WWE Money in the Bank 2017 Ladder Matches' Best and Worst Possible Outcomes
One of the most important matches of the year in WWE is the Money in the Bank ladder match where the winner receives an almost guaranteed free pass into a championship reign within the next 12 months.
This year, for the first time ever, the pay-per-view will be limited to the SmackDown brand, which is a definite shame considering how many people on Raw would benefit from having a shot at the gimmick.
However, to compensate for that, there will be another first-time ever occurrence as a second briefcase and ladder match will be on the card where the women's division will be represented.
Like any Money in the Bank scenario, there are multiple options of the winners for each match along with a nearly incalculable number of possible ways the eventual cash-ins will pan out over the course of the next year.
Still, despite not knowing exactly what WWE has planned for the future, a few ideas just stand out as being potentially amazing or awful.
With that being said, let's take a look at some of the best and the worst possible outcomes for this year's two Money in the Bank ladder matches.
Worst Possible Outcomes for Women's Ladder Match
First things first, whether it's the men's or the women's matches, the absolute worst case scenario is for a cash-in to happen too quickly and for that person to lose their title shot.
This is magnified so much more when it comes to the women's match, though, as this is the first time the women's division is able to take part in this type of gimmick.
Efforts like this are what helps legitimize the female wrestling talent as being more equal with the males and any time they are set up to fail and look like they can't get the job done in comparison, they take two steps back.
No matter who takes the briefcase, she absolutely cannot fail to win her cash-in, especially if it's too soon.
This will just come off as impatience to get this Money in the Bank title shot out of the way so they can return to the status quo and the loser who can't capitalize on beating a champion when they're down will look terribly incapable.
This is an opportunity to do something different with the SmackDown Women's Championship and to do that would be an absolute waste.
As far as individual winners go, the worst option is Charlotte Flair, which sounds like insanity, but there are two reasons why.
Not only would her win and her eventual title win be completely predictable, since she is always the apple of the creative team's eyes, but it would also be retreading on familiar ground.
Charlotte has held the title numerous times and done the same exact thing every time she's been champion.
For her to just repeat this and the only difference is that she won the belt by cashing in a briefcase instead of getting a normal title match wouldn't feel like it was something different by any means.
As a runner-up for bad options goes, the same thing can be said about Becky Lynch if WWE chose to have her cash in her title shot for a later date well in advance to maintain her babyface status.
The fun in this gimmick is not knowing when someone will win a title and booking a match for another night kills all that excitement.
Best Possible Outcomes for Women's Ladder Match
Looking on the brighter side of things, as evidenced by the cheerier picture above, there are some great opportunities given the group for the women's ladder match.
One such case is to go with Carmella, who at this point should be the one everyone is watching out for.
Ladder matches are great for giving someone a victory where they may not necessarily have been booked to win the fight if it were a normal pinfall and submission style match.
It gives the losers the ability to save face because they didn't lose by being beaten in a humiliating way, but rather, they just couldn't climb a ladder quick enough.
Carmella has the least experience out of the five competitors and she has the most left to learn, but she's the most boisterous character of the bunch who would do wonders being able to lord this over the division.
Knowing she has a future title shot would ramp up the level of obnoxiousness she exudes and she even has a valet in James Ellsworth to carry around the briefcase for her!
As a backup option, Tamina would be an interesting choice as she's never been given the chance to have a run with the title despite being in the company for seven years.
This would help legitimize her career and bring a level of credibility to her that is missing while also providing a fun feud for those who know about Naomi and Tamina's familial connection through The Usos.
Worst Possible Outcomes for Men's Ladder Match
With 17 previous editions, we've seen it all in regards to the standard Money in the Bank match.
Rob Van Dam cashed his in well in advance, CM Punk turned heel on Jeff Hardy, Edge stole Mr. Kennedy's title shot and dethroned The Undertaker and two times, it was even cashed in the very same night it was won.
What goes down as the worst cash-in to date, though, was Damien Sandow's, when he was unsuccessful in defeating John Cena and just as with the women's match, the worst choice for WWE to make is to build this up to become nothing.
Outside of that, there are a few other mistakes that can be made, depending on what the plans are for the future of the WWE Championship.
Giving it to AJ Styles, Sami Zayn or Shinsuke Nakamura just to have any of them ask for a title match at SummerSlam against someone is defeating the purpose of the spontaneous title change.
It's also a mistake to give the briefcase to Kevin Owens since he's the United States champion and that's plenty enough responsibility to take on.
Winning the Money in the Bank would give him two accolades to juggle and one of them would inevitably fall under the radar. Alternatively, everyone would be waiting for him to drop the midcard title so he could move up to the main event again.
By far the worst option, though, is to put it on Nakamura and hit the fast forward button on his career.
The King of Strong Style is still relatively new on the roster even to people who followed him in NXT as he only joined the company a little over a year ago.
People who are only familiar with him on SmackDown have only seen him wrestle a handful of times and cut maybe two promos and for him to go straight to being a world champion will come off as another person being shoved down everyone's throats.
Nakamura can take a slower path, winning the United States Championship and wrestling in the upper-midcard for the rest of the year before building up to an important match at WrestleMania which then sets him up to be a world title contender by this time in 2018.
Rushing to the finish line rarely works in WWE and the benefits of having the WWE Championship on Nakamura in the next 12 months don't outweigh the risk of potentially damaging his character and depriving fans of the slow burn.
Best Possible Outcomes for Men's Ladder Match
Thankfully, as with the women's ladder match, the crop of men competing for this year's briefcase are an incredibly solid bunch.
As long as the path to the title is done well, any of these men holding the WWE Championship in the next year can be a good thing.
Something that stands out as a good twist for later in the year is if Randy Orton wins the title back from Jinder Mahal and there's a plan in motion to turn AJ Styles heel down the line, The Phenomenal One could cash in on The Viper around Survivor Series.
That would not only set up a very solid feud, but it would give Styles a ton of momentum as a refreshed heel to go up against a babyface like Shinsuke Nakamura, if WWE is intent on pushing the latter to that level at that point.
Even if Styles turning heel was not in the cards, him cashing in as a babyface to dethrone a heel would still be met with applause as it's doubtful fans would be disappointed to see him hold the WWE Championship at any point, generally speaking.
Alternatively, this could be a good opportunity to justify Dolph Ziggler's claims that he's better than people give him credit for as he seems to be very low on the radar as being a possible winner.
If nobody had faith that he could win it for a second time and he proves them wrong, he has something to gloat about for months, wherein he could also be the one to take the belt from someone like Orton or whomever takes it from Jinder Mahal.
A feud between Orton and Ziggler could be fun for a decent stretch toward the fall months and The Showoff could then drop it to Styles or whichever babyface WWE wants to headline WrestleMania.
What do you think are the best and the worst case scenarios for this year's Money in the Bank matches? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below to sound off with your opinion!
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