10 WWE Money In The Bank Firsts You Need To Know

4. First WrestleMania Cash-In

rob van dam money in the bank
WWE.com

Get used to seeing Seth Rollins on this countdown list. Rollins not only made history by inserting himself into an ongoing WWE World Heavyweight Championship match, he did so at WrestleMania XXXI, the biggest stage of them all.

Rollins’ cash-in came from out of left field, as all the focus at that point was on Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. Reigns was the Royal Rumble winner and presumed to be winning the title, but Lesnar announced just days before Mania that he had re-signed with WWE, casting doubt on Roman’s expected victory. Not many could have been expecting Rollins to run out and cash in (if you were, congratulations, you’re a pretty decent prognosticator) at that moment, which made for a truly awesome WrestleMania moment.

It’s worth nothing that while Rollins was the first, others strongly contemplated using the briefcase to create their own WrestleMania moment. Mr. Kennedy announced that he would use his briefcase at WrestleMania XXIV, but a week after making that decree, he lost the case to Edge. In 2011, Daniel Bryan made a similar proclamation, only to go back on it as part of a slow heel turn.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.