WWE WrestleMania 33: 25 Greatest Moments in WrestleMania History

Source: WWE.com

12. Rollins Cashes In (WrestleMania 31)

The first Money in the Bank ladder match took place at WrestleMania 21. After 10 years and 14 ladder matches, someone finally used their guaranteed championship contract at WrestleMania.

Seth Rollins won the MITB ladder match in summer of 2014. For 273 days, he carried the briefcase around, but made no official cash-in attempts.

Earlier in the night at WrestleMania 31, Rollins was defeated by Randy Orton. That match included a WrestleMania moment of its own — possibly the most impressive RKO “from outta nowhere” off a Curb Stomp reversal. But with Rollins losing his big Mania match, no one expected anything else from him the rest of the show.

The main event was a WWE Championship match — Brock Lesnar defended the title against Roman Reigns. Lesnar dominated the majority of the match, but Reigns seemed to be making a comeback. Lesnar was busted open from going head first into the ring post, but neither competitor seemed to have anything left in the tanks.

At that point, Seth’s music hit, and he ran down the extra long ramp to cash in his MITB contract. He’s the first man to ever cash in at WrestleMania, as well as the first to cash in while a championship match was in progress.

With the main event now a triple threat match, Rollins hit Lesnar with a Curb Stomp, but was about to get hit with an F5 until Reigns made the save. As Lesnar rolled out of the ring, Reigns got a Curb Stomp of his own, and Rollins became WWE Champion for the first time.

Since many fans — like today — were down on Reigns as WWE Champion, and Lesnar being a part timer, the prospect of Rollins winning the title seemed more agreeable. It was certainly memorable.