The 2026 Money in the Bank, also promoted as Money in the Bank: New Orleans, is an upcoming professional wrestling premium live event (PLE) produced by WWE, to be held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It will be the 17th annual Money in the Bank event and will take place on Saturday, October 10, 2026, at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The event is based around the Money in the Bank ladder match in which multiple wrestlers compete to retrieve a briefcase hanging above the ring that contains a contract that guarantees a world championship match of the winner's choosing at any time within the next year.

This will be the first Money in the Bank to be held in October, making it the latest scheduled Money in the Bank in a calendar year, and the first one to be held after SummerSlam, as the event is generally scheduled sometime between WrestleMania and SummerSlam. This will also be the first Money in the Bank to air on the ESPN streaming service in United States.

Production Background

Money in the Bank is an annual premium live event (PLE) produced by WWE since 2010, generally held between May and July. It was originally broadcast exclusively via pay-per-view (PPV) before it began simulcasting on WWE's livestreaming platforms in 2014. Along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, it is considered one of the promotion's five biggest events of the year, referred to as the "Big Five". The concept of the event comes from WWE's established Money in the Bank ladder match.

New Orleans, Louisiana was originally set to host WrestleMania 42 in April 2026, but on May 22, 2025, it was revealed that the city would no longer be hosting the event. This came as part of a larger agreement with New Orleans, in which the city would host a future WrestleMania as well as the 2026 Money in the Bank. The following day, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque confirmed the date for the 17th Money in the Bank as Saturday, August 29, 2026. However, the event's date would be pushed back twice, as on October 22, 2025, WWE announced a new date of Sunday, September 6, 2026, with the venue confirmed as the Smoothie King Center, but on June 8, 2026, WWE revealed that Money in the Bank would instead take place one month later on Saturday, October 10 at the same venue, with Sunday Night's Main Event taking place on September 6, at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. This will be the first Money in the Bank to take place in October, also making it the latest calendar date for the event. Fightful Select reported that the change to October was due to a scheduling conflict with broadcast partners, while Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online said it was more so due to conflicts with WWE's touring dates in September as production trucks could not get to New Orleans in time. As part of Money in the Bank weekend, WWE will have a merchandise store at the Smoothie King Center open from Thursday, October 8 through the end of the PLE itself on Saturday.

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 championship at any time within the next year. The 2026 event will feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions; male wrestlers will compete for a contract to grant them a match for a championship of their choosing, while female wrestlers will compete for a WWE Women's Championship or Women's World Championship match contract.

Broadcast outlets In addition to airing on traditional PPV worldwide, it will be available to livestream on ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, and SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa. This marks the first Money in the Bank to livestream on ESPN in the United States, as WWE's contract with Peacock to air main roster PLEs expired at the conclusion of Clash in Paris in August 2025.

Storylines The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television programs, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.

Qualifying matches for the men's Money in the Bank ladder match consisted of six triple threat matches held across episodes of Raw and SmackDown, with three spots for each brand. The first spot was determined on the September 7 episode of Raw where World Tag Team Champion Bron Breakker defeated Ethan Page and Rey Mysterio. Qualifiers continued on the following episode where Je'Von Evans earned the second spot by defeating World Tag Team Champion Austin Theory and Big Cass. The third spot was determined on that week's SmackDown, where WWE United States Champion Trick Williams defeated Randy Orton and AAA World Cruiserweight Champion Rey Fénix. The fourth spot was determined on the September 21 episode of Raw; originally, Solo Sikoa was set to participate in the match, however, the 946 (Royce Keys, Bronco Nima, and Lucien Price) attacked and abducted Sikoa. Raw General Manager Adam Pearce announced Penta as Sikoa's replacement, who went on to defeat Dominik Mysterio and Dragon Lee to qualify. The fifth spot was determined on that week's SmackDown where CM Punk defeated Gunther and Finn Bálor. The final spot was determined on the following week's SmackDown, where Kevin Owens defeated Cody Rhodes and Johnny Gargano.

Qualifying matches for the women's Money in the Bank ladder match consisted of six triple threat matches held across episodes of Raw and SmackDown, with three spots for each brand. The first spot was determined on the September 7 episode of Raw where Sol Ruca defeated Lyra Valkyria and Maxxine Dupri. Qualifiers continued on the following episode where Lola Vice earned the second spot by defeating NXT Women's Champion Kelani Jordan and WWE Women's Intercontinental Champion Raquel Rodriguez. The third spot was determined on that week's SmackDown, where WWE Women's United States Champion Jacy Jayne defeated Alexa Bliss and Jade Cargill. The fourth spot was determined on the September 21 episode of Raw where Roxanne Perez defeated Iyo Sky and AAA Reina de Reinas Champion La Catalina. The fifth spot was determined on that week's SmackDown where Lash Legend defeated Charlotte Flair and Giulia. The final spot was determined on the following week's SmackDown where Tiffany Stratton defeated Candice LeRae and Tatum Paxley.

On the August 3 episode of Raw, as Roman Reigns celebrated his successful World Heavyweight Championship defense at SummerSlam, he was interrupted by LA Knight who wanted a title opportunity. Reigns denied Knight's challenge and stated that he is sick of giving opportunities to non-deserving people. Later that night, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide General Manager Rey Mysterio proposed something to Reigns, which was later announced as a tournament where the winner would face Reigns for the title on the September 14 episode of Raw in Mexico City. Penta won the tournament, however at the show, Reigns retained the title. Following the match and after Raw went off air, Knight came to the ring and attacked Reigns with a BFT. Reigns subsequently accepted to face Knight for the title at Money in the Bank and the match was made official.

After interrupting a match on the August 3 episode of Raw, Women's World Champion Liv Morgan was confronted by a returning Becky Lynch, who wanted a shot at the title, turning face in the process. Stephanie Vaquer returned afterwards and attacked Morgan in the ring before having a staredown with Lynch, also signaling her intentions for the title. On the September 7 episode, Morgan retained the title against Vaquer, but five days later at Night 4 of WWE's South America Live Tour, Vaquer defeated Morgan to win the title in a match that featured Lynch as the special guest referee. On the October 5 episode of Raw, Lynch and Morgan fought to a no-contest after Vaquer attacked them. Later that night, Vaquer demanded to defend the title against Lynch and Morgan in a triple threat match at Money in the Bank, and Raw General Manager Adam Pearce made the match official.

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