WWE Money in the Bank 2011
July 17, 2011
Chicago, IL
Reviewed on March 8, 2014

Background: Ever since WCW went bankrupt, American Professional wrestlers didn’t have a whole lot of leverage anymore. There was no real competition. Sure, there was TNA, but a few notable wrestlers…only one who was a sure fire main eventer at the time (and one WWE legend)…ever went there. (Kurt Angle is the main eventer…even though Jeff Hardy, Mick Foley is the legend). Other guys had other non-wrestling ventures they could look at, but usually, they came back (Big Show, Chris Jericho, Batista). In terms of North American pro wrestling, the top is WWE. The money is in WWE. The stardom is in WWE.

The case of Kurt Angle actually showed that Vince McMahon could have all the leverage. Angle…fresh off of main eventing Wrestlemania, went to TNA and ratings hardly moved. Vince had went from a system of having one or two top guys (The Hogan Era, the Austin-Rock Era) to many big guys with only one that was at the very top (an argument Vince used with Hulk Hogan regarding Hogan’s Summerslam 06 payoff). I believe this actually dilutes the product, but that’s another discussion for another time.

Creatively though, WWE had really hit a down point after a solid 2010. That glass ceiling that’s existed for years and years in WWE seemed to be in clear view of the fans. In 2010 guys like Sheamus, Wade Barrett, the Miz and Daniel Bryan were coming on strong. In 2009, the same could be said about CM Punk. All of these guys here had been something ranging from kinda buried to buried. Sheamus went from bad ass heel champion killing Triple H to joke King of the Ring to actually outright missing the Wrestlemania card in favor of a Rock promo. He only recovered in early 2012…only to get buried because of his stupid 18 second World Title win at Mania 28. Barrett was the leader of one of the most creative angles WWE had done in a while in the Nexus. John Cena squashed him and the Nexus at TLC 2010, and Barrett has never reached that level again. The Miz was the WWE World Champion coming into 2011. Maybe he was somewhat average in the ring, but his character was just pure heel heat. Cena buried him at Over the Limit 2011 in one of the worst booked I Quit Matches I can remember (it’s not that Cena won…it was how)…and then losing to Alex Riley. Bryan hadn’t really been buried, but he also missed the Mania card and seemed to just be in that jobber to stars role after a really hot 2010.

That brings us to CM Punk. WWE was still trying to make new stars, but some were not catching on or not quite ready (John Morrison, R-Truth for the former, Alberto Del Rio for the latter.) There was something different with Punk though. The fans were connecting to him. For whatever reason, WWE wasn’t listening. He eventually got a world title shot for MITB though, which was the day his contract expired. Punk delivered a famous worked-shoot promo which ushered in the reality era for WWE. Punk was supposed to be the heel, but there was not a chance in hell that was happening, especially with the PPV in Chicago. The hype was tremendous. It was the most non-Mania anticipated PPV since One Night Stand 2005. Vince got involved in the storyline. It felt real. Someone was so good, they finally had some leverage.

Some other stories for this show: Mark Henry was actually becoming a bad ass. Christian had won his first World Title and lost it to Randy Orton two days later (which was absolutely awful in a lot of ways), leading to a heel turn for Christian.

The Card

They use that awful Donald Trump theme song for the PPV. At least it has to do with the theme.

Smackdown Money in the Bank
Sheamus vs. Heath Slater vs. Justin Gabriel vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Wade Barrett vs. Sin Cara vs. Kane vs. Daniel Bryan

If I remember correctly, the smart money here was on Wade Barrett. I wonder in retrospect if that was just hope though. To be fair, he wasn’t the obvious favorite, as Sheamus and Bryan def could have won.

Cody was still doing the broken face gimmick…which is what eventually made me a fan.

There are still some remnants of the Corre vs. Nexus storyline…which we see here with Gabriel and Slater. This would be the last time we see anything resembling the Nexus though.

Bryan with a perfect top rope dropkick to knock Rhodes off the ladder. This is going to be good.

Various wrestlers doing over the top and through the rope dives…with Sin Cara finishing with his sky high plancha on Sheamus. This is fun so far and they’ve barely used the ladder!

