10 Times WWE Got The Money In The Bank Winner Wrong
Money in the Bank, in which Vince McMahon changes the winner MID-ENTRANCE. Of course...
A quick gander at the men's field for the 2023 Money in the Bank matches is a clear indication that WWE has learned from their previous errors.
There are no former World Champions in this year's contest, unless you wish to include the Lucha Underground (Ricochet), IMPACT World (LA Knight), and PROGRESS World (Butch) Championships. 2022's men's lineup, meanwhile, encompassed three former WWE Champions in Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, and Seth Rollins, the latter two having also held the NXT Championship - as did Sami Zayn - while Seth is a former Universal Champion, too.
The women's field was the exact same. Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka are former main roster World Champions with reigns as both Raw and SmackDown Women's Champion between them, whereas Asuka and Raquel Rodriguez held the NXT Women's Championship, too.
WWE hasn't quite learned the quick fix for the women's match in 2023, with ex-champions Becky Lynch (Raw, SmackDown, NXT), Bayley (Raw, SmackDown, NXT), IYO SKY (NXT), and Trish Stratus (Women's), but they will over time...ideally.
The point is, the Money in the Bank match is a better star-making project for WWE than the Royal Rumble match - but they still sometimes get it wrong...
10. Austin Theory (2022)
Austin Theory is yet to demonstrate any convincing traits of a prototypical WWE headliner, and yet he's been a United States Champion twice, had promising appearances in Royal Rumble matches, had foremost involvement in two high-profile Roman Reigns championship matches, defeated John Cena at WrestleMania, and won Money in the Bank.
Theory wasn't in need of the briefcase in July 2022, having still been involved with the United States Championship. He was never going to dethrone Roman Reigns, but swapping out his official cash-in for a World Championship, as per the point of the briefcase, for him to cash in on then-United States Champion Seth Rollins was WWE at its most nonsensical. Evidently, Triple H, who held the pen almost immediately after Theory was crowned Mr Money in the Bank, wasn't keen on him in the main event picture and wanted the briefcase off him.
Sami Zayn would've proven a more serviceable winner, given his growing popularity across the year and involvement with Roman Reigns. The addition of a guaranteed World Championship opportunity while Reigns was the only World Champion could've made for some golden WWE melodrama. What we got instead was golden in itself, don't get us wrong, but WWE could've provided something seriously magical with Zayn in the role.