WWE Money in the Bank 2012: What and What Not to Be Excited About

A year ago from yesterday, CM Punk, Vince McMahon, and John Cena all participated in a public "contract negotiation" that, in my opinion, is the best Raw segment in recent memory. For anyone who doesn't remember this (and if you're one of these people, shame on you for forgetting it,) the whole thing ended with Punk ripping up his proposed contract on the entrance ramp and telling everyone that he'd go be the best in the world somewhere else.

Six days later, Punk would win the WWE Championship from Cena at Money in the Bank 2011, a pay-per-view that generated a ton of interest due to the build-up to Punk/Cena, and met (or even exceeded) expectations due to the actual Punk/Cena match and the atmosphere surrounding it.

Now, we're three days away from Money in the Bank 2012, and there's nothing on the level of Punk/Cena to get excited about it. Not to bury this year's MITB before it actually happens, but I think there's something like a .00032 percent chance it's as good as the 2011 edition. But that doesn't mean that the 2012 version doesn't have a lot of exciting things going for it. Of course, it doesn't necessarily mean that the 2012 version does have a lot of exciting things going for it either. A conclusive answer will require further analysis.

What Not To Be Excited About:

Pre-show: WWE Tag Team Champions R-Truth and Kofi Kingston vs. Hunico and Camacho: This match poses a problem. See, it's not like there isn't anything to write about it. There are lots of interesting potential topics that could stem from this match. Here, I'll even name some of them: 

- There apparently isn't room for a tag-team on a 3-hour PPV that currently has four announced matches.

- Have Hunico and Camacho won a tag team match? Ever? Are they even normally partners? Honestly, I thought Camacho was just around to drive their bike.

- I know it's a preshow match, but seriously, it wouldn't be that hard to give both teams some kind of pre-existing conflict? It could be a backstage scene, it would take thirty seconds, and I guarantee that nobody would complain about it.

- Generic complaining about the total lack of an interesting/competitive tag team division.

- Maybe instead of the inane Michael Cole/Jerry Lawler re-match literally no one wanted to see from this week's Raw, there could have been some tag team wrestling.

And those are just five potential subjects. Seriously, I had more written down, I just erased them because they didn't sound as awesome as I initially thought they would.

The problem, of course, is this: everyone already knows about all of these things. Everyone knows the WWE doesn't care about tag team wrestling, and basically all of these potential topics can be linked to their total apathy towards it. I'm not breaking any new ground by saying that's a stupid approach. I'm breaking ground that has been around for literally the duration of the existence of earth.

So instead of expanding on any of those topics, I'm just going to suggest that Hunico and Camacho should have a storyline where they realize they're bad at wrestling, and ride their bike around the arena for the duration of Smackdown trying to set some sort of tandem distance record. Bad TV time is better than no TV time, right?

What to Be Excited About

World Heavyweight Championship Match: World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio: If nothing else, be excited that this match is finally here. Goodness knows we've been waiting for it for a while.

Again, there are only four announced matches at this point, and even anticipating 1-2 more matches being added, I'd anticipate this match getting a lot of time, which would certainly help the quality.

I could easily see this being a nice change of pace match from the two MITB matches and Punk/Bryan. The two MITB matches are probably going to be booked around fun spots with the ladder, and although Punk vs. Bryan will surely be a hard-hitting, physical match, it might be a stretch to say it will be a brawl.

Any match Sheamus is in liable to be a brawl, just an intense match with two guys beating the crap out of each other. And those are fun, you know? In a sport where the fact that the guys in the ring aren't actually trying to hurt each other is constantly in the back of your mind, it's nice to watch a match where it looks like the guys in the ring are actually trying to hurt each other. Personally, it makes suspending my disbelief much, much, easier.

By the way, the WWE.com article previewing this match is a fun read. My favorite part is when the author describes Del Rio as affluent. I mean, yes, I understand that's his gimmick, but I'm pretty sure it has no relevance to his wrestling ability. I hope that he commits to ridiculous adjectives and calls Del Rio "hygienic" and "strawberry-flavored" in his next article.

