WWE Money in the Bank 2011
So this is my review of the most important night in WWE, and in Pro Wrestling in a very long time. There was a feeling in the weeks leading up to July 17th than the second ever MITB ppv could really be a turning point in the direction of WWE moving forward. Just the unknown factor of the CM Punk/John Cena/Vince Mcmahon saga and what might happen from the fall out of the main event, combined with the excitement and unpredictability of the two Money in the Bank matches, was enough to make it a must see event alone, then you had the intrigue over would Christian, Smackdown’s top heel finally get his overdue victory over Randy Orton for the World Title? On the night the event more than delivered, don’t get me wrong there were flaws along the way, like the finish to the world title match and the result of raw’s MITB for example, but the highs more than wiped them out. This was a special night for wrestling.
SMACKDOWN MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH
On paper this MITB match seemed more wide open than raw’s, with a number of strong mid-carders looking to bust out of the pack, and so it proved an exciting and nicely paced match to kick off the night. It was like a match in three different sections, the first one saw everyone go at it full-speed ahead with dramatic high spots, the middle saw the pace drop, and little conflicts and factions coming out, then it ended with a mad race for the briefcase. In the best moments, Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel when on the floor avoided a attempted Sin Cara baseball slide by lifting a ladder over him, and then smashing him with it, moments later Daniel Bryan knocked Gabriel off a ladder with a perfectly timed missile drop kick from the top, Cody Rhodes then enters and makes a climb for the case, but Sheamus comes in and goes for a Razor’s edge, which Rhodes escapes and then knocks Slater down with a leaping kick off the ropes, when the Irish warrior ducks, Sin Cara hits DB with a belly to belly flip off the top, Wade Barrett cuts Cara off before he can get set up a ladder, SC takes a jumping kick from Sheamus, then after a power bomb onto a ladder the Mexican superstar is forced out of the match through injury. Bryan and Rhodes exchange forearms, but Kane knocks them both down with a ladder, Barrett comes close to winning, but is cut off by the former NXT’s Slater and Gabriel who double team Rhodes, before turning their attention for former leader Barrett, the former tag champions start to climb the ladder, but Rhodes tips them off, and hits the cross Rhodes on Slater, and when Barrett stops him from reaching the contract he gets the same move. Sheamus grabs Cody off the ladder and hits a backbreaker, DB/Sheamus brawl on the ladder, Sheamus has Bryan up on his shoulders as Kane connects with a flying clothesline off the top, Sheamus then takes a choke slam across a ladder, Bryan arm bar take down takes Kane to the floor, Slater/Gabriel wrestle on the ladder, but Barrett returns with another ladder, him and Sheamus catches Slater on the top of it, and dumps him onto Kane at ringside, Sheamus clears the ring, and makes the climb, but Kane cuts him off, the Big Red Machine choke slams him off a ladder onto another one. Barrett, Rhodes and Bryan triple team Kane, Cody hits a leaping kick off the ladder on him, in an impressive sequence Barrett dumps Gabriel onto Slater, fall away slams Bryan and pump handle slams Rhodes, he starts a climb, but Rhodes recovers to make the save and clotheslines Wade to the floor, Bryan then meets Cody at the top of the ladder and the pair exchange blows, as they struggle Barrett comes up the other side of the ladder and almost snatches the case, Bryan knocks Rhodes off, counters Barrett’s wasteland, kicks in to the floor, and then is left to claim the brief case and claim a surprising victory and receive a standing ovation! This was a golden moment, and I cannot think of a more deserving winner, the result makes perfect sense. A perfect way to start things off.
8/10
Divas Title
As short and useless Women matches go, this could have been much worse, basically when Brie Bella was in control with mat wrestling holds such as head scissors and a upper arm bar, the match was not too bad, (although the champions selling was weak), but when Kelly Kelly took over with her sloppy offence, things took a nose dive. Anyway one of the worse Women’s Champions in history took the expected pinfall following her standing leg drop face slam.
4/10
Mark Henry VS. Big Show
This was a fairly standard big man match; the object was for Henry to go over like a star, and for it to work around the pairs limited skills. It was partly successful, on the good front the match lasted less than ten minutes, Show did all he could to carry the action and sold well, and in places the action was okay, what really dragged the match down was the use of awkward submission holds and clumsy high spots like Show’s shoulder block off the top, these kind of moves just don’t mix well with these two. The finish came after Henry hits two World Strongest slams the first off Show kicks out of, and a running splash for the three count. It was a poor match, but at least it served a purpose. Post match Henry beat his foe down, and injured his leg, whether WWE will sell these injuries for longer than a couple of weeks, remains to be seen.
