While John Cena was the first to unsuccessfully cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase, he technically won the match by disqualification, so he didnt actually lose when he cashed in. He was, however, involved in the first defeat. Many envision the MITB briefcase as the modern-day equivalent to the King of the Ring title from the late 90s/early 2000s: If you win that honor, youre destined for bigger things in WWE. With MITB, you had Edge, Rob Van Dam and CM Punk as the men who cashed in the first five briefcases. The likes of the Miz, Daniel Bryan, Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler also would hold the case. So when Damien Sandow won it in 2013, one could assume that he would be thrust into the title picture and get a chance to work with bigger names. Instead, he feuded with former tag team partner Cody Rhodes, whom Sandow had pushed off the ladder at the end of the MITB match to eliminate his competition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuOEVbV70DU Sandow would cash in his briefcase on an injured John Cena, but not before injuring him further. Despite the attack, Cena would Rise Above the Odds and defeat Sandow. The loss would trigger more and more losses, an Sandow would devolve into parodying other people and celebrities, which eventually gave way to Damien Mizdow.
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.
