Chris Jericho Talks Creating The WWE Money In The Bank Ladder Match, Vince McMahon's One Request
Chris Jericho previewed Sunday's WWE Money In The Bank pay-per-view on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho. During the podcast, Jericho opened up on how the Money In The Bank match came to existence and his hand in creating it.
Jericho discussed that there were multiple big name superstars without any program heading into Wrestlemania in 2005. Instead of doing nothing at the biggest pay-per-view of the year, Jericho pitched the idea of a six man ladder match. As the idea evolved between Jericho, writers, and Vince McMahon, the match developed into what fans know it as today.
"Wrestlemania 2005? there was a group of guys going into Wrestlemania, all high profile kind of former world champion type guys, who did not have a match for Wrestlemania," Jericho said. "Such talents as Edge, Chris Benoit, Kane, myself, maybe RVD, Shelton Benjamin was one of the cats that was in that. And nobody had a program or a match. So, they were trying to think of something for everyone to do. Everyone was coming up with all these dumb ideas. Like one of the ideas was for me, Benoit, and Edge to have a three way submission match. The only way to win would be through submission. That would be kind of boring.
"So I came up with the idea of a six man ladder match. So, I took the idea to Brian Gewirtz, who was a good writer at the time and he said 'What's at stake?' I said 'Why don't you have a contract where the winner gets a title shot the next night'. Then Brian said 'Why don't you make it so you can use it at any time over the following year and you can cash it in at any time'. So we took that to Vince and Vince agreed. Loved the idea. His only concession was the contract had to be in a briefcase."
Jericho discussed why McMahon might have been so adamant about using a briefcase for the match. He assumed McMahon wanted something visual and physically appealing to signify the contract. Jericho admitted that McMahon was right in his wants seeing how the briefcase now epitomizes the event.
"Knowing how Vince is, maybe he wanted people to actually see it," Jericho said. "Rather than just a piece of paper hanging there. You could carry it. You could use it. It was a really cool three way invention of the match, even though Vince's little thing was just the briefcase, the briefcase has become synonyms with the show. It's on the poster right now as a matter of fact."
As we previously reported, Jericho was critical of the booking of Sunday's Money In The Bank ladder match, particularly Brock Lesnar winning the match. Jericho is scheduled to face Kenny Omega at AEW Double or Nothing this Saturday. As always, Wrestling Inc. will be providing live coverage of the show.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.