Money in the Bank (2011)

For the professional wrestling match, see Money in the Bank ladder match.

Money in the Bank
Promotional poster featuring The Big Show and Hornswoggle.
Theme song(s)	"WWE: Money In The Bank (Official Theme Song)" by Jim Johnston[1]
Information
Promotion	WWE
Date	July 17, 2011
Attendance	14,815[2]
Venue	Allstate Arena
City	Rosemont, Illinois
Pay-per-view chronology
Capitol Punishment Money in the Bank SummerSlam (2011)
Money in the Bank chronology
Money in the Bank (2010) Money in the Bank TBA

Money in the Bank (2011) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by WWE, which took place on July 17, 2011 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.^[3][4][5] It was the second annual Money in the Bank pay-per-view. The event drew 195,000 buys, which was up from 165,000 buys the previous year.^[6]

Background

The Money in the Bank 2011 set.

See also: Professional wrestling

Money in the Bank featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on WWE's television programs. Wrestlers portrayed heroes or villains as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a match or a series of matches.^[7]

The main event stemming from the Raw brand for the Money in the Bank event featured John Cena defending the WWE Championship against CM Punk. On the June 20 episode of Raw, Punk won a Triple Threat Falls Count Anywhere match over Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio to become the number one contender for the WWE Championship. Also, after the match, Punk announced that his WWE contract expires the same day as Money in the Bank, and vowed to win the championship and take it with him.^[8] However, at the end of the June 27 episode of Raw, Punk delivered a worked shoot promo, berating WWE for not promoting him properly, and insulting several authority figures, such as McMahon family members (Vince, Stephanie and Triple H) and WWE executive John Laurinaitis. Additionally, he proposed that, upon winning the WWE Championship, he might defend the belt in Ring of Honor and/or New Japan Pro Wrestling. As a result of his actions during the promo, Punk was indefinitely suspended within the WWE storyline, thereby removing his match with Cena from the Money in the Bank card. After some intervention from John Cena, Mr. McMahon agreed to reinstate Punk and to bring the match back. However, the stipulation was added that if CM Punk left with the title, Cena would be fired from the company.^[9] The following week on Raw, Punk returned and revealed that Mr. McMahon desperately wanted to sign him to a contract to ensure that the WWE Championship would stay in the WWE. Punk made a list of nearly insurmountable demands to McMahon, but McMahon still wanted to sign the contract. John Cena interrupted the proceedings, and after Punk referred to Cena as a "dynasty" that rivaled the New York Yankees, Cena punched Punk in the face. The distraught Punk then ripped up the contract that would have kept him in the WWE.

SmackDown's main event was between Christian and Randy Orton. At Capitol Punishment, Christian's foot was under the bottom rope while he was being pinned. The referee failed to notice this, and Christian felt as though he was cheated out of the victory. As a result, Christian demanded that he be given another chance. SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long gave Christian the chance by putting him in a match against Sheamus. The match turned into a tag team match after some interference, and Christian's tag team partner for the night Mark Henry pinned Randy Orton. Teddy Long decided to give Mark Henry a shot at earning the right to face Orton at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, but Christian used The Big Show's music to distract Henry and allow Randy to win the match, keeping Christian in line for a title match. During the contract signing for the match, Sheamus, who had been kicked in the head by Randy Orton weeks earlier, returned and attacked both Christian and Orton. Christian used this opportunity to have his lawyers write up a new contract. The terms of this new contract stated that Christian could win the belt via disqualification or if there was a case of "bad officiating". Christian then started to taunt Orton the next week by stealing his wallet, betting an absurd amount of money, and interfering in his main event match against Kane on SmackDown.

