Welcome to my thoughts on WWE’s Money In The Bank. I had to do some self-convincing to buy the PPV after being disappointed in WrestleMania and not too thrilled with Extreme Rules, but I’m so glad I did buy it! That is arguably the best PPV I’ve ever purchased from the opening match to the close, but it’s time for my thoughts.
1. Sin Cara took a nasty Powerbomb in that match from Sheamus that would eliminate him from the match. The next day we hear that Sin Cara has been suspended for a wellness policy violation. The way that Cara was convulsing and then carried out on a stretcher makes me believe that that was indeed connected and we’ll see Cara in about 30 days.
2. Cole said early in the SmackDown Money In The Bank match that six of them had never been in a Money In The Bank Ladder match. I looked at the guys in that match and a year ago only three even had WWE contracts. Slater, Gabriel, and Barrett were too busy involved with Nexus to be in the match. Sin Cara wasn’t even in WWE or even mentioned yet. Daniel Bryan had already been dispelled from Nexus so he didn’t have a contract either. Sheamus was in the WWE Title match as champion last year so he has never been in one either. The only two were Kane and Cody Rhodes. I just thought it was a worthy note about how young the scene is on SmackDown.
3. Oh and half of the SmackDown Money In The Bank match was from NXT Season 1.
4. At two points in the match, Heath Slater slow crawled to the top of the ladder and the crowd was so animate about it. I mean that was arguably one of the loudest boos of the night. However, something tells me that the reason they were booing had nothing to do with Slater being a heel.
5. Also there was a SICK 450 Splash from Gabriel in that match. That was extremely dangerous to attempt that from a ladder laid across the top of a turnbuckle corner. Big props for that insane move.
6. My pick to win that match was Sheamus, but I’ll gladly eat my hat for that pick seeing Daniel Bryan win.
7. Looking at the Roundtable from the weekend, only one person picked Daniel Bryan to win and even he said he only picked him because he liked Bryan. It was a huge shock to see the Internet darling get the nod.
8. My only question regarding the Daniel Bryan win is whether Bryan will be the first person to cash in and lose? I sincerely hope not as I, like most of the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC), love Daniel Bryan and his ability to perform in the squared circle.
9. In all honesty, I think Daniel Bryan WILL cash in for the mere fact that WWE loves the MITB winners cashing in. I remember thinking Punk would lose his the second time he won, I thought Swagger would lose when he got his, and I even thought Miz would lose just because it would anger him even more. All of those thoughts were proven wrong and all three men cashed in their briefcases successfully. Only time will tell.
10. The Mark Henry/Big Show match was five times better than I expected. Was it a five star classic? No. Was anyone expecting it to be? No. It was just a brutal collision between two behemoths that would make Henry look dangerous. It accomplished what it meant to accomplish. It even gave some revenge with Show going out on a stretcher after Show did that exact thing to Henry last month.
11. Is Big Show scheduled to make another movie or something? He could very easily be written off for a while with that ankle injury.
12. I’m still not sure how Alex Riley is going to do post the Miz rivalry. He is still getting a pretty big pop.
13. I didn’t realize that Rey had NEVER been in a Money In The Bank Ladder match. Pretty strange considering he’s been in WWE since the beginning of the match’s creation.
14. The opening part of the match where everyone threw their ladder on Del Rio was pretty clever and made sense considering what happened last week on Raw. Nice bit of continuality.
15. Did anyone see how awkward that A-Ry dive was during that match? He landed awkwardly on his shoulder on Swagger, but hey it looked cool.
16. The AirBourne was pretty insane, but honestly I’m not sure if it hurt anyone. They caught him pretty gracefully.
17. That drop Miz took was pretty rough; I wonder if he actually was hurt during it. Of course he did come back out (to a HUGE pop I might add) and got back involved in the match so it couldn’t have been very serious.
18. The Double Hurricanrana from Rey and Evan looked very nice; I think the timing was very precise.
19. Was anyone else worried about Swagger when Truth did the see-saw motion on Jack? Joey Mercury just flashed through my mind.
20. The best part of the match was when all 7 guys (minus Miz) escalated the ladders to fight over the briefcase. It was a cool sight to see.
21. I change my mind; the best part of this match HAD to be the ending. Del Rio couldn’t figure out a way to get Rey down so he did the one thing to get Rey to become distracted: de-masking Rey Mysterio. It was a heel move, and it was done to perfection.
22. I thought the opening of the World Heavyweight Championship was brilliant. Christian attempted to trick Orton by throwing a Steel Chair in the ring. Friday on SmackDown Orton wore out Kane with the chair in an event to scare Christian so it was ingenious for Christian to tempt The Viper with that chair again. Bravo to all of the continuality tonight!
23. In the end, Orton’s anger issues cost him the match and made Christian’s plan look bulletproof. It made Orton snap, but it gave Christian his World Title back. So the spit in the face was just more of his plan coming together.
24. Randy finally looked like a legit psycho-badass after the match. He mauled Christian and then laid him out with a stiff RKO on the Spanish Announce Table. Orton would then return to deliver another one while wearing the ‘Hacksaw Duggan’ face.
25. Seriously what was with that face? He looked comical and badass at the same time. Has Orton finally gone off the deep end? Because this could become a very interesting evolution (pardon the pun) for Orton.
26. Just a sort of side note, but did anyone notice the green lighting when Orton walked back up the ramp for the final time? It made Orton’s eyes and teeth green and made him look even more like a demon-possessed man.
27. The video packages for Cena/Punk have been phenomenal. I think whoever made that video should have a pay raise. It totally set the mood without losing any of the key elements of it.
28. I may have been the only one to think this, but did anyone else think that Punk sort of resembled Blair Douglass when he was sitting Indian style in the ring wearing the white shirt?
29. Throughout the match, the crowd seemed to turn from all in favor of CM Punk to half and half. Well until the end segment anyways.
30. I read a comment after the show from someone who said they didn’t care about the match because there were some botches. I agree that there were quite a few botches (the leg drop into the sit-down powerbomb, the springboard crossbody), but it was the importance of this match that really added to it.  The crowd was insane, the screwjob attempt was great, the MITB cash-in attempt was also brilliant. It appeared as though Vince was doing the exact same thing he did back at Survivor Series. He was taking everything the IWC predicted and disproving them all. Remember when everyone thought Wade was going to win? Didn’t happen. Everyone thought that Cena would win or someone would cash-in. Neither happened.
31. I’m sure CB can concur, but the only thing that could’ve made this match better is if Punk had hit the Pepsi Plunge on Cena.
32. Every time Punk would kick out of the AA or the STF, my house exploded. I just… I lose words to describe this match. It was so magical. Thank God I wasn’t writing during the Hogan/Rock match.
33. I wonder if I was the only guy wanting the guy on the front row who caught Cena’s shirt to throw it back in the ring… that would’ve just made my night.
34. The only crowd I can think to compare this too is when RVD fought Cena at One Night Stand a few years ago. They exploded when Punk won it!
35. This PPV ended the best way possible. It gave the fans the hint at the screwjob, the hint at the cash-in when Punk kicked del Rio before he could cash-in, and then Punk leaves through the crowd with the gold.
Tonight’s Raw will be so intense! I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. Don’t forget to check Pulse to see the results from Raw LIVE tonight at 8/7 Central!
And quite frankly my dear… that’s a wrap!
