10 Best Wrestling Ladder Matches Of All Time

Prior to WrestleMania 21, WWE concocted a brilliant idea that would end up becoming a mainstay of programming. At the show, six of the company's top singles superstars would battle in a ladder match, with every man competing for himself. The prize was a briefcase containing a contract for a WWE Championship match, which could be cashed in immediately at any time during the next year. This was called the Money in the Bank match.

Money in the Bank is, to this day, a huge deal. In 2010, it branched out of WrestleMania and became the centerpoint of its own Pay-Per-View event. Still, for all the exciting Money in the Bank matches there have been, the best one was the first.

That bout - featuring Shelton Benjamin, Kane, Christian, Edge, Chris Jericho, and Chris Benoit - was a lightning bolt to the concept of the ladder match. Like the TLC bout had done five years earlier, it revamped the genre entirely. The carnage became even more pronounced without the teamwork, and constant fighting meant that there was always something worth watching. Shelton Benjamin dazzled fans with his high-risk offense, while Jericho and Benoit revisited their old rivalry. In the end, though, it was Edge who used a steel chair to incapacitate his opponents and grab the briefcase.