Why WWE Chose Tiffany Stratton To Win The Women's Money In The Bank Match

WWE had Tiffany Stratton planned as the Women's Money in the Bank winner.© NDTV Library

Tiffany Stratton was the plan for the Women's Money in the Bank briefcase all along. WWE had her penciled in as the winner well before the October 10 show in New Orleans, and the plan barely moved in the final weeks. Only one SmackDown match result got changed shortly before the event. The five other women in the ladder match were told the outcome on Thursday, so they went in knowing how it would end. Stratton took the contract for a second time, and WWE's creative path for her pointed toward a possible championship rivalry with Chelsea Green.

WWE Had Tiffany Stratton Planned As The Women's MITB Winner Before The Event

Backstage word is that the finish was never really in doubt. There were “no major changes to Tiffany Stratton's Money in the Bank win in the weeks prior to the show.”

So the plan held through the whole build, right up to the Smoothie King Center, where Stratton beat Jacy Jayne, Lash Legend, Lola Vice, Roxanne Perez and Sol Ruca.

The win made her a two-time winner of the contract, and she became second woman to win the briefcase twice after Carmella. Her first one came in 2024, and she cashed it in on Nia Jax in January 2025.

Because the briefcase lets the holder challenge for a title within a year, a win like this basically sets up the next storyline on its own.

The one thing that did change happened on the October 9 episode of SmackDown, the night before the ladder match. Stratton teamed with Jayne and Legend against Vice, Perez and Ruca, and the original idea was for Stratton's side to lose.

That got flipped. “We're told that as of that day, the result was going to be the opposite.”All six women from that tag match were back in the ladder match the following night, which made the SmackDown finish a pretty direct lead-in.

WWE's Original Plan Had Tiffany Stratton Targeting Chelsea Green's Championship

Longer term, WWE reportedly had Stratton eventually going after Green for the WWE Women's Championship. Their on-screen friendship was still intact after Money in the Bank, and Stratton kept trying to cash in on Women's World Champion Liv Morgan.

The Judgment Day kept breaking those attempts up, so she never got a title match out of it. Green, meanwhile, ended up in the middle of the title picture at Crown Jewel on November 7 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she beat Morgan to win the Women's Crown Jewel Championship.

Stratton first helped Green when The Judgment Day got involved. But the friendship didn't last much longer. She hit Green with the briefcase, cashed in her contract and landed her Prettiest Moonsault Ever to win the WWE Women's Championship for the second time.

It came just moments after Green's Crown Jewel win, and it ended Green's reign at 97 days. Stratton had held the contract for 28 days by then.

So Stratton walked out of Riyadh as champion, not a challenger chasing Green's title like the earlier creative direction had reportedly mapped out.