During the most recent episode of “Talk is Jericho”, Chris Jericho detailed how the idea for the Money in the Bank ladder match came to pass. According to Jericho, it stemmed from several high profile wrestlers not having a program for Wrestlemania 21. Here are the highlights:

On How The Idea Came About:

Wrestlemania 2005… there was a group of guys going into Wrestlemania, all high profile kind of former world champion type guys, who did not have a match for Wrestlemania. Such talents as Edge, Chris Benoit, Kane, myself, maybe RVD, Shelton Benjamin was one of the cats that was in that. And nobody had a program or a match. So, they were trying to think of something for everyone to do. Everyone was coming up with all these dumb ideas. Like one of the ideas was for me, Benoit, and Edge to have a three way submission match. The only way to win would be through submission. That would be kind of boring.

So I came up with the idea of a six man ladder match. So, I took the idea to Brian Gewirtz, who was a good writer at the time and he said ‘What’s at stake?’ I said ‘Why don’t you have a contract where the winner gets a title shot the next night’. Then Brian said ‘Why don’t you make it so you can use it at any time over the following year and you can cash it in at any time’. So we took that to Vince and Vince agreed. Loved the idea. His only concession was the contract had to be in a briefcase.

On Vince Insisting That A Briefcase Be Used:

Knowing how Vince is, maybe he wanted people to actually see it. Rather than just a piece of paper hanging there. You could carry it. You could use it. It was a really cool three way invention of the match, even though Vince’s little thing was just the briefcase, the briefcase has become synonyms with the show. It’s on the poster right now as a matter of fact.

You can listen to the podcast below:

Credit: Talk is Jericho. H/T WrestlingInc.