The 2021 Money in the Bank was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 12th annual Money in the Bank event and took place on July 18, 2021, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The event centered on the Money in the Bank ladder match, a multi-person ladder match where the wrestlers compete to retrieve a briefcase hanging above the ring which contains a contract for a guaranteed world championship match at any time within the next year.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to July 2021, WWE had presented its shows behind closed doors, first from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, then moving in August 2020 to a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at three different venues in the U.S. state of Florida, excluding WrestleMania 37 in April 2021, which was the company's first major event to have live ticketed fans since the pandemic began, although to a limited capacity. With declining cases and the availability of vaccines, WWE left the ThunderDome and returned to a live touring schedule in mid-July 2021, beginning with Friday Night SmackDown two days prior to Money in the Bank. As a result, this was the company's first PPV and livestreaming event held with a full capacity crowd and no COVID restrictions. It was also the first such event held outside of Florida since Elimination Chamber in March 2020, and subsequently the first Money in the Bank to take place in the state of Texas. This was also the first Money in the Bank event to livestream on Peacock in the United States after the shutdown of the American version of the WWE Network in April.
Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Edge to retain SmackDown's Universal Championship. Additionally, SmackDown's Big E and Raw's Nikki A.S.H. won the respective men's and women's Money in the Bank ladder matches. In other prominent matches, Bobby Lashley defeated Kofi Kingston to retain Raw's WWE Championship and Charlotte Flair defeated Rhea Ripley to win her record-tying fifth Raw Women's Championship and 13th overall singles championship in the women's division. The event also saw the surprise return of John Cena, appearing for the first time since WrestleMania 36 in April 2020.
This event's Kickoff pre-show is also notable for marking the beginning of The Usos's (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) fifth reign as SmackDown Tag Team Champions. On the pre-show, they defeated The Mysterios (Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio) to win the title, with the reign lasting for 622 days, ending at WrestleMania 39 Night 1 on April 1, 2023. This set the record for both the longest reign in the championship's history and the longest reign for any male tag team championship in company history.
Production Background Money in the Bank is an annual professional wrestling event produced by WWE since 2010, generally held between May and July. It was originally broadcast exclusively via pay-per-view (PPV) before it began simultaneously livestreaming on the WWE Network in 2014. The concept of the event comes from WWE's established Money in the Bank ladder match. In addition to airing on PPV worldwide and via livestreaming on the WWE Network in international markets, the 2021 event was the first Money in the Bank to livestream on Peacock in the United States after the shutdown of the American version of the WWE Network in April.
The 12th Money in the Bank event was initially scheduled for May 16, 2021, however, it switched dates with WrestleMania Backlash and was to take place on June 20 until Hell in a Cell was announced for that date with Money in the Bank then pushed back to July 18, which had originally been the reported date for Extreme Rules. It was also reported that Money in the Bank would be held with live ticketed fans in attendance. Since August 2020, WWE had presented Raw and SmackDown's shows from a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was hosted at three different venues in the U.S. state of Florida. With cases declining and vaccines available to most American citizens, the company announced that they would be leaving the ThunderDome and returning to live touring, starting with a 25-city tour that would begin with the July 16, 2021, episode of Friday Night SmackDown in Houston, Texas. Money in the Bank was in turn announced to take place at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas on July 18, marking WWE's first PPV and livestreaming event held outside of Florida since Elimination Chamber on March 8, 2020, and the first held following the end of the ThunderDome Era, as well as the first Money in the Bank to be held in the state of Texas. It was also the first to be held in July since the 2013 event.
The Money in the Bank ladder match features multiple wrestlers using ladders to retrieve a briefcase hanging above the ring. The briefcase contains a contract that guarantees the winner a match for a world championship at any time within the next year. Male wrestlers competed for a contract to grant them a match for either Raw's WWE Championship or SmackDown's Universal Championship, while female wrestlers competed for a Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship match contract. While the previous year's event had featured a "Corporate Ladder" gimmick, which took place at WWE's headquarters at the time, Titan Towers in Stamford, Connecticut, and had only six competitors in each match due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 event reverted to the standard version of the titular ladder match as well as returning to having eight competitors for both matches, evenly divided between the two brands.
