Money in the Bank Ladder matches in WWE are one of the most challenging matches ever. But, with high risk comes high rewards. These type of matches occur once in a year, and can alter the career of the winner. Generally, 8 people or more compete with one another to grab a briefcase, hung above the ring inside which a World Heavyweight Championship contract is present.
Most of the times, whenever any wrestler has cashed the contract, he or she has won the Championship. However, there has been some extreme cases of misfortune where the wrestler has failed to convert the money into gold.
Here, in this article, we bring you five such wrestlers, who were not only successful in cashing their contracts, but were also outstanding World Champions.
# 5 CM Punk on Jeff Hardy
CM Punk is the first person on earth to win the MITB match twice and back to back. Either of the times, he was successful in cashing his contract. During his second run, he decided to cash it in the Extreme Rules PPV in 2009. Earlier that night Punk defeated Umaga in a Samoan strap match to end their ongoing rivalry. Later, Jeff Hardy defeated Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
CM Punk entered after that match and decided to cash his contract on an extremely vulnerable Jeff Hardy. Hardy had a gruelling encounter with Edge in a ladder match and was in no state to fight any more. Thus Punk won the title and became the World Heavyweight Champion for the second time.
#4 Kane on Rey Mysterio
Rey Mysterio was never on the good books of Kane. Both of them had a lot of animosity for each other. The rivalry scaled to new heights, when Kane won the MITB contract at 2010. The same night, Mysterio won a match against Jack Swagger and defended his World Heavyweight Championship.
As soon as the match ended, Kane entered the arena and chokeslammed Rey Mysterio. He pinned him and became the World Heavyweight Champion. This was the first and only reign of Kane as the World Heavyweight Champion and was thus special to the entire WWE Universe.
#3 Edge on John Cena
This match took place at the New Year’s Resolution PPV in 2006. John Cena entered the PPV as the WWE Champion. Cena competed in the Elimination Chamber match and took out players like Carlito, Chris Masters, Kane, Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels. He retained his WWE Championship in one of the most difficult Elimination Chamber matches ever.
As soon as the match ended, Vince McMahon entered the arena and announced that Edge is going to cash in his MITB contract. It took two spears from Edge to knock out an already bleeding and injured John Cena and pin him to win his first ever WWE Championship.
# 2 CM Punk on Edge
During the WWE draft in 2008, Edge was drafted to SmackDown. He was the World Heavyweight Champion then, and, came out to address the WWE audience. As he was about to leave, Batista, with whom Edge was having a long rivalry, entered and attacked Edge mercilessly. He delivered a Batista bomb upon him and lay him unconscious on the mat.
CM Punk was the MITB ladder match winner and his music played. He came with a referee and cashed in his contract. He delivered his signature move ‘Go To Sleep’ to Edge and immediately pinned him and won the World Heavyweight title for the very first time on his career. This changed Punk’s career forever in the WWE.
Seth Rollins won the 2014 MITB ladder match by defeating 5 other superstars. He was one of the favourites of the ‘Authority’ and his contract cashing was thus preserved for the rightful occasion. He carried his contract for a long time and decided to cash it in upcoming WrestleMania.
At WrestleMania 31, Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar collided for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event. This was one helluva match the world got to see. Both the players did everything and anything to take out one another. In the end, Seth Rollins shocked the entire WWE Universe and cashed in his contract. Rollins curb stomped Reigns and thus walked out of the match as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. It is perhaps the best cash in ever.
