Classic Match: The First Women’s Money in the Bank, Money in the Bank 2017
RondaRousey.com’s Classic Match series takes a closer look at significant and super cool matches from wrestling history.
The whole point of the Women’s Evolution—spurred on by fans asking WWE to #GiveDivasAChance—was to get to a point where the women wrestlers of WWE would get the same opportunities as the men. That means similar screentime, similar investment in match length and quality, and a chance to wrestle in some of the biggest matches WWE has to offer, the ones women had typically been excluded from.
One of those matches is the Money in the Bank ladder match, where the winner gets a contract for a title shot, typically “cashed in” as a surprise at an opportune moment. At the Money in the Bank pay-per-view in 2017, five women competed for that contract for the first time, resulting in a classic, historic, and controversial match.
As the bell rings, Tamina, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Natalya, and Carmella all stand in a circle, looking up at the briefcase hanging from the rafters. Their championship opportunity sits in that briefcase, and it’s clear that the weight of the moment is hitting them. Each one of them wants to go down in history as the first woman to hold that briefcase, and they definitely want a guaranteed title shot.
The moment of pondering only lasts a few seconds before everyone but Tamina heads to the outside looking for a ladder. A sounds strategy on paper, perhaps, but it allows Tamina to gain control early, as she lays everyone out with dropkicks, keeping them on the outside. That leaves her alone in the ring with a ladder of her own. Luckily for everyone else, Tamina takes way too long deciding what to do, and Charlotte is able to hop back in the ring and lay her out before she can get a ladder set up.
There’s no real back and forth to the rest of the match, not like you’d see in singles competition. It’s pure chaos. Everyone fights in the ring for a while, hitting superkicks and stomps and suplexes, before Tamina once again gains control. She slingshots Natalya into a ladder she’s set up across the turnbuckles and then throws another ladder at a prone Becky Lynch. It’s Charlotte who stops her offense again, slamming her into a ladder, which is followed up by Becky and Natalya holding opposite ends of a ladder and using it to put Tamina on her back and then out of the ring.
When Natalya sends Becky to the outside too, that leaves her alone to be the first to attempt climbing the ladder. I can’t underscore this enough: She takes forever to get up those rungs. For a cat lady, she sure does seem worried about not landing on her feet. Again, Charlotte is able to run interference, slamming Nattie off the ladder with an Electric Chair Drop. Then, Carmella and Charlotte fight to the top and exchange chops and elbows, all for naught as Tamina pushes the ladder over, sending both competitors flying into the ropes.
From there, every single Superstar gets a moment where it feels like they’re about to run away with the victory. Natalya locks Becky in a sharpshooter and then takes out Carmella and Charlotte. Becky fires back by throwing Natalya into the corner and then slamming a ladder into her. Carmella takes out Becky and then climbs the ladder herself before Charlotte stops her and then cleans house with a bunch of boots to the face, finishing the sequence off by spearing Tamina through the ropes.
It’s anyone’s game at this point, but it’s Carmella who has the advantage. She’s been recovering on the outside after getting hit by Charlotte’s boot, and she’s the first back in the ring. This is her moment, she can feel it. She’s halfway up the ladder when Becky catches her, pulls her onto her shoulders, and hits her with a devastating powerbomb. That’s it, that’s the ballgame. There’s nobody even close to being able to stop Becky at this point. So, she climbs the ladder, and the briefcase is within her reach…
Until James Ellsworth, Carmella’s knockoff “Doctor of Thuganomics” lackey decides to get involved. He tips the ladder over, sending Becky flying. He tries to rouse Carmella and get her to climb the ladder, but she’s dazed from the powerbomb because Becky Lynch is “The Man.” So, he climbs the ladder himself and unhooks the briefcase. He tosses it down to Carmella, she hugs it, with tears in her eyes, and the bell rings. The referees deliberate on the outside about the validity of the win, but it stands. Ellsworth announces Carmella as the first ever “Ms. Money in the Bank,” a moment that goes down in history in all of its controversial glory.
You can watch the first ever Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match here.