Cesaro's New Look Should Include A Money In The Bank Briefcase

If done right, the Money in the Bank Ladder match can catapult a wrestler up the card.

In 2014, it did just that. Seth Rollins won the match, worked his way up the card, and then solidified himself as a main eventer by cashing in.

In 2015, Sheamus won, and the victory didn’t get him anywhere. He didn’t even win a qualifying match this year.

With the possible exception of Edge, Rollins’ run with the briefcase was the most successful of all time. If WWE wants to replicate that, there’s a clear choice this year: Cesaro.

Fans would be happy with Cesaro winning, but he’s not most people’s first choice. Every participant has a case to be made for winning—well, besides Alberto Del Rio. But Cesaro is the obvious choice because he would benefit the most from a win.

Dean Ambrose is the favorite to win, given that his former comrades, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, are feuding over the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. It’ll be tough to complain about anything building to a three-way Shield feud, but that’s exactly why Ambrose doesn’t need to win the briefcase. As long as Rollins and/or Reigns are in the title picture, Ambrose will always have a claim to a title shot. He’s already gotten plenty of title shots in the past two years, and he hasn’t dropped so far down the card that he needs to win this match to get more.

Kevin Owens is always a popular candidate for a push, and as a heel, he is inherently a better candidate to carry around the briefcase and sneak in to steal the title. Sami Zayn is the hot new babyface who’s gotten over incredibly quickly on the main roster. However, Owens and Zayn should not be involved in the finish of any multi-man match that they’re both in until they have a proper singles feud.

Chris Jericho has been on one of the best runs of his career as a heel, and his work has certainly been deserving of a run at the top of the card—but that was the case with Kofi Kingston last year, and he’s been doing just fine. Alberto Del Rio has been floundering lately and could use a boost—but that’s what was said about Sheamus last year and it hasn’t helped the Celtic Warrior at all.

Cesaro has been in WWE for four years, putting on great matches with everyone (except, oddly, Rob Van Dam). He got one big win at WrestleMania 30, but that was squandered by the poorly-handled Paul Heyman alliance. Cesaro is one of the most over wrestlers in the company, which is especially impressive given that he hasn’t had many memorable moments on the main roster.

He’s kept his style fresh by adding new moves to his arsenal, like the sharpshooter he adopted from former tag team partner Tyson Kidd. He’s been put over by many legends, including Ric Flair and Mick Foley.

“I think the guy is just so damn good in the ring,” Steve Austin said on a November 2015 episode of his podcast. “Eventually he will put all the pieces together, but [WWE is] not helping him any. He [has] got to put the pieces together to go up on top of the card.”