My thoughts on WWE’s first Money in the Bank pay-per-view event

be the first to admit being wrong about this event. Well, mostly wrong. It looked bad on paper, and I had no interest in seeing it. The Money in the Bank matches just didn’t look ‘right’ for some reason, and the championship matches had even less appeal. I mean, Randy Orton in a Money in the Bank match? Weird. I don’t approve of ‘gimmick pay-per-views’ and having three Money in the Bank matches in a single year makes a world championship opportunity mean yes. But…anyway…

First of all, the Money in the Bank matches WORKED. They turned out far better than I expected, and by the time the Smackdown match was through, I felt like I was watching WrestleMania. I had that “holy crap, this isn’t even a main event” feeling. Big Show once again showed the WWE Universe why he is hands down the best ‘big-man’ worker in the business. I give applause to WWE Creative for writing a pretty compelling match that could be one of the best of all-time. (Best of the Money in the Bank ladder matches, I mean.)

While I wasn’t a fan of a few of the individual competitors (Drew McIntyre, Matt Hardy, Christian) it was a good enough mix to get me to enjoy even their performances. Big Show cleared the ring and attempted to climb, but no dice. He was ‘too heavy.’ He pulled a super-sized ladder out from under the ring, and struggled to lift it into the ring, as the announcers described it as ‘reinforced steel, 300 pounds.’ After it was set up anyone could tell that it was anything but, but Big Show did a great job acting and you’d have to be watching with skepticism to notice the ladder’s lack of monstrous weight. Another neat spot involving the World’s Largest Athlete consisted of Big Show being at the bottom of a ladder pig-pile, and other competitors were choke-slammed or thrown onto those ladders. There’s no way to fake that… It’s got to hurt. Kofi Kingston performed another great spot on Drew McIntyre, with a leg drop off of a ladder, through the Spanish announcers’ table. This for me was the match of the night, but opening the card, the night was just getting started.

The Raw ladder match was a close second, however. Great spots involving John Morrison and Evan Bourne, and The World’s Largest Man on a Mission performing ‘feats of strength’ throughout the match. Like any big worker, Mable Henry eventually got ganged up on by the others, taking an enziguri from John Morrison, a Codebreaker from Chris Jericho, and a Spear from Edge. This was a well-planned, entertaining spot. There was a lot of creative use of ladders, as expected, including Ted DiBiase setting up one of the ladders upside-down, which I still don’t understand. I guess it was so they could climb the rungs where it met the other ladder. Or, it signified Big Daddy V was going to win.

I guess what I’m trying to say is:

Mark Henry is fat.

He can still work, but he looks much larger than he did a few years ago.

The spot of the match for me I think was Maryse climbing the ladder to try to win the match for Ted DiBiase. It gave me old-school flashbacks of Ms Elizabeth getting involved in matches, or heel valets interfering and being gently ‘moved away’ by face wrestlers. I think it would have been great, too, if she had won it and ‘sold it’ to DiBiase. I’m really enjoying that duo, because I’m a sucker for nostalgia. This match was…awesome.

world title matches were average, at best, but I didn’t expect much more from either, anyway. I love Mysterio, but I’m not ‘feeling’ him as world champion, and I’m not really feeling Swagger, either. Cena is Cena, but I’m starting to really like Sheamus. The only reason I really payed any attention to this match was to watch for a Nexus run-in. It happened, it ended, and it sucked. John Cena was as pissed as I was, so he lifted one of those two-ton solid steel ring steps, or so we are led to believe, and THREW it at Michael Tarver. How can you throw something that is supposedly so heavy? Psh… It’s these sorts of things that keep Cena from getting the respect he deserves for some of his matches. These dumb spots with bad acting. Aren’t you supposed to protect the flaws of a worker in the wrestling business? He’s no Big Show. The pay-per-view’s ending was anti-climactic, as it ended like any episode of Raw would. Rubbish.

Undercard matches included Layla vs Kelly Kelly for the Women’s title, Alicia Foxx vs Eve for the Divas’ title, and the Hart Dnyasty defending the Unified Tag titles vs the Usos. Fast forward. Nothing special.

I didn’t include spoilers, but you can find the results here if you need them.

• Did you see the pay-per-view? What did you think?
• Are you bored or disappointed with the Nexus angle yet?