Every WWE Money In The Bank Winner Ranked Worst to Best

The problem with lists like these is that most of the entrants have years of hindsight to work with. You can look at everything that transpired after their run as Mr. Money in the Bank and make a real qualitative judgement about whether or not it helped their career. That said, even though Ambrose only won MiTB last year, it feels like centuries ago.

Becoming the second person to cash in the same night he won, Ambrose beat Seth Rollins, who had just won the title from Roman Reigns, meaning that all three members of the Shield were world champions within a five minute span. For a few weeks, Ambrose was king of the world. With Reigns serving a 30-day suspension, Ambrose was the top babyface in WWE. Weeks later at the draft, he was SmackDown’s #1 pick over guys like John Cena, AJ Styles, and Randy Orton. After that, Ambrose successfully defended his title in the long-awaited Shield triple threat at Battleground, pinning Roman Reigns clean. After the match, the SmackDown roster came out and held Ambrose on their shoulders in a triumphant moment.

...But then what? Ambrose’s next feud was with Dolph Ziggler, which delivered huge on promos, but was a complete dud when the match itself came. Next, AJ Styles became the #1 contender, and he was so hot coming off his win over John Cena, there was no way Ambrose stood a chance in terms of fan support. Styles beat Ambrose for the title at Backlash, and while Dean remained SmackDown’s top babyface to the end of the year, he lost so much momentum in the process. Eventually, he would win the Intercontinental title, defend it in the pre-show of WrestleMania, get traded to RAW, and is now so low on the totem pole, hardly anyone cares about him right now.

It’s difficult to say what will happen to Ambrose in the future, but at the present, his Money in the Bank win was simply just a temporary boost to his stock instead of something substantial. Perhaps he should turn heel like this other aimless babyface...