This is a guest post from Grahame Gallacher. Find the rest of Grahame’s work at www.pastthepixels.com
The Money in the Bank briefcase always guarantees an exciting time for WWE fans. Whether it’s speculating who will climb that ladder and haul the briefcase down at the event itself, to anticipating just what moment it will be cashed in and a new champion potentially crowned – and this year’s event promises even more than the usual excitement with the uncertainty around the WWE title.
But before Sunday’s event, lets take a look at the MITB matches of the past. Like any annual wrestling event that’s been around a while, the Money in the Bank provides lots of stats to dive into. So I created a Gdoc, dropped in a pile of data, and started sifting through it. Here’s Wrestling with Numbers – MITB edition. Sources of information and a Gdoc with raw data can be found at the bottom of the article.
There have been 14 MITB ladder matches in WWE history. The first 6 of these taking place at Wrestlemania, and the rest at the Money in the Bank PPV event created in 2010. 2010 is also the only year to have 3 MITB ladder matches (One at WM 26 and the other two at the first MITB PPV event).
Appearances
In total there have been 47 different participants in the 14 MITB ladder matches that have taken place so far. Top of the appearance list are veterans Christian and Kane with six appearances each. Christian is the only WWE Superstar to feature in both the very first match in 2005 and the most recent -last year’s ladder match for a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship.
20 WWE Superstars have just a single MITB match appearance under their belts. This includes the likes of previous winners John Cena and Alberto Del Rio (the only two participants to have a 100% success rate in the match). Other notable members of the One Appearance Club include Booker T, Jeff Hardy, Ric Flair and erm… Tensai.
The Briefcase
The Money In the Bank briefcase has been held by WWE Superstars for a total of 1271 days – just under 3.5 years. The average amount of time the briefcase is held by a Superstar is 90.7 days. Edge holds the record for longest duration, the ‘Ultimate Opportunist’ bided his time for 280 days before picking his moment. Kane holds the record for shortest duration at 0 days, he cashed in on the same night he won to take the World Heavyweight Championship from Rey Mysterio in 2010.
Winners
Edge’s place in MITB history is secured as the first ever winner (among his other records) at Wrestlemania 21. However, CM Punk is the only Superstar to have two MITB ladder match wins (coming at Wrestlemanias 24 and 25), with the other 12 winners all being different Superstars. Edge is also the only Superstar in history to have two MITB cash ins yet only one MITB ladder match victory, his second briefcase won from Mr Kennedy on the May 7 2007 edition of Raw.
Cash-ins
Out of the 14 MITB cash ins that have taken place, 6 have been for the WWE Title, while 8 have been for the World Heavyweight Championship. 2014 could be the first year that a Superstar will fight for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, due to the title unification at the TLC event last December.
There have only ever been two Superstars who failed to win the title from their cash in – John Cena and Damien Sandow. Despite winning his cash in match on the 1,000th episode of Raw in 2012, Cena failed to take home the belt as he won by DQ following interference. Poor Sandow is the only Superstar to have lost his cash in match clean in the ring. Daniel Bryan’s nullified cash in has been excluded from the data.
Historically, the summer months have seen the most cash in action with 8 title shots being taken between May-August. June is both the the most popular and successful month, seeing three cash ins all ending in victory. Raw is the show to have featured most cash ins with 6, including the two unsuccessful attempts from Cena and Sandow. 3 of the last 5 cash ins have been on the flagship Monday night show. There has never been an unsuccessful cash in on a PPV event or an episode of Smackdown (one for this year’s briefcase winner to ponder).
Only one cash in hasn’t taken place at a “WWE event” (just go with me here) when Rob Van Dam won the WWE title at ECW One Night Stand in June 2006. RVD was also the first Superstar to pre-announce where and when he would cash in his title shot.
The Match
No Money in the Bank ladder match has ever gone over 30 minutes.The longest match was 2013′s WWE title ladder match which clocked in at 28:48. The shortest ever match was at Wrestlemania 22 in 2006 – Rob Van Dam winning the contract in just 12:14. The average length of a Money in the Bank ladder match is 18 minutes and 53 seconds.
Raw data collected from profightdb.com, Wikipedia and WWE.com. Pictures fromWWE.com. A (somewhat messy, I’m working on my spreadsheet skills) Gdoc with the collected data can be found here.
