Money in the Bank Results:
- Dolph Ziggler won World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match
- Sheamus defeated Alberto Del Rio to retain World Heavyweight Championship
- Primo and Epico defeated Darren Young and Titus O’Neil
- CM Punk defeated Daniel Bryan to retain WWE Championship
- Ryback defeated Tyler Reks and Curt Hawkins
- Layla, Kaitlyn and Tamina Snuka defeated Beth Phoenix, Natayla and Eve
- John Cena won WWE Championship Money in the Bank ladder match
The night began with the first Money in the Bank ladder match, which featured eight men competing for a contract for a World Heavyweight Championship title contract.
Coming into the match, I pegged Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler as the two favorites in the match. This proved to be accurate as Ziggler was the one to scale the ladder and grab the briefcase.
Having already been in the title picture, Ziggler is ready to actually become champion, which is all but assured with his automatic title match contract. Rhodes equally deserved a shot, but he is relevant enough to challenge for the title on his own.
Sheamus then had his match with Alberto Del Rio, which finished with the predictable outcome of Sheamus winning. After the match he was assaulted by Del Rio. While this was happening, Ziggler’s music hit and he came out with the intention of cashing in his contract for a match with Sheamus.
Instead of allowing Del Rio to incapacitate Sheamus, Ziggler came in and cleared out Del Rio before he could do too much damage to Sheamus. He handed the referee the briefcase, but Sheamus Brogue kicked him before the match could begin. This actually benefited Ziggler, who would have become the first person to cash in the Money in the Bank contract and lose the match.
The next match was not advertised on the original card as Primo and Epico took on Darren Young and Titus O’Neil, who were accompanied by AW. Primo and Epico were victorious, which does not bode well for AW and All World Promotions. They are the number one contenders for the tag team titles, but they just lost to another tag team. It will be interesting to see if this loss has an impact on them being the top contenders.
CM Punk squared off against Daniel Bryan next, with AJ as the special guest referee. She called the match fairly early on, before she was accidentally knocked to the floor off the apron by Punk. She was taken backstage and was replaced with a different referee.
AJ came back later in the match and began to alter the match. She brought a chair into the ring and put it in the middle of Punk and Bryan who fought to get the chair. It appeared as she was helping Bryan when she stopped Punk from attempting to throw Punk into the turnbuckle where a chair was placed.
The decision was taken out of AJ’s hands once Punk put himself and Daniel Bryan through a table from the top turnbuckle. Punk pinned Bryan and AJ gave a fair three-count, but this storyline is definitely not over.
Ryback had his annual pay-per-view match, which actually turned out to be watchable. Reks and Hawkins faced off against Ryback in a handicap match and actually built some offense. Ryback was on the mat for the first time since his debut, and actually had to fight back before ultimately picking up the win.
The Divas had a rather lackluster match, with the best moment being Tamina Snuka’s kick to Beth Phoenix’s head to help her team win the match.
The final match of the night was the Money in the Bank ladder match for the WWE Championship contract. The match had a fifth member added when The Miz added himself to the match earlier on in the night.
The match was exciting throughout, especially when four men buried Big Show under a pile of ladders, where he laid for a long while. This came after Cena gave Show a AA through the Spanish announce table. When Show finally rose from the pile, he threw all the ladders out of the ring, before going under the ring to grab a giant ladder. He placed this ladder in the middle of the ring, where it would stay until the end of the match.
Big Show WMD’ed Jericho and Miz off the ladder before Cena ran up to stop Big Show, as he claimed he would do. Cena blocked Show’s punches with the briefcase, before slamming it into Show’s head. As he did this the briefcase broke from the harness and Cena was declared the winner.
Overall, the show was entertaining but a little predictable. It has the issue of being one month before SummerSlam, so it is more likely that title changes will happen next month.
Some fans may not be too happy about Cena winning the contract, but it will be interesting to see how he goes about holding the contract.
About Steve Kubitza