Storylines The event comprised seven matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
In the main event of Night 2 of WrestleMania 37, Roman Reigns defeated Edge and Daniel Bryan in a triple threat match to retain the Universal Championship. On the June 25 episode of SmackDown, Reigns and his special counsel Paul Heyman had a Universal Championship address. Heyman stated that Reigns had defeated all of SmackDown's top contenders and that there was no one left to challenge Reigns. Edge then made a surprise return after a two-month hiatus and attacked Reigns and also took out Jimmy Uso, who had come to Reigns's aid. On Talking Smack the next day, it was revealed that Edge had confronted WWE officials Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville and demanded a one-on-one match against Reigns for the title at Money in the Bank, which he was originally supposed to have at WrestleMania before Bryan worked his way into the match. Pearce then granted him the match. The following week, Edge explained that the loss at WrestleMania affected him mentally, which is why he had taken the past two months off.
Qualifying matches for the men's Money in the Bank ladder match began on the June 21 episode of Raw. Ricochet, John Morrison, and Riddle qualified by defeating AJ Styles, Randy Orton, and Drew McIntyre, respectively. Raw's final spot was determined in a triple threat match the following week, which was originally scheduled to be between Styles, Orton, and McIntyre; however, Orton was unable to compete for unknown reasons. A battle royal was held to fill Orton's spot in the triple threat match. Orton's RK-Bro tag team partner Riddle convinced WWE officials Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville to allow him to compete in the battle royal where if he won, he would represent Orton in the triple threat match. Although Riddle won the battle royal, McIntyre won the triple threat match to earn Raw's final spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match. SmackDown's first spot was filled by Big E, who qualified by defeating Apollo Crews on the June 25 episode of SmackDown. The following week, Kevin Owens qualified by defeating Sami Zayn in a Last Man Standing match, which was a rematch from Hell in a Cell that Zayn had won. SmackDown's last two spots were filled on the July 9 episode: Seth Rollins defeated Cesaro, which was another rematch from Hell in a Cell that Rollins had also won, and King Nakamura defeated Baron Corbin, previously King Corbin before he lost his King of the Ring crown to Shinsuke Nakamura, who took on the king moniker.
Qualifying matches for the women's Money in the Bank ladder match also began on the June 21 episode of Raw. The brand's four participants were determined by two tag team matches in which the members of the winning teams qualified. Asuka and Naomi qualified by defeating the team of Eva Marie and Doudrop (formerly Piper Niven in NXT UK) and later, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, the latter incorporating a superhero gimmick and a new nickname of Nikki A.S.H. (short for Almost a Super Hero), qualified by defeating the team of Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. On the June 25 episode of SmackDown, WWE official Sonya Deville named two-time Money in the Bank winner Carmella as the first of SmackDown's four participants. Liv Morgan, who had been feuding with Carmella and defeated her two weeks earlier, took issue as Carmella did not compete in a qualifier match to earn her spot. Deville then had Morgan face Carmella to prove she deserved to be in the match and Morgan subsequently defeated Carmella; however, Deville did not add her to the ladder match. The following week, Deville named Zelina Vega, who made her return to WWE after her release in November 2020, as the second SmackDown entrant in the match. Morgan again confronted Deville about Vega not having to qualify. She also pointed out the fact that she proved herself by defeating Carmella and was not added, but would prove herself again in a match against Vega. Morgan subsequently defeated Vega, but was still not added. On the July 9 episode, Carmella was removed from the match as she was named as Bayley's replacement in the SmackDown Women's Championship match against Bianca Belair due to Bayley suffering an injury. Morgan once again confronted Deville about her giving Carmella an opportunity despite not earning one; although annoyed at Morgan's interruption, Deville named Morgan as Carmella's replacement in the Money in the Bank ladder match. WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Natalya and Tamina were announced as SmackDown's last two participants on July 12 and July 15, respectively, via Twitter.
On the June 21 episode of Raw, as WWE Champion Bobby Lashley and his manager MVP were celebrating Lashley's win over Drew McIntyre at Hell in a Cell the previous night, they were interrupted by The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods). Kingston reminded Lashley that he had defeated him in a non-title match on the May 17 episode of Raw and that he had also never received a rematch for the title after he lost the championship to Brock Lesnar at SmackDown's 20th Anniversary in October 2019. Kingston then challenged Lashley for the title. Lashley accepted and the match was scheduled for Money in the Bank.
At Hell in a Cell, Charlotte Flair defeated Raw Women's Champion Rhea Ripley by disqualification after Ripley attacked Flair with the top cover of the announce table; however, since titles do not change hands via disqualification unless stipulated, Flair did not win the title. The following night on Raw, Flair claimed she was "proud" of Ripley and told Ripley that she had never seen her as a "strategic champion". WWE official Sonya Deville then scheduled a rematch between the two for the title at Money in the Bank.