The card for Money in the Bank 2021 is taking shape. Monday Night Raw’s Ricochet, Riddle, and John Morrison have qualified. Drew McIntyre, AJ Styles, and Randy Orton are set to compete in a triple threat match on June 28’s Monday Night Raw to determine who the next entrant will be between the three of them, Orton and Styles having lost their previous shots to Ricochet and Morrison, respectively.
On June 25’s Friday Night SmackDown, Big E and Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews, the latter assisted by Commander Azeez, competed to see who would be in the running for Mr. Money in the Bank. Neither competitor has ever participated in Money in the Bank Ladder Match before. Despite the Commander’s attempts to assist his boss, Big E put Crews away with the Big Ending and secured his placing in the six-man ladder match for a WWE title opportunity.
As noted, the Money in the Bank 2021 card is still taking shape, but each participant involved so far would be an interesting stalking horse figure, poised to possibly become an unlikely contender for current WWE Champion Bobby Lashley. Here’s a look at “how it started, and how it’s going” for each potential Mr. Money in the Bank so far:
Money in the Bank 2021 Competitors Thus Far
Riddle
Riddle’s comic persona belies that he is a highly skilled fusion artist able to blend pro wrestling theatrics with mixed martial arts and pure jiu-jitsu. While his harmless babyface character prowls the halls of the ThunderDome on a scooter baffling other Superstars with his antics and musings, in the ring, Riddle can be a dominant force. The former United States Champion has been paired with 14x world champion Randy Orton in an unlikely comic duo known as RKBro, but there seemed to be tension brewing when Riddle qualified for Money in the Bank and Orton did not.
If Riddle comes out of the six-man ladder match as Mr. Money in the Bank, that puts him back on a collision with Bobby Lashley, the man whom he won the United States Championship from. Orton’s displeasure with Riddle may also continue to seethe into a full-blown feud between the two. This would be Riddle’s most substantive opportunity to date, but from his early days on the main roster beginning in June 2020, Riddle has cheerfully taken on experienced and accomplished superstars like AJ Styles and Sheamus, with blithe ambition to make his mark. Mixing it up with Lashley and Orton, and a WWE title contract in his possession, seems like exactly where the former Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor wants to be.
John Morrison
John Morrison probably won’t be bingeing “The Walking Dead” anytime soon. Thanks to the undead revenants who invaded WrestleMania: Backlash, Morrison is down a tag team partner, The Miz, who has been relegated to the commentary desk and Miz TV after injuring his ACL in the unconventional lumberjack match. The pair’s storyline with Damian Priest was also cut short in the middle thanks to an injury the former NXT North American Champion suffered during the zombie apocalypse.
However, in chaos lies opportunity, and Morrison’s victory against Orton put him closer to the WWE Championship than he has ever been before. Morrison’s agile, high-flying style is eye-catching and effective, but it’s hard to imagine The Miz and Morrison “breaking up the band.” If Morrison were Mr. Money in the Bank, the two would most likely use the contract in some sort of Slytherin ploy that sees The Miz as the one actually challenging for the WWE Championship.
Ricochet
Ricochet has a lot to be proud of. He is a two-time winner of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s Battle of Los Angeles, a two-time Lucha Underground Champion as Prince Puma, and also an alumnus of Dragon Gate, EVOLVE, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. However, Ricochet’s time in the indies, lucha libre, and Japanese wrestling often work against him, purveying the idea that he is a technical wunderkind with little skill at character work. Like Morrison, his style is high flying and balletic. It served him well on NXT, but since joining the Raw roster. Ricochet has often been a square peg or a victim.
It seems that Ricochet’s answer is to expand his range, and he was a more aggressive competitor in his Money in the Bank 2021 qualifying match against fellow New Japan alumnus Styles. Ricochet qualified for the six-man ladder match. If Ricochet wins the event itself, becoming Mr. Money in the Bank and cashing in on a WWE Championship opportunity would be perhaps the biggest transformation wrought by the contract gimmick since Seth Rollins. Ricochet pitted against Bobby Lashley for the belt would be a contest between brute strength and agility, one that would undoubtedly be a treat for the live crowds that WWE will soon return to performing in front of.
Big E
The opportunity to be Mr. Money in the Bank, able to cash in a WWE Championship title shot at any time, would reinvigorate the momentum of 2021 for Big E.
2020 saw Big E ponder a solo career after Kofi Kingston’s and Xavier Woods’s absence left him the only representative of The New Day on the SmackDown roster. E held his own in a feud with Sheamus, and made the solo break, capturing the Intercontinental Championship from Sami Zayn. The Svengali of sports entertainment, Paul Heyman, sang E’s praises, saying that the IC title was his first step to the WWE Championship.
However, Apollo Crews, with a new, regal gimmick, crashed the party, and took the IC title, terrorizing E and its others contenders, Zayn and Kevin Owens. If, as reports have suggested, E is drafted back to Raw but remains a solo act, becoming Mr. Money in the Bank and having a championship opportunity at his disposal any time, any place puts him not only in Lashley’s crosshairs but as a rival to Kingston, who has been seeking a second title run himself. Maybe there will be tension, but most likely, as when E embarked on his solo career, he, Kingston, and Woods will harness the Power of Positivity and hug it out. A rivalry with Lashley, and a cash-in and title run, will fulfill the potential of his 2020 push.
Money in the Bank 2021 – In Closing
All four of the superstars who have qualified so far are refreshing additions to the WWE championship title race and present the potential to shake up the narrative, addressing complaints about the long stretch that Drew McIntyre has spent in the title picture. The winner of the June 28 Raw triple threat will add more possibilities to the mix.
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