For me, this match is Money!!!!!!

Hello all

As you all know Wrestlemania 27 was held in the city that I live in, Atlanta Georgia. I was there, and was very excited to be there. I thought there were some great matches and though I did have a bit of a problem with the line up of those matches, I was very excited about them. But one thing did stick out. As I looked over the program I noticed that there was a match that was missing, which is one of my favorites: Money in the Bank.

This past weekend we saw a new WWE champion crowned. After a pretty good match between CM Punk and John Cena, where Punk was victorious, Kevin Nash came out, and gave Punk a power bomb. Right after this Alberto Del Rio comes down to the ring, and cashes in his Money in the Bank contract, wins the match and becomes the new WWE champion.

It is a big deal that Del Rio won the championship (the 2nd person I have done a feature blog on, and shortly after that won the championship, but who’s counting), but it is an even bigger deal because once again after 10 Money in the Bank Ladder matches, the person who cashes it in, always wins the championship.

On an episode of Raw in 2005, Chris Jericho, and Eric Bischoff came up with an idea of having a ladder match at Mania. And for those of you who don’t know (I am sure some of you may be 1st time wrestling watchers, so I will explain) a ladder match is match where you put something on a harness (most times it’s a title belt) and you suspend it 20 feet in the air. And the only way to win the match is for the wrestlers to release whatever is there, and come down the ladder with it. But this match would be different from other ladder matches, because this one wouldn’t have a title hanging from the rafters, but it would have a briefcase, and in that briefcase there will be a contract for a title match whenever the winner chooses.

So 6 men competed in the very 1st Money in the Bank ladder match at Wrestlemania 21, and they stole the show. Having all of those guys in the ring, putting on a show for the fans, that started something. After that, for the next 5 manias Money in the Bank became a tradition.

Why didn’t they have one at mania this year, you ask? Because MIB became such a hit that they made it its own pay per view. Starting last year MIB became its own pay per view features 2 MIB matches, one for Raw and one for Smackdown.

To me, the very best thing about MIB, is it always means we will have a new champion. All of the guys who have cashed in MIB, have won championships. Of the 10 MIB matches, 9 different guys have won the briefcase (Edge won the match once, but cashed it in twice). And of those guys 6 of them were new champions (you might as well say 7 because, Kane did win the WWE championship before, but he held that title for less than 24 hours). It also gives us a chance to look forward to future main events. Back in 2006, after winning MIB, Rob Van Dam told the world when he would cash his briefcase in, and that was at ECW’s One Night Stand. This year Daniel Bryan, the winner of the Smackdown MIB, said he will cash his briefcase in at Wrestlemania. How awesome is that?

I have loved Money in the Bank since that very first Mania it was in. It has launched the superstar run of a few champions. Edge was not thought of as a champion until he cashed his in, and since he did back in 2006, he has been a 10 time champion, before he retired. RVD was once thought of as the best wrestler never to be world champion (even though I think he is supremely overrated). After he cashed in his briefcase he won the title in WWE, and he won it in TNA. CM Punk has become a main event guy for 2 reasons, #1 he cashed in the briefcase twice. #2 the second time he cashed in the briefcase he was able to get on the mic and talk, and people realized that he can actually talk. Even the Miz cashed in his briefcase, became a very successful champion, and went on to headline Wrestlemania.

As much as I hated not seeing MIB at Mania this year, I do love the fact that every year we have 2 winners. I really wish we had one at all of the big 4 pay per views (if you don’t know what that is, I will go over that later on).