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June 18th of this year would've been marked as 'history-making' for the Women's division, but unfortunately, we were robbed of that right. The FIRST ever women's ladder match was sabotaged by a man, where it was the chance of the women Superstars to prove that women are just as superior to men. For years women have been criticised, victimised, and used as a puppet-show for the men.
The Women's ladder match consisted of five wonderful, beautiful and talented women on the Smackdown Live roster - Tamina, Carmella, Charlotte, Becky, and Natalya. The winner would go on to face the current WWE Smackdown Women's Champion, Naomi. It started off with a beautiful squared-circle full of five determined women.
Somedays WWE chooses to go up and beyond with their pay-per-view match cards, but again, not many live up to their full potential. Because of that, they landed themselves on this list. We all know that terrible booking is to blame, but a bad match can and will ruin the reputation of a Superstar.
Money In The Bank 2017 would have been pay-per-view for the women's division, but of course, robbed of that opportunity. Five wonderful, deserving, and talented Superstars paid the most price for pain, mind games, and failure. The mind of a Superstar who had sworn to themselves that they'd own the night, losing is more painful than being tossed around in a match.
Everyone, including myself, was excited about the first-ever women's Money In The Bank ladder match and yes, after what happened, I too was very upset and distraught over the outcome. The whole point of a match is to win it? Well, you're in the match to win it, not have someone else enter the match, let alone have a man climb the ladder to unhook the prize that would've made this much more memorable and prestigious.
Charlotte Flair, Tamina, Becky Lynch, Natalya, and Carmella were the participants in this match, but none of us got the memo that James Ellsworth had officially become a woman and joined the march. Ellsworth noticed Becky about to grab the briefcase and his thought was to enter the ring and push over the ladder. It was all about helping his precious Carmella win.
When Carmella couldn't successfully climb the ladder and win the match herself, James took it upon himself to climb the ladder, unhook the briefcase, and drop it right into the hands of Carmella. Since the rules did not state that a non-participant couldn't help a participant in a ladder match, it was all legal.
Remember, in a ladder match, there are no disqualifications, count outs, or submissions, or pin-falls. To win the match, one must simply retrieve the briefcase.
And, as a result of his actions, Carmella became the first ever women's MITB winner.
June, 20th, the week after the Money In The Bank PPV incident, on Smackdown Live, Carmella ran her mouth in a promo with James Ellsworth, catching the attention of all four women who were also in that match. At the time nobody cared about the briefcase more than they did about the memorability lost due to Ellsworth's stupidity.
Even the WWE Women's Champion at the time, Naomi, had been severely upset with the actions of Ellsworth. Ellsworth went as far as to get up in Bryan's face and talk about his family just to defend Carmella.
The storyline went from the guy being the valet of a woman for once, bearing the controversy of the sexism of a woman valeting a guy. I, truthfully believe the storyline flopped so they had to improvise, badly at that.
The creative team hyped up the Money In The Bank ladder match but left us and the talent hanging high and dry when they had a man retrieve the briefcase for a woman, taking us back a few years to the bra and panties matches, bikini contests, and other gimmick matches which didn't showcase their athletic capabilities and ring talent.
This lead to Daniel Bryan commencing a Money In The Bank Ladder Match version two, which none of us were excited about because the spark of knowing it would've been the first had died out thanks to James Ellsworth. And in some way, we all knew Carmella would come out victorious again, even though Becky has had it twice, but was always cheated out of it by someone or something else.
Rest assured, Carmella has officially become the women's MITB winner for the second time. Even though the first time was flawed, Carmella still brags about winning it twice. She is currently teasing a cash-in, but the question still stands: will she become victorious with the cash in or will the win become a faded memory like Baron Corbin's MITB cash-in?
Could Carmella be the first woman in WWE history to successfully cash-in her Money In The Bank briefcase?
Tune in every Tuesday Night on Smackdown Live to find out.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and they do not necessarily represent the views of Sportskeeda.