The Raw Money in the Bank competitors were placed in the match based on their recent performance. Alberto Del Rio, R-Truth, and Rey Mysterio were all given an opportunity to simply become the #1 Contender's for the WWE Championship following CM Punk's suspension by facing off in a Triple Threat Match. Del Rio won the match, but when Punk was reinstated later that night, Del Rio's #1 Contendership was abandoned. Del Rio was then reinserted into the match. All the Raw competitors then spoke about their anticipation for the match on Raw, but this ended in a large brawl. Alberto Del Rio broke up the brawl by attacking his future opponents with a steel ladder, and then revealed his personal ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez had returned from the injuries he sustained from The Big Show. Other feuds were contained within the match, including the feud between Alex Riley and The Miz, which picked up steam after Riley beat Miz yet again on Raw. Miz got revenge by brutally attacking Riley on the outside of the ring.

The feud between Mark Henry and The Big Show started when Big Show viciously attacked Mark Henry on SmackDown, following the events with Alberto Del Rio from last month. Henry got his revenge by using the World's Strongest Slam to send Show through the Spanish announce table at Capitol Punishment. Mark then went on a violent streak, interfering in Big Show's Steel Cage Match with Alberto Del Rio by ripping off the cage door, allowing Del Rio to win, and then using the door to smash into Big Show, completely destroying a cage wall. This attack left Big Show out of action for weeks, but Mark continued to terrorize WWE officials by attacking a sound technician and throwing him off the stage. Big Show's return to Raw was marked by a Handicap Match against Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre. This match was set up after Mr. McMahon overheard Ziggler, McIntyre, and Vickie Guerrero mocking him backstage. Big Show tried to chokeslam McIntyre off the stage during the match due to his mounting frustrations with Del Rio and Henry, but Henry tackled Show and McIntyre off the stage before this could take place.

Kelly Kelly won the WWE Divas Championship from Brie Bella on Raw during the Power to the People episode. The Bella Twins then focused on ridiculing Kelly for her small stature. Eve Torres, still bitter about losing the belt to Brie due to Bella trickery, joined Kelly's side to face off against The Bella Twins. Eve decided to be in Kelly's corner at Money in the Bank when she was forced to give Brie her obligatory rematch, to make sure Nikki did not interfere.

The SmackDown Money in the Bank members also had a promo similar to the one given by the Raw superstars. However, instead of their promo being interrupted by Alberto Del Rio, it was interrupted by a chair-wielding Sheamus. Every competitor tasted Sheamus's steel, except for Sin Cara, who managed to dodge the attack and escape to the outside of the ring.

Event

Preliminary matches

The event started with the SmackDown Money in the Bank ladder match. All the eight men entered the ring and the bout started with everyone brawling. The match spilled outside while Kane wrestled Sheamus and Barrett inside. On the outside Slater and Gabriel double teamed Sin Cara with a ladder. Inside, Bryan dropkicked Gabriel, who was on a ladder, from the top rope. Then Kane started dominating, and Gabriel attempted a senton from the ring to the outside which Kane reversed into a powerbomb on the floor. With everyone wrestling in and out, Sin Cara dominated with his aerial techniques, in and outside the ring. Later, he nailed Bryan with a moonsault side slam. But than Sheamus attacked Cara and later powerbombed him through a ladder, which was set up from the ring to the security barricade. Sin Cara was taken out, and everyone tried to unhook the briefcase but unsuccessfully. After Rhodes hit a Cross Rhodes on Slater and then Barrett, Kane dominated yet again after hitting the Chokeslam to everyone. Then Slater hit Bryan with a neckbreaker from the top of the ladder. Sheamus nailed Barrett with a Brogue Kick while he was holding a ladder, and nailed Rhodes and Gabriel with Brogue Kicks as well. Barrett then hit his Wastleland on Kane, after which Gabriel took him out with the 450 splash. Barrett hit a variation of the Wasteland, throwing Gabriel out of the ring on Slater. But after everyone took each other out, Bryan unhooked the briefcase, winning the SmackDown Money in the Bank match.

In the next match, Kelly Kelly defended the WWE Divas Championship against Brie Bella. The match consisted of Kelly gaining early control; executing a thesz press and a headscissors takedown in succession before attempting to perform a top-rope chokehold, which Brie had reversed dropping Kelly to the outside of the ring. This had prompted Nikki Bella to attack Kelly whilst the referee's attention had been diverted henceforth giving Brie control of the match. After applying an array of submission holds and chokeholds, Brie was pinned after Kelly had executed her finishing maneuver, the K2, successfully retaining the Divas Championship.