Forgot Sin Cara had the top rope C4 in his arsenal! This has to be Sin Cara’s peak here.

Powerbomb from Sheamus off the apron through a ladder. Poor Sin Cara. I believe this was used as a storyline to injure him as he had a Wellness Violation. Brutal spot though. Sin Cara was stealing the show before that powerbomb.

Actually it looks like both Gabriel and Slater were members of the Corre. Tells you what I remember.

Cole is still anti-Bryan.

Kane and Sheamus go LOD on Bryan. Nice spot, especially when you remember LOD is from Chicago.

Fans behind Daniel Bryan. When wasn’t he over?

Slater with a nice neckbreaker off the ladder to Bryan.

Sheamus and Barrett use the ladder as a fork and Health Slater’s the meat! They somewhat botch it as they dump him into Kane…but it was cool nonetheless.

Kane chokeslams Sheamus off a ladder into a ladder that was propped on the bottom rope. Ouch!

Rhodes uses a ladder for a Disaster Kick!

450 from Gabriel on a ladder bridge on the top rope…and he nails Kane! Very impressively done!

Daniel Bryan wins in 24:27. Bryan and Rhodes fight on the top of the ladder with Bryan locking him in a front choke. Barrett tries to sneak behind and grab the title, but Bryan sees him and tries to elbow him off. Barrett teases a Wasteland on that propped ladder, but Bryan escapes and kicks Barrett in the head, knocking him off. Bryan grabs the title. By the way, the original Flight of the Valkyries being played for the Money in the Bank winner is pretty awesome. Anyway, match is fantastic. Creative. Only dull point was actually when Cara went out, as fans thought he was really hurt and he was winning over the crowd. Bryan got a good pop when he won as well.

Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis here. Still trying to sign CM Punk.

Diva’s Championship
Kelly Kelly© vs. Brie Bella

Kelly went for a flying headscissors…but didn’t quite scissor the head.

Story here is apparently Kelly Kelly is mad that the Bellas said her Maxim shoot was airbrushed. It probably was.

Kelly Kelly does that leg stand choke that Candace Michelle did at Wrestlemania 22…and Brie counters by escaping and shoving Kelly…who falls face first on the floor! Ouch.

Brie with a leg wrap around waistelock. Not bad.

I don’t remember Brie being a good wrestler. Has this always been the case?

Brie screws up on the bulldog as she drops too early.

Bellas are much better heels than faces.

Kelly Kelly retains by pin at 4:46. Kelly hits a Rocker Dropper (the K2 or K Squared maybe?) for the win. Nikki complains that Kelly doesn’t even eat. Wasn’t there a bullying campaign being touted by WWE at this time? Anyway, pretty solid Women’s Match overall. We’re 2 for 2.

Best of Nitro DVD!

Big Show vs. Mark Henry

If you threw this match out there in 1999, it would have been absolutely horrible.

In 2008 Mark Henry went from looking like an actor playing a scary motherfucker to looking like a scary motherfucker. Why WWE wasted that in 2009-2010 I don’t know…but Henry now is full blown bad ass, and you see the difference everywhere.

Big Show with a flying shoulder tackle!

Love the selling of each other’s strength here. Show shoves Henry into the stairs and Henry actually sells by flying over them. Great.

Henry works on the knee…apparently Show was coming off a knee injury.

Half-Crab! This match is at a faster pace than I ever would have guessed.

Big Show with a shoulder tackle off the 2nd rope…but he hurts the knee!

Flawless World’s Strongest Slam…and a kickout!

Mark Henry pins Big Show in 6:00. Another WSS, and then two Splashes for the win. Henry then traps Show’s leg in a chair and drops a Vader Bomb Knee Drop (Pillmanizing!), injuring Show which would lead to some more Show vs. Henry goodness later in 2011. Exactly the win Henry needed to get him in the main event and continue to get him over as a legit bad ass. Well done. Good match. We’re 3 for 3.

2nd Stretcher of the night. First Cara, now Big Show.

Vince still hasn’t re-signed CM Punk. It’s getting close to the expiration date! Vince says he offered the most lucrative contract he possibly could. This is the man who gave Bret Hart 20 years once!

