BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
The card for this show is kind of stacked. On paper this card doesn’t scream out “classic”, but it does scream out “sleeper card of the year”. There isn’t a whole lot that makes me think I’m in for a big classic moment in WWE’s history outside of the hindsight of the MITB winner. The Money In The Bank Matches are going to be fun, but the rest of the card is more “interesting” than “exciting”.
Curtis Axel is going defeat The Miz. I don’t like it. I want to see The Miz get another run in the main event. I think there is still a lot of untapped potential there, but his face character is weak and reminds me of Dane Cook. Axel can’t lose this early in his run. The only way is if CM Punk gets involved.
It sucks, but I’d be dumb to not automatically assume John Cena wins over Mark Henry. I’d love to see Mark Henry get the belt for a few months but betting against John Cena is never a good idea. I like Mark Henry’s end of the storyline, but I can’t see this match being good. We’ve seen John Cena vs. Mark Henry for like ten years now. There is nothing fresh about it and I highly doubt they’ll break out the creative for it.
With Alberto not having his personal ring announcer at his side, it’s pretty hard to imagine he’d steal the win over Dolph Ziggler. Everyone wants Dolph to have his belt back, myself included… THAT is why I think Alberto Del Rio gets the win. Regardless, they’ll have to have a blow off to this feud at Summerslam. Let’s hope we’ll get that Ladder Match they owe us from Extreme Rules. That’d be rocktastic.
Two championship matches on the card have gotten some good build up, but I’m just not into the pairings of performers. AJ Lee and Kaitlyn is having one of the better female storylines in a while and both are doing good with it, but there’s just something about their chemistry that’s not clicking. AJ Lee is going to retain her belt sending Kaitlyn into an even deeper craze. The other title match is The Shield vs. The Usos. This match has gotten a push, but it feels really forced and uncomfortable. I don’t dislike the Usos, I’m just not convinced they’re going to bring anything new to the table. They wrestle the same way they did when they came in and their matches all feel exactly the same. There is nothing special or memorable about them. Their entrance is “interesting”, but not cool or exciting. They spent YEARS as being the low card enhancement team. They’d be destroyed by big wrestlers and monsters, lose to random people on the C shows, and were in all due respect really talented jobbers. Rebuild and reintroduce The Usos, It’s all perception though. I get that. If they’re a convincing performer we can dispend belief and get behind them. I just can’t. It would be like if out of nowhere that the Three Man Band started dominating people and were treated as a serious threat. It doesn’t feel like a natural push. It feels really forced. I know the face tag team ranks are REALLY slim, but pairing up Zack Ryder and Bo Dallas would have been more convincing at this point. The Shield has to win this.
I never thought I’d say this, but of all the singles matches I’m most intrigued by Jericho/Ryback. Ryback’s run as a heel is interesting. It seems the more they let him be a mean bad ass the more entertaining he is. I just wish he’d not be SO CHEESY. The whole “Ryback Rules!” and before that the “Feed Me More!” thing is lame. It’s like Ultimate Warrior C-list material. The thing that’s interesting is that he COULD rebound HUGE if he gets the kinks out of this newer personality. It could be like how The Rock came in as a cheesy babyface and then went heel as “The Rock”, but got over and became a huge face in the process. It’ll be a process for sure. One way to get that process moving a long in whatever direction it will, is putting him in there with Chris Jericho. Jericho can make bad wrestlers look good and good wrestlers look great. I’m interested in this match because I want to see how they tell the story. Will it be something different? Will Ryback gain something from this to make him more legit? I think Jericho can do that. Ryback gets the win here unless they pull some kind of weird storyline.
The B-Team Money In The Bank Match seems like it could be a lot of fun. We have Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, Dean Ambrose, Fandango, Jack Swagger, and Antonio Cesaro in there. Automatically, you can start doing some subtractions. Swagger just got off a title feud run that sucked. He’s not going to win so it’s safe to assume his new partner in Antonio Cesaro isn’t going to either. It looked like Christian and Dean Ambrose are going to feud to that’ll take them out of both of their matches. Cody Rhodes would be an awesome winner, but he and Sandow are being too de-pushed lately for them to pull the trigger that randomly. This leaves the former IC Champion Wade Barrett and the a-little-too-quiet-lately Fandango. I could see them FINALLY pulling the trigger on Barrett and letting him get a shot at the big gold belt. It’s the safest and most logical pick. I’m going to go with the shock and awe pick of Fandango getting the case. I’m not saying he’ll cash in and win, but he could EASILY win the Money In The Bank match. Him being creepy with the brief case could be a lot of fun. I really feel he was going to get the IC Title instead of Curtis Axel, but his injury screwed things up. Logically, it’s Barrett. The fun surprise would be Fandango. Anyone else not named Jack Swagger would also be a welcomed surprise.
The “All-Star” Money In The Bank Match has potential to be amazing. Anytime we can put Daniel Bryan and RVD in the same Ladder Match I’m going to sit my ass down and watch the damn thing. This match does not have John Cena, Mark Henry, Ryback, Triple H, or anyone that wouldn’t add to it. Kane and Sheamus are bigger guys, but Kane is awesome in these matches and Sheamus seems to be pretty creative with spots lately. Then of course we have CM Punk and Randy Orton. Off the bat, Punk has Brock in his sights and Christian is back and feuding with Ambrose. It would be awesome to RVD win the match, but I doubt they’d pull that off after him spending time in TNA. I think this comes down to Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan. Their storyline has elevated to the point where throwing in a Money In The Bank briefcase would really be a nice prop. This is one of the few things Randy Orton hasn’t accomplished yet, but I think Daniel Bryan gets the win. He’s on fire these days.
I’m optimistic about this show. If I’m surprised, I win. Pay Per Views like this gives a less predictable feeling going in because of all the “what if” scenarios they could pull off. This should be good. Famous last words?
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