WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Money in the Bank 2012 Review

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at WWE Money in the Bank 2012. Despite this PPV not having the best buildup, was it able to deliver a watchable show? Let's find out and start the review. 

Match #1: WHC Money in the Bank Ladder match

We open up with the blue briefcase match, but let's talk about the pre-show first. Kofi Kingston and R-Truth went up against Hunico and Camacho. I'm not sure if this was a Championship match or not, but any knowledge of that would show that I care too much about this match. Hunico keeps saying he's the future of the WWE. Yeah, more like future endeavor of the WWE…..

Truth hits Little Jimmy on Camacho for the victory. For a pre-show match, it wasn't too bad. We also see Santino make a mini-briefcase for his Cobra…..that's just inappropriate. Anyway, on with the real show. 

To open up the PPV, this was a fair match. At the same time, I did notice a couple of slip ups during this match. Now, I'm not one of those people who's gonna nitpick every match. These moves are hard to pull off, and I bet some IWC nitpicker can't even pull off a quarter of the moves these guys can pull off. Seriously, it pretty much proves that the internet will literally complain about EVERYTHING. Oh, did I just say that out loud? With that said, I felt the one person in this match that seemed out of place was Santino. He missed a couple of very noticeable spots in this match. I think this was the first time Santino's competed in a ladder match (Don't quote me on that), and it definitely showed. I don't think he should be involved in another ladder match again. Despite a few mistakes, this was still a good match. Tyson Kidd, Christian, Dolph Ziggler, and Cody Rhodes delivered some great spots. Damien Sandow was decent in this match, so how about giving him an opponent now? Tensai even looked decent in this match. I'm surprised that Sakamoto didn't help out his boy in this match. I'm starting to think Sakamoto is one of those people that gets off on people beating him up. Hey, Tyson is about to win. I'll take Tyson!!! I'll take Tyson!!! Oh, only about three people are gonna know what the hell I'm talking about. We even got shades of last year when Tensai powerbombed Sin Cara through a ladder. Is this Sin's gimmick? The finish comes when Dolph finally pulls down the briefcase. This obviously made the most sense. They have been hinting at Dolph getting the leap into the main event for a while, so this doesn't come as too big of a surprise. I'm happy for Dolph, but I hope the worse doesn't happen now that he has won the briefcase. 

Winner: Dolph Ziggler

Match #2: Sheamus vs Alberto Del Rio; WHC match

You know that Smackdown gets underplayed when almost all of the SD guys are competing in the first hour of the show. Now, I can see a lot of people not caring for this match since the buildup has been very basic. I thought this was a good match to watch, but I can see people not caring for this contest. It mostly has to do with the fact that Del Rio was mostly in a filler role for this match, as opposed to looking like somebody that could take the championship. The finish comes when Sheamus hits the Brogue Kick for the victory. After the match, Ricardo Rodriguez and Del Rio attack Sheamus. It looks like Sheamus is down. Dolph comes out and is about to cash in the MITB, but Del Rio argues with him. Dolph knocks him out with the briefcase. Just as Dolph hands the briefcase to the ref, Sheamus is back up and hits the Brogue Kick on Dolph. Since the ref never made the match official, it doesn't count. Dolph still has the briefcase, but part of me is disappointed. Dolph stealing the title would've shown a glimmer of WWE NOT playing it safe and thinking outside the box, but that wasn't the case. Instead, they remain on this predictable route and let Sheamus walk out with the title. Then again, part of me is glad they didn't do the cash-in tonight since it makes it wide open for future events. Still……what could've been.