RAW Money in the Bank
Alberto Del Rio vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Evan Bourne vs. The Miz vs. Jack Swagger vs. Alex Riley vs. R-Truth

This one’s winner prediction was more clean cut. It was pretty obvious Del Rio was winning.

Booker T talks about Alberto Del Rio’s claim that it was destiny for him to become champion. Sad that he never got passed that mindset.

Even though I was disgusted with the idea of Truth main eventing Capital Punishment, he was a funny heel.

Everyone grabs a ladder to start to defend themselves, and Truth grabs a small step ladder to put over a fear of heights. Pretty funny.

Miz was still over here.

Poor Del Rio. He gets knocked around and put under a ladder on the outside, and everyone just tosses their ladders on him.

The future Awesome Truth have a step ladder duel.

Bourne and Kingston climb up an unopened ladder. You know, Kingston was the reason they were able to cut Shelton Benjamin.

Of course Cole is pro-Miz and anti-Riley.

Bourne with the Air Bourne (Shooting Star Press) from a super high ladder to everyone on the outside! That tops John Morrison’s spot from Mania 27.

Miz is hanging from the title belt and falls badly. It looks like he wrecked his knee and he screams like it. Doctors at ringside and it looks like the kneecap is dislocated. Poor Miz. He avoid stretcher #3…but is helped to the back.

Double falling hurricanrana from Bourne and Rey at the same time, which was cool.

Swagger puts on the Ankle Lock on Kingston when Kingston is hanging on the ladder!

Booker T is critical of Kofi Kingston’s dancing in matches. What a hypocrite. Spinarooni anyone?

R-Truth just botched something. I can’t really explain what.

Kofi Kingston just nails Rey with his legs on the top of the ladder. Rey falls like a dead man. Wow.

It’s the Miz! Was a face turn on the horizon? Got a huge reaction…and when Rey stopped him he got booed.

Alberto Del Rio wins in 15:54. Rey is about to win, but here is Del Rio! Rey hits Del Rio with the briefcase on top of the ladder, and it really looks like Rey is about to win…but Del Rio goes for the mask! Brilliant (if you ignore WCW)! Rey covers up and Del Rio shoves him onto the ladder next to him…which is amazing in itself since he practically can’t see as he’s hiding his face. The ladder does topple over messing up the finish, but it’s still fine as ADR climbs up and wins. Another very good match! People thought Punk was winning tonight, and Del Rio was cashing in. We’re a month early for that!

Anyway, we are 4 for 4 with 2 matches left!

Del Rio interview…he actually originally had the title match at MITB before Punk got it. This foreshadows the MITB cashing…if it happens.

World Heavyweight Championship
Randy Orton© vs. Christian

If Orton is DQed, or if there is a bad referee call, he loses the title to Christian.

Story here: As I wrote earlier, the IWC was spit at with the two days Christian title run, but it did lead to a good story. Orton seemed to feel bad for Christian. In future rematches, Christian would keep getting screwed somehow (like, he had his leg under the rope in the Capital Punishment match). Eventually, Christian turned heel as he thought WWE was protecting their “golden boy” (which fits the theme of this PPV brilliantly). Orton mentioned at first it was all respect, but now he was getting angry. Which leads of course to the DQ stip.

There were Christian’s last good days.

Christian starts by throwing a chair into the ring and sliding it to Orton. Nice.

This is a solid match, but nothing exciting is really happening, if that makes sense. It’s actually the standard for Christian.

Orton does bust out a nice dodge and roll-up from the corner.

Orton has one of the best dropkicks in wrestling.

Top rope headbutt from Christian.

Orton survives the Kill Switch.

Christian wins the title when Orton gets DQed at 12:20. Christian spits at Orton, and Orton low blows him for the DQ. Crowd pops. Orton beats the hell out of Christian and RKOs him on the announcer’s table. Table doesn’t break. You can kinda tell the refs want him to come back to try again. Table holds on the 2nd time as well. In all seriousness, it’s a basic solid match. Christian was the master of those. While the ending was stupid, it does make sense within the story. You know how HHH tells Daniel Bryan that’s he’s a B+ wrestler. That’s what Christian really was. Still though, a solid match is a solid match. We are 5 for 5. Will Cena-Punk deliver?

