WWE Money in the Bank: Breaking Down the Build-Up (Parts 4-6 of 8)

All right, it's time to do this. After two weeks of house-hunting, a couple of personal matters and one eye problem later, I'm finally back to writing. But enough of that—it's time for a recap.

Both ladder matches have been set, though I'm much more impressed with they way Smackdown is showing off its competitors. Good matches, decent booking and some great video packages have brought some attention to them.

Raw, not so much. But they have done well to put over Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne and Alberto Del Rio above the rest, it seems. Serves them right, as those three will be the ones to watch. They have been playing clips of some excellent moments from past Money in the Bank matches, but it doesn't do much to highlight this year's match.

Unless you've been under a rock for the past two weeks, you know that the main event between John Cena and CM Punk has exploded. This is the first PPV Main Event in a long time that I have been invested in. I was interested in R-Truth last time, but not invested.

The promos and emotion have really taken everything to another level, and July 4th's Monday Night Raw saw the added stipulation of Cena being fired if he loses. Unfortunately, I think that gives away the ending for me.

The question is, can Punk and Cena deliver a match that will be just as exciting as that first Orton/Christian match? That match was spoiled for me, but the action still put me on the edge of my seat. If they can do that, kudos (especially with John Cena's last two PPV main event matches).

Christian and Orton will be fighting in Smackdown's PPV main event, and the question once again is the same. It will be the fourth time that these two go at it. Do they have enough to keep us glued to the screen?

There is also the Sheamus factor as we saw last week, when he interrupted the contract signing.

Mark Henry and Big Show are still going at it, Kelly Kelly seems to be going into the PPV strongly, and what is this buzz between Otunga, McGillicutty and Zack Ryder?

Now that we're (I'm) up to speed, let's look at July 9th's Smackdown and break down the build-up to Money in the Bank.

--------------

We began with a promo for the MITB ladder match. Josh Matthews interviewed seven of the eight that will be competing (Sheamus was absent). Daniel Bryan got some mic time before Cody Rhodes stole it and gave us his two cents.

Wade Barrett spoke, and then our missing Sheamus dashed in with a chair and sent everyone out of the ring. He cut a pretty good promo, saying that he's going to win the briefcase, and when Orton beats that “scrawny, malnourished, googly-eyed homely weasel,” he's going to cash in on him.

Christian's music hit and he came out talking about when he beat Sheamus, before Randy Orton punted him. He then went on to to say how there is an added clause in the contract that if there is bad officiating—or if Orton is DQ'ed—Christian will automatically become the World Heavyweight Champion.

Then he took a weak shot at Sheamus' intelligence and called him Ronald McDonald.

Teddy Long came out and set up our main event, Sheamus vs. Randy Orton. In it we saw Randy Orton win by DQ, when Christian interfered by taking out Randy Orton. Sheamus then proceeded to take out Christian before he received an RKO.

My Take: The build for Orton and Christian has more or less come to a head, and now it's just up to them to keep up the momentum and to make sure it doesn't turn boring with one week to go. Right now it seems Orton has the push, but we'll find out who has the upper hand next week going into MITB.

Injecting Sheamus into the matter brings up another side to the story as well, which could be the birth of a SummerSlam feud—and one I think he deserves.

Sheamus does seem to be on track to either win the MITB match or become the new No.1 Contender after the PPV. It's also possible that the Heavyweight Championship match could become a triple-threat match and open up a spot on the MITB ladder match roster, but I don't see that happening.

As for pushing the ladder match, we had Cody Rhodes in a tag-team match with Ted DiBiase against Daniel Bryan and Ezekiel Jackson. The end came after DiBiase slammed down Jackson and pinned him.

My Take: Rhodes and Jackson had a match last week, and we see them in the ring together again—while the three-way between Rhodes, DiBiase, and Bryan seems to continue. Sin Cara wasn't with them tonight, but we'll be seeing him later.

It was a good match, with Bryan and Jackson dominating early before Rhodes and DiBiase trapped Bryan in the corner. Bryan finally got the tag and Zeke destroyed DiBiase. As he set up the torture rack, Rhodes hit the Beautiful Disaster and let DiBiase get the better of Zeke.

It was interesting to hear Josh Matthews tell us to not bet on Heath Slater. It wasn't surprising that he was the one picked, but more that you'd think they'd try not to put down someone who seems to have trouble getting over.