4.5/10
RAW MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH
While entertaining and a well constructed scrap, the second MITB bout of the evening failed to reach the heights of the opening contest. In a novel start to the action all eight men started the match with ladders in hand, the focus soon turned to Alberto Del Rio, who was knocked to the floor by the other seven. We then got a silly tug of war between Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston over a small ladder, as a group of wrestlers competed around them. Following the usual multiple stunt fests on the outside, The Miz picks up an injured ankle after he and Bourne are dumped off the ladder by Del Rio, and so when twisting his ankle on landing, it seemed that the former WWE Champion would take no further part in the match. The remaining seven all climb their own ladders, and fight it out for the case, it ends up with Mysterio and Jack Swagger left, but Kingston makes a timely save, Rey is kicked off and gets clothes lined across the top rope, moments later Miz returns to the ring hopping on one leg (is this leading to a face turn) and is about to take the briefcase and win his second straight MITB, until Rey nails a sunset flip off the ladder on him, just when it seems like Rey has victory, Del Rio comes up on another ladder, as the pair battle it out Rey starts striking Alberto in the head with the case, but in the end ADR comes back, and nails Mysterio with a stiff kick to the head, and as Rey hits the mat below, Del Rio grabs the briefcase to earn another WWE Title shot. So unlike the Smackdown version, the raw favourite won the brands MITB, and now with two title shots in store, the odds are good that ADR will be champion before the end of summer.
7/10
WORLD TITLE
Many of the segments on SD between Christian and Randy Orton have flattered to deceive, however the series has certainly delivered in the ring, and despite being a little on the short side, this third straight PPV meeting was pretty damn good too. The champion gained the first near fall, with a nice school boy up in the corner, Christian then returned fire with a flying reverse elbow, moments later we get a rare diving head butt for a another two, as both fight off the others attempts at their finisher, in the end the challenger does connect with his kill switch, but Orton escapes on two, then as he comes out of the corner he is met with a torture rack into a dropping neck breaking for another close call. Christian then takes a DDT, but as Randy follows him into the corner, Christian spits at him, when curses him to hit a low blow, and therefore is DQ which as a result of the stipulation agreed upon meant that not only did Christian win the match, but he also became World Champion for a second time. What a flat finish and a lame way to have a title change hands, but worse was to follow for the new champ, as post match Orton lost it and basically kicked the hell out of his arch rival, as a number of officials including GM Teddy Long had to get involved and convince the former champion to leave the arena. That’s right the man who had just won the Title didn’t even get to have a post match celebration, and despite losing, the end of the match and post match was all about Randy Orton, the new champion had been well and truly over shadowed in his moment of glory. This does not bode well for Christian’s second run on top.
6.5/10
WWE Title Match
So one of the most highly anticipated main events of recent summers and what many believed at the time to be the conclusion to the summers hottest storyline was played out to an awesome atmosphere, and a truly amazing response for the home town hero CM Punk, where as the champion John Cena got the expected round of boos.
