MGP: No, WWE did not waste the 2024 Men’s MITB briefcase

Welcome to another edition of the ‘Monday Gorilla Position’! A weekly column here at Cageside Seats that dissects the latest shows and reports in the world of WWE & AEW. In addition to interviews with your favorite professional wrestlers.

So... loyal Monday Gorilla Position readers. What do you wanna talk about?

There’s no shortage of material I could shine my weekly spotlight on following Money in the Bank and NXT Heatwave this past weekend.

Let’s start with John Cena, who surprised the Toronto crowd and every WWE fan watching across the globe Saturday night by announcing his retirement.

No kayfabe to be found here. Cena made it quite clear in both his in-ring promo and the post-show media scrum that he’s hanging up the jorts for good — but not before one final farewell tour.

2025 will be Cena’s last year as an active competitor in WWE with dozens of dates scheduled all the way through December, including matches at both Royal Rumble in Indianapolis and WrestleMania in Las Vegas.

Many words will be written about the ‘Greatest of All Time’ over the next several months. Those pieces will cover what he’s meant to the business, who his final opponents should be and whether or not he should have one more run with the WWE Championship.

I’ll save my thoughts for one of those pieces.

Sami Zayn stunned the world with another spectacular upset this weekend. This time retaining his Intercontinental Championship over Bron Breakker, an incredibly impressive athlete who will be a champion in WWE sooner rather than later.

The fact that so many people were convinced Breakker was just going to run roughshod through Zayn Saturday night is a testament to how much the fans have bought in over the last few months.

It’s easy to get swept up in the hype and potential of someone so talented, especially a legacy performer who has all the best attributes of his Hall of Fame father and uncle. It’s also easy to forget that Breakker is only 26 years old. His time will come.

Perhaps it’s also time WWE flips the narrative with it’s reigning Intercontinental Champion. How much longer can Sami Zayn be considered the ultimate underdog with the streak of victories he’s put together since April?

If hotshotting someone a championship is more your speed, don’t worry, WWE has you covered there as well. Ethan Page is the new NXT Champion after competing in just his fourth match since joining the company.

Can’t help but be thrilled for the guy who’s finally getting the proper chance to showcase his talents. That’s not a shot at AEW, by the way. There are underutilized wrestlers in every company. There’s only so much TV time. It’s up to each promotion to go with the talent they believe in.

Ethan Page is now in the best position possible and I believe the next few months in NXT are going to be very exciting.

Big E said it best on the Money in the Bank post-show. Jacob Fatu is a PROBLEM. The newest member of the Bloodline was a stone cold killer in Saturday’s main event. Far exceeding even lofty expectations and managing to shine against three of the top stars in WWE. While also helping Solo Sikoa become only the fourth person to pin Cody Rhodes since he returned to WWE at WrestleMania 38.

A necessary victory to line-up the main event at this year’s SummerSlam, where I expect Roman Reigns to make his Earth shattering return to television to kick the next Bloodline Civil War into full gear.

Let’s focus though on the reason many tuned into the show this Saturday night — the Men’s and Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Matches.

Every single woman in that ladder match should be on Raw tonight to take a bow for their efforts. They laid everything on the line for the sake of our entertainment.

The match wasn’t always pretty, but the risk-to-reward ratio paid off in the end. Highlighted by an insane Michinoku Driver from IYO SKY to Zoey Stark onto a ladder bridge and capped off by Chelsea Green’s freefall through a double-table set-up.

WWE could have chosen any one of those women to walk away the winner and I don’t think many would have complained (Oh, who am I kidding?), but in the end it was Tiffany Stratton’s time.

After shoving Chelsea off the top of the ladder and through the tables on the floor below, the former NXT Women’s Champion took a major step toward winning her first main roster World Title by securing the briefcase.

Tiffany’s victory creates a very interesting dynamic with her new bestie, Nia Jax, who’s set to face Bayley for the WWE Women’s Championship at SummerSlam roughly four weeks from now by virtue of winning the Queen of the Ring tournament.

How long Stratton holds onto the briefcase before deciding to cash-in is going to be a focal point moving forward. Historically, save for Carmella, the ladies do not wait long at all before they take their one shot at glory — with a 100 percent success rate thus far.

Ms. Money in the Bank is due for a lengthy run and that could be in the works considering the Men’s briefcase was already won and spent before the women even made their entrances on Saturday.

Drew McIntyre held onto his guaranteed title opportunity for 1 hour and 25 minutes before he attempted to win back the World Heavyweight Championship in the exact same fashion that he lost it at WrestleMania XL.

Just like that night in Philadelphia, CM Punk would emerge to attack the Scottish Warrior. Throttling McIntyre with a steal chair repeatedly before bashing his head in with the very belt that Drew so dearly covets. The interference allowed Damian Priest to squeak out the victory and keep his World Title run alive for — at least — a little while longer.

As you can imagine, this was a booking decision that garnered mixed reviews. And it’s important to note that everyone is entitled to feel however they like about how a match is booked, but if you’ll indulge me for one moment I have something that needs to be said.

