Two more slots filled for Smackdown! MITB match

This past Tuesday, WWE aired a special live edition of Smackdown!, dubbing it the Great American Bash, and proceeded to continue qualifying matches for this year’s Smackdown! Money in the Bank match for a shot at the World title. Five spots had previously been filled, with Christian, Tyson Kidd, Santino Marella, Damien Sandow and Tensai filling said spots. On Tuesday, we learned two more names have been added to the match.

First off, despite being on the losing end of his tag team qualifying match, Cody Rhodes is in this year (and is rumored to win the match as well). In a storyline, Rhodes filed a formal protest with the WWE Board of Directors, complaining that he should get a chance to be in Money in the Bank since his partner in the aforementioned tag team match, David Otunga, was the one pinned and not Rhodes himself. The Board apparently agreed with his protest, and Rhodes was given another chance to qualify on Tuesday night, against a hand-picked opponent chosen by the General Manager of the week, Teddy Long. Long ended up choosing Intercontinental Champion Christian, who has already qualified for the match. Rhodes was able to cleanly pin the IC champ later in the night following a Cross Rhodes, making him the sixth entry in the big ladder match.

The 7th man to qualify for the match was perennial title contender Dolph Ziggler. Later on after the Rhodes/Christian match, Ziggler easily squashed Alex Riley with the Zig Zag for the pinfall, and became entrant number seven.

There are several rumors circling this match right now. Originally, it was reported that there would be nine men in the Smackdown! MITB match, but the most recent rumors have stated that there will only be seven instead. However, to confuse matters even more, it appears WWE may be changing their minds once again and making this match a minimum of eight men. Zack Ryder is the guest General Manager for Smackdown! this coming Friday night, having won a 20-man “Great American Bash” battle royal on Tuesday for the privilege. Although Ryder already lost a qualifying match to Damien Sandow last week, it is believed that Ryder will use his status as the guest General Manager to name himself the eighth entrant in the upcoming MITB match. Although this isn’t confirmed, this is a very likely scenario.

We should know for sure the final card for Money in the Bank by next Friday night.