In 2005, World Wrestling Entertainment established the Money in the Bank ladder match as an annual match at their marquee event, WrestleMania. The match features multiple wrestlers using ladders to retrieve a briefcase hanging above the ring. The briefcase contains a contract that guarantees the winner a match for a world championship at any time within the next year. Following WrestleMania XXVI in March 2010, WWE established a separate Money in the Bank event as a gimmick pay-per-view that was held in July; the match subsequently ceased being featured at WrestleMania. The inaugural event included two MITB ladder matches, one each for the Raw and SmackDown brands, with Raw's match granting a contract for a match for their WWE Championship while SmackDown's granted one for their World Heavyweight Championship. A second MITB event occurred the following year, thus establishing the show as an annual pay-per-view. While originally only for men, a women's version of the MITB ladder match was introduced at the 2017 event, and each year's show now features a men's and women's match.
Storylines
Money in the Bank comprised professional wrestling matches involving professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment. Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television showsRaw and SmackDown with the Raw and SmackDown brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs. At Fatal 4-Way, the Money in the Bank ladder match was scheduled for a namesake pay-per-view. On the June 25 episode of SmackDown, it was revealed that two Money in the Bank ladder matches would be held at the event for the Raw and SmackDown brands respectively, with the winners of the matches given a title match for the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship respectively at a time of their choosing within the next 12 months. Three days later, Rawguest hostRob Zombie named his brand's eight competitors: Randy Orton, The Miz, R-Truth, Chris Jericho, Evan Bourne, Ted DiBiase, John Morrison, and Edge. On the July 5 episode of Raw, The Miz attacked and injured R-Truth; he was taken out of the Money in the Bank match and replaced with Mark Henry the following week. On June 30, six of the competitors for the SmackDown brand's match were named: Matt Hardy, Kane, Cody Rhodes, Christian, Kofi Kingston, and Big Show. On the July 9 episode of SmackDown, Dolph Ziggler defeated Montel Vontavious Porter and Chavo Guerrero in a triple threat match to qualify for SmackDown's ladder match. On the same night, Drew McIntyre earned the final spot by pinning Kofi Kingston. The main rivalry from the SmackDown brand heading into the Money in the Bank event was between Rey Mysterio and Jack Swagger over the World Heavyweight Championship. Mysterio replaced The Undertaker, who was found in a vegetative state by his brother Kane, in a fatal four-way match, which also involved defending Champion Swagger, CM Punk and Big Show, to become a two-time World Heavyweight Champion. On the June 25 episode of SmackDown, a rematch between Swagger and Mysterio was scheduled for Money in the Bank. The main rivalry from the Raw brand heading into Money in the Bank was between WWE Champion Sheamus and John Cena. Sheamus won the title at the Fatal 4-Way event after interference from seven of the contestants from the first season of NXT, collectively known as "The Nexus". The next night on Raw, John Cena invoked his rematch clause, but The Nexus interrupted the match. The following week on Raw, Raw's anonymous general manager scheduled a steel cage match between Sheamus and Cena to ensure no outside interference from The Nexus.
Event
Preliminary matches
The actual pay-per-view opened with the Money in the Bank ladder match for a World Heavyweight Championship match contract, which involved Big Show, Matt Hardy, Christian, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler. Midway through the match, Kingston performed a Boom Drop off a ladder on McIntyre through a broadcast table. Big Show climbed a super-sized ladder he had set up, but Kane pushed the ladder over and Christian and Rhodes buried Big Show under multiple ladders. In the end, McIntyre attempted to retrieve the briefcase, but Kane performed a chokeslam off the ladder on McIntyre and retrieved the briefcase to win the match. Next, Alicia Fox defended the WWE Divas Championship against Eve Torres. In the end, Fox performed a scissors kick on Eve to retain the title. After that, The Hart Dynasty defended the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship against The Usos. Smith forced Jimmy to submit to the sharpshooter to retain the title. In the fourth match, Rey Mysterio faced Jack Swagger for the World Heavyweight Championship. In the end, Swagger applied an ankle lock on Mysterio, but Mysterio removed his boot, performed a hurricanrana on Swagger and pinned Swagger with a rana to retain the title. After the match, Swagger attacked Mysterio, but Kane entered the ring and chased off Swagger. After that, Kane then returned to the ring with referee Charles Robinson and his briefcase, electing to cash in his contract, marking the first time a wrestler cashed in their briefcase on the same night they won it. Kane then chokeslammed an injured Mysterio before executing a Tombstone Piledriver to win the World Heavyweight title in 54 seconds. Next, Layla defended the WWE Women's Championship against Kelly Kelly. In the end, Kelly attempted a sunset flip on Layla, who countered into a roll-up to retain the title. After that was the Money in the Bank ladder match for a WWE Championship match contract involving Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Edge, Evan Bourne, John Morrison, The Miz, Mark Henry and Ted DiBiase. During the match, Orton performed an elevated DDT on Bourne using a ladder. The Miz attempted a catapult on Morrison into a ladder, but Morrison climbed the ladder and used another ladder to climb a ladder set up underneath the briefcase. Edge trapped Morrison in the ladder and, along with The Miz, drove another ladder into Morrison. Morrison performed a springboardroundhouse kick using the ring apron on Henry, Jericho performed a Codebreaker on Henry and Edge performed a spear on Henry. In the end, Orton attempted to retrieve the briefcase but The Miz pushed the ladder, causing Orton to fall, and retrieved the briefcase to win the match.
Main event
In the main event, Sheamus defended the WWE Championship against John Cena in a Steel cage match. In the climax, Cena performed an Attitude Adjustment on Sheamus for a near-fall. The Nexus interfered, with Michael Tarver holding a pair of bolt cutters, but one of the referees stole the bolt cutters and ran backstage. Wade Barrett demanded the key to the cage door from another referee, but the referee threw the key into the crowd. Meanwhile, Cena pushed Sheamus, causing Sheamus to knock out the referee, and applied the STF on Sheamus. Sheamus submitted, but the referee was still down. Cena attempted to climb out of the cage, but Justin Gabriel climbed the cage, distracting Cena. Whilst The Nexus prevented Cena from climbing off the cage, Sheamus climbed out of the cage to retain the title.
Aftermath
Kane was then involved in a feud with his brother The Undertaker, facing him on several occasions. The next night on Raw, Edge, Chris Jericho and Randy Orton faced off in a Triple Threat match, where the winner would face Sheamus at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship. Orton won the match, but at SummerSlam won the match via disqualification, allowing Sheamus to retain the championship. On the following episode of SmackDown, Rey Mysterio and Jack Swagger faced each other in a two out of three falls match to determine Kane's opponent at SummerSlam. Mysterio defeated Swagger to earn a championship rematch, but was unsuccessful in regaining the championship at the pay-per-view. On the November 22, 2010 episode of Raw, The Miz successfully cashed in the briefcase he won at the pay-per-view against Randy Orton to become the WWE Champion.
Reception
Andy McNamara, a reviewer for the Canadian Online Explorer's wrestling section, rated both Money in the Bank ladder matches a 4 out of 5, the WWE Championship match a 3 out of 5, and the World Heavyweight Championship match a 3.5 out of 5. The event was attended live by a crowd of 8,000 fans. Money in the Bank drew 169,000 pay-per-view buys, approximately 99,000 of which came in the United States.
