WWE Money in the Bank 2011 Review

SmackDown! Money in the Bank - Ladder
Daniel Bryan Vs Wade Barrett Vs Sheamus Vs Sin Cara Vs Heath Slater
Vs Justin Gabriel Vs Kane Vs Cody Rhodes

Well, wow. I never expected Daniel Bryan to win this one, even when it was happening. The way he's been treated in the last 6 months is hardly what you'd expect from a World Championship prospect, but he still is one of the best wrestlers on the roster and truly does deserve a massive push. Sadly, this match wasn't on par with either of last year's instalments. It's rare for a Money in the Bank match to be plodding, but somehow this one managed it. At around 25 minutes, it was simply too long and featured too many sections where everyone would be thrown out but two, rather than using the group of performers in more dynamic ways. Sin Cara looked good and took a huge bump through a ladder, but for the most part no one really shined despite the wealth of young talent available. I love the result, and it wasn't a bad match, just disappointing.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Mark Henry Vs The Big Show

I'll admit it – Mark Henry is doing some good work right now. While he's never been the best at any particular talent a wrestler can have, his feud with Big Show seems to have really lit a fire inside him and it's one that may fuel him to a world title reign on SmackDown. Someone backstage seems to think so too as he dominates Show in this match and picks up a clean win. The contest itself is what you'd expect, slow and heavy for the most part, but the post-match attack was good as usual. I'd actually prefer to see Henry working as a bodyguard to someone more suited to a main-event role, as I find him the most entertaining during random attacks and displays of strength, but he is the freshest big monster on the roster, so I'm not too bothered by his push.

Rating: 2 Stars

Raw Money in the Bank - Ladder
Alberto Del Rio Vs The Miz Vs Rey Mysterio Vs Evan Bourne Vs Alex Riley
Vs Kofi Kingston Vs Jack Swagger Vs R-Truth

Pretty much the flip-side of the SmackDown offering, this one was well paced into a brisk 15 minutes and featured numerous memorable spots involving the experienced high-flyers. The group often worked together to create a lot of fantastic visuals, from Kingston and Mysterio's double-dive from the turn-buckle to Bourne's Air-Bourne to everyone, and the most was made of the talent at hand. Both Money in the Bank matches only highlight what I've been saying for a while – the WWE mid-card is very strong at the moment and with some better booking there are a lot of potential superstars in the mix. However, as SmackDown's match was disappointing but with a great winner, Raw featured the opposite. Alberto Del Rio was already the rightful 1# Contender, not to mention a former Royal Rumble winner and WrestleMania main-eventer. His star can't rise much by holding the MITB briefcase, while something much bigger could have come from giving it to Bourne, Riley, Kingston or even The Miz for a second time, much as that worked for CM Punk. Regardless this was a fun match and Del Rio certainly won't be hurt by the big win.

Rating: 4 Stars

World Heavyweight Championship
Christian Vs Randy Orton

The streak of excellent matches from these two comes to an end, but for a deliberate reason. Rather than finish with the feud here at a trilogy, the blow-off appears to be pencilled in for a more fitting location: SummerSlam. It makes sense, as this is the hottest feud on SmackDown and the biggest match possible on such a limited roster for such an important event. This encounter certainly wasn't bad in itself, but the story being told now is much bigger than one match and despite a title change, the whole thing was clearly set up for next month. I agree with the decision not to compete with the main event, but it will drag the average score for the PPV down from what it could have been had the climax happened here.

Rating: 3 Stars

WWE Championship
CM Punk Vs John Cena

I knew we were in for something good just after the opening video package. The show cut to a shot of the jam-packed arena, the Chicago crowd overcome in anticipation for one of the most talked about WWE matches in years, and it didn't cut away for 24 seconds. The camera moved with purpose around the audience towards the ring. The spotlights roamed in circles, bleeding through the paper of home-made signs and all the time the cries of the crowd became louder and louder – CM PUNK. CM PUNK. And together, we waited.