Also, I'm not the biggest history buff, but I'm almost positive that ADR didn't patent the cross arm breaker, nor hold exclusive rights to it, nor create it or originate it in any way.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match for a World Heavyweight Championship Contract: C'mon, these matches are always fun, right?

This isn't to say that a ladder match can't be bad, because they can. But, I don't know, maybe this is just me, but there's something about guys scrapping and clawing and doing irrationally dangerous things to get that briefcase that will always appeal to me.

Plus, the actual competitors in the match are a pretty exciting bunch. It'll be fun to see what Sin Cara and Tyson Kidd can do in a match like this. Christian has been in 8,732 of these things already. I love pretty much everything Cody Rhodes does, so I'm just going to assume he'll be excellent. Dolph Ziggler may finally be in line to get the World Heavyweight Championship belt he's been chasing for so long, and hey, he deserves it. And I myself am a condescending pseudo-intellectual who likes to do cartwheels at random, so as you might imagine, I'm a pretty big Damien Sandow fan.

I'm just going to pretend that Tensai and Santino aren't involved. I don't think I'm the only one who is going to do that.

Still, the larger point stands: this match features a really nice group of talent, and it'll be fun to see what they come up with for this match.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match for a WWE Championship Contract: Full disclosure: I'm only listing this as something to look forward to because it's a Money in the Bank match. If you're not very excited for it, I couldn't blame you. Heck, I'd actually agree with you.

To start with, this match doesn't feature as many guys who you'd think would fit well into a ladder match as the other MITB match does. It has just one of those guys, as a matter of fact: Chris Jericho.

This isn't to take anything away from John Cena, Kane, or Big Show, who are all good athletes. But they're really big, freaking huge, and freaking huge (x 45) respectively. Having a compelling ladder match seems like it would rely a lot on guys being able to move fast. Having a lot of really fast, agile guys means that there is a constant threat of someone scurrying up a ladder and grabbing the briefcase in ten seconds, and a constant threat of someone coming out of nowhere to knock a guy who looks like he has the match won off of the ladder. In other words, it seems like fast guys would create suspense and unpredictability, both of which seem like good things to have in a wrestling match.

I wouldn't be surprised if this match was really, really good. I honestly wouldn't, even though Kane and Show aren't perceived as the greatest wrestlers in the world at this point. I'm just worried that we're going to have a lot of points where someone is climbing the ladder very slowly while everyone else is lying around, waiting for whatever guy gets up first to lumber over and knock them off. It's a very real fear, but it's one that I'm hoping won't be realized.

WWE Championship Match: WWE Champion CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan (w/ AJ as Special Guest Referee): It's hard for me to be super-optimistic about the prospects for this match after Raw this week, where the AJ/Bryan/Punk stuff took forever and was kind of embarrassing to watch.

Still, that's just one not-so-great week, and overall, it's been fun to watch this angle unfold. With the disclaimer that I'm not particularly perceptive, I'll say that it's still not entirely clear whether AJ is nuts or a master manipulator, and having characters that are unpredictable and interesting and don't easily fit into generic categories is a good thing. Based on her behavior, she could conceivably side with either Punk or Bryan, and that unpredictability is good for the match.

And if the whole AJ component to this match doesn't excite you, that's fine, because this is still Punk vs. Bryan, which means that even with a screwy finish, odds are that the wrestling will be really, really good. And for me, that's more than enough to get excited about this match.

So overall, it looks like there's actually quite a bit to look forward too at Money in the Bank 2012. Of course, that doesn't mean it's guaranteed to be great, or even good. It might be a colossal disappointment. But even that outcome would have a silver lining; it would give you the chance to go back, watch Money in the Bank 2011, and remind yourself how much better things were a year ago.

In other words, watching Money in the Bank this Sunday is a win-win situation, and realistically, what else can you ask for out of a pay-per-view?