The Money in the Bank cash-in is one if the most exciting moments of the year in WWE. One minute the current champion is standing triumphantly with the belt, the next minute they're flat on their back and the holder of the Money in the Bank briefcase rushes to the ring with a referee. A few minutes later, a new World Champion is being crowned seemingly out of nowhere.

What's almost forgotten is that the Money in the Bank contract wasn't originally supposed to have surprise cash-ins. The concept was put together on the fly by WWE in order to have a multi-man ladder match at WrestleMania 21. When Edge won the inaugural ladder match, it was assumed that he would announce his title match in advance. However, the Rated-R Superstar had better plans and recognized the contract language of "anytime and anywhere." After 9 months of waiting to the point where some forgot he held the briefcase, Edge cashed in on WWE champion John Cena immediately after Cena defended the belt in a grueling Elimination Chamber match at New Year's Revolution. Edge took advantage of the weary Cena and won his first WWE title in just a few minutes. The shock of that surprise cash-in lives on as an iconic moment in WWE history and made Edge a legend.

RELATED: WWE: Why Money in the Bank Should Be Cancelled (for non-COVID Reasons)

Since then, the surprise Money in the Bank cash-in has become the norm and the rush of adrenaline it gives audiences has hardly wavered. But, now should be the time for the WWE to finally retire the trope. In the past fifteen years, the WWE has come up with nearly every scenario they could to pull off a surprise cash-in, and it has set a dangerous precedent of crowning a new World Champion almost every time whether they're deserving or not.

The new standard for the Money in the Bank contract should have more detailed language. Instead of the contract stating "anytime, anywhere for a full year," what if it stated the contract holder could challenge for a title "anytime, anywhere for a year with the champion being given 24 hour notice," or possibly even a notice of just one hour? By adjusting the contract language, WWE can build an entire show around the cash-in. That way, even if the challenger loses the match, they're nowhere near as humiliated as they would have been if they tried and failed the old way.

While the surprise cash-in has worked well in making borderline main eventers into top stars, it's also made champions out of some who weren't ready  for the spotlight and never got back into the main event picture afterwards. Wrestlers like Jack Swagger, The Miz, and Alberto Del Rio became champions for the first time thanks to the Money in the Bank contract, but they each peaked too early and didn't stay on top for long.

The WWE handing World Title reigns to wrestlers who aren't on that level yet also dampens the value of the title. Even Daniel Bryan and CM Punk both became World Champions with the briefcase before they truly became megastars. The World Heavyweight championship that was once the WWE's top title in the mid-2000s suffered the most from all of the Money in the Bank cash-ins. By the time the big gold belt was unified with the WWE championship in 2013, that title had become a glorified mid-card title, and the surprise Money in the Bank cash-ins contributed to it.

RELATED: Reworked Money in the Bank Matches to Take Place at WWE Headquarters

In it's fifteen year history, it has been extremely rare for the contract to be cashed in with advance notice. In it's second year of existence, Rob Van Dam was the first babyface with the briefcase and decided to announce he was cashing in on WWE Champion John Cena in advance. RVD took advantage of the "anywhere" part of the contract and decided to have the match take place in the Hammerstein ballroom during ECW's second annual One Night Stand pay-per-view. To say that RVD had home-field advantage is an understatement, as Cena was verbally assaulted by the hostile ECW crowd and lost the title under the Extreme Rules stipulation (along with an assist from Edge.)

Six years later, John Cena, being the noble wrestler that he is, decided to announce his cash-in on CM Punk a week in advance for the 1000th episode of RAW. Interference by The Big Show caused a DQ finish to that match, but The Rock getting involved led to a shocking attack by CM Punk. Punk's heel turn kicked off a storyline that lasted throughout the rest of 2012 and early 2013, thanks to that initial John Cena cash-in on RAW 1000. Those two examples show how interesting things can get if cashing in the contract with notice became the new norm.

The last great surprise cash-in occurred five years ago at WrestleMania 31 when Seth Rollins exercised his contract during the main event between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. It was the first time the contract was cashed-in in the middle of a title match, turning it into a triple threat match which Rollins won. Cashing in during the main event of WrestleMania is the best possible way a surprise cash in can go, and thus it should be retired. Although the Money in the Bank ladder match has worked brilliantly and grown from being a WrestleMania tradition to becoming its own Pay-Per-View, it needs to change things up in order to last. Adding this small but important twist should help to keep the gimmick fresh and position it better to last for another fifteen years.

KEEP READING: WWE Money in the Bank: The History of WWE's Most Exciting Ladder Match