This Sunday at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, the fifth annual WWE Money In The Bank pay-per-view will take place, where the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship will be on the line in the seven-person ladder match main event.
In this detailed look at Sunday’s main event, I will break down each individual participant involved in the match and look at their chances of winning. It should be pointed out that there’s a big difference between what I think should happen as opposed to what I expect to happen. In the following space, we are going to take a look at what I expect from the Money In The Bank ladder match and why.
With that said, let’s take a look at the seven competitors that will be vying for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship this Sunday night in Boston.
#1. John Cena
Unfortunately, I think the leader of the “Ce-Nation” is taking this one. The show is in his backyard of Massachusetts, and more importantly, pretty much requires a baby face to come out on top. With Brock Lesnar being the next challenger at SummerSlam, with only the Battleground pay-per-view between now and then, it would make the most sense to have a strong baby face champion for Lesnar to dethrone at the biggest annual event of the summer.
With that being said, it really only leaves two strong options, the other being Roman Reigns, with Bray Wyatt as somewhat of a wild card, as he too would likely be the baby face in a scenario with Lesnar.
#2. Cesaro
Again, with Lesnar being the next big challenger to the title, this one makes perfect sense. They are the only two active “Paul Heyman Guys,” so the story line is ready-made. This would require Cesaro to turn baby face, with Heyman likely turning on him and siding with the man who conquered The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania. Especially since this is a fact that Heyman has reminded us of on a consistent basis since Lesnar’s last live WWE appearance, many while Cesaro stood in the background looking like “daddy’s second favorite.”
The key reason I rank Cesaro so high on this list, and you might think I’m crazy for making a lot out of potentially very little, but in describing his prediction for the winner of the Money In The Bank ladder match, Heyman informed the WWE Universe that it was a “spoiler” and not a “prediction” that “The King of Swing” was walking out of Boston with two giant gold belts. As unlikely as a Cesaro run as WWE World Heavyweight Champion this early into his push seems, the last time Heyman used that particular verbiage — “spoiler” — we saw something much more unlikely take place, as Lesnar ended a 21-0 WrestleMania undefeated streak.
#3. Roman Reigns
As much as I think it’s too soon, there’s actually a strong chance that Roman Reigns could walk out of Money In The Bank as the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion. I just think with only a one week build, two at best if you count him qualifying for the match last week, that it’s too soon for Reigns to become champion. I think WWE should make that something they focus heavily on and build in slow-burn fashion, allowing the fans time to picture it and really want to see it happening.
Another factor here is that we’re really only a few weeks into the breakup of The Shield. It has come off to me as if Reigns is just putting that behind him without truly getting revenge on Seth Rollins. I find it hard to believe that they will just totally ignore The Shield dynamic in Reigns’ character, so it’s hard to imagine him winning the title and going on to a program with Lesnar without wrapping up unfinished business with Rollins first.
The key reason I don’t want to see Reigns win the title this Sunday is that with Lesnar being the next challenger at SummerSlam, and the fact that he’s very likely to come out as new champion, it wouldn’t serve much of a purpose to have Reigns win the belt and lose it in only his second defense. They could have Rollins screw Reigns and cost him the title in the match with Lesnar, and then focus on Reigns-Rollins, but at that point a lot of time will have gone by and the idea of them “settling things with each other” will seem very dated.
Regardless, it’s either Reigns or Cena in my opinion, with Cesaro as the dark-horse, so he’s got a very good shot at becoming the next WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
#4. Bray Wyatt
This is somewhat of a long shot, but maybe not as much as you’d think. With Luke Harper and Erick Rowan challenging The Usos for the WWE World Tag-Team Championships, and Bray Wyatt mentioning that The Wyatt Family would have “all of the power” in winning all of those championships in one night and holding them simultaneously, they could have been teasing a glimpse into the future.
As noted earlier, Bray would certainly come off as the baby face against Lesnar, in fact almost anyone is going to be a baby face against Lesnar with SummerSlam being his first match since breaking Undertaker’s beloved streak, but I feel Bray would come off as a particularly strong baby face.
#5. Randy Orton
I don’t see any heels coming out on top with Lesnar being their first real challenger, but if a heel is going to come out on top, and you don’t count Cesaro as a heel, then Randy Orton would be the heel to do it.
They could put the strap on Orton as “the face of WWE” again, now that Triple H is back to more of an “Authority” type role alongside Stephanie McMahon, and coming fresh off off an alignment with Orton as part of Evolution, one that he said came with promises to Batista and Orton that once they conquered The Shield, which they technically did do by turning Rollins and beating them down, they would both get everything they wanted.
Batista quit, but Orton didn’t. Maybe he finally gets some help from The Authority and has another run as WWE World Heavyweight Champion, something that only he and Daniel Bryan have been since unifying the titles with John Cena back at TLC.
#6. Sheamus
…and we get to number six.
I have trouble coming up with anything to write about with these next two, as neither have a shot in hell of winning this Sunday. The only real chance either guy has would be someone selling Vince McMahon on the idea of it being good shock value, but that would be retarded and I don’t really see it happening.
#7. Alberto Del Rio
…see number six.
Who do you guys think is coming out of Money In The Bank as the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion? Leave your feedback in the “Comments” section below. You can also add me on Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBooneWZR and/or follow me on Twitter @MBoone420.