No, WWE did not waste the Men’s Money in the Bank contract.

Not every briefcase winner can, nor should they, go on to capture the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship.

The argument of WWE needing to use the briefcase to elevate someone is rational and one that I’ve been on the side of in the past. How soon we forget that the company just did that with Damian Priest.

The Judgment Day leader waited months before cashing in his golden ticket successfully at the biggest show of the year. You can’t ask for more than that. If WWE did that every single year, it would become formulaic.

As long as a failed cash-in is done in an effective way — and with purpose — then it’s not a waste of the contract.

What the nearly 20,000 fans at Scotiabank Arena witnessed Saturday was far from an Austin Theory or Baron Corbin situation.

McIntyre told everyone what he was going to do and the mere possibility of his interference added a wrinkle to the story being told during the World Heavyweight Championship match. Both Damian Priest and Seth Rollins were constantly looking over their shoulder waiting for the laser-focused Drew McIntyre to hit the ring.

When he finally did, CM Punk was not far behind.

McIntyre was unhinged after getting screwed over again by CM Punk, interrupting the post-show panel and assaulting Raw General Manager Adam Pearce in the process of seeking revenge against the self-proclaimed “Best in the World.”

The icing on the cake for Punk was that his interference also kept the World Heavyweight Championship away from Seth Rollins. That marks a potential starting-off point for the rivalry fans were robbed of this past WrestleMania season when Punk tore his triceps.

Nearly everyone is WWE has lauded Punk’s presence since he returned to the company last November. He’s been heralded as a changed man by everyone... except the two men who were the most heated when he shocked the world by appearing at Survivor Series in Chicago — Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre.

There’s also Wade Barrett, but I digress.

With Rollins failing to capture the WHC last Saturday, he can now no longer challenge for the title while Damian Priest is the Champion — and he has CM Punk to blame for that.

The build to WrestleMania 41 is on.

Consideration also has to be given to the Men’s World Title landscape. Putting the belt on Drew McIntyre when King of the Ring GUNTHER already has a guaranteed shot at SummerSlam would not have made sense, unless Punk is still weeks away from getting cleared and could potentially miss the show.

Punk could have screwed Drew in Cleveland, but then that cheapens GUNTHER’s victory and saddles McIntyre with another abbreviated title reign.

Looking at the other five competitors in the match, would any of them likely cash-in successfully?

Eh... probably not.

It would be down right shocking to see Cody Rhodes drop the WWE Championship before WrestleMania 41, and if he doesn’t leave Las Vegas with the gold, then The Rock will.

Carmelo Hayes may be HIM, but he’s not beating the Rock next year, or Cody Rhodes for that matter. Same goes for LA Knight, no matter how much fans would want to witness a promo exchange between the Great One and the Megastar. Knight seems destined to win the U.S. Championship from Logan Paul anyway, maybe as soon as SummerSlam.

Jey Uso could have been a candidate to win the World Title by beating Priest, especially when Judgment Day finally implodes, but not GUNTHER.

The reigning King of the Ring is about to go on a long run with the World Heavyweight Championship after he wins it in Cleveland. If he doesn’t, I may feel differently about this decision.

Chad Gable would have made a ton of sense as someone to attempt a cash-in on the Ring General, especially if the Creeds had helped him secure the briefcase to begin their long-anticipated alliance. But ultimately I think the right call was made to have McIntyre win it and quickly squander it.

The move keeps it from becoming an obstacle to overcome down the road, and I say that knowing full well the winner has a year to cash it in.

Using an analogy from the recent WrestleMania documentary, Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque loves to lock in his GPS coordinates as early as he can. It’s entirely possible he doesn’t envision any of those competitors winning a World Championship within the next 12 months, even if someone like an Andrade has future WWE Champion written all over him.

WWE was successful in using the briefcase to create some layered storytelling this year. Where they failed was in the execution.

It almost felt like the company was trying to accomplish too much with one booking decision. Until he’s blinded by rage, Drew McIntyre comes off as one of the smartest wrestlers in all of WWE.

Why would he choose a triple threat match over waiting for a one-on-one opportunity? Was it arrogance? Did he really think he took care of Punk for good? Did he want to eliminate the possibility of a disqualification? If so, why didn’t he come down to the ring swinging a chair like his name was Phil Brooks?

The most egregious error of the entire match, botched three-count aside, was not giving Priest a much-needed clean title defense.

It’s very hard to buy into a first-time Champion, especially one who used the MITB briefcase to win it in the first place, if he consistently requires help to retain the title. Damian really needed a marquee victory ahead of his showdown with GUNTHER.

There’s plenty of decisions to pick apart, analyze and question from this past weekend. The way the Men’s Money in the Bank briefcase was utilized isn’t a concern for me.

Although, I hold the right to change my mind a few weeks down the road.

You can follow Rick Ucchino on X/Twitter and stay tuned for more in depth interviews with WWE and AEW talent here on Cageside Seats.