Why a wrestler would willingly put a guaranteed world title shot on the line is beyond explaining. It just doesnt make any sense. Yet, it seems like putting the hard-earned, guaranteed title shot up for grabs has happened quite a bit. Of course, Mr. Kennedy put his title shot up for grabs and lost. Dolph Ziggler put his briefcase up against both Chris Jericho and John Cena, winning both matches. And Rob Van Dam put his MITB briefcase up against Shelton Benjamins Intercontinental Championship and came away with both. But the first defense of a MITB briefcase was also the first winner of Money in the Bank, Edge. The Rated-R Superstar was six months into his period with the briefcase when he put it on the line against Matt Hardy in a Loser Leaves Raw ladder match. This was during the phase when Edge had an affair with Lita, Hardys girlfriend, and WWE turned it into an angle. Edge would win the match and banish Hardy from Raw, then go on to lead a Hall of Fame career that included 11 world titles, the first of which came via a cash-in three months after he retained his briefcase.
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.
