Chris Jericho usually is given credit for creating WWE's Money In The Bank ladder match, and he recently filled in a lot of the backstory that lead to the original bout. The concept debuted at the 2005 WrestleMania, with Edge winning the first-ever contract. He cashed in successfully on John Cena at Elimination Chamber, giving him the Ultimate Opportunist persona and establishing that wrestlers who hold the briefcase are able to cash it in on powerless champions.
The importance of the Money In The Bank contract has mostly remained static, with almost all of the contract holders successfully cashing it in and winning the championship. Perhaps the most famous example of this would be Seth Rollins' cash-in at WrestleMania 31. Despite being in AEW now, Jericho recently took the time to speak about the origins of the match and how it came to be.
The Wizard spoke with Mike Coppinger of ESPN.com and detailed how Money In The Bank came to be. "The Money in the Bank name was Brian [Gerwitz's] idea. You put your championship opportunity in the bank, so you've got like cash in your bank. And I think that's where cashing it in comes from. I don't think there was another multi-man ladder match where every man was for himself. It's WrestleMania, you wanna put on the best show possible and have the biggest match possible. Well, how about the spectacle of a six-way ladder match?"
Money In The Bank was so popular with fans that it became its own premium live event, and is still an important road sign en route to WrestleMania. Once the briefcase is in the hands of a wrestler, every moment during championship matches seems a bit tenser. Audiences wait on pins and needles for the holder's music to hit following every title bout, and it creates a real air of "anything can happen" that is sometimes missing from matches featuring the likes of Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar.
It's been leveraged as a great way to move belts from one wrestler to another without making the champion look weak in the process as well. WWE strongly prefers to protect its more prominent superstars, and odds are against someone like Riddle ever going over on a champion like Reigns clean. He could cash in following a title fight where Reigns took heavy damage, though, and that doesn't hurt the perception of either performer while also moving the championship belt along. It'll be interesting to see if WWE goes that route with Reigns in the coming weeks and months, as he's been wrestling and on television much less than anticipated following the title unification match at WrestleMania 38.
Source: ESPN.com