Every WWE Money In The Bank Winner Ranked Worst to Best

Ah, yes, Damien Sandow. The little superstar who could. The man who did every silly gimmick he was given with gusto, and the fans appreciated him for it. He was the intellectual savior of the masses, he was Machow Mandow, and he was the Miz’s stunt double.

Also, he nearly won the World Heavyweight Championship, but he made the unfortunate mistake of trying to cash in on John Cena during the height of his Superman booking.

Many people ask why they bothered giving Sandow the WHC briefcase if he was never going to become champion. However, it’s easier to wrap your head around it when you consider what ended up happening to that title. Yes, Sandow losing clean in his cash-in on John Cena is egregious, but Cena would not hold the belt for long, as he would lose it in a WWE Championship unification match with Randy Orton at TLC in December. For years, the World Heavyweight Championship had lost any preconception as being on the WWE Championship’s level, as it had not main-evented a pay-per-view since 2010. Indeed, it was regularly the curtain-jerker match while the WWE Championship hogged the main event scene.

With the original brand split having come to an end, it made no sense to have two world titles anymore, so if by summer of 2013, the WHC was already a lame duck belt, it’s easy to understand WWE putting the WHC briefcase on someone who could lose easily and not have a lot of damage done as a result (hence Sandow). Plus, it did establish that a cash-in is not a virtual guarantee of winning the title, which is important for fans to have in their minds so that there’s actual drama.

Still, people liked Sandow, so it’s a little disappointing that he has the dubious honor of being the only person to lose his cash-in cleanly, and being another victim of “Lol, Cena wins.”