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A week ago, WWE came out with the Money in the Bank PPV, something that was tailor made for people like Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose and the other younger athletes who were slowly but surely cementing their place in the WWE. While the Money in the Bank ladder match for the WWE title involved superstars such as Orton, Sheamus, Kane and CM Punk, who had already won the WWE title before, everyone expected Daniel Bryan to win the bout, as he has been the hottest superstar in the company for over 3 months. With Money in the Bank being the perfect opportunity to make Bryan the face of the WWE, it was a toss between either Bryan or Punk to win the bout. To everyone’s surprise, the superstar who won the bout was Randy Orton, the same performer who had nothing to do for the past couple of years!
Looking back at Orton’s downhill slide from ’11, he was since involved in couple of low profile feuds, and had no momentum going into the match. With Rob Van Dam returning to WWE, people gave him more of a chance to win the bout than Sheamus or Orton. With Orton not turning heel in the WWE, he has become stale and uninteresting. So did WWE make the right choice by giving him the briefcase? Or have they made yet another mistake when it comes to pushing top talent even though they haven’t done anything interesting in the past few years? Let’s take a look.
Sheamus: Sheamus has been irrelevant just like Orton, and going into the bout, he was given little to no chance of winning the bout, which turned out to be correct. Out of the 6 contestants, Sheamus had the least probability of winning the match, as there are no plans to make Sheamus the WWE champion. With his feud with Team Rhodes Scholars going nowhere, it was obvious that the WWE creative didn’t have any solid plans for him in the works, and he was thrown into the ladder match as he had no one to face at the PPV. Sheamus had a good run as the WWE champion when he debuted on the main roster, being the dominant monster heel, but all of that has fizzled out and the WWE Universe no longer finds him interesting.
Christian: The only reason Christian was involved in the match, was because of his experience and the fact that WWE creative team messed up with his return. Christian is a top notch talent, and is one of the most under rated superstars in company’s history. He isn’t considered to be ‘championship material’, and his run as the World Heavyweight champion was made to look like a fluke. WWE’s treatment of Christian has been criticized heavily in the past, and no one expected that to change at the PPV.
Rob Van Dam: RVD made his WWE return at the Money in the Bank PPV during the ladder match, and as expected received the biggest pop from the Philadelphia crowd, who love RVD as much as the Chicago crowd loves CM Punk. With RVD still being at the top of his game, there were rumors that the WWE might actually give him the briefcase, bringing back the memories of ’06, when John Cena was the WWE champion, and RVD defeated him to win the WWE title, also by cashing in his Money in the Bank contract. With RVD’s return being a hit in the WWE, there were more chances of him winning the bout, rather than Sheamus or Randy Orton.
CM Punk: Punk is a former WWE champion, one who held the WWE title for a record 434 days! Going into the bout, he was the second favourite to win the bout and cash in the briefcase. With Punk – Lesnar feud taking shape, it was possible for Punk to win the briefcase and cash it in, only to be interrupted by Brock Lesnar. To WWE’s credit, Paul Heyman turning on Punk intensified the feud and made it even more interesting. With Punk now engrossed in his feud with Heyman and Lesnar, one does not see him winning the WWE title anytime soon.
Daniel Bryan: Going into the PPV, Daniel Bryan was the odds on favourite to win the Money in the Bank briefcase. With Bryan being the hottest star in the company for the past few months, this was the perfect opportunity for WWE to give the briefcase to him, and then give him the WWE title at a later time. Instead, WWE chose the “Let’s ask the fans” route, which would’ve backfired if it was done at a place with a dead crowd. WWE dropped the ball with Bryan, which could’ve led to a much more interesting phase in the WWE.
With Orton winning the briefcase, the only saving grace would be a heel turn, but that looks highly unlikely at this point. Unless WWE comes out with something interesting to do with Orton, there is no point in them giving him the briefcase. One can only hope that WWE has something concrete in their plans, and didn’t give Orton the briefcase just to please their top talent. Did Orton deserve to win the Money in the Bank ladder match? I don’t think so. But I’m hoping that they have something for Orton in the near future.