Winner via pinfall and still WHC: Sheamus

Match #3: Prime Time Players vs Primo and Epico

Kofi and Truth were on commentary for this match. I love how AW throws Mexican slurs towards the Puerto Ricans. Kofi and Truth were calling Titus O'Neil a horse face. So, what does that make Darren Young? A horse's ass face. The Prime Time Horses…..or Horsey. This was a fair match, but nothing amazing. The finish comes when Primo gets a rollup on Darren for the victory. After the match, AW brags about being the #1 Contenders. They walk up to Kofi and Truth, but Truth uses the ultimate weapon of H2O to embarrass AW. Some people might complain about the approach of having the #1 Contender lose this type of match, but I think this is a better approach. It seems they want to establish the PTP as a heel tag team, but they also want to have Primo and Epico remain in the spotlight. There was a time where 3-4 tag teams would be featured on the show, so I'm glad they are showcasing at least 3 tag teams at the moment. Maybe the tag division really is making a comeback? Only time will tell. 

Winner via pinfall: Primo and Epico

Match #4: CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan; NO DQ match for WWE Championship

During the interview with AJ, she talks about Punk's rejection and Bryan's asshole nature. She cares for both of them, but feels like ripping out their……ripping out their what? 

Yeeeeeeaaaaaaah……So, it appears the WWE MITB ladder match is gonna be the main event. I'll save that rant until we get to that match, but I'm almost convinced that its in John Cena's contract to be in EVERY PPV main event. Early in this match, AJ gets knocked down and sent to the back. For the majority of this match, she wasn't a factor. With a backup ref involved, that's when Punk and Bryan started utilizing the rules. A kendo stick and table got in the picture. Punk and Bryan really go out of their way to deliver a good match. I still consider their match at Over the Limit to be better, but this is definitely a close second. In my book, the best match of the night. After a while, AJ arrives since she left her crazy medication behind. She actually gets a chair and drops it between Punk and Bryan. I thought she was gonna start doing a strip-tease in the middle of the ring. She's basically toying with both of them. After a ton of counters, the finish comes when Punk hits a Back Suplex from the top rope and through a table. Punk is still the WWE Champion, while AJ didn't seem to be that big of a factor in this match. It does raise the question, what's the point of having AJ involved in this match if she didn't do much? I will agree that her involvement in this match didn't really do much, but I'm glad they took this approach. It was time for AJ to move on to something else, plus I think WWE just wanted to conclude this rivalry once and for all. I saw a lot of internet complaints for AJ not being involved in the match, but I'm also convinced that they would've complained if she was in the match too much. Yeah, there's no winning in that situation. Personally, I'm glad they kept AJ's involvement to a minimum since it made the match better. After tonight, I can see AJ having more feelings/concern for Bryan because of how she seem to detest Punk after the night. Then again, AJ's entire character can literally make you do this every week…..

Winner via pinfall and still WWE Champion: CM Punk

Match #5: Ryback vs Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks

Just like SD this past week, Reks and Hawkins were actually taking it towards Ryback. He did get knocked around a bit, but Ryback still wins with the Shell Shocked…..

Winner via pinfall: Ryback

Match #6: Layla, Kaitlyn, and Tamina vs Beth Phoenix, Natalya, and Eve

Still odd to see these matches AFTER the two world title matches. Then again, I'm convinced that Cena's ass is made of gold, which would explain why he's above both world titles at the moment. Winner and NEW Champion, John Cena's Ass. Layla wins with the Lay Out. This whole division doesn't make any sense to me, but most of you know that I gave up a while back in trying to piece this puzzle. Not even Banjo Kazooie could put together this puzzle. I mean, why is Natalya heel again? I don't know, nor do I care. It's gonna take a number to really fix this division. Yikes!!!

Winner via…..something: Layla, Kaitlyn, and Tamina

Match #7: WWE Money in the Bank Ladder match

As I mentioned earlier, this was the main event. I normally wouldn't have a problem with this. After all, the name of the PPV is MITB, so why not have a MITB match close it? Well, I think my biggest issue is the fact that Cena is ONCE AGAIN in the main event for the PPV. That's now SIX straight PPVs that Cena has closed out. Remember when the WWE Championship closed out the shows? Well, that hasn't happened since WWE TLC, which was back in December of 2011. It really underplays the value of the WWE title when it gets pushed back this much. I forgot to mention that Miz showed up after the WHC MITB match and put himself in this match. I liked Miz's promo. He was more calm and collective. I kinda want to see them explore this character a little more. Apparently, Miz has been away to deal with sequels from bad Cena movies. That's a fate I don't wish upon anybody. In the early going, everybody worked together to take out Big Show. They capped it off by having Cena hit the AA through the Spanish announce table. Rest in Peace: Spanish Announce Table #3056749. We will miss you the most. After the attack, Cena, Kane, Miz, and Chris Jericho all pile a ton of ladders on top of Show. I guess you can say that Big Show's being buried……

