First Money in the Bank contestant announced

The next big pay-per-view event for WWE is Money in the Bank, taking place on July 16th, live from the U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Thus far, the only matches we know that are going to happen are the two Money in the Bank ladder matches, one for RAW and one for Smackdown! It’s likely there will be 8-man matches, which means sixteen total WWE superstars will have the chance to practically guarantee themselves a WWE or World title reign within the next year. We have three weeks left until the show, and the first entrant in one of the matches has been announced.

On tonight’s episode of Smackdown!, the Big Show came to the ring and announced that his goal was to become WWE Champion, and he is guaranteeing victory at Money in the Bank, entering himself in the RAW match and automatically making him the largest competitor in either match.

Although Show might be considered a favorite, don’t expect him to win here. Show is reportedly lined up for a WWE Championship match against CM Punk at Summerslam, so winning the MITB match really wouldn’t make much sense at this point. However, he’s the only competitor announced in either match thus far, so we won’t know for sure what the odds look like until after all competitors have been named. Expect some form of qualifying matches on both RAW and Smackdown! over the next couple weeks.

On another interesting note, WWE is once again going with two separate ladder matches for the PPV event. Although this is what they’ve done in the past, there were rumors that there would only be one match this year, with competitors from both shows competing in one, likely four from each show. However, that idea has been scrapped, and two separate ladder matches are confirmed.

On the Smackdown! side, there’s a good chance we may get a surprise entry from Wade Barrett. Barrett has been out for the last few months with an injury, and has recently been filming for a new movie by WWE Films. There was talk earlier in the year of scrapping the MITB show altogether and returning the ladder match to Wrestlemania, where it originated from, but that idea was scrapped when Barrett, who was penned to win the match and later become World Champion, was forced out of action.

One of last year’s winners, Alberto Del Rio, is likely to be a competitor this year and, although no one else has been announced, expect regulars like Kofi Kingston, Christian and Cody Rhodes to be in the matches, with new faces like Antonio Cesaro and Damien Sandow likely being thrown into the mix.

More updates on this as more competitors are announced.