WWE Money in the Bank 2012: Why John Cena Will Win the Contract

John Cena’s career has taken a strange turn over the past few months.

Rather than pursing CM Punk’s WWE Championship, he has been taking on major challenges from the likes of The Rock, Brock Lesnar and, erm, John Laurinaitis in various programs and pay-per-view matches. 

Keeping Cena away from WWE Champion has yielded mixed results. Oh, sure, after years and years of him dominating the title picture, distancing him from the belt was a refreshing change and gave others, like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, a chance to shine.

However, it has also, bizarrely, served to greatly devalue the WWE Championship and Punk’s entire reign.

The biggest reason for this is that, despite ostensibly being the top guy, Punk has found himself playing second-fiddle to Cena.

Sure he’s holding the title, but we are never allowed to see him as a bigger star than Cena—or even as his equal.  Cena may not be champion but he’s still plastered all over the show and he is still very much the No.1 star and the face of the entire company. The show revolves around him, as always.

WWE’s presentation of Punk serves to make this even more clear: He rarely main events pay-per-views, nor are his feuds treated like a top priority (he's performed in more opening matches than any WWE Champion should).

Indeed even in the current love triangle storyline with Daniel Bryan and WWE Diva AJ Lee, it is AJ who is coming off as the bigger star—Punk is left looking like a supporting player.

So while the hard-working Punk has performed well in his role, both match and promo wise, his title run has nonetheless come off as decidedly lackluster, mainly due to WWE’s unwillingness to get fully behind him. 

If anything, it comes off like Punk is a high mid-carder merely being allowed to hold Cena’s belt for a little while.

With this in mind, it is surely time for Cena to re-enter the title picture by winning the contract at Money in the Bank on July 17 and going on to cash it in at some point in the near future.

As noted, he’s still very much the top guy, title or no title, so the company may as well make it official. It would, at the very least, elevate the belt and make it a priority in the company again.

There’s also the fact that there isn’t really anyone else in the WWE Championship contract match at MITB (which, per the rules, can only feature former World Champions) who is a suitable winner.

Kane doesn’t really need the title—nor is the world exactly clamoring for him to get another run. Same with Big Show, who’s most recent heel push is already looking to be a washout.

For his part, Chris Jericho is coming off a 30 day suspension after the controversial flag incident in Brazil and the booking team hasn’t built him up for another title run anyway. Him winning the contract would come off as totally random, which is why the company probably won't even consider it. 

So, on paper, Cena looks like the best option to emerge victorious from the MITB and take on CM Punk for the title (or Daniel Bryan, if he defeats Punk in their match). 

Of course, just because something is logical doesn't mean it will necessarily happen (especially in today's erratically booked WWE), but even management should be able to realize that having Cena win in Phoenix, AZ. is the right move.