It feels incorrect to complain about something associated to WWE proper now. 2024 was, by nearly any measure, the very best the product has been in a very long time. Possibly you want The Perspective Period higher. Possibly you want The Golden Period higher. That’s honest. I’m not essentially saying proper now could be the very best followers have ever had it, nevertheless it’s actually the very best it’s been in a very long time. Due to that, I’ve hesitated to place this negativity out into the universe. Some type of this text has been in my drafts part for months, however I simply can’t take it anymore. We have to discuss concerning the Cash In The Financial institution Briefcase.
For these of you who may be newer followers to WWE or returning followers who haven’t watched the product in a very long time, let me give an actual fast recap. Yearly since 2005, WWE has held a ladder match referred to as Cash In The Financial institution. Initially, it occurred at WrestleMania yearly. Now, it has its personal devoted PLE. In every match, a half dozen or so wrestlers compete to climb a ladder and retrieve a briefcase suspended above the ring. Whoever pulls down the briefcase will get a contract they will money in at any time for a match for any title in WWE. They will announce their cash-in forward of time, or they will do it in an surprising second, in principle when the titleholder is at their weakest.
With all due respect to The Elimination Chamber, it’s the very best gimmick match not referred to as The Royal Rumble that WWE has. Traditionally, it’s confirmed to be a unbelievable alternative to raise a budding star right into a centerpiece of programming. Give her or him the MITB Briefcase and so they’re abruptly a menace to win the most important titles the corporate has. They abruptly have a purpose to ship promos and work with the most important stars on the roster. It’s like a cheat code to get forward, and as such, who to provide the boys’s and girls’s briefcases to every yr is without doubt one of the most necessary selections the writers have to make yearly.
Sadly, holding the briefcase hasn’t essentially been such an enormous win since Triple H took over inventive. We noticed it with Austin Idea. We noticed it with Damian Priest, and now we’re seeing it once more with Tiffany Stratton. Relatively than elevating these characters to the subsequent degree, all three have been used as pawns to fabricate low cost pleasure on weekly programming, and it has not been to their profit.
Let me clarify. The Cash In The Financial institution Briefcase is inherently thrilling as a result of there’s at all times that lingering sense of Is that this the second? Each time we see the briefcase in body and there’s a champion round, there’s some anticipation that the cash-in may occur, and Triple H loves leaning into that drama. I get why. He’s a superb storyteller, and it’s a simple option to get the group hyped each single time.
However each time a personality hems and haws about whether or not to money in, each time a personality tries to money in however slips and falls or doesn’t get to the referee shortly sufficient or will get stopped by one other character, it makes the individual holding the Briefcase look indecisive and even silly. That may occur or a couple of times with out altering the way in which we have a look at the wrestlers, however when it occurs each single week, it makes them look weak and silly.
When Tiffany Stratton beats somebody up and cockily says “It’s Tiffy Time” to the group, she seems to be boastful and forceful and heelish. When she seems to be on the Briefcase and appears on the ref and appears again on the Briefcase and appears on the champion, Nia Jax, laying there on the bottom after which seems to be again on the Briefcase after which grabs it after which hems and haws after which sees Nia rise up after which bails on cashing in, she seems to be like an absolute moron. She doesn’t look highly effective. She seems to be like a buffoon, a cartoon character that’s destined to lose ultimately.
And the irritating factor is I don’t suppose she’s going to lose. In some unspecified time in the future, I feel she’s going to efficiently money in on Nia Jax, however what injury will she have accomplished to her character previous to that? Damian Priest, after months of whoopsies and missed alternatives, lastly cashed-in at WrestleMania final yr in one of many biggest cash-in moments in historical past. I wouldn’t change something about that second, however as a result of he spent months working round like a dumb henchman, all of us simply assumed he was simply going to be a brief champion when he cashed in. It was actually a shock he received a run with the title for a couple of months, and I say that as a shameless Damian Priest fan. If he would have simply left the Briefcase within the again for months after which abruptly stunned everybody and pulled it out at WrestleMania, he would have come out trying a lot stronger.
Austin Idea nonetheless hasn’t recovered from his mess of a Cash In The Financial institution run. Tiffany Stratton proper now seems to be weaker and farther from a major occasion star than earlier than she gained. Damian Priest received his large second, nevertheless it got here at the price of how everybody considered him as a personality. Even Drew McIntyre’s latest run with the Briefcase, which ended nearly instantly, did not sit properly with some followers. One thing wants to vary.
I don’t know who’s going to win MITB this yr. There are a ton of excessive potential up-and-comers simply ready to take the subsequent step. I’d like to see what they will do with the Briefcase, however provided that Triple H modifications up how he’s reserving the winners, provided that he is not going to make use of it as a prop to generate low cost pleasure. If we’re on the identical path as earlier than, then he ought to preserve his most promising hopefuls away from the briefcase as a result of it won’t be good for his or her careers.