After that Mark Henry faced off against Big Show, and they both started brawling and hitting clotheslines in the start of the match. Halfway through, Henry kicked the steel steps onto Big Show's leg. He then started attacking his leg. Near the end he nailed Show with his World's Strongest Slam but Show kicked out. After another World's Strongest Slam, and two standing splashes, Henry pinned Show to win the match, but later attacked with a steel chair and injured Big Show.

The next match was the Raw Money in the Bank match, which started with everyone attacking each other with small ladders. With the match spilling outside, Swagger took out Miz and Truth with a small ladder, but was then double teamed by Kingston and Bourne, who took out Truth as well. Then Mysterio used his high flying techniques to dominate. Then Riley gained the upper hand, and hit a senton to the outside, which was followed by a senton from Truth. Then, Kingston and Mysterio nailed everyone with simultaneous splashes from the top rope to the floor. But then Bourne hit a Air Bourne from a ladder onto everyone on the outside. After Miz and Bourne tried to recover the contract, Del Rio toppled the ladder with both men falling down, and Miz injuring his foot, and he was taken out. After back and forth action, in the middle of the match Kingston hit a Boom Drop from the top rope to Truth. Then Mysterio nailed a variation of the 619 to Kingston while he was held a set up ladder, and nailed another 619 to Truth. Then everyone brawled on ladder tops to recover the briefcase, but then Del Rio fell off, followed by everyone else, except Kingston. Then Swagger pushed off Kofi. The Miz tried to win, limping all the way from backstage, but was powerbombed by Mysterio from the ladder top. In the end Alberto Del Rio took off Mysterio's mask for a distraction and pushed him off the ladder and unhooked the briefcase, thus winning the Raw Money in the Bank match.

Main Event Matches

The next match was the SmackDown main event for the World Heavyweight Championship, with the Champion Randy Orton facing off against Christian, with the stipulation that if Orton lost by DQ, Christian would win the title. After a back and forth match, Orton tried a roll up, but got only a two count, and Christian nailed Orton with a spinebuster. Later, Christian hit the KillSwitch, but the Champion barely kicked out. After a failed spear attempt and receiving a beatdown by Orton, Christian spit in his face, causing Orton to lose control and nail Christian with a low blow and losing the match and the title via Disqualification, as per the stipulation. But after the match Orton nailed the new Champion with two RKOs on the announce table.

The final match of the night was for the WWE Championship, with the Champion John Cena facing off against CM Punk. It was Punk's final night under his WWE contract and he had promised to leave the company with the WWE Championship, and the stipulation was that if "Punk was able to leave Chicago with the title", Cena would be fired. The bout started with both men trying to gain the upper hand and later Punk nailed a slam and dropkicks only to receive a bull dog later. After a slow start with clotheslines and suplexes, Cena tried to hit the Attitude Adjustment, but Punk countered it into a strong DDT. After some time, Punk tried to suplex Cena from the apron, back into the ring but Cena countered and nailed Punk with a suplex from the apron to the concrete floor. Then Cena dominated with various slams, but they both hit a double clothesline. After multiple shoulder blocks, John Cena tried the Five Knuckle Shuffle, but CM Punk countered. But later Cena hit the move successfully, but Punk countered another Attitude Adjustment, and attacked Cena with a series of kicks. Then he nailed Cena with his knee back on the head twice, and hit a bulldog. After a diving clothesline, he attempted another move, but Cena locked in the STF. After a lot of struggle, Punk got to the top rope and Cena had to break the hold. Punk then hit a kick to the back of Cena's head and attempted another aerial attack, but Cena caught him in mid air and attempted another AA, but Punk reversed it and tried a GTS, but Cena finally countered it into another STF. After some time Punk reversed it into his own signature hold, the Anaconda Vise, but after some struggle Cena was finally able to counter it and nail Punk with the Attitude Adjustment, but the resilient Punk kicked out. After a diving legdrop, Cena nailed Punk with another massive Attitude Adjustment, but Punk still kicked out. Then Punk hit the GTS, resulting in Cena falling outside. After dragging him in again, he was distracted by Mr. McMahon who entered with John Laurinaitis. Cena then applied the STF. McMahon ordered Laurinaitis to tell the bell keeper to ring the bell, reminiscent of the Montreal Screwjob, but John Cena attacked Laurinaitis and told McMahon, "No, not this way. We'll do it MY way". After going back inside the ring, however, CM Punk nailed a second GTS, and finally pinned Cena to win his first ever WWE Championship.

