There are certain matches that wrestling fans know will be good. The Royal Rumble’s staggered entry structure and high stakes result in a match that rarely misses. Hell in a Cell Matches, Elimination Chambers, and Street Fights at minimum offer a spectacle, and more often than not a good to great match. And then there’s Money in the Bank.

Ladder matches, in and of themselves, belong on the list of gimmick matches that more often than not deliver. Money in the Bank is on a different level. The involvement of between five and ten competitors adds a sense of chaos, the capacity for unique spots, and a flow that allows for high spot after high spot without significant lulls as performers recover.

There’s also the matter of stakes. The Money in the Bank briefcase offers its winner a world title shot on demand, and has the best record of any non-title gimmick match in terms of conversion into an eventual title reign (better, for example, than winning a Royal Rumble or a King of the Ring tournament). In addition to the outcomes of these matches mattering, the stakes typically mean that a number of top level performers are booked for the matches. That means even more assurance of a solid match.

But what of this year’s men’s and women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Matches? This article takes a look a closer look, and points out 25 different details you may have missed amidst the frenzy of action in (and around) the ring.

25 Alexa Bliss Is The Smallest Money In The Bank Winner Ever

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Via the introduction of a women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match last year, WWE all but guaranteed itself to crown a new smallest winner. After all, a woman would only need to be shorter than Daniel Bryan at 5’8” or heavier than CM Punk at around 200 pounds to claim the record, meaning Nia Jax was the only woman on the record who definitively wouldn’t emerge smallest, and given it was a SmackDown only match, only Tamina could have had any claim at all (by some sources she’s 5’9”).

Carmella won that first iteration, resetting the bar at about 5’5” and 110 pounds (again, a bit variable by source. Bliss clearly surpasses her for smallness, as being five feet tall is part of her gimmick, and she known to have been under one hundred pounds in developmental, and is typically billed now at right around the century mark.

24 Braun Strowman Is The Biggest Money In The Bank Winner Ever

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While Michael Cole briefly made mention of it, Alexa Bliss wasn’t the only one to break a size record for Money in the Bank. Her Mixed Match Challenge partner Braun Strowman was the biggest Superstar to ever win Money in the Bank, exceeding Kane and Baron Corbin in both height and weight to claim this distinction.

Money in the Bank has often been a tool to even the odds for smaller competitors to steal world championships, and particularly so for heels.

That Strowman would win totally breaks the mold as he’s a super heavyweight, a face, and someone who could quite reasonably win a world title on his own merits. This opens up possibilities like him following in the tradition of Rob Van Dam and John Cena in not so much catching a champion by surprise as using his contract to schedule himself a title shot.

23 Charlotte Flair Pays Homage To Razor Ramon

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At a key juncture of the women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, Charlotte Flair set up Sasha Banks for a Razor’s Edge. It wasn’t the first time these two had gone for a similar spot, but the setting was auspicious. For the variety of gimmick match the twosome have had, they’d never had a ladder match. For two women who are notoriously students of the game, there’s little question they were conscious of what they were doing .

Ramon battled Shawn Michaels in a ladder match at WrestleMania X. It wasn’t the first ladder match WWE ever staged—Bret Hart and Michaels had one released on home video—but it was the first broadcast on PPV and the first great ladder match in WWE that made the match type such an institution for the promotion, paving the way for a variation on the theme like Money in the Bank.

22 Kofi Kingston Has Lost More Money In The Bank Ladder Matches Than Anyone

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One of the major points of intrigue for the men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match was which member of New Day would enter the fray. Kofi Kingston wound up getting tapped for the spot and, as the broadcast team noted, he therein tied Kane for the most Money in the Bank appearances with seven.

Don’t mistaken Kingston and Kane for having identical records in the match, though. Not only are there styles quite different, making Kane typically a power base and veteran anchor for these matches, while Kingston has typically been a high spot guy. The other key difference is that Kane once won the match, back in 2010, while Kingston never has been able to pull down the briefcase. Thus, he has now lost bids for Money in the Bank more than any other Superstar.

21 Alexa Bliss Is The First Person To Win Elimination Chamber And MITB Match In The Same Calendar Year

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In 2018, Alexa Bliss claimed the unique feat of being the only WWE Superstar to ever win an Elimination Chamber Match and Money in the Bank Ladder Match in the same calendar year.

Only John Cena and Randy Oron approach her mark, having each won Money in the Bank, then won an Elimination Chamber within a twelve month period, but after the year had turned over.

For Bliss to have picked up both of these wins—not to mention having reigned as Raw Women’s Champion for almost half of the year so far is a testament to how much faith WWE has in her. Yes, she’s more than competent in the ring itself, but her growth on the mic, heel charisma, and look have shored up her spot toward the top of her division.

20 Sasha Banks Completed Her Gimmick Match Tour

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The last three years have seen WWE open up its gimmick matches to the women’s roster, and Sasha Banks has been at the fore. Banks’s historic 2016 rivalry with Charlotte Flair encompassed the first women’s Hell in a Cell Match and first main roster women’s Iron Man Match (after having the first women’s edition overall in NXT with Bayley). It also included a rare women’s Falls Count Anywhere Match.

