Money in the Bank ladder match

History[]

2017[]

The 2017 Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place on June 18, 2017 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri as an exclusive event for the SmackDown brand.

On the May 30 episode of SmackDown Live, another Money in the Bank ladder match was added to the event, and for the first time, involving women. Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Carmella, and Tamina were originally scheduled to compete in a fatal five-way elimination match on that night to determine the number one contender for the SmackDown Women's Championship against Naomi at Money in the Bank. Before their match could begin, a brawl broke out between the five and the match never occurred. SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon then scheduled the five to compete in the first-ever women's Money in the Bank ladder match at the event where the winner would receive a contract for a SmackDown Women's Championship match. Carmella won the match after James Ellsworth retrieved the briefcase, and threw it to her. On the following episode of SmackDown Live, however, SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan forced Carmella to relinquish the briefcase since Ellsworth retrieved it for her. On that same episode, Bryan also scheduled a Money in the Bank ladder match rematch for the June 27 episode with Ellsworth banned from ringside (later from the arena). That episode, Carmella, with some aid from the banned Ellsworth, retrieved the briefcase herself and reclaimed the SmackDown Women's Championship match contract. On the April 10, 2018 episode of SmackDown Live, after holding the contract for 287 days (the longest time any wrestler has held on to a Money in the Bank briefcase), Carmella cashed in and defeated Charlotte Flair—who had just suffered an attack from the debuting The IIconics (Peyton Royce and Billie Kay)—for the SmackDown Women's Championship.

2018[]

The 2018 Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place on June 17, 2018, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. For the first time since 2011 with a brand split in effect, the event became dual-branded, involving both the Raw and SmackDown brands. The event included one male match and one female match with eight participants each, evenly divided between the brands. The contracts granted the winners a match for the world championship of their respective brand. The men's contract granted the winner a match for either Raw's Universal Championship or SmackDown's WWE Championship, while the women's contract granted the winner a Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship match.

For the women's match, Ember Moon, Alexa Bliss, Natalya, and Sasha Banks qualified from Raw, while Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Lana, and Naomi qualified from SmackDown. Bliss would win the ladder match and later that night, she would cause a disqualification in the Raw Women's Championship match between defending champion Nia Jax and Ronda Rousey, and then cashed in the contract and defeated Jax to win the title, thus becoming the third wrestler (and first woman) to cash in her contract on the same night as winning it.

2019[]

The 2019 Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place on May 19, 2019, at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Like the 2018 event, there was one male ladder match and one female ladder match with eight participants each, evenly divided between the Raw and SmackDown brands. Unlike 2018, however, the contracts granted the winners a match for the world championship of their choice. The men's contract granted the winner a match for either Raw's Universal Championship or SmackDown's WWE Championship, while the women's contract granted the winner a Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship match.

The four participants from Raw in the women's match were also announced by Alexa Bliss during another "A Moment of Bliss" segment on the April 29 episode of Raw: Natalya, Dana Brooke, Naomi, and Bliss herself. On the following night's episode of SmackDown, Bayley, Mandy Rose, Ember Moon, and Carmella were revealed as SmackDown's four participants. On May 16, it was revealed that Bliss was not medically cleared to compete and was replaced by Nikki Cross. Bayley would go on and win the match and later that night, she cashed in her contract on Charlotte Flair, who had just defeated Becky Lynch for the SmackDown Women's Championship, and defeated Flair to win the title. This makes her the fourth wrestler (and second woman) to cash in her contract on the same night as winning it.

2020[]

The 2020 Money in the Bank pay-per-view aired on May 10, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not held at its originally announced venue of Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore. The event's eponymous ladder matches were moved to WWE's global headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut with an added "Corporate Ladder" gimmick for the matches; the participants in each match began on the ground floor and fought their way to the roof, where the briefcases were suspended above a ring on the roof. The ladder matches were pre-recorded, but the rest of the event's matches occurred live at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

With the changes in format, the participants in each match were reduced from eight to six, but still evenly divided between the Raw and SmackDown brands. For the women's match, Asuka, Shayna Baszler, and the returning Nia Jax qualified from Raw by defeating Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, and Kairi Sane, respectively, while Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans, and Carmella filled out the SmackDown spots by defeating Naomi, Sasha Banks, and Mandy Rose, respectively. For the men's match, Aleister Black, Apollo Crews, and Rey Mysterio qualified from Raw by defeating Austin Theory, Montel Vontavious Porter, and Murphy, respectively, while Daniel Bryan, King Corbin, and Otis qualified from SmackDown by defeating Cesaro, Drew Gulak, and Dolph Ziggler, respectively. Crews, however, was injured by Andrade and was pulled from the match. A returning AJ Styles won Raw's vacant spot by winning a last chance gauntlet match.

