How To Fix WWE's Money In The Bank Problem | partsFUNknown
Money In The Bank doesn't have quite the same aura that it once had. Why is that? Well for a number of reasons, all of which Tempest has broken down here, along with his solution for how to fix WWE's Money in the Bank problem. Where do you think Money in the Bank went wrong? Let us know in the comments!
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Money In The Bank doesn't have quite the same aura that it once had. Why is that? Well for a number of reasons, all of which Tempest has broken down here, along with his solution for how to fix WWE's Money in the Bank problem. Where do you think Money in the Bank went wrong? Let us know in the comments!
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
Buy wrestling merchandise here: https://www.wrestleshop.com/
Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/
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SportsTranscript
00:00Money in the Bank is pretty heckin' good.
00:04You ever notice how you never really see any lists out there ranking the 10 worst Money
00:08in the Bank matches?
00:09Because there aren't 10 bad Money in the Bank matches.
00:12Seeing as how in recent years WWE has seemingly chosen to do deliberate damage to the reputation
00:16of their own creations, see Hell in a Cell, see The Fiend, see Retribution, Money in the
00:22Bank has had a pretty healthy life.
00:24So why does Money in the Bank not feel quite as special as it used to?
00:28It doesn't have the same aura that it once had, but how can that be fixed?
00:33The match itself?
00:34It's a f***ing ladder match.
00:35It's perfect.
00:36There's nothing to change.
00:37For the most part, WWE's Money in the Bank matches have been on par with their other
00:40multi-person ladder matches in terms of quality.
00:42They're WWE ladder matches.
00:44They're almost always good.
00:46Maybe don't do that Brock Lesnar s*** ever again, and let's leave the corporate, cold,
00:49socially distanced Double Money in the Bank match in the past with the rest of 2020, but
00:53thankfully 2021 saw the Money in the Bank match return to form a little bit.
00:57So I'm more confident that the years prior were more of a couple of missed turns, rather
01:01than a total turn in the wrong direction.
01:03The issue then lies in the chase, but more importantly, the solution, as even though
01:06the 2021 Money in the Bank ladder match may have been the best in the stipulation's history,
01:11somehow the presentation of WWE's get-out-of-mid-card-free card has gotten stale, and I won't stand
01:16for it.
01:17I'm Tempest, hailing from PartsFunKnown, and this is how to fix WWE's Money in the Bank
01:21problem.
01:22So before we get into how to fix WWE's self-inflicted woes, we should probably actually
01:27identify what the issue is.
01:29Money in the Bank was a concept that hit the ground running in WWE, and had a very cool
01:33first five years.
01:34Yes, some of the winners may have been duplicates, but each presentation was unique and engaging,
01:38but while that's how the gimmick may have started, it certainly hasn't maintained that
01:41perfect average.
01:42Let me show you what I mean.
01:43Edge is your first Mr. Money in the Bank, and he established a solid foundation for
01:46the gimmick to build on with a long run with the briefcase to build anticipation with the
01:50audience before cashing it in in the biggest moment possible, after an Elimination Chamber
01:54match to win his first WWE Championship.
01:57A moment was made, and it would be very easy for WWE to look at the thing that worked,
02:01and see that it drew them a big rating on Raw the next night, and do the exact same
02:04thing when the next Money in the Bank match came about soon after.
02:07But they didn't do that.
02:08Rather than just having the 2006 Money in the Bank match be won by another emerging
02:12heel and have him cash in in a dastardly manner, Rob Van Dam won the briefcase, and cashed
02:16it in in completely different circumstances than Edge had.
02:19Whereas Edge had established himself as the ultimate opportunist, Rob Van Dam used his
02:23contract to get himself a WWE Championship match with John Cena in his territory, wrestling
02:28an iconic and very silly match at One Night Stand 2006.
02:32Keep the ball rolling, and even if it wasn't by design, Mr. Kennedy losing the briefcase
02:36to Edge was different.
02:37Kennedy was told he had a torn tricep and lost the haliburton to Edge, so he could go
02:41on to win the World Heavyweight Championship from The Undertaker, only to then find out
02:45that he'd actually just broken some blood vessels, and he would be fine after all.
02:49Sorry, no givebacks, says Edge.
02:51It may not be the best use of the briefcase in history, but it is still completely different.
02:55I have no trouble telling you what happened with the 2007 Money in the Bank contract,
02:58because, once again, it was unique.
03:01Even having CM Punk win back-to-back years in 2008 and 2009 in itself is different, but
03:06it goes beyond that as well.
03:07Punk's 2008 trip to the bank was the first time the Money in the Bank cash-in surprise
03:10was a babyface moment, resulting in a huge ovation when he beat Edge for the title the
03:14night after Night of Champions.
