Post-Post Wrestlemania Thoughts: Has MITB Crippled Wrestlemania's Undercard?

Back in Wrestlemania 21, WWE introduced us to one of the best gimmick matches in the past decade: the Money in the Bank Ladder Match, in which several competitors would lacerate skin and crush bone in order to fetch a hanging briefcase that guaranteed a World Championship Match at any moment over the course of the year.

The match was a total success because of three things: 1) It followed (and upgraded) the tradition of excitement introduced by this type of match at Wrestlemania X, 2) bookers had an easy way to introduce several competitors into a the card at once, and 3) MITB provided a very practical way of constructing WWE’s future through the exposure and elevation of deserving young stars.

Consequently, MITB became a Wrestlemania fixture for six years and in several occasions saved the event from being a total flop.  The gimmick proved itself worthy of its own PPV, thus WWE decided to remove it from Wrestlemania.

Wrestlemania 27 was an OK event, but it should’ve been much more than “just OK.” Even though a couple matches reached and even surpassed expectations, the card as a whole was pretty weak and fans were left with a night that saw nothing really special or transcendent happening.

A handful of fans blame it on the lack of MITB in the card, and although they might be right, I think introducing MITB into the Wrestlemania card has become an unhealthy practice for the WWE.

As stated above, MITB provided creative staff with an easy way to position mid-carders in the event, consequently letting them focus efforts on more complex storylines heading into the biggest PPV. 

The number of superstars in the match range from reasonable (6) to absurd (10), and being most of them mid-carders, creative is left with few superstars to construct the rest of the matches because the more interesting young competitors are smacking each other with ladders; undercard possibilities are drastically reduced and the whole event feels sort of empty (save a couple spots covered by main event matches or very well-booked feuds).

Now let’s get real: WWE creative staff has proved to us in the last year that, at some random point in time, they forgot how to build a decent PPV undercard. Fans thought this people might pull off some extra effort because Wrestlemania’s a special night, but this year’s Grandest Stage of ‘em All came up short because MITB, the safe-booking device, was banned from the event.

The result: a couple mid-carders got decent feuds leading into that night and the others were doomed in directionless multi-person tag matches or didn’t even make it into broadcast…oh, and the World Heavyweight Championship match had to open the show.

What about a Divas match? What about the tag titles? What about the US and Intercontinental titles? A case could be made about divas and tag teams due to the company’s lack of interest in developing those divisions, but both secondary belts were being held at the moment by two of the best TV and PPV performers in WWE for the last six months.

United States Championship matches have not been part of the card (dark matches don’t count) since Wrestlemania 24; correct me if I’m wrong, but the last time the Intercontinental belt was decently defended (no, I won’t consider Wrestlemania 25’s squash) at the Showcase of the Immortals was Wrestlemania X8. Make the math.

Why?

Since the inception of MITB at Wrestlemania, the Intercontinental Champion has participated in the match and was joined by the US Champion since Wrestlemania XXIV. Both straps have been overseen by their holders and potential challengers over a shot for World Championships; it’s comprehensible, yet it reflects how poorly coveted both secondary titles are.

Worst of all, some superstar were becoming mandatory MITB competitors (e.g. Shelton Benjamin, Christian, Matt Hardy, probably Kofi Kingston) not only due to their amazing athleticism, experience and innovatory capabilities, but also because WWE’s creative was not willing to think a more complex storyline for such competitors, thus imprisoning them in this match like some sort of curse that follows beyond the grave (and a “glass ceiling” symbol).

Concluding the MITB is not a problem itself; the malignant factor comes from creative staff and bookers relying too much on this tool and becoming lazy story-tellers in the process.

In spite of earning its spot as a Wrestlemania tradition, the MITB concept has grown beyond it and now is strong enough to have a PPV for its own. If WWE wants to build stronger, more appealing Wrestlemania cards while not relying solely on two or three matches to successfully promote the PPV, the first step is keeping our beloved Money in the Bank Ladder Match the heck out of Wrestlemania and on its own PPV, where it belongs.