WWE Money in the Bank 2012 Results: Breaking Down Strangest Booking Decisions

Entering Money in the Bank, the vast majority of the matches on the card seemed pretty cut and dried, in terms of having obvious results. Both CM Punk and Sheamus retained their titles as expected, while Dolph Ziggler and John Cena won the two Money in the Bank ladder matches, respectively.

At the same time, though, the booking was far from perfect.

There were a couple of filler matches thrown on the card that were somewhat curious, and some of the events within the other matches were strange as well. Perhaps there will ultimately be a method to the madness of the creative team, but as of right now, there are a few decisions that simply don't make a lot of sense.

Here are three weird booking choices at Money in the Bank that took away from the event, in some degree.

A.J. Has Little Impact

When A.J. was named special guest referee for the WWE championship match between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, she was supposed to add intrigue and suspense to the bout.

Aside from taking a bump, leaving the match for a while and having Punk and Bryan fight over a chair, A.J. was pretty much the same as any other referee. She counted Bryan's shoulders cleanly to the mat as Punk retained, but the events on Raw made that decision quite odd.

For one, A.J. was knocked off the apron when Bryan pushed Punk into A.J. No mention was made of that, however, as A.J. accepted Bryan's proposal.

Meanwhile, Punk seems to have simply disappeared from the storyline altogether and shifted his focus to Cena.

I get the feeling that the creative team wanted to add an extra element to the Punk vs. Bryan feud, but it didn't have a true, long-term plan. I'm not saying that I necessarily wanted A.J. to decide the match, but she could have at least shunned Punk and tended to Bryan afterward. That would have at least brought some type of closure to Punk's involvement.

Primo and Epico Beat Prime Time Players

I was a bit surprised that a tag team match between Primo and Epico and the Prime Time Players was added to the card, but I was even more surprised by the result.

Darren Young and Titus O'Neil became No. 1 contenders for Kofi Kingston and R-Truth's tag team championships last month. Therefore, common sense would dictate that they should be receiving a push.

That didn't happen at Money in the Bank. Instead, Primo and Epico ultimately came out on top.

Not only did it make me wonder why the Prime Time Players were made No. 1 contenders to begin with, but I was curious as to why they didn't just have their title match during the pay-per-view.

Young and O'Neil faced Kingston and Truth for the straps the next night on Raw, but they lost that match as well. The only thing I can think of is that the WWE had buyer's remorse in terms of pushing the Prime Time Players and decided to take that push away.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, happens next in the floundering tag division.

No Divas Championship Match

If there wouldn't have been a divas match on the card at Money in the Bank, it honestly wouldn't have bothered me. However, since they decided to have a six-diva tag match, it perplexes me why there wasn't just a Divas championship match instead.

Since A.J. has been featured so prominently over the past few weeks, it seems as though the creative team has neglected the Divas division.

Layla, who is the current titleholder, isn't in any sort of discernible feud. Therefore, there wasn't any indication regarding whether or not she might wrestle during the pay-per-view.

She did team with Kaitlyn and Tamina Snuka to beat Beth Phoenix, Natalya and Eve, but the match was insignificant.

I'm not saying that something like Layla vs. Eve, for the title, would have been groundbreaking, but at least it would have mattered to some degree.

One thing I can't stand is when titles are not defended on pay-per-views. Every championship should be contested on every card, in my mind, and that includes the Divas championship.

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