03:16But they then used that to build off of the following year, when Punk's 2009 go-around
03:19was the first heel turn to come about as a result of the Money in the Bank cash-in.
03:23We had five Money in the Bank contracts so far, and we've had five totally unique stories
03:27told.
03:28And while I am not going to sit here with the benefit of hindsight and tell you that
03:31it was a good idea for WWE to pull the trigger on making Jack Swagger World Heavyweight Champion
03:35by having him cash-in Money in the Bank the same week he won it, that was different too.
03:402010 was the first super-short Money in the Bank reign, and while that was a little neat
03:44at the time, it also became clear that something was lost when you throw patience to the wind.
03:49But okay, you learn from that, and you move forward, right?
03:52What do you mean the next one was even shorter?
03:54Yes, also in 2010, WWE introduced the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, where more than
03:59one contract would typically be fought over.
04:01And this will be part of the discussion here, but let's keep looking at the winners for
04:04a moment.
04:05Here, WWE's solid batting average for Money in the Bank stories just begins to decline.
04:09As with much of the rest of the product, you can now start to see a laziness and a complacency
04:14in a lot of the storylines from around this time.
04:16In this case, it almost felt like as WWE introduced a Raw briefcase and a Smackdown
04:20briefcase, that was a chance to just have one of them be a throwaway.
04:23The first year, Kane won the first briefcase and cashed it in an hour later.
04:27Now, I can vibe with this, someone had to be the first person to cash in the same night,
04:31and if WWE was trying to establish the Money in the Bank pay-per-view brand as being an
04:35exciting show where anything can happen, they accomplished that.
04:38And you can get away with that if you do have another briefcase to also give fans the longer
04:41run they want to see.
04:42In this case, with The Miz having a solid run and winning the WWE Championship months
04:46later.
04:47However, the Law of Diminishing Returns reared its ugly head because having two briefcases
04:50really was a booking shortcut that WWE was going to exploit over the next few years.
04:55You really started seeing a dud Mr. Money in the Bank every year.
04:58Just because WWE didn't feel it necessary to make the stories behind the cash-ins a
05:02bit more distinct.
05:03Alberto Del Rio wins the red case in 2011, and I mean, he holds onto it for a month,
05:07there's nothing to it, and his cash-in isn't built to, built up, paid off, or made to feel
05:11interesting in any way.
05:13It's as if they decided the contract was the interesting part and stopped crafting
05:16stories specific to the briefcase because this would happen with medium regularity,
05:20semi-infrequently perhaps.
05:22John Cena cashed it in after 8 days for a one-on-one match that ended in a DQ via Wild
05:26Big Show Appears, and even just that goes to show that the effort into developing these
05:30moments just wasn't there like it had been.
05:32For years, everyone fantasy-booked how the first Money in the Bank cash-in failure would
05:37go.
05:38How could it be done to make the moment awesome and not kill the gimmick?
05:40Have a babyface at 1HP valiantly mounting a comeback against a heel and retain his title,
05:46and it would be so cool.
05:48Instead they just had John Cena get bonked by the Big Show, and the Money in the Bank
05:51contract has rarely looked this bad again.
05:53I wish I could say never, but I can't.
05:56Thankfully, there were some great ones mixed in there, like Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins,
06:00who did get the unique Money in the Bank moments that were still attainable like cashing in
06:04at WrestleMania or the day after, but now seemingly more and more often the Money in
06:08the Bank contract was just like the prop that got WWE through whatever Summerslam writer's
06:13block they were dealing with that year.
06:14Del Rio beats Punk at Summerslam, Cena enters the title program before Summerslam, Randy
06:19Orton cashes in at Summerslam, it was happening a little too often in a short time period,
06:23and even when the cash-in was very successful and unique in the case of Randy Orton with
06:27the birth of The Authority, it still felt like we'd seen part of it before.
06:30I won't go through every single man and woman to win Money in the Bank, but really, can
06:34you tell me anything worth mentioning about the Money in the Bank runs of Sheamus, Baron
06:37Corbin, Braun Strowman, or Otis?
06:39And while many of the dudes have had trouble making Money in the Bank something to get
06:43interested in, the women haven't even had a chance to do that.
06:46Of the first five Miss Money in the Banks, Carmella had a good long run, holding the
06:50white case for 287 days, but after that, the longest someone has held the Miss Money in
06:54the Bank contract is one day.
06:57You know how I said all of the early Money in the Bank cash-ins felt totally original
07:01and unique, right?
07:02How is anyone supposed to remember any of these moments when they all serve largely
07:05the same narrative purposes and are all executed the same way?
07:08Alright, maybe not Asuka, that one is different, but different does not always mean better
07:13because the belt just being in the briefcase isn't something I'm down with.
