6. Shelton Benjamin Reinvents The Ladder Match - WrestleMania 21 & 25
A drawback from the two incredible TLC matches at WrestleMania 16 and 17 was that the bar had been raised too high. The three tag teams involved had simply performed moves that were too difficult, too high-risk to continue expanding upon. There had to be a comedown at some point, and there was - for the next four years ladder stipulations were a less innovative affair. The exploits of Edge, Christian and co. seemed a flash in the pan. Then Money in the Bank came along. A Chris Jericho invention, the Money in the Bank ladder match breathed new life into a dying stipulation. On paper it was nearly identical to TLC: multiple men tasked with scaling a ladder to retrieve an ultimate prize, in this case a briefcase containing a WWF Championship match contract. The competitors, however, proved the concept to be a revolution, busting out moves that had never been seen before in a wrestling ring. The main man in such situations was Shelton Benjamin, an otherwise uncelebrated and uninspiring midcarder. Shelton wasted no time in showing his willingness to take a crazy bump, almost killing himself with a ludicrous dive in the inaugural match. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-HFecepuMs Shelton somehow survived (we're still not sure how) and would become a staple of future Money in the Bank contests. He would save his most groundbreaking spot for four years later at WrestleMania 25, turning an inclined ladder into an impromptu staircase to clothesline Chris Jericho out of the air. Sadly, Benjamin was never allowed to actually capture that elusive briefcase. Presumably nobody wanted him to progress to the main event scene where he'd be unable to annually kill himself at 'Mania.
