answer the question and keep the ball rolling.
In the meantime, I’ll toss out my rankings:
6. Andrade
He’s not winning. I think the only reason he’s in there at all is because WWE realizes how little he’s done since his return and they’re throwing him a bone to keep him relevant. God knows the WWE Speed Championship isn’t the best way to accomplish that.
Andrade has zero momentum. He’ll get the least bombastic reaction out of everyone, too. And really…could anyone actually see him becoming a world champion in this current landscape with Cody Rhodes and The Bloodline on one side and the whole Drew McIntyre, CM Punk, Gunther, Seth Rollins, Damian Priest setup on Raw?
5. Chad Gable
While I’m all for the idea behind pushing Chad Gable, I think anyone rooting for him in this match is going to be in for a big disappointment.
He’s one of many people who can easily be the star player of the bout, putting on the best performance, only for someone to interfere and cost him. In his case, it’s The Wyatt Sick6. I’d bank more on them coming out and screwing him over than anything else happening, unless this is all just a ruse and they go after Jey Uso. More on that in a bit.
Gable couldn’t win the Intercontinental Championship. Why should anyone think he will wield the MITB briefcase and become a world champion? Again, look at the lineup of people we have in contention for those two titles heading into WrestleMania. You think Gable is going to circumvent someone like The Rock?
I hope Gable gets singles gold soon enough, but I don’t think it’s happening in 2024 at all, even when it comes to the midcard titles. Yes, he could win MITB and cash it in to win the Intercontinental Championship, but a lot of people will be upset about that and think it is a waste.
4. LA Knight
Speaking of that scenario, that’s exactly what could happen with LA Knight, wherein he wins this and uses it to challenge Logan Paul for the United States Championship.
I’m in the minority in that I think the MITB contract should be for any title at any time on any show, which means someone could cash in on the midcard titles, NXT championships, or even the tag titles, if they’d prefer; not just the world titles.
But I understand how many/most people disagree with that opinion and want it to remain purely about the world titles. After all, why would someone not want to have the more prestigious championships over the lesser ones?
I go back to the same argument with LA Knight as the others, in that as popular as he is, I just can’t see him winning the title. Don’t give him the briefcase if he’s not going to win it. He can’t withstand being another one of the failures.
Maybe Logan Paul screws him over here. I’m not as interested, nor game to predict that happening as The Wyatt Sick6 coming out, but it’s certainly a possibility. Those two will clash at SummerSlam for the United States title, so it would be a way to continue that feud and create some more heat for Paul, being the one to cost a fan favorite the victory.
3. Carmelo Hayes
If WWE is in the mindset of giving the briefcase to a younger talent for the spectacle of anointing him “the future” in a sense, it would have to be Hayes. The guy’s clearly well liked and on the road to becoming a big star.
My gripe with this circles back to the same thing, though, AGAIN. I can’t see him winning either world title within the next year and taking that spot away from the other top talent. Therefore, wouldn’t it make more sense for him to be the guy who obtains the United States Championship somewhere along the line instead? A midcard title is a better way to give him a stepping stone and build him up, rather than setting him up for failure. After all, winning Money in the Bank means nothing if you fail your cash-in. Fans do not equate that to having a title reign and losing the championship. They just look at those Superstars as bums.
I could see the conference table really pitching Hayes winning, but ultimately deciding not to go with him because they have no plans in mind of how to use his cash-in.
2. Jey Uso
I don’t have a lot of faith that Jey Uso is winning this, but I do think if a babyface comes out on top, he stands the best chance. He’s still super popular, and WWE could have some interesting setups for how to incorporate this into The Bloodline story.
But I’ll be honest, I’m already booking how Jey would fail his contract, rather than how he’d succeed. I can’t imagine Cody Rhodes drops the belt to Solo Sikoa and Jey Uso cashes in on his brother to win the title, for instance. Nor can I picture Jey is walking into 2025 with the World Heavyweight Championship as the top dog on Raw.
What I could see, though, is for Jey to win the briefcase, carry it around for a few months, and for The Rock to eventually come back into the fold and start messing around with both the Raw and SmackDown rosters. Imagine if he uses his pull to book Jey in a match where he has to defend the briefcase, only to lose it to The Rock, who cashes in and beats Cody Rhodes around Survivor Series or Royal Rumble, setting up Rock as champion to fight an eventually babyface Roman Reigns.
It’s a possibility…but there’s still one more person out there…
1. Drew McIntyre
The Scottish Warrior is hell-bent on winning this briefcase and using it to cash in for the World Heavyweight Championship on this very card. He wants to offset the damage done by twice being taken advantage of by others wielding MITB. Clearly, he’s got to lose, right?
Here’s how I see it going down. McIntyre gets the win by last pushing over someone like Jey Uso or LA Knight. Boooo. He cuts a promo after about how he’s definitely walking out of the weekend with the gold around his waist.
Then, either in the next match or later in the show, the World Heavyweight Championship match goes down. During the match, McIntyre comes out and starts to get involved, making it a Triple Threat. When it seems like he has the match won, CM Punk yet again involves himself and does something to prevent McIntyre from scoring a pinfall. Damian Priest likely retains through the confusion, allowing Seth Rollins to not truly lose, but not win, either, furthering the Rollins/Punk issues that we can go back to for WrestleMania. Or, maybe Rollins is able to score the pin and there’s tension with Punk because Seth wants it to be known he didn’t ask for Punk’s help.
McIntyre, furious, continues his rampage and it leads to a match against Punk at SummerSlam. MITB is wasted this year, but in the efforts of pushing another storyline(s) instead of just flat out throwing it away like Austin Theory’s was.
Again, don’t forget to keep the discussion rolling by answering this yourself in the comments below and stay tuned tomorrow for another EWN QOTD!
