Predicting When Randy Orton and Damien Sandow Will Cash in Their MITB Contracts

Money in the Bank this past Sunday saw perhaps the most surprising briefcase winners to date: Randy Orton and Damien Sandow.  While Orton needed a shot in the arm, at least a few of his opponents had ready-made scenarios if they won:

• CM Punk, who has already had two surprise cash-in title wins, could have announced a WrestleMania cash-in to continue to slow burn story of him wanting to be in the "real" 'Mania main event.
• Daniel Bryan could have cashed in to set up the SummerSlam main event that everyone knew was coming.
• Rob Van Dam has the "wildcard" aura of being a returning superstar.  Plus, while he has won Money in the Bank before, a second win would be fresh since he announced his cash-in in advance to set up his One Night Stand '06 main event with John Cena.

As for Sandow:

• His match was seemingly even harder to predict, with the match consisting entirely of rising stars.  If one had to guess, Dean Ambrose—currently the the most pushed of the seven wrestlers—seemed like the closest thing to a favorite.
• He has mostly been a comedy character up to this point, only getting a little bit of an edge towards the end of his feud with Sheamus.

With that out of the way, obviously the next topic on the agenda is when they'll cash in their contracts.

For Orton, it seems obvious he'd do something to facilitate a heel turn.  The question is what exactly he'll do.  He's been expected to turn in almost every major match lately, but it never happens.  With recent rival Daniel Bryan getting a WWE Title shot at SummerSlam, perhaps we'll see a pair of title changes with Orton cashing in then?

If it's nothing like that, then right now it's too early to tell.

Sandow, on the other hand, seems like he's going to bide his time.  He has a fresh feud he just started with Cody Rhodes, so it seems unlikely he'll cash-in until that's over.  Plus, if Orton were to cash-in soon, ideally the cash-ins would be spaced fairly far apart.  Sandow also needs the credibility that a serious feud with his former best friend will give him if he's going to be World Heavyweight Champion anytime soon.

That's as much as I can figure out for now.  If you have any guesses of your own, let me know in the comments.

David Bixenspan has been Bleacher Report's WWE Team Leader and a contracted columnist since 2011.  You can follow him on Twitter @davidbix and check out his wrestling podcasts at LLTPod.com. 

David Bixenspan has been Bleacher Report's WWE Team Leader and a contracted columnist since 2011.  You can follow him on Twitter @davidbix and check out his wrestling podcasts at LLTPod.com.

Follow @davidbix