Has WWE Forgotten The Point of Money In The Bank?

I will be the first to admit that I LOVE Money in the Bank matches. I love gimmick matches in general, but Money in the Bank is a special thrill for me because the match used to be made up of young guys or guys that had tons of talent and just needed a leg up to get to the big dance, but lately it’s becoming clear, at least to me, that WWE has forgotten the point of Money in the Bank, and that is glaringly clear if you look at the field for the Women’s Money in the Bank match for 2018.

I’m going to say this right up front, I am a huge supporter of the Women’s Division. I’m also a big fan of them getting their own Money in the Bank Match, even with the WTF booking of last year. This year, I can’t say I’m thrilled with the line up and it’s not because I’m not a fan of most of the women involved, because I am, it’s because despite having seven extremely talented, and hungry, up and comers called up from NXT, the Women’s Money in the Bank line up is almost completely made up of former Women’s Champions (Yes, I’m including Ember Moon in that because she was NXT Women’s Champion). Lana is the only person in the line up that has never been champion.

Let’s look at the field:

• Charlotte Flair: NXT Women’s Champion, Diva’s Champion, RAW Women’s Champion, SmackDown Women’s Champion
• Sasha Banks: NXT Women’s Champion, RAW Women’s Champion
• Becky Lynch: SmackDown Women’s Champion
• Alexa Bliss: RAW Women’s Champion, SmackDown Women’s Champion
• Natalya: Diva’s Champion, SmackDown Women’s Champion
• Naomi: SmackDown Women’s Champion
• Ember Moon: NXT Women’s Champion
• Lana

Seriously? With a group including: Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, Dana Brooke, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, and Liv Morgan, WWE couldn’t think of a better field than seven former Women’s Champions and a manager turned sometime wrestler?

Now this problem was also true last year, but because MitB was a brand exclusive PPV, there was no way of getting around having former Women’s Champions in the mix because the pool of talent was small. WWE really doesn’t have that excuse this year, not with an available pool of around twenty women split between two shows. There’s no reason for this many former Women’s Champions to be in the match, especially when Charlotte, Alexa, and Ember were champions just a month or so ago and either lost their rematches clean or were called up. Natalya was champion six months ago.

Here’s how I think this should’ve been done:

Headliners: Charlotte and Sasha or Becky and Sasha. Charlotte vs Sasha is a rivalry that will always grab people’s attention and bring eyes to the match. Becky vs Sasha would reignite an old NXT rivalry that got cut short, in my opinion.

SmackDown: One member from IIconic and One Member from Absolution. I really don’t have a preference here, though I think Sonya would be my pick for Absolution if I had to make a choice.

RAW: Ember Moon and One Member from The Riott Squad. I’m a huge fan of Riott Squad, so I don’t have a preference, though I think Ruby would probably be the best pick for this match since she’s been on fire since their call-up.

How many is that? Six? Okay, so I would stop at six, personally, but since WWE’s field is eight women, we’ll do eight. I would put in either Naomi or Becky for SmackDown , and either Mickie James or Dana Brooke for RAW. Yes, I know that Lana and Alexa are being left out, but Alexa has had several long runs with the title and I don’t think Lana is really a good fit for this match.

To me, this is a better mix of veterans and up and comers. It gives the NXT call ups that haven’t been champion a chance to really shine.

Now, this problem of having almost all champions and almost no up and comers is also true for the Men’s Money in the Bank match. Checking that field, I counted seven former champions: Balor, Miz, Roode, Big E (NXT), Daniel Bryan, and Samoa Joe (yes, I know that Big E, Bryan, and Joe aren’t all going to be in the match, but the point stands) and only two guys who have never been a Heavyweight Champion: Strowman and Rusev.  Yes, Balor’s championship reign only lasted 24 hours due to injury, but he was also NXT Champion for a very long time. I think they’re getting away with this because none of these guys have been Heavyweight Champion in at least a year, so it’s not as glaring as having three women who all lost their titles a month ago.

Like I said, I love Money in the Bank, but what I loved about it was that it was a career maker for a lot of guys who just needed a boost into the big dance, and it’s frustrating to see that WWE is using to keep the same people in the title picture instead of using it to build up young talent. Who knows, maybe we’ll get another shocker like last year.