McMahon then ordered the winner of the Raw Money in the Bank, Alberto Del Rio, to immediately cash in his contract. But the new Champion attacked Del Rio, taking him out, and giving McMahon a flying kiss, fled the arena celebrating with his WWE Championship win.

Aftermath

The RAW Money in the Bank Ladder match.

The next night on Monday Night Raw in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Mr. McMahon came out at the top of the program to address the WWE Championship issue. He ordered an immediate eight-man tournament for that night to declare a new WWE Champion. In the first round of the tournament, Rey Mysterio defeated Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth defeated Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston defeated Alberto Del Rio, and The Miz defeated Alex Riley. The semifinals saw Mysterio defeat R-Truth and The Miz defeat Kingston.^[10]

Just afterward, in an announcement presumably to follow through on the announced main-event stipulation that John Cena would be fired by Mr. McMahon, the storyline took an unexpected twist as Triple H came out with an announcement of his own—that Mr. McMahon was being given a vote of "no confidence" by the WWE Board of Directors, and that Triple H would take on day-to-day operations of WWE, effectively firing McMahon instead. At this point, Triple H refused to follow through with firing Cena, nullifying that stipulation.^[11]

As a result of the announcement, the tournament final was pushed back to the next edition of Raw on July 25. In the show opening match, Mysterio defeated The Miz and won his first WWE Championship of his career. Later that night, Triple H gave John Cena an opportunity to win the title from Mysterio, in which he was successful, making him a 9-time WWE Champion, an all time record. After the match, CM Punk returned to Raw and had a stare down with Cena. On the August 1st edition of Monday Night Raw new Chief Operating Officer Triple H told the WWE Universe that he has re-signed CM Punk and made a match between CM Punk and John Cena at SummerSlam to determine the "true" WWE Champion. CM Punk would defeat John Cena when guest referee Triple H made a mistake as he counted to three despite the fact that Cena had his foot on the bottom rope and Triple H didn't see it occur. As Punk was celebrating his victory, Kevin Nash, who had last appeared at the 2011 Royal Rumble appeared, attacking Punk from behind and giving him a Jackknife Powerbomb before leaving the ring. This prompted Raw Money In The Bank winner Alberto Del Rio to come out and cash in his Money In The Bank contract, defeating Punk in 12 seconds to become the new WWE Champion. He would retain the title against former WWE Champion Rey Mysterio the next night on Raw.

Reception

Money In The Bank received unanimous praise from fans and critics alike, in particular the main event between CM Punk and John Cena. The Sun's Rob McNichol gave the main events positive reviews. He admired the match between CM Punk and John Cena calling it the best match that the WWE has seen for a long time, rating it a perfect 10 out of 10, stating that the hometown emotion and the reaction of the crowd to every one of Cena's moves made that match so electric from the beginning to the end, that match received a 5-star rating from Dave Meltzer; the first match in the WWE to do so since the first Hell in a Cell match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker at Badd Blood: In Your House on October 5, 1997.^[12] McNichol also praised the Randy Orton-Christian bout, but criticized the ending of it as a cheap way for Christian to win the title, he awarded the match a 8 out of 10. He also gave positive reviews to the Money in the Bank matches, especially to the Smackdown one, praising Daniel Bryan's performance and Alberto Del Rio's surprise victory in the Raw Money in the Bank, awarding the Smackdown match a 9 out of 10 and Raw match a 8.5 out of 10. Overall, he gave the event a perfect 10 out of 10.

