Chris Jericho Reflects On The Inaugural Money In The Bank Match

AEW

A fascinating new article from ESPN details conception through execution of WWE’s Money in the Bank ladder match.

In a new and fascinating retrospective from ESPN, many of the major WWE players involved in the inaugural showing of the WWE Money in the Bank ladder match reflect on the concept from planning stage through executing the match.

One interesting voice amongst the others is Chris Jericho, the only interviewee who doesn’t remain affiliated with WWE, who is sometimes credited for the creation of the entire match concept.

Of the conceptulization of the match in it’s infancy, Jericho said:

“From a storyline standpoint, we always say I invented it, but from a reality standpoint, if it was a song, I co-wrote it with Brian Gerwitz, who was the head writer at the time. We were just looking for a WrestleMania match. It was one of those years, there was nothing really going on for a lot of us, which is kind of a drag. There were a few ideas thrown around. One of them was a three-way submission match between me and Edge and Chris Benoit. That’s lame. Submission matches are hard to begin with, and it’s a three-way submission match, and Edge didn’t really have a submission. And then Kane didn’t have anything to do, and Shelton didn’t have anything to do. Same for Christian. Just a lot of fairly big-name guys that didn’t really have much to do.

“I remember I was driving in New York City, probably going to a show at The Garden. I said, what if we do some kind of a ladder match where the winner gets a title shot the next night on Raw? And Brian said, well, what if we do it where you can cash it in for a year? At any point in the next year you can have a title shot whenever you want it.

“I don’t think it was really created at the time where you could just cash it in in five seconds. That kind of evolved. So, Brian and I honed it, and then Brian pitched it to Vince and he called me back and said Vince loves it.”

Going on to describe that there was one tweak McMahon hoped to make, Jericho revealed it was Vince’s insistence that the contract was contained inside a briefcase, saying:

“He said the only thing that Vince insists on is that the contract has to be in a briefcase. All right, if that’s what he wants, put it in a f—ing briefcase. It’s one of those things where if it was just a piece of paper on a pole, it wouldn’t really be all that impressive. That was typical Vince where he sees everything a little bit differently than everybody else. Suddenly a new merchandise item is created.”

Chris Jericho is currently hot off the heels of another epic match type, AEW’s Blood & Guts which saw his Jericho Appreciation Society taking on Blackpool Combat Club’s Wheeler Yuta, Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli & Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz.

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• Money in the Bank
• Edge
• chris jericho
• Vince McMahon

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