While Banks hasn’t been as well featured—mostly out of the title mix in 2018, her positioning has allowed her to play a featured role in the first women’s Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber Matches, in addition to lasting to the end of the Women’s WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal. She wasn’t eligible for the first women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match because it was a SmackDown exclusive affair. In 2018, however, she completed her portfolio of WWE gimmick matches.

19 Finn Balor And Kevin Owens Renewed Their Ladder Match Rivalry

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Finn Balor and Kevin Owens came to blows more than once during the men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match. Fans who follow NXT may have recognized, however, that this was not the first time these two clashed in a main event situation, nor with a ladder in play.

Balor won his first NXT Championships off of Owens nearly three years ago at the first NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn show over SummerSlam weekend.

This seminal showdown, for which Owens already had one foot out the door to the main roster and Balor transitioned to the top spot of developmental was conducted under Ladder Match rules. In a catalog full great matches, this one wasn’t necessarily one of the best of the best, but was nonetheless an important one for both men’s careers and for NXT’s broader mythology.

18 A Rare Face Vs. Face Collision For Charlotte Flair And Natalya

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There are no shortage of matches on the books between Charlotte Flair and Natalya. The confrontations range from Natalya ducking down to NXT to put over The Queen for her first title in WWE, to working on Raw fresh off of Flair’s first main roster heel turn, to Flair as a face taking the Smackdown Women’s Championship off heel Natalya this past fall.

For all of the iterations of these two squaring off, the overwhelming majority have seen them work a traditional face vs. heel dynamic, albeit while switching roles as their on and off rivalry went on. For the first time since their NXT match at the original TakeOver four years ago, they were both cast as faces and did engage with one another several times over the course of Money in the Bank.

17 Alexa Bliss Has Now Beaten All Four Horsewomen

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There was a historic cluster of women occupying developmental from 2014 to 2015. The group was highlighted by the backstage friends who put on more than their share of classics together, the self-proclaimed Four Horsewomen of NXT, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and Bayley. A notch below these women were women like Carmella and Alexa Bliss.

There’s certainly some irony to ‘Mella and Bliss currently holding the top two women’s championships on SmackDown and Raw, respectively.

In winning Money in the Bank, Bliss went one better by completing her collection of victories over the Horsewomen. She’d previously beaten everyone but Flair, who won their Survivor Series match last year, but in besting The Queen at the Money in the Bank, Bliss has made her case that she’s surged past all four of the women formerly held in higher regard.

16 Sasha Banks Set Up Becky Lynch’s Downfall

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One of the key distinguishing factors to distinguish WWE from more careless, spot-heavy indies is the use of drama and build. The stereotypical independent spotfest will see someone setup a table or configuration of chairs, and immediately use it for violence, whereas one of WWE’s signatures is to set something up early so it’s organically there for a climactic spot down the road.

At Money in the Bank, Sasha Banks set up a ladder in the corner, in what looked like it might set up an intensified version of her double knees corner spot. She got cut off, though, and in the end, Alexa Bliss would use that propped ladder to dispatch of Becky Lynch in the final big spot before claiming the win.

Ironically, the double knees in the corner served Banks poorly at the Royal Rumble, too, where it allowed the Bellas to toss her from the match.

15 Baron Corbin Is Just The Second Authority Figure Who Won Money In The Bank To Preside Over a Briefcase Holder

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Immediately after the women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, a backstage segment occurred between SmackDown General Manager Paige and Raw authority figures Kurt Angle and Baron Corbin. In being appointed Constable and Stephanie McMahon’s surrogate, Corbin became just the second man to have won Money in the Bank to have sat in a position of power. Daniel Bryan was the first, and oversaw Corbin himself and Carmella during their time carrying their respective briefcases.

While Angle and Paige poked fun at Corbin for having lost his cash-in match, bringing up the history nonetheless offered the big man credibility by highlighting what’s objectively Corbin’s biggest career victory to date from a year earlier.

14 Both Briefcases Continue To Be Single-Branded

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In 2017, WWE was deeply enough entrenched in the concept of single branded PPVs for Money in the Bank to be SmackDown exclusive. As such, both briefcases went to Superstars from the blue brand, with the understanding that the following year, Raw would get this show and the Money in the Bank opportunities that came with it.

Though Money in the Bank, like all PPVs, went co-branded after WrestleMania 34, its interesting to note that both contracts nonetheless wound up going to Raw talent.

Maybe that’s a vestige of earlier plans, or maybe WWE didn’t think it mattered so much that the wealth wasn’t spread, given the women’s briefcase was to be taken out of the equation so quickly.

13 Alexa Biss Wasn’t The Most Impatient Briefcase Holder

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Alexa Bliss didn’t waste any time in cashing in her Money in the Bank opportunity. There’s an argument to be made that WWE had booked itself into a corner in not wanting to put the Raw Women’s Championship on Ronda Rousey yet, but also not wanting for her to lose. Bliss offered an out. Despite having used her contract the same night she won it, though, Bliss didn’t hold Money in the Bank for the shortest amount of time ever before a cash-in.

