WWE Money in the Bank 2016: MITB Ladder Match full match preview

Money in the Bank Ladder Match

Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro vs. Alberto Del Rio

You know the drill. A lot of dudes are going to fight each other with ladders in an attempt to grab the Money in the Bank (MITB) briefcase, which virtually guarantees that the holder will be WWE Champion at some point in the next year (unless your name is Damien Sandow).

The specific story here is that each man won a grueling television match to qualify for this bout, while Dean Ambrose intends to crash the main event match later in the night and take the championship from one of his former brothers.

With that out of the way, it’s time to take a look at each man’s probability of victory.

Sami Zayn - defeated Sheamus to qualify - 1% chance to win

Sami is the underdog from the underground, or so I'm told. That awkward tagline doesn’t speak well for his chances to win this match, because how can a guy who is marketed as an underdog get such a huge win like this early on in his WWE main roster career?

Zayn’s win over Cesaro on Raw last week was likely a consolation prize with full knowledge that he won’t be the guy who walks away with the MITB briefcase.

Alberto Del Rio - defeated Zack Ryder to qualify - 2% chance to win

I just don’t see the case for Del Rio as the winner. There are three heels in this match, and Del Rio has been the least pushed of the three in 2016. Del Rio is also a former MITB winner, so he has already been there and done that; he doesn’t seem to be the kind of huge star that would get multiple runs with the briefcase.

Furthermore this is supposedly the new era, and Del Rio winning the briefcase probably sends the new era movement back several steps. It just seems like an uphill battle for the former Mex-American.

Other - 3% chance to win

The original hype for this ladder match featured 7 spots, yet there are only 6 men currently advertised. Therefore it wouldn’t be crazy at all to see a mystery guy thrown in at the last second.

Maybe Bray Wyatt shows up fully intending to keep Roman Reigns from winning the match again this year, and then simply joins the match as a participant once he realizes that Reigns has bigger fish to fry on this night.

Maybe Neville shows up because what would a ladder match be without a guy who can thrill with unbelievable jumping prowess?

Perhaps Big Show comes out to explain to Kevin Owens why Alberto Del Rio attacked him last week on Raw, only to find himself added to the match because it’s been far too long since we've seen the patented Big Show ladder.

A mystery guy like Neville or Big Show probably won't win this match, but it's at least possible that a returning Bray Wyatt or Randy Orton shows up and pulls off the victory, out of nowhere.

Chris Jericho - defeated Apollo Crews to qualify - 6% chance to win

Drink it in, man. Chris Jericho is the guy who created this match; he may have even won one of these depending on whose history book you are reading from.

Jericho has been one of the most emphasized heels on the roster over these last few months. His whining self-centered troll act has pretty much alienated him from everyone else in the ring, including his former tag partner in JerichKO.

WWE occasionally does let a veteran win an accolade that has always eluded them for years, so perhaps 2016 is Jericho’s year to finally nab the briefcase.

But can you really see Chris Jericho as the WWE Champion at some point in the next year? It’s certainly possible, and a brand split with two world champions probably increases the odds. But it still doesn't seem like a path that WWE will choose.

The truth is that I’m probably a stupid idiot for thinking that Y2J only has a six percent chance to win.

Cesaro - defeated The Miz to qualify - 19% chance to win

Cesaro has yet to win a match on PPV since he returned to WWE on the night after WrestleMania 32. The fact that WWE did not give him an Intercontinental Championship win over The Miz on either of the last two pay-per-view (PPV) events probably means that they won’t give him an even bigger prize at Money in the Bank 2016.

However, his chances are better than Jericho and Del Rio because a fresh push for Cesaro feels more in line for the new era storyline. And unlike Sami Zayn, Cesaro feels like a guy who would be a more believable fit as WWE Champion some time in the next year.

We know Cesaro can deliver the goods in the ring at an elite level. He can achieve great things in WWE if the machine gets behind him. And maybe the machine is finally behind him but they’ve just been waiting for this PPV to carry through on the start of a massive push for the Swiss Superman.

Or maybe Cesaro just loses again on PPV, as he has done for pretty much his entire WWE career. Yeah, that’s probably the most likely outcome.

Dean Ambrose - defeated Dolph Ziggler to qualify - 31% chance to win

Dean Ambrose has been the most heavily teased candidate to win this match. WWE is probably going to extend the Reigns/Rollins feud across multiple PPV events, and one effective way to do that is by inserting Ambrose into the mix as the MITB briefcase holder. Fans have been eagerly anticipating a Shield triple threat match for two years now.

But the obviousness of an Ambrose victory was teased a little too heavily on Raw. He dispatched his former Shield brethren with ease, staring up at the briefcase. Stephanie McMahon even planted the seeds of an Ambrose heel turn by telling him that hate can be beneficial if you know how to direct it. And we know that the MITB gimmick is generally more suited for heel winners. Put all these factors together and it seems a little too obvious that Ambrose is going to win.

We all knew Roman Reigns was going to win the MITB briefcase last year until he didn’t. I think Ambrose fits into a similar mold this year. He is the obvious winner, and so his chances are relatively good compared to the pack. But don’t be surprised if he just falls short.

Kevin Owens - defeated AJ Styles to qualify - 38% chance to win

Kevin Owens has been a staple of WWE PPV for over a year now. His feud with Cena last year showed that he can hang at the main event level, and after spending the better part of a year in mid-card feuds with Ziggler, Ambrose, and Ryback, it would be a natural progression for Owens to win the MITB briefcase and re-insert himself back into main event level feuds with the likes of Reigns, Rollins, Cena, and Styles.

One thing that stands out to me on the build to this PPV is that Owens has not received a win in a singles match against any of the other 5 men since he qualified for the ladder match back on May 23rd.

In that time span, Ambrose has defeated both Owens and Jericho in singles matches on Raw. Zayn defeated Cesaro. Del Rio beat Zayn. Cesaro beat Jericho. Jericho beat Ambrose on an episode of Smackdown.

Each of those wins were accompanied with the commentators hyping how much momentum this gives the victorious superstar on the road to the ladder match. But Owens hasn’t really had that moment. He has been successful in a couple of tag team matches, including this past week on Raw against Lucha Dragons. But KO ended that segment laid out by Del Rio. The bottom line is that Owens isn't a guy with boundless momentum as the big match looms on the horizon.

This tells me that WWE has planned Owens to be the winner of the ladder match, and so they decided that they needed to create the mirage that the other 5 guys all had a reasonable chance to win by giving them signature victories along the way.

Owens hasn’t received that signature victory over the last three weeks because the plan all along has probably been for him to instead get it at Money in the Bank 2016.

I’m 38% sure of it.

Who are you banking on, Cagesiders?

Tune into Money in the Bank 2016 and keep it here on Cageside Seats to see which man becomes the next ‘Mr. Money in the Bank'!