Both the men's and women's Money in the Bank ladder matches occurred at the same time. The women's match began in the lobby of the building, while the men's match began in the gym. The men and women eventually ran into each other and had a food fight before splitting off to continue their ascent to the roof. The women's match concluded first after Asuka retrieved the women's briefcase, granting her a guaranteed match of her choice for either the Raw or SmackDown Women's Championship. Shortly afterwards, Otis won the men's match by getting the men's briefcase, granting him a guaranteed match for a world championship of his choice; either Raw's WWE Championship or SmackDown's Universal Championship.

The next night on Raw, Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch announced that she would be going on hiatus. A confused Asuka then came out. Lynch stated that by Asuka winning the women's Money in the Bank ladder match, she actually won the Raw Women's Championship and proceeded to open the briefcase, revealing the title belt inside. Lynch told Asuka that she was pregnant, hence the reason for her hiatus. This in turn became the first time that the champion relinquished the title to the Money in the Bank winner without having a cash-in match.

2021[]

The 2021 Money in the Bank pay-per-view took place on July 18, 2021, at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. This year's Money in the Bank was WWE's second pay-per-view to have a ticketed live audience as over the past year, the company presented shows from a bio-secure bubble known as the WWE ThunderDome without a live audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike the previous year when both the Men's and Women's ladder matches occurred simultaneously, both ladder matches returned to occurring separately. The participants in both ladder matches also increased back to eight as the previous year only had six due to changes in format.

For the women's match, Asuka, Naomi, Alexa Bliss, and Nikki A.S.H. qualified from Raw. No qualifying matches took place on SmackDown, instead with authority figure Sonya Deville appointing the participants with a returning Zelina Vega, Liv Morgan, Natalya, and Tamina being announced from SmackDown. Carmella was originally announced for the ladder match but was later removed and replaced by Morgan after receiving an opportunity for the SmackDown Women's Championship. Nikki A.S.H. would go on to win the women's ladder match, granting her a guaranteed match of her choice for either the Raw or SmackDown Women's Championship. The next night on Raw, Nikki would successfully cash-in on Raw Women's Champion Charlotte Flair.

2022[]

The 2022 Money in the Bank took place on Saturday, July 2, 2022, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada; it was originally scheduled to be held at the city's Allegiant Stadium. The ladder matches were scheduled to feature seven participants with an uneven division between the brands; the men's match added an eighth, last minute entrant which evened out the brand division but the women's match had four participants from Raw and three from SmackDown.

Qualifying matches for the women's Money in the Bank ladder match also began on the June 10 episode of SmackDown. Lacey Evans became the first qualified entrant by defeating Xia Li. The following week on Raw and SmackDown, Alexa Bliss and Liv Morgan defeated Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H. in a tag team qualifier to win two spots in the match, and Raquel Rodriguez defeated Shayna Baszler to earn the fourth spot in the match. The following week on Raw and SmackDown, Asuka and Shotzi became the fifth and sixth qualified entrants after defeating Becky Lynch and Tamina, respectively. The following week on Raw, Becky Lynch won a Last Chance Elimination Match by defeating Doudrop, Nikki A.S.H., Shayna Baszler, Tamina, and Xia Li to become the last qualified entrant. Liv Morgan would go on to win the women's ladder match and later that night, cashed in on SmackDown Women's Champion Ronda Rousey after Rousey had just retained the title against Natalya. Morgan would pin Rousey to win the championship.

2023[]

The 2023 Money in the Bank event took place on July 1 from The O2 Arena in London, England, marking the first time the show emanated outside of the U.S. The original plan was six participants in both the men's and women's ladder matches - three from each brand - but a wrestler with no brand affiliation was a late addition to the men's match, giving it seven entrants.