Both Kane and Dean Ambrose cashed in the same night they had won, and each man waited less than an hour (Kane edging out Ambrose—49 minutes to 57), whereas Bliss held onto hers for closer to two hours. Thus, Bliss seems relatively patient, though, if there hadn’t been as much time between her ladder match and title match, she probably would have cashed in sooner.

12 Braun Strowman Gets Buried… Again

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A key spot in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match saw the rest of the field briefly band together against a common, insurmountable foe in Braun Strowman. They not only threw a ladder on top of him on the stage area, but proceeded to pile them on in a truly impressive spectacle of carnage.

This wasn’t the first time Strowman would find himself literally buried like this. Back in October, he suffered a similar fate when he and teammate Kane had a disagreement that led the Big Red Machine to bury him in chairs. In each instance, the burial wasn’t enough to keep Strowman down, as he eventually came back to haunt those who’d meant to eliminate him from the proceedings.

11 Rusev And Lana Were The First Husband And Wife Duo To Compete In Money In The Bank

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Though neither Rusev, nor Lana made good on Aiden English’s promises of victory at Money in the Bank, they nonetheless made history. They were the first married couple to see both spouses compete in Money in the Bank matches—let alone in the same year.

To be fair, this stat isn’t as auspicious as it might seem at first blush.

This gimmick match has only been around for 13 years, and WWE only held men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Matches up until 2017, meaning only last year’s field of five women and this year’s field of eight could contribute to the feat (acknowledging that there have been no openly gay married couples in WWE). Still, it’s a unique marker, and one which it may take some time for anyone to challenge.

10 Braun Strowman Was The Least Decorated Competitor In The Men’s Match

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Braun Strowman walked into Money in the Bank an underdog because he was more over than anyone else in the match and didn’t need the briefcase. Despite being a main event guy and presumptive future world champion, it’s interesting to note that he was also arguably the least decorated of the eight men in the match.

Strowman’s only title win in WWE was a one-day reign as Raw Tag Team Champion. You can compare that to Kevin Owens, The Miz, and Finn Balor each holding world titles, Kofi Kingston’s many tag team and mid-card singles title reigns, and Rusev’s two US Championship reigns. There’s some argument that Bobby Roode would be a tie for only having one brief US Championship reign, or for Strowman beating Samoa Joe who has never won main roster hardware. Both men reigned as NXT Champion, though, besides holding the world title in Impact previously.

9 Alexa Bliss Had The First PPV Cash-In In Two Years

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Quite a few Money in the Bank cash-ins happened on PPV. There was Edge’s original cash-in on John Cena at New Year’s Revolution and RVD using his cash-in to force Cena into a showdown at One Night Stand. There was CM Punk taking the title off of Jeff Hardy immediately after a Ladder Match at Extreme Rules, and Randy Orton and Alberto Del Rio capping SummerSlams with cash-ins.

In recent years, however, more cash-ins have happened on TV, perhaps to create more of a surprise, or a greater sense of chaos. Interestingly, by cashing in at the same PPV where she won the contract, Bliss became the first person to cash-in on PPV at all since Dean Ambrose ran the same play at Money in the Bank 2016.

8 Everyone But Lana In The Women’s Match Was A Former Champion

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It comes as little surprise that Lana would be the least decorated woman in the field for the women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match.

Despite making strides as a wrestler, most fans still think of her as a manager first, and don’t take her altogether seriously as a threat in the ring.

To underscore the difference between her and the competition, though, she was actually the only individual in the women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match not to have previously held at least the NXT Women’s Championship (the only hardware Ember Moon has won in WWE so far), if not the Raw or SmackDown Women’s Championship.

7 The Triple Accolade Spot Involved All Former United States Champions

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One of the more fun spots of the men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match that didn’t involve high spots, or a ladder at all was Rusev’s triple Accolade. The Bulgarian Brute first applied his signature hold with Kofi Kingston stacked on top of Bobby Roode. The Miz got involved and soon we had three men in a single submission hold.

As a bit of subtext to the spot, everyone involved was a former United States Champion. One could read that as a suggestion of how impressive Rusev was in that moment for dominating three guys who had previously held singles gold. Another read is that the title was diminished a bit with this contrivance for the suggestion Rusev could, at least temporarily, dominate three other men with this credential.

6 The Men’s Match Included A Deceptively Deep Roster Of Recent Main Eventers

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While none of the men in Money in the Bank this year were current world champions, of course, the match featured a deceptively high volume of main event guys from the last two years.

No, Rusev and Kofi Kingston haven’t had main event runs. But then there was Kevin Owens, Universal Champion for several months and headlined Hell in a Cell. There was The Miz who was treated as the de facto top heel mastermind in Brock Lesnar’s absence from Raw this past year, including captaining his team at TLC. Braun Strowman has starred in seven PPV main events since WrestleMania 33, and Samoa Joe who was featured in four. Finn Balor quietly played the iron man role in the Royal Rumble and has been in several other multi-man main event mixes. Even Bobby Roode, who hasn’t reached a top spot on the main roster, was the face of NXT.