WWE Money In The Bank 2012 Review

Good, but not great. Those are the words that would best describe this past Sunday's Money in the Bank PPV. While the show didn't have a whole lot of hype, it still had some fairly big expectations considering the people that were involved. And while it didn't disappoint to a large extent, you still feel that this PPV could have been so much more.

Smackdown Money in the Bank Ladder Match

No surprise to see this match kick off the show. And it was also no surprise to see how this match panned out.

It was a good match, BUT, could have been better if there weren't so many little mistakes and if the pace was slowed down for every spot to settle in with the fans.

It was simply spotfest, a clustered and rushed spotfest. It seems like they tried to get everything in the match as fast as possible, and as a result the match brought out a few too many botches that were hard to let off. They were botches that could have been easily avoidable as well.

For me, Tyson Kidd was the star of the match. He seemed to go out on a limb to outshine everyone else, and why not every move of his worked out, you still have to give him credit for trying innovative things. Tensai and Christian were fairly solid, and played their parts in the match fairly well, as did Sandow who although didn't do anything spectacular, had a good sense of ruthlessness about him. Sin Cara was as poor as ever, and surprise, surprise, Santino is afraid of heights. The two favourites, Rhodes and Ziggler, were slightly disappointing in my opinion, although I did like there one-on-one action. The many slugfests between the two really felt like one had to be taken out for the other to succeed.

In the end, it was Ziggler who captured the briefcase to end what was a hit and miss match. ***1/2

World Heavyweight Championship

Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio

Much like the Smackdown Money in the Bank, this match just lacked that extra kick. The match was enjoyable throughout, as we saw Del Rio work on the shoulder of the champion for most of the match. However, in the later stages of the match where you were expecting a shift in gears and direction, we were just treated with the ending instead.

While the World title match at Extreme Rules had fantastic action to overshadow the sudden ending, this one just didn't have that. So in the end, it was a rather poor ending for me.

I've enjoyed Sheamus' gutsy title defences, but I still wish there was still a better pay-off to his hard fought victories. This ending just came out of nowhere, but unfortunately, not in a good way. ***1/2

Primo & Epico vs. Prime Time Players

An alright match here to be honest, and certainly the best out of the unannounced filler matches on the card.

There was decent action in the ring, and AW continues to grow on me. The only thing I questioned about this match is the Prime Time Players second loss in a row. Aren't they supposed to be the biggest threat to Kofi and Truth's tag team gold? **1/2

WWE Championship

CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan

Another match to add to what must be now the never ending list of good Punk/Bryan matches.

A very different match we've seen between these two compared to those at Over The Limit and there first encounter on Raw. This match played in as more of a brawl, as well as an edge of your seat seat match in the way that you didn't know what AJ was going to do.

The match had its hight points, was well paced and told a very good story involving the special guest referee. Without having seen Raw yet, I still don't know what to think of the ending. AJ played with both men and in the end the just called it straight down the middle. We then saw her gaze up at the winner CM Punk, either frustrated that she wasn't the centre of attention, or frustrated that the champ wasn't celebrating with here. Or maybe I'm wrong on both accounts. The ending was a little flat and underwhelming, but it wasn't enough to ruin what was an entertaining match.

I said before that I could watch Bryan and Punk wrestle each other every week, but after many weeks of action between these two I actually think it'd be best to separate these two for a while. It's been a fun, yet almost gruelling storyline, so I'm hoping that when I watch Raw we'll get one last segment with AJ to wrap things up and then have the whole thing put to bed. ****

Ryback vs. Curt Hawkins & Tyler Reks

At least there was something different about this match. For the first time since his debut (well, second debut), we saw Ryback grounded for a few seconds. In the end though, there was nothing exactly good about this match. *1/2

Six Diva Tag Team Match

Layla, Kaitlyn & Tamina Snuka vs. Beth Phoenix, Natalya Neidhart & Eve

Yep, another filler match. I know this isn't exactly commenting on the match, but seriously, why don't creative get up off the asses and just write another storyline involving something like the Tag Team championship? At least then they'll have another match to add to the card before the PPV starts, instead of throwing in short matches that no one cares about.

Anyway, I suppose I should write something about the match. It's funny, this match consisted of 5 good wrestlers (sorry Kaithlyn), yet it was still 3 minutes of crap. *

Raw Money in the Bank Ladder Match

The addition of The Miz into this match was a nice surprise, and actually probably made this match more entertaining.

While this was the match I was least looking forward to, it was still a good match. It wasn't too rushed, it wasn't overcrowded and everyone involved played their parts well.

For me, it just as good as the Smackdown MITB, but in different ways. ***1/2

Overall, this was a pretty lacklustre show. Although it consisted of four matches over 3 stars, as I said at the start, it could have been more. In the end it all just fell a little flat.

Stray Observations:

• It's official – Sin Cara is incapable of putting on a good performance at a PPV.
• I'm so happy we didn't see another spot where the ladder breaks. That has been done way too many times at this stage.
• Since I only caught the replay of this show, I was treated with ads instead of any backstage segments that occurred. To be fair, the ads started off well – The Domino’s ad told a good story of pizzas being made, the Dark Knight Rises promo did a good job of hyping up the movie, and the UPS ad delivered with a satisfying ending at the halfway mark. However, the ads did slip in the latter stages of the night - eBay clearly stole the 'WWE Universe' idea by using there won 'your shopping universe' slogan, while the usually consistent Domestos continues to be incapable of killing that .1% of germs that's left. And finally, the final ad ended underwhelmingly as the babe chat-line that I rang up left me waiting on the line for over 15 minutes. ***
• Since when did Natalya turn heel again? She seems to have serious mood swings.
• “An experienced referee wouldn't have found themselves in that position.” Booker T on how full-time WWE referees are never knocked down during a match like AJ was on Sunday. Somehow I don’t even think the referees themselves agree with him on that point.