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On this week’s episodes of WWE Raw and SmackDown Live, the eight participants for this year's men’s Money in the Bank ladder match were announced. The participants are Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, and Braun Strowman from RAW and Finn Balor, Andrade, Ali, and Randy Orton from SmackDown Live. While this year's field seems fairly wide open, it is best that a Smackdown superstar takes home the contract.
On the RAW side, none of the participants seems fairly engaging. Ricochet has been taking so many pinfalls in tag team matches and hasn’t gotten his single’s career off the ground yet. Baron Corbin winning would get tremendous heat, but not the right kind of heat. Also, he already won Money in the Bank in 2017 and failed on his cash-in attempt against Jinder Mahal. Braun Strowman won the Money in the Bank contract last year and that ended terribly as he turned heel for no reason against Roman Reigns and technically lost his cash in attempt at Hell in a Cell.
While Drew McIntyre winning would be fresh, we have already seen a Rollins-McIntyre feud if that is the direction WWE chooses to go in. In addition, McIntyre seems like he is stuck in second gear. One minute WWE seems to want to push him to the top, then the next minute they seem to change their mind and he stops getting pushed.
However, on Smackdown the possibilities are endless and exciting. Even though Randy Orton is a previous Money in the Bank winner and he doesn’t need it, just imagine the heat if he were to cash in on Kofi Kingston, especially considering their history. Ali would be a nice surprising winner and could make up for him losing whatever push he was going to receive earlier this year before he got injured.
Finn Balor could use the briefcase to finally get back into the WWE title picture, which he has flirted with but hasn’t won since his injury in 2016. Finally, Andrade might be the best possibility of them all since it seems WWE is slowly building him up and when Smackdown moves to FOX this fall, they may give him a huge push due to the Hispanic market that will be tunneling in. Andrade is close to the full package, and what he lacks in promo skills is masked by Zelina Vega and his in-ring ability.
Who do you think should win this year's Money in the Bank contract? Let us know in the comments below!
