Money In The Bank: WHC Ladder Match Predictions (Part 1)

                The World Heavyweight Championship Money In the Bank ladder match features seven men going for a title that six of them have never held.    I have broken this into two parts, but it is my list from 7 to 1 of who I’d like to see win this match, why and what effects it could have on the wrestling world.

 (7) Jack Swagger – The theme of the World Heavyweight Championship side of the MITB match is “up and comers” and, well, Jack Swagger is anything but an up and comer.  The guy has already won MITB and been World Champion.   He “headlined” Wrestlemania this year against Alberto Del Rio in a losing effort.  So what would giving the briefcase to Jack Swagger really prove?   Nothing.   Swagger is in this match because he is a workhorse and one of the bigger guys to counteract with the smaller, high flyers.  (Think of him as this side’s version of Kane, though there will be no surprise upset) My only hope is that since Jack Swagger’s manager Zeb Coulter is also aligning himself with Antonio Cesaro now, this might give him a chance to turn good in this match.   An anti-American Swagger did not work, obviously, but imagine the reception this guy could get as a face.   You know, years back Jack Swagger was in the corner of Michael Cole at Wrestlemania and I fully expected Swagger to turn on Cole, launching him into a huge babyface push that never quite took off.   So while I do hope that this match will help change the direction of Swagger’s career (or at least give him some direction), I’m not too hopeful given the WWE track record with him.

(6) Fandango – Regardless of what anyone may believe, Fandango is not really ready to become World Champion at this point in his short lived career.  That doesn’t mean WWE won’t put the title on him, but there isn’t really a big upside to having Fandango as champion now versus, say, in a year from now.  In some ways, guys really need to lose a MITB match before they can win one.   Just ask Kofi Kingston (Remember him?)  I could see Fandango taking part in a good midlevel feud coming out of MITB and then if his character really can stick, he can look into becoming the champion down the road. 

                 Isn’t it odd how not that long ago the speculation was Fandango becoming IC Champion and now he’s in the World Title picture?   What if Fandango had not gotten injured and pulled from the triple threat IC Title match?  Would Curtis Axel instead be in this match and Fandango be the current IC Champion?  One has to wonder. 

(5) Wade Barrett – I don’t know what it is about Wade Barrett that people like (or like to hate when he’s a heel) but to me this guy had the peak of his career when he first came into WWE as the leader of Nexus.  He had all the cards in his favor, yet somehow fell into a sinkhole since that time.  If Wade Barrett was ever posed to become a major champion, that would have been the time to do it.   Right now, Wade Barrett becoming World Champion accomplishes nothing.   Sure, Barrett is stagnant in his career and this might push him into a direction that makes him seem, I don’t know, better, but what can really happen here?   Let’s say Dolph Ziggler eventually gets the World Title back as a face, and then the heel Barrett cashes in on him and just destroys him like a monster would.   Okay, that’d be kind of cool and make Barrett look threatening in some ways, but where would they go from there?  I guess Ziggler and Del Rio could work a program while Barrett defended the title against Randy Orton or Sheamus or someone, but, um… I don’t know.  When has the World Title ever really had meaning in WWE anyway?  Most of the time it’s just there to float around and you tend to forget about it anyway, so maybe it is a good title for Barrett after all.   But I’m not really expecting Wade Barrett to win MITB this time because I think he needs to do some major career overhauling if he’s ever going to become champion.  He needs to be a character that people are invested in. 

(4) Antonio Cesaro – What a coup it would be if the Cesaro and Jack Swagger were climbing the ladder and Zeb Coulter helped Cesaro win the MITB  briefcase.   Even without being World Champion yet, Cesaro would already have a feud set up with Swagger, where Zeb could say that Swagger let him down and he let America down.   This could play out well with the Swagger face turn and go back to where WWE seems to want to go with the idea that “foreigner = heel”.  The only thing is that, um, Antonio Cesaro doesn’t really need to win MITB to make this feud happen.  In fact, this seems like a much better feud that could play out for whatever reason without the World Title/MITB briefcase being a part of it.  Yeah, these two guys could cancel each other, leaving the spot open for someone else to seize.  I’d love to see Antonio Cesaro as World Champion.  He has all the qualities one needs, including stand out matches with Randy Orton.   I’m just not sure if now is his time or if he does get a Zeb Coulter backed push now if it will end up any differently than Swagger at Wrestlemania. 

                Realistically, Jack Swagger needs to regroup but so does Antonio Cesaro.  If WWE is serious about bringing glory days back to the tag division, Antonio Cesaro needs Chris Hero.  Weren’t they signed together for a reason, WWE?