Results

#	Matches	Stipulations	Time
Dark	Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov defeated David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty	Tag Team Match[13]	n/a
1	Daniel Bryan defeated Kane, Sin Cara, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater and Sheamus	SmackDown's Money in the Bank Ladder Match[14]	24:27
2	Kelly Kelly (c) (with Eve Torres) defeated Brie Bella (with Nikki Bella)	Singles match for the WWE Divas Championship[15]	4:54
3	Mark Henry defeated The Big Show	Singles match[16]	6:00
4	Alberto Del Rio defeated Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston, Alex Riley, R-Truth, The Miz, Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger	Raw's Money in the Bank Ladder Match[17]	15:40
5	Christian defeated Randy Orton (c) via Disqualification	Singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship. If Randy Orton got disqualified or if the referee made a "bad call", Christian would automatically win the championship.[18]	12:20
6	CM Punk defeated John Cena (c)	Singles match for the WWE Championship. If CM Punk left Chicago with the WWE Championship, John Cena would be fired the following night.	33:44

See also

Professional wrestling portal

• List of WWE pay-per-view events

References

1. ^ "WWE: Money In The Bank (Official Theme Song) - Single". iTunes Store. http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/wwe-money-in-the-bank-official/id445874610. Retrieved 2011-06-20. 
2. ^ "Money in the Bank 2011 results". Pro Wrestling History. http://prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/usa/wwf/bank.html#2011. Retrieved 2011-07-31. 
3. ^ "Skittles Presents Money in the Bank". http://www.wwelivetour.com/events/skittles-presents-money-bank. 
4. ^ "Allstate Arena - Event Information: WWE Money in the Bank". AllstateArena.com. http://www.allstatearena.com/calendar/event-details/?EventID=224. 
5. ^ Blackjack Brown (2011-07-09). "Despite hype, WWE doesn't need Punk". Chicago Sun-Times. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/6401061-419/despite-hype-wwe-doesnt-need-punk.html. Retrieved 2011-07-09. 
6. ^ "WWE Reports 2011 Third Quarter Results" (Press release). WWE. 2011-11-03. http://corporate.wwe.com/documents/PressReleaseQ3201111.03.11FINAL_13_clean_000.pdf. Retrieved 2011-11-21. 
7. ^ "Live & Televised Entertainment of WWE". WWE. http://corporate.wwe.com/company/events.jsp. Retrieved 2011-05-27. 
8. ^ "Raw results: The people have spoken". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2011-06-20/results. Retrieved 2011-06-21. 
9. ^ "WWE Chairman Vince McMahon suspends CM Punk". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2011-06-27/mcmahon-suspends-punk. Retrieved 2011-06-28. 
10. ^ "WWE Championship Tournament Bracket". WWE. 2011-07-18. http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2011-07-18/wwe-championship-tournament-bracket. Retrieved 2011-07-18. 
11. ^ "Raw Results for July 18, 2011". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2011-07-18/results. 
12. ^ http://starratingslist.blogspot.com/2009/09/wrestling-observer-5-star-ratings-list.html
13. ^ "WWE News: Dark Match result at Money in the Bank PPV, in-person arena notes from Chicago". PW Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_51477.shtml. Retrieved 2011-07-17. 
14. ^ "SmackDown Money in the Bank Ladder Match". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/shows/moneyinthebank/2011/smackdown-money-in-the-bank-ladder-match. Retrieved 2011-07-01. 
15. ^ "Divas Champion Kelly Kelly vs. Brie Bella". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/shows/moneyinthebank/2011/kelly-brie. Retrieved 2011-06-28. 
16. ^ "Big Show vs Mark Henry". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/shows/moneyinthebank/2011/big-show-mark-henry. Retrieved 2011-07-09. 
17. ^ "Raw Money in the Bank Ladder Match". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/shows/moneyinthebank/2011/raw-money-in-the-bank-ladder-match. Retrieved 2011-06-28. 
18. ^ "World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton vs Christian". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/shows/moneyinthebank/2011/ninja-christian. Retrieved 2011-07-09. 

External links

• Official Money in the Bank website