The build-up to this main-event has been discussed to death, but as much as I was looking forward to it I just couldn't trust the WWE not to screw it up. But with this simple bit of old fashioned film direction, part of the presentation we often forget in wrestling, I started to realise that someone backstage knew what they were doing. The way this one shot conveyed the electricity, tension and emotion of the live audience was amazing, something I've simply not seen done in WWE before. Then, he entered, the home-town hero to the Chicago smarks, the epicentre of the recent storm of interest in the WWE product, the Straight Edge Superstar – CM Punk.

In just two promos, Punk turned his “last” WWE match into a must-see event and the most atmospheric contest I've seen in years. The cheers for Punk and boos for Cena were expected, but what I did not expect were the real emotions they came from in the crowd. Atmosphere isn't always given it's fair credit for the role it plays in creating an all-time classic wrestling match. Technically, a great match could happen anywhere, but a truly amazing one can only occur when the audience is 100% invested, as they were in Chicago on this night.

However I knew the build-up would be for naught if the match itself was sub-par. I love CM Punk, but as a performer he doesn't have the ability to pull out amazing matches from just anyone the way Shawn Michaels or Kurt Angle could, and I was disappointed by his recent series with Randy Orton. Cena can certainly bring it, but as we saw at WrestleMania 27 he can't really carry a match to a main-event level by himself and needs to be partnered with a great opponent. One thing I was concerned with was the time they'd be given for the match, as it wouldn't have shocked me to see a big swerve early on that cut it short. Thankfully, Punk and Cena were given over half an hour from bell to bell, besides the build-up and aftermath, to tell their story. In this time they performed not only the match of the year, but one of the best I've ever seen and without a doubt the best in either man's career.

After a physical yet technically proficient contest, wherein Punk was put over strong by surviving three AA's, two STF's and a big drop to the outside, Vince McMahon made his way down for the perfect finish. As Punk was caught by a third STF submission hold, McMahon signalled to ring the bell in an attempt to pull off another screw-job ending to save his championship. Unlike Shawn Michaels in 1997, Cena would have none of it, releasing Punk and preventing McMahon from cheating the end of the match, certain he could win it clean. After laying out Johnny Ace, Cena jumped back in only to get hit by the GTS and three seconds later there was a new WWE Champion. McMahon quickly tried to get Alberto Del Rio down to cash in his MITB contract, but Punk was able to defend himself and escape into his loyal crowd, pausing for a moment as he jumped the barrier to blow a goodbye kiss to Vince McMahon and the WWE itself.

I haven't been this excited by a WWE match since The Undertaker Vs Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XXVI, and not for a title match since Chris Benoit won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XX. Even though this is Punk's fourth world championship, it feel like his first. This is the way stars are made. This is how you make new icons. When all is said and done, I only have one question – why can't the WWE put on main-events like this all the time?

Rating: 5 Stars

WWE Money in the Bank 2011 Final Score: 4 Stars

On the subject of SummerSlam, last month I said: “A few stars need to be polished beforehand but if Vince is smart he'll make good decisions in the next few weeks and put on the show we all want to see”. I do believe CM Punk's star has indeed been polished to a mirror shine, and now we head into SummerSlam with a product that hasn't been more engaging in a very long time. Money in the Bank 2011 will go down as historic, but when each part is assessed as equally important to the whole, the event is quite uneven and merely "good". The ladder matches are always fun, but SmackDown's was not the quality of last years and given the time it took on the card it was somewhat of a waste of the excellent mid-card talent on that brand. I'd have enjoyed a mid-card title match of some kind in place of Henry Vs Show, especially when Dolph Ziggler wasn't even on the card, but in the end the bulk of the card doesn't matter. This was a one match show and that match delivered in a big way. Rarely do we see matches of such quality as Punk Vs Cena at a non-WrestleMania event, meaning fans will likely be viewing this show for years to come.