Views From The Turnbuckle: Money In The Bank Power Rankings, Who Stands The Best Chance Of Winning?

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Let's face it: Money in the Bank is just a genius idea. In the early 2000s WWE discovered just how exciting multi-man ladder matches can be, and to add to the fun, WWE created the Money in the Bank briefcase, a tantalizing prize that allows the winner to have a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at any time they please. The result has been a collection of cash-ins that have been among the most thrilling moments in wrestling over the last decade. Next Sunday, WWE will have another MiTB match, the winner nearly guaranteed a world title victory, so here is a power ranking of all the participants in the match ranked on the potential for their victory. It should be noted that only seven of the eight participants have been announced, so there is one more person set to be in the match who will not be covered here.

7. Kofi Kingston

Kofi has found some new life as a villain in The New Day, so his character is fresher than it has been for the last several years. For that reason, Kingston has a greater chance at winning MiTB and becoming the world champion than he has had in a while, but that isn't saying very much. Kofi is in this match for one reason and one reason only: to do high spots and to fall off some ladders. If this was a power ranking of guys who are most likely to eat an RKO falling off of a ladder, Kofi would be at the top of the list. Even though he doesn't stand a chance at winning this thing, people like Kofi are necessary to having a good MiTB match. The favorites in this match are not really a ton of risk-takers, so it is important for WWE to round out the match with high-flyers who are willing to take the huge bumps that make the match so exciting.

6. Neville

Like Kofi Kingston, Neville is in this match less to actually win and more to take some crazy bumps and hit his finishing move off of a ladder. The reason Neville is ranked higher than Kofi is because Neville is still new enough on the roster that you can't totally rule out a main event push. The same cannot be said for Kingston, for whom that ship has not only sailed, but has disappeared across the horizon and is now in open water. The recent booking of Neville hasn't inspired a ton of hope for a main event push, but one of the things that makes MiTB so interesting is that the man who wins the briefcase doesn't necessarily have to be a viable world champion right then and there. They can hold onto the contract for as long as they need to in order for them to be built up into a legit contender. Even so, expect Neville to be lying face down outside of the ring when the winner is announced.

5. Dolph Ziggler

Ziggler has already won a MiTB and successfully cashed in before, and although he had a reign as the World Heavyweight Champion, his career hasn't really improved very much since then. He is pretty much a mid-card babyface who is popular enough that the fans will boo when a heel defeats him. Like Neville and Kingston, Ziggler is an excellent bump taker who is in this match because of that skill. Ziggler has breathed the same air as a lot of main event wrestlers in WWE, so he is much closer to that glass ceiling than Kingston or Neville, so a victory for him would merely be unexpected, as opposed to impossible. WWE is now using Ziggler as a vehicle to keep Lana relevant as she begins her face run, and a match between Ziggler and Rusev was probably booked for MiTB before Rusev went on the sideline with a broken foot. The Ziggler/Lana relationship angle has gotten off to a rocky start, both performs seem very awkward together and their backstage segments have left a lot to be desired. WWE will probably stick with it regardless, but both performers might be better off if they go their separate ways.

4. Sheamus

After wandering through no-man's land as a babyface for the last couple years, Sheamus has finally found his way back to being a bullish heel. Like his recent nemesis, Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus seems to have stagnated in a role of being an upper mid-card heel, someone who fans dislike, but not enough for WWE to consider making him a world champion. That being said, Sheamus could be an ideal candidate for winning MiTB. He could snag the briefcase and then spend the next several months getting a big push as a monster heel, and by then it could be time for him to cash in on a babyface champion. That being said, that result would be a dramatic change from WWE's recent booking strategy, so Sheamus finds himself at number four.

3. Randy Orton

As by far the most established world champion in this match, Orton ranks this high despite the fact that WWE could not choose a more boring person to win the match. Orton wrapped up a disappointing feud with Seth Rollins and has been off of TV for the last several weeks because WWE has had nothing for him. As the holder of the MiTB contract, he would at least have an excuse to show up every week, but that is something that most fans would rather not see. Orton can be a dynamite performer, but he also needs a real storyline to sink his teeth into. As a heel he could exist without having a real storyline, but now that he has shifted back into babyface mode, he needs something substantial to be taking place in order for fans to really take a great interest in him and right now that doesn't really seem to in the cards.

2. Kane

In almost any other situation, Kane wouldn't rank this high. In nearly every match he has been in over the last couple years he has been filler, but because Seth Rollins is currently the world champion, Kane's chances of victory have increased greatly. For months WWE teased Kane and Seth Rollins not getting along and Kane eventually turning on Rollins. Amazingly, the fans who had been lukewarm on Kane for the last year began to cheer the Big Red Machine and it turned into one of the better feuds in WWE. At Payback, WWE appeared to have dropped the feud, with Kane firmly establishing himself in Rollins' corner. Since then Kane has been back to his usual stooge self, but the remnants of that storyline are still relevant enough to warrant a belief in Kane that would otherwise be non-existent. Kane could win MiTB, which would cause a huge strife in The Authority, after all, how could Rollins trust Kane to have his back while Kane holds the proverbial axe over his head? Out of all the men in the match, a victory for Kane lends itself to the most plausible storyline post-MiTB.

1.Roman Reigns

The reason I elected to do a power ranking of the participants as opposed to betting odds like I normally do for MiTB and the Royal Rumble was because Reigns would have made the rest of the odds a big waste. Reigns is by far the favorite for this match and if someone was to place a bet on anyone else to win this match they might as well have just flushed their money right down the toilet. WWE hasn't been too subtle in their backing of Reigns as the next world champion, culminating in Reign's three-match performance on Raw. Reigns winning MiTB does make a lot of sense from a storyline standpoint, he is clearly going after Seth Rollins and Reigns possessing the contract would be a contrast to last year, when Rollins had the contract. After backing out of a Reigns title victory at Wrestlemania, WWE seems to be losing their patience a bit with Reigns and I would bet that if Reigns does indeed win MiTB, a championship cash-in would be coming sooner rather than later.

Is Reigns ready for the world title? Probably not, he really isn't that much improved since Wrestlemania, although the outright hatred of him coming from the audience has cooled down quite a bit. The best idea about Reigns I have heard is for Dean Ambrose to beat Seth Rollins in the main event of MiTB and win the world title for real this time. Reigns comes out to celebrate with Ambrose, but instead turns on Ambrose, beats him down, cashes in and wins the world championship. Heel Roman Reigns makes more sense for WWE because at least now the boos for him will be the desired reaction, but it still wouldn't solve a lot of his issues. He would still be below average in the ring and his mic skills would still be almost non-existent. Even so, Reigns winning MiTB is by far the most likely scenario for next Sunday, so he easily tops this list.

You can follow Jesse Collings on Twitter @JesseCollings