07:17I am a wrestling fan, and I will get in a fuss over the colorful box having a belt in
07:21it and not a piece of paper entitling them to fight for the belt.
07:24Bayley, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, and Nikki A.S.H. all win their briefcases, and then before
07:28they can work that into part of their character or do anything interesting to create something
07:32memorable, the gimmick is taken away from them.
07:35Again, I think you can get away with doing the same day cash-in once.
07:39It's a cool thing that you can do once, but Money in the Bank is so much more fun when
07:43you actually get to do the thing that they want you to do most of the time, that being
07:47let it play out.
07:49Has this just been a long, elaborate way for me to tell you the answer to fixing WWE's
07:52Money in the Bank problem is better long-term booking?
07:55Well, not just.
07:56The WWE's problems would-be-solved-with-some-long-term-storytelling drum has been beaten to death over the last
08:02few years, but this is one piece that will be part of a larger puzzle.
08:05But it certainly is the biggest piece.
08:07So many of these problems could be solved with just a little bit more thought being
08:11put in.
08:12Like, everyone loves Big E, and his crowning moment could have been one of those moments
08:16that gets aired in every single WWE highlight video.
08:19But WWE rushed things, and again, this wasn't as big a moment as it could have been.
08:23And if Big E is going to win Money in the Bank, the only acceptable way to do things
08:27is the right way.
08:28Sorry, hence the rules.
08:29There are a few more things WWE could do, of course.
08:32This one comes down to preference, as it doesn't make that big of a difference.
08:36But I would just rather see the Money in the Bank ladder match be an attraction at WrestleMania
08:39than its own random B-pay-per-view.
08:41I personally just think it's cooler to have that year contract start and end at WrestleMania
08:46than just some random day in early summer.
08:48It makes it feel more significant to win a match like that at WrestleMania.
08:51And honestly, the Money in the Bank match was a better way to get people on the Mania
08:54card than most of the other wacky multi-person matches we see so often.
08:58And finally, the amount of good title reigns to come as a result of the Money in the Bank
09:01cash-ins is shockingly low.
09:05Like, appallingly, abysmally low.
09:08Again, your concept of good might be a bit different from mine, but I mean, good lord,
09:14just look at these reigns.
09:15Edge has a live sex celebration, then loses the title prematurely.
09:18I hear it happens to more men than you think.
09:20RVD was gonna go to Raw, but then he got high, and lost the belt after a month.
09:26Edge got hurt the second time.
09:27Punk's first reign is seen as generally underwhelming.
09:31Second reign, however, pretty solid.
09:32Still very short, clocking in at just under two months, but it was a good two months.
09:36Swagger was next, need not say more.
09:39Kane had an awful rivalry with The Undertaker, and then an awful rivalry with Edge, where
09:43your enjoyment would be tied to how much you wanted to see Edge inflict PG torture on Paul
09:48Bearer.
09:49If you liked The Miz's title reign, this isn't the video where I'll argue with you, but after
09:52Daniel Bryan's breakout run, it gets bad.
09:55Besides Seth Rollins' reign, we were then treated to Dolph Ziggler's career burial,
10:00Cena, Damian Sandow, Baron Corbett, and Braun Strowman didn't even win, Orton held the title
10:05like a month, as did Sheamus and Brock Lesnar, while The Miz didn't even make it that long
10:10the second time, and fan favorites like Dean Ambrose and Big E had fans demoralized after
10:14lousy reigns and lackluster presentation.
10:17Thankfully, you have Carmella, Bayley, and Asuka to help make up for things on the women's
10:20side, but holy mother of god, what is the malfunction here?
10:24Why is it that after 28 different cash-ins, we've seen like half a dozen good reigns?
10:30I didn't even know about this when I sat down to write about it, but what the fuck is this?
10:36It does get difficult to do these sometimes, because there's only so many ways to say that
10:39WWE is bad at long-term thinking, but really, that is what so many of the problems with
10:44the actual product boil down to.
10:46Money in the Bank is such a cool concept, and it's a concept with literally infinite
10:50creative possibilities.
10:51You can do whatever storyline you want to do with Money in the Bank, and if that wasn't
10:55enough control for you, you also get to do it literally whenever you want to do it.
11:00You cannot stack the deck more heavily in your favor, and yet WWE has managed to fumble
11:04those great hands more often than not when you look at the full execution of these stories
11:08from start to finish.
11:09Money in the Bank is one of WWE's greatest ideas, but if utilized properly, it would
11:12be a yearly license to print, well, money.
11:21Money in the Bank is a great idea, but if utilized properly, it would be a yearly license
11:22to print, well, money.
11:23Money in the Bank is a great idea, but if utilized properly, it would be a yearly license to
11:24print, well, money.