Much like a old school title match we there was a slow feeling out process to begin with as Cena grabs a headlock, Punk attempts a kick, then a body scissors is reversed into a arm bar and a full arm and twist. As the pace picks up a bit, the challenger gets the first advantage with a nice hip-toss followed by a drop kick and headlock take over, with both men back up Cena is sent for the ride and leap frogs over Punk and attempts the Attitude Adjustment, Punk sneaks out and goes for the Go To Sleep with the same outcome. A naff running bulldog gives the champion the first two count of the match, he gets another one from a clothesline and locks on a chin lock, Punk works his way up and is then suplexed by Cena for two, nice steady pacing at this point, as Punk is working the crowd nicely. The challenger traps his foe in a head scissors before Cena powers up and places Punk on his shoulders, but is then headscissored from the inside out crashing on the floor. Punk scores with a knee drop off the second rope across the neck (and there is a Colt Cabana spotting at ringside!), gets a two back inside, then hits a clothesline followed by a beautiful springboard cross body off the top for a near fall, Cena suplexes him over the ropes and onto the floor, and gets a two from a fist drop back inside, then a two from a front slam, the champion then blocks some kicks and ties Punk up in an abdominal stretch, the former ROH star powers out and we get a double clothesline, followed by one of Cena’s superhero like comebacks, Punk counters with a suplex and gets a near fall from a roll up, then sends Cena to the floor and strikes with a flying torpedo though the middle ropes nailing Cena on the outside, but then misses with a springboard cross body. An AA attempt, but Punk is able to land on his feet and reverse leg sweep the champ from behind for a two, a nice high knee/bulldog combo and a flying elbow off the top for a breath taking near fall, kicks to the body are countered into a Cena’s STF, but Punk is able to make the bottom rope, then Punk connects with a martial arts kick to the head for a two, a cross body off the top is caught and turned into an AA attempt, Punk escapes and goes for the GTS, Cena sneaks out and grabs the leg and hooks the STF to end a great sequence, Punk is trapped in the hold for a long time, but refuses to quit, when he comes close to reaching the ropes he is dragged further out into the middle, Punk slips out, and locks on a cobra clutch on the mat for a huge pop! Cena makes his way back up, and hits an Attitude Adjustment for a dramatic near fall as Punk rolls his shoulder up just as the refs hand is coming down for three. Punk then almost steals the win with a sit-out power bomb countering Cena’s drop kick off the top, GTS is countered and Punk is hung up on the top rope, Cena leg drop from the top finds two, a second AA, but the champion can still only get a two and three quarters count as the crowd goes nuts! Cena has Punk on the top rope, but Punk fights out of the AA and hits a head scissors and a Go To Sleep, but the camp falls to the outside. At this stage Vince McMahon makes his way to ringside, looks at Punk, at which stage Cena takes him down and hooks the STF and the owner gets John Laurinaitis to call for the bell, however Cena cuts the head of talent relations off with a fist and tells the chairman that he doesn’t want the win that way, this distraction allows Punk to catch Cena with the decisive Go To Sleep for the 1-2-3 and a very poplar WWE Title winning victory much to the shock and horror of McMahon. Moments later in a novel twist Vince demanded that Alberto Del Rio come out and cash his newly won MITB contract, the number one contender did come out, but was kicked away by the new champion, who precede to escape though the crowd and leaves Chicago and the WWE as WWE Champion. The match was a perfectly paced, dramatic wrestling match, with great crowd heat and a perfect finish, and it proved the perfect finish to a very memorable night of wrestling action.
9/10
Event Rating 8/10
So this is my review of the most important night in WWE, and in Pro Wrestling in a very long time. There was a feeling in the weeks leading up to July 17th than the second ever MITB ppv could really be a turning point in the direction of WWE moving forward. Just the unknown factor of the CM Punk/John Cena/Vince Mcmahon saga and what might happen from the fall out of the main event, combined with the excitement and unpredictability of the two Money in the Bank matches, was enough to make it a must see event alone, then you had the intrigue over would Christian, Smackdown’s top heel finally get his overdue victory over Randy Orton for the World Title? On the night the event more than delivered, don’t get me wrong there were flaws along the way, like the finish to the world title match and the result of raw’s MITB for example, but the highs more than wiped them out. This was a special night for wrestling.
SMACKDOWN MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH
On paper this MITB match seemed more wide open than raw’s, with a number of strong mid-carders looking to bust out of the pack, and so it proved an exciting and nicely paced match to kick off the night. It was like a match in three different sections, the first one saw everyone go at it full-speed ahead with dramatic high spots, the middle saw the pace drop, and little conflicts and factions coming out, then it ended with a mad race for the briefcase. In the best moments, Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel when on the floor avoided a attempted Sin Cara baseball slide by lifting a ladder over him, and then smashing him with it, moments later Daniel Bryan knocked Gabriel off a ladder with a perfectly timed missile drop kick from the top, Cody Rhodes then enters and makes a climb for the case, but Sheamus comes in and goes for a Razor’s edge, which Rhodes escapes and then knocks Slater down with a leaping kick off the ropes, when the Irish warrior ducks, Sin Cara hits DB with a belly to belly flip off the top, Wade Barrett cuts Cara off before he can get set up a ladder, SC takes a jumping kick from Sheamus, then after a power bomb onto a ladder the Mexican superstar is forced out of the match through injury. Bryan and Rhodes exchange forearms, but Kane knocks them both down with a ladder, Barrett comes close to winning, but is cut off by the former NXT’s Slater and Gabriel who double team Rhodes, before turning their attention for former leader Barrett, the former tag champions start to climb the ladder, but Rhodes tips them off, and hits the cross Rhodes on Slater, and when Barrett stops him from reaching the contract he gets the same move. Sheamus grabs Cody off the ladder and hits a backbreaker, DB/Sheamus brawl on the ladder, Sheamus has Bryan up on his shoulders as Kane connects with a flying clothesline off the top, Sheamus then takes a choke slam across a ladder, Bryan arm bar take down takes Kane to the floor, Slater/Gabriel wrestle on the ladder, but Barrett returns with another ladder, him and Sheamus catches Slater on the top of it, and dumps him onto Kane at ringside, Sheamus clears the ring, and makes the climb, but Kane cuts him off, the Big Red Machine choke slams him off a ladder onto another one. Barrett, Rhodes and Bryan triple team Kane, Cody hits a leaping kick off the ladder on him, in an impressive sequence Barrett dumps Gabriel onto Slater, fall away slams Bryan and pump handle slams Rhodes, he starts a climb, but Rhodes recovers to make the save and clotheslines Wade to the floor, Bryan then meets Cody at the top of the ladder and the pair exchange blows, as they struggle Barrett comes up the other side of the ladder and almost snatches the case, Bryan knocks Rhodes off, counters Barrett’s wasteland, kicks in to the floor, and then is left to claim the brief case and claim a surprising victory and receive a standing ovation! This was a golden moment, and I cannot think of a more deserving winner, the result makes perfect sense. A perfect way to start things off.
