Ranking all previous Money in the Bank wins according to the long-term impact

#17 Damien Sandow (2013)

Waste of Opportunity.

How WWE managed to make a mess out of this is still hard for me to decode. The persona of Damien Sandow had World Champion written all over it. The Intellectual Saviour was an automatic heat magnet, someone who the crowd loved to hate, and WWE destroyed his Aura by making him the first man to lose the Money in the Bank contract cash-in match.

Although he became a popular character over a year after the event when he became Damien Mizdow, he was light years away from the Main Event Picture that he was destined to achieve. A World Title win against Del Rio and a subsequent feud with former teammate Cody Rhodes could have done wonders for him. However, he was buried deep in the mud by our next entrant on this list.

#16 John Cena (2012)

The first person to unsuccessfully cash in the contract.

Why did John Cena need a Money in the Bank briefcase when he can successfully challenge any Champion whenever he wants to? By 2012, Big Match John was the biggest superstar in the company and hence giving him the Money in the Bank briefcase was a big waste of opportunity when it could have been some up and coming superstar instead.

In order to build Cena as the hero in this story, they decided to have him announce his cash in date beforehand, and then have him lose his opportunity. Instead of going for a sneak cash in by Cena and turn him heel successfully, they turned CM Punk heel instead after the cash in. Cena stayed in the main event picture for the rest of the year, even facing the winner of the other briefcase at TLC 2012, which rendered this win, and loss, completely worthless.