WWE Money in the Bank: All 16 Winners, Ranked
By Tim Sherry
credit: wwe.com
1. Edge – WrestleMania 21
Simply put, Edge’s performance, along with his 5 opponents in the Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania 21 set the bar so immensely high that Money in the Bank has become its own entity. On paper, the match kind of sounds insane. Chris Jericho, who starred in this match, came up with the idea of MITB and when you really think about it, it was genius. However, Edge was not keen on the idea of competing in this match and asked out of it for Wrestlemania. It wasn’t until Jericho and Kane talked him back into it that he agreed. And it was a good thing he did.
The match was loaded with ladder match specialists. Along with the 3 already mentioned, Chris Benoit, Christian, and Shelton Benjamin were all part of the inaugural match, and everyone performed beautifully. It was everything that MITB would eventually become known for and Edge was phenomenal. The recently turned heel unleashed his brand violence, administering wicked chair shots and multiple spears en route to the win. After the match, Edge was borderline intolerable. His cocky, brash, and offensive behavior garnered nuclear heat from the WWE fans. During his run with the case, he suffered a pectoral tear which sidelined him for a couple of months. But that didn’t stop him from enraging the WWE Universe with a microphone on his new talk show, The Cutting Edge.
Edge held onto the case for 280 days, a record that still stands, before cashing it on John Cena at New Years Revolution in January of 2006. His title reign, however, was short-lived at only 21 days. But what the 2005 MITB match did for “The Rated R Superstar” was invaluable. His cash in on Cena was for his first world championship. However, would go on to win 10 more while also main eventing 15 pay per views, including 2 SummerSlams and a WrestleMania. The original installment of MITB to this day is still it’s best and Edge built one of the best careers in the company’s history off it’s back.
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Who was the greatest Money in the Bank winner ever? Who had the best run with the briefcase?