WWE Money in the Bank

The "Money in the Bank" pay-per-view centers around a ladder match, the prize of which is a briefcase containing a contract for a championship match. The winner can then cash in the contract at a time and place of their choosing anytime within the next year – beginning the night they win the briefcase – for a world championship match. If the contract is not used within that year, it is voided, but this has yet to happen.

In 2010 and 2011, the annual pay-per-views included two Money in the Bank ladder matches. One ladder match was for the Raw brand with a contract for a WWE Championship match, while the other ladder match was for the SmackDown brand with a contract for a World Heavyweight Championship match. The brand split ended in August 2011, after which, the Money in the Bank pay-per-views continued to have two ladder matches for contracts for the respective titles, but they were not brand exclusive. After the two titles were unified in December 2013, a championship match contract for the unified WWE World Heavyweight Championship became the prize of a single Money in the Bank ladder match. The brand split returned after the 2016 event, but the 2017 pay-per-view was SmackDown-exclusive. The championship match contract in the ladder match was for SmackDown's WWE Championship (formerly WWE World Heavyweight Championship). The 2017 event also featured the first-ever women's Money in the Bank ladder match with its contract being for a SmackDown Women's Championship match.[1]

The event became dual branded beginning with the 2018 pay-per-view, involving both the Raw and SmackDown brands. There are now two Money in the Bank ladder matches, one for men and one for women, each having eight participants evenly divided between the brands. The contract in each grants the winner a championship match for their respective brand's world championship: the Universal Championship or WWE Championship, and the Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship. In 2019 though, the winner of each match could choose the championship to challenge for.[2][3] The 2020 event saw the number of competitors in both matches decreased to six due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the rules of the match itself remained the same, a new "Corporate Ladder" gimmick was also added to the matches, in which the participants had to travel from the ground floor of WWE Global Headquarters to the roof in order to reach the briefcase, which itself was suspended above a ring on the roof. Additionally for 2020, both the men's and women's matches took place at the same time.

Money in the Bank is the only WWE pay-per-view event with a regular theme song, as all but the first event have used "Money in the Bank" by in-house WWE composer Jim Johnston as its theme song.[4] This is in stark contrast to other pay-per-view events, which use songs sponsored by mainstream recording artists, which was the case with the first event using "Money" by I Fight Dragons.[5] Before the advent of the pay-per-view, the "Money in the Bank" song was used as the entrance music for Donald Trump for his numerous guest appearances on WWE television.[6]

Notes

¹In December 2013, the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship were unified, retiring the World Heavyweight Championship while the WWE Championship became known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The 2014, 2015, and 2016 events featured only one Money in the Bank ladder match with its contract being for a match for the unified title (which reverted back to being called the WWE Championship after the 2016 event when the brand split was reintroduced).
²James Ellsworth retrieved the briefcase for Carmella. On the following episode of SmackDown Live, Carmella was forced to relinquish the briefcase and a rematch was scheduled for the June 27 episode with Ellsworth banned from ringside, where Carmella definitively won the match.
³The majority of the event took place live at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, while the Money in the Bank ladder matches were pre-recorded on April 15, 2020 at WWE's global headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
⁴The match was originally announced with its original rules in that the winner would receive a women's championship match contract, however, on the May 11, 2020 episode of Raw, Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch announced she was going on maternity leave and that the ladder match had actually been for the Raw Women's Championship instead of a championship match contract.
⁵Both the men's and women's matches took place at the same time, although the women's match concluded first.

• Money in the Bank Official Website