8/10
Divas Title
As short and useless Women matches go, this could have been much worse, basically when Brie Bella was in control with mat wrestling holds such as head scissors and a upper arm bar, the match was not too bad, (although the champions selling was weak), but when Kelly Kelly took over with her sloppy offence, things took a nose dive. Anyway one of the worse Women’s Champions in history took the expected pinfall following her standing leg drop face slam.
4/10
Mark Henry VS. Big Show
This was a fairly standard big man match; the object was for Henry to go over like a star, and for it to work around the pairs limited skills. It was partly successful, on the good front the match lasted less than ten minutes, Show did all he could to carry the action and sold well, and in places the action was okay, what really dragged the match down was the use of awkward submission holds and clumsy high spots like Show’s shoulder block off the top, these kind of moves just don’t mix well with these two. The finish came after Henry hits two World Strongest slams the first off Show kicks out of, and a running splash for the three count. It was a poor match, but at least it served a purpose. Post match Henry beat his foe down, and injured his leg, whether WWE will sell these injuries for longer than a couple of weeks, remains to be seen.
4.5/10
RAW MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH
While entertaining and a well constructed scrap, the second MITB bout of the evening failed to reach the heights of the opening contest. In a novel start to the action all eight men started the match with ladders in hand, the focus soon turned to Alberto Del Rio, who was knocked to the floor by the other seven. We then got a silly tug of war between Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston over a small ladder, as a group of wrestlers competed around them. Following the usual multiple stunt fests on the outside, The Miz picks up an injured ankle after he and Bourne are dumped off the ladder by Del Rio, and so when twisting his ankle on landing, it seemed that the former WWE Champion would take no further part in the match. The remaining seven all climb their own ladders, and fight it out for the case, it ends up with Mysterio and Jack Swagger left, but Kingston makes a timely save, Rey is kicked off and gets clothes lined across the top rope, moments later Miz returns to the ring hopping on one leg (is this leading to a face turn) and is about to take the briefcase and win his second straight MITB, until Rey nails a sunset flip off the ladder on him, just when it seems like Rey has victory, Del Rio comes up on another ladder, as the pair battle it out Rey starts striking Alberto in the head with the case, but in the end ADR comes back, and nails Mysterio with a stiff kick to the head, and as Rey hits the mat below, Del Rio grabs the briefcase to earn another WWE Title shot. So unlike the Smackdown version, the raw favourite won the brands MITB, and now with two title shots in store, the odds are good that ADR will be champion before the end of summer.
7/10
WORLD TITLE
Many of the segments on SD between Christian and Randy Orton have flattered to deceive, however the series has certainly delivered in the ring, and despite being a little on the short side, this third straight PPV meeting was pretty damn good too. The champion gained the first near fall, with a nice school boy up in the corner, Christian then returned fire with a flying reverse elbow, moments later we get a rare diving head butt for a another two, as both fight off the others attempts at their finisher, in the end the challenger does connect with his kill switch, but Orton escapes on two, then as he comes out of the corner he is met with a torture rack into a dropping neck breaking for another close call. Christian then takes a DDT, but as Randy follows him into the corner, Christian spits at him, when curses him to hit a low blow, and therefore is DQ which as a result of the stipulation agreed upon meant that not only did Christian win the match, but he also became World Champion for a second time. What a flat finish and a lame way to have a title change hands, but worse was to follow for the new champ, as post match Orton lost it and basically kicked the hell out of his arch rival, as a number of officials including GM Teddy Long had to get involved and convince the former champion to leave the arena. That’s right the man who had just won the Title didn’t even get to have a post match celebration, and despite losing, the end of the match and post match was all about Randy Orton, the new champion had been well and truly over shadowed in his moment of glory. This does not bode well for Christian’s second run on top.