WWE Championship
John Cena© vs. CM Punk

Get ready for the spiritual successor to RVD vs. Cena at One Night Stand 06.

The one thing that made little sense that they had to fix in this match build-up was that there’s no good reason Vince would ever give Punk a title shot if he could leave. So, that’s how the if Cena loses he’s fired bit was added, as Cena was the one who wanted this match.

CM Punk’s entrance here is one of the greatest of all time. The crowd reaction is amazing. Punk absolutely owns the arena. Michael Jordan could show up and I think the focus would be on Punk.

It’s a shame that Punk didn’t keep “This Fire Burns” longer. The line “even through these darkest days, this first still burns” fit perfectly here.

The heat for Cena is immense.

Snapmare by Cena. BOOOOOOOO!

“You Can’t Wrestle” chants…and Punk clarifies that they are talking about Cena. Haha.

Great wrestling early. Cena really gets high on a hip toss…he has his selling shoes on for Punk, that’s for sure.

Every move Punk makes just works. The crowd is absolutely white hot here.

Punk with a leg sleeper. Punk busted out everything for this match.

Punk with a low-five to Colt Cabana!

Cena is hung on the apron…and Punk comes off the top with a knee to the back of the head!

Small botch…Punk hits a twisting crossbody, but he’s a bit too low and hits Cena’s knee.

Cena suplexes Punk to the floor from the apron!

There are a lot of finisher teases here, which really works the crowd.

Cena with a new move, a slam into a reverse DDT type move. Pretty cool.

You Can’t See Me…blocked with a kick to the head!

Suicide Dive from Punk! He hit it good too! Match is practically perfect so far.

You Can’t See Me hits! AA…but Punk almost lands on his feet. Punk then hits a sweet kick combo with a sweep! Awesome!

GTS blocked into a gutwrench slam.

Stiff knees to the face from Punk and a bulldog! That 2nd one clearly hit Cena in the face hard.

Match has steadily built up to the point where it’s concievable anyone can win.

Punk in the STF! Huge cheers when Punk gets the rope.

Punk off the top, but Cena rolls through and gets the AA. No, AA countered. GTS…amazingly countered into a STF. Incredible sequence!

Punk counters the STF into the Vise!

AA….1…2……….NO! I remember thinking that was the finish.

Cena hits a huge legdrop from the top, but Punk gets out at 2!

Another AA, I really thought this was it, but no, another kick out!

Cena goes for a top rope AA….but Punk counters into a hurricanrana!

GTS hits….but Cena falls to the outside!

Punk gets Cena back into the ring…but Vince and Big Johnny are here! Huge boos.

STF! STF! Vince sends Johnny to ring the bell!

CM Punk wins the WWE Title when he pinned John Cena 33:44. Cena knocks out Big Johnny and tells McMahon that a man is gonna win this fight. Cena goes back in and walks into the GTS, 1…2…3! Crowd ERUPTS!

Vince panics, then in an interesting move goes to the announcer’s desk and calls for Alberto Del Rio to cash in MITB. Del Rio comes, but Punk kicks him in the head and leaves through the crowd. Vince looks like he’s crying in the ring. This ending is a very weird (in an interesting way) moment, as you are mixing shoot with work elements there.

I don’t know what the greatest wrestling match of all time is, but this is without a doubt a contender. The story. The build. The layout of the match. The two characters in the ring. The two men in the ring. The moves. The false finishes. Everything. Everything hit. When WWE said that the Mania 27 Undertaker vs. HHH match was the Match of the Year, they slapped Punk and Cena in the face (that’s coming from someone who likes that match a hell of a lot). It won every other match of the year award out there.

The WWE had a goldmine waiting with CM Punk after this. But even with his eventually super long World Title reign, he was still never the man. True change never happened. The sad thing is that it fulfilled what CM Punk said in the famous shoot: Vince McMahon will make money in spite of himself.

There are six matches here and at a minimum, all six are good. That combined with the fact that you have an arguable Match of All Time candidate, well, how is this not one of the greatest PPVs of all time?

Final Grade: A+