WWE Money in the Bank, the modern-day heir apparent to WWE’s most prestigious world championships, has emerged over the past 14 years as the most Caucasian and least-diverse championship in all of WWE.
WWE has done a tremendous job protecting the Money in the Bank briefcase with the type of consistently that often evades Vince McMahon when it comes to new concepts. In an interview with Busted Open Radio, AEW’s Chris Jericho recalled a quote from Bret Hart about McMahon’s tendencies to move on from “new toys.”
“Bret Hart said 'Vince plays with his toys until he's bored and then throws them in the corner,’” said Jericho.
Surprisingly, this was not the case with Money in the Bank. In fact, the Money in the Bank briefcase is WWE’s rare old toy that has somehow prevailed as a priority. So much so, that after years of being a featured match at WrestleMania, WWE gave Money in the Bank its own pay-per-view spinoff in 2010. Money in the Bank is like if Toy Story 4 was about a 26-year-old Andy refusing to part ways with Woody.
But as much attention as Money in the Bank gets from McMahon and WWE brass, the highly coveted briefcase has spent nearly its entire existence eluding minorities and people of color. Of the 20 winners, only one—Alberto Del Rio in 2011—has been a minority. All told, Caucasian WWE Superstars are a staggering 21-1 in Money in the Bank matches.
The explanation is simple: Every year since 2005, WWE’s mostly white top officials meet to select whom they feel would make the best candidate as a future world champion. And every year since 2005, the beneficiaries have been mostly white.
Of WWE’s 10 current championships, Money in the Bank—a fake, pre-determined briefcase with no rhyme or reason as to who is qualified to win—is the only championship where less than 10% of the winners have been people of color.
Championship | Total Champions | Champions of Color | Diversity Percentage |
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships | 20 | 6 | 30.00% |
WWE Raw Women's Championship | 7 | 2 | 28.57% |
WWE SmackDown Women's Championship | 7 | 2 | 28.57% |
WWE Women's Tag Team Championships | 4 | 1 | 25.00% |
WWE Intercontinental Championship | 82 | 19 | 23.17% |
WWE United States Championship | 93 | 21 | 22.58% |
WWE Championship | 50 | 10 | 20.00% |
WWE Raw Tag Team Championships | 171 | 34 | 19.88% |
WWE Universal Championship | 6 | 1 | 16.67% |
WWE Money in the Bank | 20 | 1 | 5.00% |
The sportsbooks seem to be on to this infuriating trend with early odds pegging brooding caucasian Drew McIntyre (-150) and interchangeable blonde Mandy Rose (+175) as the favorites in their respective matches. Minorities Mustafa Ali (+1200) and Naomi (+1200) are among the slimmest odds in each field, though Ember Moon (+300) and Andrade (+250) are being given strong chances to ascend as the rare minority Money in the Bank winner.
As an additional silver lining, WWE tends to promote minority Superstars as a PR response to its almost perennial racist scandals. This was particularly notable in 2008 when multiple African-Americans won championships after high-ranking WWE official Michael P.S. Hayes’ used a racial slur against Mark Henry at a WrestleMania 24 after party.
With Lars Sullivan’s ugly history of message board bigotry resurfacing—a history WWE unsuccessfully tried to sweep under the rug and only reacted when it became a major scandal years later—WWE could be compelled to uncharacteristically elevate minorities into prominent positions while under familiar racial scrutiny.