It didn't last too long, as Show would eventually find his way back in the ring and introduce his special, fat-boy ladder. By the way, did anyone else think the ladders looked very cheap? Yeah, you can tell WWE had a shopping spree at Wal-Mart recently. This was a fair ladder match, but it shouldn't have closed out the show. It was definitely the weaker of the two ladder matches. The finish comes when Cena finally pulls down the briefcase. Yep, Cena wins……yet again………yeah? No? Okay, let's dive into it. I will admit that I really didn't want to see Cena win this match. I respect Cena and I don't hate the guy, but the overexposure can really make it seem like a drill is being shoved down your throat. That would be the Cena 'drill', if you know what I mean. Then again, let me try to get you to think down a different direction. It's often that the MITB holders eventually make heel turns. More often than not, MITB does wonders for the bad guy. Here me out here. What if Cena cashes in the briefcase in a heel fashion? If he does that, that would certainly get people interested in Cena. It's possible for Cena to cash it in and NOT become a bad guy, but I'm trying to give some of you some food for thought. Hell, we can even hope for Cena to be the first to NOT win the championship…..right? It could happen, so there is a positive for Cena winning tonight. Still, I know people are gonna be very upset with Cena winning this match. He really didn't need to win and it probably would've been more interesting if somebody else had won since it would be different. This PPV was predictable since I got every prediction right. Reckon, I don't care for my picks, but I shouldn't be getting all of these picks right. I really have to hope for a big surprise at the 1000th episode or this can be a loooooooooonnnnnnnnnng year. 

Winner: John Cena

Overall Impression:

Even though I just said this PPV was predictable as hell, it wasn't that bad of a show. Now, I will say that the previous MITB PPVs were better than tonight, this was still a fair edition in the MITB series. The show featured some pretty good action. The Punk/Bryan match was really good, and the two MITB matches were fair to watch. The four main matches did deliver in the quality department. You get those high spots that you're used to seeing with MITB and I was entertained by most of the matches. The biggest issue I have with tonight's show was the predictability. There was no plot twist or a swerve to get you invested in tomorrow's Raw. This was the definition of a show playing it way too safe. In fact, the last few WWE PPVs have been played safely. When will we get that "OMG" moment? When is that enticing storyline gonna happen? When am I gonna be at the edge of my seat as I watch a great storyline play out? For these last few months, its been anything BUT that. Now, I think the reason for that is because the WWE is saving up for the 1000th episode, but by putting all the investment in one show, you're possibly setting yourself up for disaster if you can't deliver in this department. I think they needed to space things out evenly. What if this 1000 episode bombs and they DON'T deliver that big storyline/swerve? It would make everything that's happened these last few months look even more ridiculous. I'm generally not big on putting all of your eggs in one basket, but I guess we will see when this episode comes out next week. If I have to give WWE Money in the Bank a score on a scale of 1-10 and 5 considered average on this show, I would give this show a 7 out of 10. Some may think that's too high for this PPV, but I did get an enjoyment out of tonight's action. Some will question the booking, but I try not to grade a show based on the booking itself. If I did that, I would probably be one of those IWC members who complains about 90% of the product. Tonight's PPV featured some great wrestling action, but the predictable nature of the show can lose your interest, so don't say I didn't warn you. That's gonna do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. If you enjoyed any of this non-sense or my stupid opinions, you can check out some of my other work. Tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show. See you next time. 

WrestlingNerd's Official Score of WWE Money in the Bank 2012: 7 out of 10