20 Most Hated Heel Moves In Wrestling History
14. You're So Money
It’s easy to fob it off as a bit of a tired gimmick now, but back in 2005/2006, there was no precedent for the winner of the Money In The Bank briefcase.
Edge was the first, and he hadn’t even wanted to be in the match in the first place: weary of ladder matches and the toll they take, and annoyed that he hadn’t been placed into a decent singles programme for WrestleMania 21, he was on the verge of telling the boss to leave him off the card completely.
It’s a good thing he didn’t, because the WWE didn’t have a plan for the briefcase, and it was Adam Copeland that gave it to them. With eight months of stalling creative behind him, the man behind the Ultimate Opportunist gimmick pointed out to Vince McMahon that he was playing a heel; why would Edge cash in his big chance for a heavily promoted and telegraphed shot at the gold at some future pay-per-view?
Why wouldn’t he just cash in at the worst possible moment for the champion and steal an easy win?
In the video, you can see McMahon speaking to Edge as the briefcase is handed over. In interviews since then, Copeland has gone on record as saying that the boss was inviting him to “prove me right”: to prove that this was the best possible use of the inaugural Money In The Bank angle.
It certainly was. Spearing John Cena twice to take the WWE Championship after a gruelling Elimination Chamber match is a hell of a heel move, and set the tone for almost every Money In The Bank cash-in since then, as well as making Edge’s career, finally levelling him up to official main event status.
They’ve screwed the pooch on it a little since then, with babyface characters cashing in in identical circumstances to diminishing effect… but nothing’s going to take anything away from that first time, and the shockwaves it created as Edge became the company’s top heel in one underhanded moment.