WWE Money in the Bank 2016: Matches Sure to Cause Controversy Among Fans

WWE Money in the Bank 2016 is sure to have fans talking once it's over, especially with the card's two pre-eminent matches. 

John Cena vs. AJ Styles and Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins are the headline feuds going into June 19's pay-per-view, and both are eerily similar. Each features a company-approved babyface who sells merchandise and excites the more youthful fanbase opposing a heel who hardcore fans love because of his pure wrestling acumen. 

Both matches are sure to thrill, as all four men are talented workers who have put on great matches against the rest of the WWE roster over the past year. 

They are also the two matches on the card that will cause the most controversy and have fans on both sides of the aisle arguing once the bell rings. 

John Cena vs. AJ Styles

WWE is correct when it promotes John Cena vs. AJ Styles as a WrestleMania-caliber match. As 411 Mania's Jack Stevenson wrote, "What we’re getting at Money in the Bank is a clash of two diametrically opposed professional wrestlers, two opposing archetypes—WWE poster boy vs. independent icon."

This match, more so than any previous John Cena feud, splits the WWE fanbase in half: You're either among the "Let's Go Cena" crowd, or you're with "Cena Sucks" all the way. 

A defeat at the hands of Cena would be AJ Styles' fourth straight pay-per-view loss dating back to WrestleMania 32. If that were to happen, all of the arguments Styles levied against Cena (and WWE) about burying opponents become the immediate story, and WWE would risk a revolt from its most ardent fans. There's a reason the Twitter hashtag #CenaWinsLOL is popular among the Internet Wrestling Community. 

Even the IWC's preferred outcome—a clean win by Styles—comes with pitfalls. It's not like it couldn't happen; it was just over a year ago at Elimination Chamber that Cena ate the pin against then-rising Superstar Kevin Owens. 

And therein lies the problem: We all know what happened to Owens after that match. He would go on to lose two in a row to Cena, becoming the latest in a line of talented Superstars to fall at the feet of the 15-time world champion. 

That's fairly typical John Cena booking. Last year, Rusev was made to look unbeatable against Cena, mostly through a number of post-match beatdowns on Raw prior to their WrestleMania 31 clash. Once Cena claimed the title, he went on to thoroughly humiliate Rusev in a series of pay-per-view matches. 

Those are just two instances of Cena "burying" opponents. Googling "John Cena buried superstars" returns more than 250,000 news articles, videos and images devoted to Cena's "victims."

Unfortunately, WWE is in a no-win situation when it comes to this matchup. The story after this upcoming pay-per-view will be whether Cena (and, by default, WWE) buried Styles at Money in the Bank or whether the burying will last all summer. 

Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins

Much like the Cena-Styles matchup, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match between Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins pits casual fans against hardcore fans. 

Unlike Cena and Styles, WWE has done a poor job letting fans know who you should be cheering for. In the Cena-Styles feud, there's no doubt Cena is the hero, a babyface who fights for the fans. Styles is the heel who sucker-punched the 15-time world champion. 

In the buildup to WWE Money in the Bank 2016's title match, WWE has done a poor job of getting fans to sympathize with the champion.

As Rob Wolkenbrod of Daily DDT recently noted, "The reality of this feud is all the production work being done is causing the lines to be blurred. It’s not intentional, though, unlike the Styles feud. Rollins vs. Reigns is meant to be heel vs. babyface, but it’s becoming far from that."

Bleacher Report's Erik Beaston expanded upon this thought in his breakdown of the feud, writing, "Reigns is almost universally rejected, while Rollins was greeted by a thunderous ovation in his first few nights back, proving that fans were more interested in seeing The Architect back in a high-profile spot on the show than the current heavyweight champion of the world."

There aren't many options WWE can come up with that wouldn't be controversial. A Reigns win makes the returning Rollins look weak and leaves not a single Superstar with a claim to the WWE title. Putting the title on Rollins would seem to go against everything WWE has done up to this point in building Reigns as its new face of the company. 

Again, WWE is in a no-win situation. No matter what the company has tried, it just doesn't seem it can get Reigns over as a credible babyface champion. Short of a double turn and these Superstars switching roles, fans will not be satisfied with the current dynamic.