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Money in the Bank has been an institution in WWE for over a decade now. The winners of the match read like a who’s who, with stars ranging from celebrated wrestlers like John Cena and Randy Orton, to the darlings of hardcore fans like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, to a cast of stars who run the gamut like Kane, Dolph Ziggler, Rob Van Dam, Alberto Del Rio, Mr. Kennedy, and Seth Rollins.
For every star who has received a major push, like Edge who was permanently pushed to the main event level based on his Money in the Bank run, there are several more stars who filled the roster of Money in the Bank matches but never actually got their hands on the briefcase.
Both and Jeff Hardy appeared in the match, as did Christian, Ric Flair, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt and dozens of others. Even guys like Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater who struggled to hold onto mid-card spots got their opportunities to appear in this match.
There are, however, those talents who haven’t appeared in Money in the Bank. Whether they were already well established before the match’s inception at WrestleMania 21 or the guys we’d expect to make into the fray in the years ahead, this article takes a look at five WWE Superstars who haven’t competed in Money in the Bank Ladder Matches.
#5 The Undertaker
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more credible WWE Superstar than The Undertaker, who remained a force on the WWE landscape for over twenty-five years and spent the majority of that time at or near the top of the card.
By the time Money in the Bank got up and rolling, though, the match may have seemed a bit underneath him. After all, if there’s anyone who could be plugged in as a world title contender or main eventer and have no one question it, it was The Dead Man. Besides that, his big-man style doesn’t exactly make him an optimal fit for ladder matches (despite having a very good one in the can with Jeff Hardy from 2002.
Despite never competing for the briefcase, The Undertaker did find himself cashed-in on once, when Edge used just the third iteration of the special contract to steal the World Heavyweight Championship from him after a gruelling steel cage match on Smackdown.
#4 Brock Lesnar
Like The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar is an incredibly well-established star and one who was already made as a main eventer before the original Money in the Bank briefcase was introduced.
On top of not needing the Money in the Bank title opportunity, though, Lesnar’s ethos also doesn’t fit so well with a multi-man ladder match. He’s a real-life athletic monster who has thrived in mixed martial arts. Putting him in a match for which the goal is to climb a ladder and grab a briefcase suspended above the ring belies his serious, deeply credible tone as a wrestling star, and makes him an awkward fit for the Money in the Bank brand.
Lesnar was the victim of a cash-in once, and arguably one of the best cash-ins of all time. At WrestleMania 31, Seth Rollins used his MITB opportunity to become the first man to cash-in mid-match, let alone to do so in a WrestleMania main event. He transformed Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns into a Triple Threat and proceeded to pin Reigns to take the title.
#3 Jinder Mahal
Jinder Mahal’s career trajectory through WWE is nothing if not abnormal. After a lacklustre run as a lower mid-card talent, WWE released him. When he came back, he looked like a million bucks but didn’t exactly get a push up the card until the powers that be positioned him to win a number one contender's battle royal. From there hew as a surprise presence in the WWE Championship picture and, against the odds, he unseated Randy Orton for the strap.\
As a result of Mahal’s progression, from a guy who wouldn’t be taken seriously as a Money in the Bank contender to a guy successfully defending the title when the next iteration of the match came up in 2017, he skipped over the point when he would have been a natural fit for the match. If he remains in the upper card for the years ahead, however, Mahal is likely to fill in this blank on his resume.
#2 Big Cass
While a lot of guys on this list didn’t need Money in the Bank, Big Cass is exactly the kind of young star who would fit the ethos of this match perfectly. He’s a wrestler on the rise whose potential WWE seems to recognise, as evidenced by decisive victories over former partner Enzo Amore, and incumbent giant The Big Show this past summer.
For Cass, it’s less a question of if he’ll ever appear in a Money in the Bank Ladder Match than a matter of when the stars will align to put him in contention. Moreover, while his eventual participation seems like a sure thing, the biggest question of all may be if the big guy just might pick up the career-making win.
While not every budding star wins Money in the Bank, and not ever winner goes on to world title glory, Cass seems like as likely a candidate as anyone for that brand of success.
#1 Shane McMahon
For Shane McMahon, not participating in Money in the Bank feels like a matter of timing.
Sure, putting the boss’s son in a match like this might seem like an odd fit, as he was never put into serious world title contention, and his name alone makes him a star. Just the same, had Money in the Bank been around when Shane-O-Mac was a young daredevil, who won the respect of fans and the locker room alike through his toughness and willingness to take big bumps, you’d better believe he’d have found his way into the Money in the Bank mix.
Shane could have rivalled buys like Kofi Kingston and Shelton Benjamin for big MITB stunts. He also may have even gotten a run like Seth Rollins, but with The Authority (or in Shane’s case, The Corporation) colluding to help him pull ahead and threaten to, if not actually, win the briefcase.
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