Money In The Bank will always be a piece of WWE’s history. 2022 brings the 13th edition of MITB as a standalone show.
A newer piece of said history is that of the few women’s Money In The Bank matches we’ve seen. Due to the women’s revolution, the female performers in WWE got the opportunity to fight for the Money In The Bank contract like men.
So far, there have been six Women’s Money In The Bank matches, all but one being on under the pay-per-view titled after the match. Charlotte Flair has been included in 3/5 of the cash-ins with Carmella, Bayley, and Nikki A.S.H. cashing in on Charlotte. Natalya has been in the most matches with her participating in 5/6 of the Women’s Money In The Bank matches.
Throughout the years, the women’s MITB match has always been one that many look forward to. Sadly, fans have come to not expect much of the run that the winner would have with the briefcase.
Carmella is the only woman to hold the briefcase for more than one day. Carmella held the briefcase longer than Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Asuka, and Nikki A.S.H. with both of her reigns with the case being more than a day. The briefcase and the contract inside of it can do many things to help boost the character and star power of the person holding it. We even saw this in the case of Carmella, but stars like Big E, Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus, and other have benefitted from their time with the contract immensely.
Women’s Money In The Bank Reigns
Women’s MITB #1 & 2: Carmella (2 Days & 287 Days)
Carmella is the first, and somehow second, Women’s Money In The Bank match winner. The first-ever Women’s Money In The Bank match took place at Money In The Bank 2017. In the infamous match, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Tamina and Carmella competed for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship Money In The Bank contract. Carmella became the inaugural WWE Women’s Money In The Bank winner because James Ellsworth retrieved the briefcase for Carmella and dropped it to her.
Carmella was stripped of the briefcase because of the interference. A rematch was scheduled for two days later on the June 27, 2017 episode of SmackDown Live. Carmella won the match herself this time. She held the contract for 287 days, which is the longest of any wrestler, male or female, to hold the contract. Carmella would go on to cash in her contract on Charlotte Flair. This would lead to Carmella becoming the SmackDown Women’s Champion on the April 10, 2018 episode of SmackDown.
Women’s MITB #3: Alexa Bliss (1 Hour, 10 Minutes)
Alexa Bliss is the third Women’s Money In The Bank match winner. Alexa won the Women’s Money In The Bank match at Money In The Bank 2018. She defeated Ember Moon, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Lana, Naomi, and Sasha Banks to get the contract. The match included stars from both brands, so the winner would be able to cash-in on the champion of their own brand. This started the trend of allowing stars of different brands to fight for the same MITB contract.
Alexa was the first woman to cash in the briefcase on the same day she won it. Later in the night, Nia Jax was defending the RAW Women’s Championship against Ronda Rousey, when Bliss decided to make her move. Bliss attacked both women before cashing in. This cash in lead to a SummerSlam 2018 match with Bliss and Rousey.
Women’s MITB #4: Bayley (39 Minutes)
Bayley was the fourth Women’s Money In The Bank match winner. She won the Women’s Money In The Bank match at Money In The Bank 2019. In the match were the following: Natalya, Dana Brooke, Naomi, Nikki Cross, Mandy Rose, Ember Moon, Carmella, and Bayley.
Bayley cashed in her Money In The Bank contract only 39 minutes later. She attacked Charlotte Flair who had just won the SmackDown Women’s Title from Becky Lynch seconds before. This victory over Charlotte came after she hit the elbow drop on her to win her first SmackDown Women’s Championship.
Women’s MITB #5: Asuka (1 Day)
Asuka became the fifth Women’s Money In The Bank contract winner at the Money In The Bank 2020 pay-per-view. She defeated Shayna Baszler, Nia Jax, Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans, and Carmella to win the contract.
Asuka was the one of the winners of the most unique Money In the Bank match ever. Due to COVID-19, WWE was forced to get creative with what 2020’s Money In The Bank matches would look like. The company decided to hold the women’s and men’s ladder matches simultaneously at the WWE HQ in Stamford, CT. The rest of the matches on the show took place at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
The next night on RAW, the Raw Women’s Champion, Becky Lynch, came out with the women’s Money in the Bank briefcase and announced that she was going on hiatus. Asuka came out very confused after Becky’s announcement. Lynch stated that by Asuka winning the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match, she had actually won the Raw Women’s Championship. The RAW Women’s Championship belt was inside of the MITB briefcase. Lynch then revealed that she was going on hiatus because she was pregnant. Due to this, Asuka became WWE’s second Women’s Grand Slam Champion and third Women’s Triple Crown Champion.
Women’s MITB #6: Nikki A.S.H. (1 Day)
Nikki A.S.H is the sixth Women’s Money In The Bank match winner. She won the Women’s Money In The Bank match at Money In The Bank 2021. In the match were the following: Alexa Bliss, Asuka, Liv Morgan, Naomi, Natalya, Tamina, Zelina Vega, and Nikki A.S.H. Money in the Bank was the first WWE pay-per-view with a full crowd following the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the PPV, Charlotte Flair defeated Rhea Ripley for the Raw Women’s Championship. The following night on RAW, a rematch between the two women for the title was scheduled to take place that same night. The match ended after Charlotte was disqualified, but Ripley still hit the Riptide on Flair after the match.
The lead to Nikki A.S.H. running down to the ring and cashing in her Money in the Bank contract and defeating Flair to win the Raw Women’s Championship. The next week, it was announced that Nikki was going to defend the title against Flair and Ripley in a triple threat match at SummerSlam. Nikki went on to have an infamous title reign where she lost constantly and only held the title for 33 days.
Men Vs. Women MITB Statistics
If you were to run the statistics, on average, male Money In The Bank contract winners hold their briefcase for almost two times as long as the female contact winners do. Honestly, these statistics are a bit wonky due to a few of the women’s contract reigns lasting hours, not even days. If you were to find the average of the reigns of the last six Men’s Money In The Bank contract winners, it would come to 92 days. On the other hand, the average of the reigns of the last six Women’s Money In The Bank contract winners comes to 48 days. The statistics of the Women’s contract reigns are heavily supported by the lengthy reign of Carmella.
It is yet another indictment of how the women’s division is treated by creative that all but one women’s Money In the Bank contract cashed their briefcase within a day. It is an obvious sign of the amount of investment that is put into not only the title reigns within the division, but also the women in general. Many of the women heading into this year’s Women’s Money In The Bank match are deserving of holding the briefcase for more than just one day.
As of right now, there are still two spots remaining in the Women’s Money In The Bank match this year. So far, Lacey Evans, Raquel Rodriguez, Liv Morgan, Alexa Bliss, Asuka and Shotzi have qualified to compete in the match. Two of these stars have already won the MITB contract, so many are hopeful one of the newer talents will win. Liv Morgan seems to be the fan-favorite heading into the match. Liv, for example, is one of the talents who could really benefit from the elevation that the MITB contract can tend to bring.