6.5/10
WWE Title Match
So one of the most highly anticipated main events of recent summers and what many believed at the time to be the conclusion to the summers hottest storyline was played out to an awesome atmosphere, and a truly amazing response for the home town hero CM Punk, where as the champion John Cena got the expected round of boos.
Much like a old school title match we there was a slow feeling out process to begin with as Cena grabs a headlock, Punk attempts a kick, then a body scissors is reversed into a arm bar and a full arm and twist. As the pace picks up a bit, the challenger gets the first advantage with a nice hip-toss followed by a drop kick and headlock take over, with both men back up Cena is sent for the ride and leap frogs over Punk and attempts the Attitude Adjustment, Punk sneaks out and goes for the Go To Sleep with the same outcome. A naff running bulldog gives the champion the first two count of the match, he gets another one from a clothesline and locks on a chin lock, Punk works his way up and is then suplexed by Cena for two, nice steady pacing at this point, as Punk is working the crowd nicely. The challenger traps his foe in a head scissors before Cena powers up and places Punk on his shoulders, but is then headscissored from the inside out crashing on the floor. Punk scores with a knee drop off the second rope across the neck (and there is a Colt Cabana spotting at ringside!), gets a two back inside, then hits a clothesline followed by a beautiful springboard cross body off the top for a near fall, Cena suplexes him over the ropes and onto the floor, and gets a two from a fist drop back inside, then a two from a front slam, the champion then blocks some kicks and ties Punk up in an abdominal stretch, the former ROH star powers out and we get a double clothesline, followed by one of Cena’s superhero like comebacks, Punk counters with a suplex and gets a near fall from a roll up, then sends Cena to the floor and strikes with a flying torpedo though the middle ropes nailing Cena on the outside, but then misses with a springboard cross body. An AA attempt, but Punk is able to land on his feet and reverse leg sweep the champ from behind for a two, a nice high knee/bulldog combo and a flying elbow off the top for a breath taking near fall, kicks to the body are countered into a Cena’s STF, but Punk is able to make the bottom rope, then Punk connects with a martial arts kick to the head for a two, a cross body off the top is caught and turned into an AA attempt, Punk escapes and goes for the GTS, Cena sneaks out and grabs the leg and hooks the STF to end a great sequence, Punk is trapped in the hold for a long time, but refuses to quit, when he comes close to reaching the ropes he is dragged further out into the middle, Punk slips out, and locks on a cobra clutch on the mat for a huge pop! Cena makes his way back up, and hits an Attitude Adjustment for a dramatic near fall as Punk rolls his shoulder up just as the refs hand is coming down for three. Punk then almost steals the win with a sit-out power bomb countering Cena’s drop kick off the top, GTS is countered and Punk is hung up on the top rope, Cena leg drop from the top finds two, a second AA, but the champion can still only get a two and three quarters count as the crowd goes nuts! Cena has Punk on the top rope, but Punk fights out of the AA and hits a head scissors and a Go To Sleep, but the camp falls to the outside. At this stage Vince McMahon makes his way to ringside, looks at Punk, at which stage Cena takes him down and hooks the STF and the owner gets John Laurinaitis to call for the bell, however Cena cuts the head of talent relations off with a fist and tells the chairman that he doesn’t want the win that way, this distraction allows Punk to catch Cena with the decisive Go To Sleep for the 1-2-3 and a very poplar WWE Title winning victory much to the shock and horror of McMahon. Moments later in a novel twist Vince demanded that Alberto Del Rio come out and cash his newly won MITB contract, the number one contender did come out, but was kicked away by the new champion, who precede to escape though the crowd and leaves Chicago and the WWE as WWE Champion. The match was a perfectly paced, dramatic wrestling match, with great crowd heat and a perfect finish, and it proved the perfect finish to a very memorable night of wrestling action.
9/10
Event Rating 8/10
