THE RAGER! – How to Make People Dislike Money in the Bank (Big Show, John Cena, Kane, Chris Jericho)

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This past week on Raw, John Cena said that he was going to make a historic announcement and I hope I’m not spoiling anything for you DVR people but the announcement was that Cena was that he would be competing in his first ever Money in the Bank Ladder match.

Now, I’m willing to overlook the terrible Star Wars promo (my geekness is still cringing) because we were saved by the returning Jericho and then both men let it be known they were going to be in the MitB match. And then the true bombshell was dropped by Vickie that the match would feature only former WWE champions (which brought the participants to Cena, Jericho, Big Show and Kane).

My initial reaction was simply “there really aren’t any more former WWE champions still on the roster?” And then I went through the roster and I came up with the following:
Alberto Del Rio
The Great Khali (don’t laugh, the list must be complete)
Randy Orton (not sure when the 60 days would be up)
Rey Mysterio (same as above)

I intentionally left out Sheamus because of already being a champion currently and then I left out HHH, Undertaker and The Rock because them being considered part of the roster seems like a technicality.

So on the surface of it, the initial problem with this would be that WWE has backed themselves into a corner here. Right now, we are looking at a 4 man MitB match. We have 1 hated face, 2 heels that everybody loves and 1 huge waste of space (I’m sure you all can work out who is who). We have 2 big men, 1 legit ladder match innovator and 1 ladder n00b (that’s right, professionalism just went afk). And if WWE wants to add anymore elements to this match, they have a very limited pool to choose from. There’s the flop that’s been concentrated on the heavyweight title that allegedly doesn’t even want to be in the company anymore. Then you have another giant with glass knees and every step he takes looks like someone walking down the stairs and thought there was another step left and they awkwardly step on level ground (or does that only happen to me?). And finally you have 2 men both serving suspensions but in the case of Mysterio, he’s been dealing with injury and contract setbacks and doesn’t seem like a viable option. Randy seems to be the only person that could realistically join this match.
Maybe I’m just too spoiled in having MitB matches feature a large number of wrestlers at one time and each one of them capable to pull off several spots on their own and having a smaller one with 4 (or 5) wrestlers could be a good change-up. Sure, I’ll play devil’s advocate but that’s only until I go back to my point of exactly WHO is involved in the match and knowing the only real high spot will undoubtedly go to Jericho. I’ll also show some love to Kane, he’s been firing on all cylinders with his feud with Punk and Bryan so maybe he can come out guns blazing. I don’t have too much hope in Cena just because he’s sort of an unknown in these kinds of matches. I will go out on a limb and say that there’s no hope for Show being enjoyable in any way to this match.

The biggest argument against this format would be that it directly contradicts the original purpose for the match itself in the sense that its for mid card guys to get a main event chance. Joel Leonard described it as “giving a guy the belt without actually giving him the belt right then and there.” Now whether or not that person sinks or swims is another story but it is a good tool to use to elevate a guy and also adds to the “anything can happen” element of the business. But with this, we get a match full of exclusive men who have already had a chance and then some. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that these men are washed up (maybe I am in regards to Show) or that none of the previous MitB matches featured former champions. What I love about these matches is that there would be a mixture of guys wanting their first shot and guys that wanted yet another shot.
Of course, I’m holding on to the hope that WWE holds to the format of the previous 2 Money in the Bank PPVs and includes a second ladder match (saying it would feature only guys who haven’t won the championship would be redundant…so therefore it will be said by Lawler). And it would surprise no one that I’m not in favor of this particular match-up and I wish that it would go back to the previous two Money in the Bank PPVs as far as a variety of superstar involvement but I know WWE never leaves anything alone and that change is inevitable in all things. But still, I would have like to see them leave “well enough” alone just once. Although, with Cena in this match, we will actually get a MitB match to close out the show.

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Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris

The Answer: What do we want? “Time travel!” When do we want it? “That’s irrelevant!”

Chris is a writer from Fayetteville, NC. He's the co-creator of Irrelevant But Awesome Productions which produces podcasts you all know and love like Classy Ring Attire, Trashy Ring Attire and The Disney Magic Podcast. You can keep up with everything on twitter by following @IBAStudios and @CWSanders39