Money in the Bank 2026 is a booking disaster waiting to happen

The mid-card malaise is killing the hype

We are just weeks away from Money in the Bank 2026 in Las Vegas, and the card looks like the creative team spent their budget on caffeine and bad ideas. The obsession with cramming eight people into a ladder match has officially jumped the shark. It feels less like a hunt for opportunity and more like a chaotic spot-fest designed to mask the lack of actual storylines.

Ranking these matches is a fool's errand, but here we are. The opening bout for the kickoff slot featuring the tag division feels like a filler episode of a long-canceled sitcom. We have seen these pairings move back and forth for months with no real stakes. It is a lethargic start that does nothing but give the beer lines time to clear out while the fans scramble to find their seats.

The women's ladder match problem

Let’s talk about the women's ladder match. The talent involved is stellar, but the booking is pure incompetence. You have six competitors who have zero history with one another, forced into a high-risk scenario that requires absolute precision.

We saw this same issue when the company tried to force chemistry in that recent experiment with spatial reasoning that failed to hit the mark. When you prioritize the spectacle of the ladder over the narrative of the feud, you get a beautiful mess that nobody remembers by Tuesday. If you check the current betting lines, it is clear the decision makers have no idea who is actually going over, which usually results in a flat finish where someone just happens to reach up and grab the case while everyone else naps on the mat.

Main event desperation

The men’s heavyweight ladder match is carrying the entire weight of this show on its back. If this ends in a dusty finish, I am officially done with the PLE cycle until Survivor Series. We have enough legitimate main eventers in this pool to make a solid feud, but instead, they are throwing them into a blender of aluminum and ego.

The fans expect a brutal payoff, but the production team is notoriously cautious with these gimmicks. We probably won’t see anything past a standard powerbomb through a table at the 14 minute mark. It is predictable, safe, and entirely lacking the edge that made the 2011 version an all-time classic. If the goal was to keep everyone healthy for the upcoming World Cup madness in nine days, they could have just done a standard singles match and saved us the headache.

What the booking team missed

The glaring hole in the center of this card is the lack of a true grudge match. Everything feels contractual. There is no blood, no real animosity, and certainly no reason to pay the premium ticket price unless you happen to live in Vegas and have a surplus of disposable income.

Compare this to the golden eras where the case was just a secondary prop in a much darker, nastier story. Today, it is treated like a shiny toy. They need to stop focusing on the verticality of the ladder and start focusing on the horizontal connections between the people climbing it. If you aren't building a story that ends the moment the briefcase is unhooked, you have wasted every single bump taken during the broadcast.

If the promotion wants to stay relevant, they need to stop relying on the gimmick to sell the show. The fans are smarter than they were a decade ago. We track the work rate, the psychology, and the narrative beats, and this current card gets an F for effort on all three counts. Unless someone takes a bump that defies the laws of physics, this entire event is destined to fade into the memory hole by the time the next weekly show airs.

The creative direction feels like it was written by someone who has never watched an hour of professional wrestling in their life. You have the personnel, you have the venue, and you have the history, yet you deliver a product that feels smaller than the sum of its parts. Perhaps leadership should take a long look in the mirror before the next cycle starts, because burning goodwill with the fanbase is a fast track to irrelevance.

The reality is that we are paying to see a glorified trade show. Everyone is performing their spots, hitting their marks, and hoping for a paycheck. It’s hard to get invested when the participants themselves look like they are just waiting for the bell to ring and the travel itinerary to kick in. Bring back the stakes, bring back the heat, and stop treating the audience like they won’t notice the lack of effort.