What If A Mystery Wrestler Won WWE Money In The Bank?
One of the things that you’ll hear discussed in wrestling over and over is “we need something new”. Professional wrestling has been around for a very long time and there have been more iterations and takes on it than could be imagined. While there might be an occasional new concept, for the most part, it’s just doing something that hasn’t been done in awhile and passing it off as new. That’s what I’m doing here, in one of the only times you’ll ever see me come close to fantasy booking.
We are officially in Money In The Bank season and I don’t know if there is a time on the wrestling calendar that bores me more. I’m just not a fan of Money In The Bank and haven’t been for a long time. Between the qualifying matches (sidebar: When did triple threats become the standard for a qualifying match in WWE?) and the waiting around for someone to cash in and then waiting even longer because it’s a ruse and doing that over and over for months on end before the cash-in just happens one day, it can get a little monotonous. Unfortunately we passed monotonous about 10 years ago and now it’s just dull.
While the ladder match(es, because of course we’re doing two of something in a single night, again) will be good with a bunch of spots and crazy stunts, I need something better both before and after they take place. That’s where the issue comes into play, as there are only so many ways to spice this thing up. This week, I’ll be doing something I don’t often do and pitch an idea to make Money In The Bank a little bit more interesting.
WWE Money In The Bank Has Become Stale
So the big idea of Money In The Bank is pretty well known (because we’ve been doing it for over twenty years and practically every promotion has their own version) but the gist is simple: the person who wins the contract can cash it in for a guaranteed World Title shot on demand at any time for a year. This usually involves an impromptu title match or someone being added to an existing match with mixed results.
You can occasionally guess when this is going to happen and the reveal is hardly a surprise… but what if we made it more of a surprise? You always know who is going to be cashing in the briefcase and getting the title shot and that’s all well and good. But what if you took away some of that knowledge? Here’s where we get to the idea of this whole thing:
What If A Mystery Wrestler Won WWE Money In The Bank?
Here’s how it goes. You have the Money In The Bank ladder match set as usual (with one of the same two songs it feels like they’ve used for twelve years or so) and it has the usual amount of qualifying matches, but one spot remains unfilled (Either no one qualifies or the GM says it’s going to be a surprise or one of the people is taken out by a mystery attacker. Pick something.), leaving it unclear who the final entrant will be. Then later in the match, a masked wrestler, wearing a full body suit to hide any kind of hint about who they are, comes down and wins the briefcase. They take the briefcase and leave without unmasking.
Who has the briefcase and the title shot? Aside from the GM (who can keep their mouth shut), no one knows. In the coming weeks, have the briefcase sitting in the locker room with various wrestlers around and no one knowing who put it there. The mystery wrestler can pop up on occasion if necessary (and of course because it’s wrestling, the person in the suit doesn’t have to be the one being revealed until the very end, which lets you play with expectations even more) and even tease some cash-ins, while also eliminating a suspect here or there.
The Mystery Money In The Bank Concept
This opens up multiple doors as the champion doesn’t know who to trust or who might be ready to cash in on them at any time. Everyone is a suspect and there are only a handful of people it couldn’t be.
This could lead to side feuds with the champion and potential suspects, or even between people arguing as a result. You have all kinds of possibilities here, all while the mystery continues to grow.
Who Could Be Behind The Mask?
It opens up the door for all kinds of payoffs, as the perk of a mystery wrestler is it could be just about anyone. You could pull someone in from the other brand or from NXT or even a new signing.
Heck it doesn’t even have to be someone who works there at the moment. Tease a bunch of people and get the fans wondering, which is something that has worked forever in wrestling and it would work again here.
The Cash-In & The Reveal
That brings you to the reveal and... well pick whomever you want it to be and have them win the title. Then you have the option of revealing it then and there or waiting even longer.
I mean granted it wouldn’t make a ton of sense to keep the story going longer after the title win but it’s WWE so stranger things have happened.
The Element Of Surprise
The key thing here is that much like traditional Money In The Bank builds, you have a better element of surprise, with so many wrestlers available to cash the thing in. Not only are you left wondering when the cash-in will take place, but maybe it’s this person who is always around the champion.
Or maybe it’s someone who has never been around. It could be someone you’ve wanted to see get the title for a long time. That’s a bit better than “oh come on not THEM” pulling down the briefcase.
WWE Money In The Bank Still Has A Bigger Problem
Now, is this perfect? Of course not. It’s about Money In The Bank. The idea itself is a strange one by definition and it has LONG since needed to go away. This is instead something closer to trying to get something out of a concept that has long run its course and needs to go away for a bit.
The whole point of the briefcase was to add drama to the World Title picture in the first place but that only works so well with such a limited field of options to capture the briefcase.
WWE's Roster Makes The Idea Possible
That’s where WWE has one of its strongest advantages. The company has more talented wrestlers than it knows what to do with (there’s a column for another week) but there are only a handful of people who are going to be involved in the World Title situation. This is a fast way to throw someone in while also giving them an angle other than “and then he cashed in the briefcase and won the title, the end”.
If nothing else, you can keep the field of potential reveals fairly long, as only a handful would be eliminated. When you have the ladder match, you know the wrestlers who are going to be potential winners. While this keeps the same concept going, you really only have an idea of who it won’t be, with only the other wrestlers already involved being eliminated from the hunt.
This whole idea could work if it was given a chance (a statement that has never failed to work in wrestling of course). If nothing else, it’s an idea that they haven’t tried yet with Money In The Bank and that needs to change. This is a way to spice things up a bit and while it wouldn’t be something that could be done regularly, it’s something that could work once in wrestling, which is often enough.
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