Nothing solid happened storyline-wise, though. It just extended this feud while bringing Jackson into the picture. I see a Jackson/Rhodes feud for the Intercontinental Title pretty soon, which could put Bryan into a feud with DiBiase.

We also had Sin Cara and a bald Tyson Kidd in a match, with Sin Cara getting the pinfall win after landing the Spanish Fly.

My Take: It was nice for Sin Cara to have a match where things seemed to click. It was more or less a squash match to build him for MITB, but Tyson Kidd was able to get some offense in. Sin Cara's undefeated streak came to an end last week against Christian, but he looked impressive tonight. In fact, so did Tyson Kidd.

It seems there are some people Sin Cara can work with, and others that he can't. That could spell trouble for him, but he's made improvement since he first set foot in the WWE ring. And with the announcement of WWE signing Averno, Sin Cara should become more comfortable in the ring and be able continue adjusting to the WWE versus lucha libre.

Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel tag-teamed against the Usos, with the Usos picking up the win.

My Take: A good showing from the Usos as they continue to pick up speed, and Slater and Gabriel lose an important match going into MITB. The Usos have great chemistry as a tag-team, and I'm really hoping they'll be in the tag-team picture soon.

As for Gabriel and Slater, there was a bit of discord after the match. Will there be any fallout? Are they doomed to break apart like countless tag-teams and stables in the past 5 or 6 months? What does it mean when one of the longest-running tag-teams today is Santino and Vladimir Kozlov? WWE: you have the Usos. Please use them.

Regarding Mark Henry and the Big Show, Henry had a match against Kane. The end came when Mark Henry delivered the World's Strongest Slam to Kane and pinned him.

My Take: If this is any sort of preview to the big man on big man match we would be seeing at MITB, they definitely need to step it up a notch. Playing up the strength of the Big Show and Mark Henry will be important too.

Moments like Mark Henry breaking out of the chokeslam or giving Kane a World's Strongest Slam shows it, but the overall match needs to have more drama or spectacle to it, since the excitement will be at a low due to their speed in the ring.

Henry walked to the announcer's table and poured out Booker T's water before walking out, shouting at the audience. No Big Show though. We'll see what he does next week.

Miscellaneous

Jinder Mahal had a squash match against Trent Baretta, with the Great Khali on commentary. Was it really necessary to put him in commentary? He hardly said anything understandable and was barely there for one minute. In the ring, nothing really special happened.

So far, Mahal is still undefeated. Could he be in the picture at SummerSlam? I'm not sure if he will, but I'd like to see him make a run for the Intercontinental Championship at some point.

Tamina (with Alicia Fox) took on AJ (with Natalya). AJ picked up the win and continues to be put over as the spitfire underdog. The question is, how long until she is put into a feud or title picture? I'm willing to say by the end of the year, given the depth of the Diva's division.

Final Thoughts

It was an average episode of Smackdown compared to the previous weeks. Some good matches, but the excitement and drama factor can't compare to what's going on at Raw. I do think that Smackdown has better wrestling right now and is more fun to watch.

Overall, I think Smackdown is doing a better job pushing the ladder match. It is the main selling point of MITB, though John Cena and CM Punk have stolen the show. Mark Henry is also putting on a good show, really taking his push and running with it. Hopefully he can give us a good match at the PPV against Big Show.

Let's take a look at the card so far:

1. John Cena vs. CM Punk for the WWE Championship

2. Randy Orton vs. Christian for the World Heavyweight Championship

3. Raw MITB Ladder Match (Evan Bourne vs. Jack Swagger vs. Kofi Kingston vs. R-Truth vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Alex Riley vs. Miz vs. Rey Mysterio)

4. Smackdown MITB Ladder Match (Sin Cara vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Wade Barrett vs. Heath Slater vs. Justin Gabriel vs. Kane vs. Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan)

5. Kelly Kelly vs. Brie Bella for the Diva's Championship

6. Big Show vs. Mark Henry

It seems like the Smackdown ladder match front-runners are Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett and Sheamus. Who is your favorite? And do you think any more matches will be added to the card? What are your thoughts on Big Show versus Mark Henry? Let me know in the comments below!

Moment of the Night: A bit of an awkward silence in the beginning of the Usos/Slater/Gabriel match, followed by Booker T: “Nobody likes you, Cole.”