The Money in the Bank ladder match is a multi-person ladder match held by the professional wrestling promotion WWE. First performed at WWE's annual WrestleMania event beginning in 2005, a separate Money in the Bank event was established in 2010. The prize of the match is a briefcase containing a contract for a championship match of the winner's choice, which, within WWEs fictional storyline, can be "cashed in" by the holder of the briefcase at any point in the year following their victory. If the contract is not used within a year of winning it, it will be invalid, but this has yet to happen. From its inception until 2017, the match only involved male wrestlers, with the contract being for a world championship match. Beginning with the 2017 Money in the Bank event, women also have the opportunity to compete in such a match, with their prize being a contract for a women's championship match. As of the 2022 event, winners can use the contract on any championship.
The first match was contested in 2005 at WrestleMania 21, after Chris Jericho invented the concept. At the time, it was exclusive to wrestlers of the Raw brand and Edge won the inaugural match. From then until WrestleMania XXVI in March 2010, the Money in the Bank ladder match, now open to all WWE brands, became a WrestleMania mainstay. The 2010 Money in the Bank event saw a second and third Money in the Bank ladder match when the eponymous event debuted that July, with WrestleMania no longer featuring the match. Unlike the matches at WrestleMania, this titular event included two such ladder matches: one each for a contract for a WWE Championship match and a World Heavyweight Championship (2002–2013 version) match, respectively.
Before the establishment of the annual Money in the Bank event, wrestlers were allowed to use the contract to claim a match for any world championship in WWE. After the establishment of the event, the Money in the Bank contracts were specifically aimed at one or the other championship. With the championship unification of the WWE and World Heavyweight titles into the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the 2013 TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs event, there was only a single contract in play. This went into effect beginning with the 2014 Money in the Bank event.
The brand split returned shortly after the 2016 Money in the Bank event along with a new world title. The 2017 event, however, was SmackDown-exclusive and the contract was a match for its world championship, the WWE Championship (formerly WWE World Heavyweight Championship). It also included the first-ever women's Money in the Bank ladder match, with the winner receiving a contract for a SmackDown Women's Championship match. Due to the controversy surrounding the ending of that match, the first non-pay-per-view/livestreaming Money in the Bank ladder match occurred on the June 27 episode of SmackDown. Brand-exclusive pay-per-view and livestreaming events were discontinued the following year, thus the 2018 Money in the Bank event involved both the Raw and SmackDown brands. It had one men's match and one women's match with participants evenly divided between the brands; the respective contracts guaranteed the winner a championship match for the top title of their respective brand, allowing Raw wrestlers (should they win) to cash-in on the Universal Championship or Raw Women's Championship. Beginning with the 2019 Money in the Bank, the respective winners could challenge either brand's champion.
At the 2020 Money in the Bank event, while the rules of the match remained the same, a "Corporate Ladder" gimmick was added on top of the match; both the men's and women's matches, which were held at the same time, took place at WWE's Titan Towers in Stamford, Connecticut, in which the participants began on the ground floor of the building and fought their way to the roof where a ring and ladders were located with the briefcases suspended above the ring; this change was brought about due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The matches returned to their regular format for the 2021 Money in the Bank event. While the contract was originally only for a world championship match, 2022 winner Austin Theory was the first and so far only to cash-in on a non-world championship when he unsuccessfully challenged for the WWE United States Championship.