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The WWE Money in the Bank pay per view has become one of the most fun pay per view events of the year. This year’s MITB is no exception with a card on paper that has the potential to give Extreme Rules a run for event of the year.

The 2012 Money in the Bank card is coming together with the top four matches announced over the last week of television. The July 15 event is a little over two weeks ago and fans are already buzzing about one of the most intriguing cards in recent memory. The WWE Creative team got dare I say, “creative” with a couple of this year’s matches.

John Cena will make his Money in the Bank debut on July 15 as part of the WWE RAW Money in the Bank match. Cena will wrestle The Big Show, Chris Jericho, and Kane in a Money in the Bank match to determine a future contender to the WWE championship. Most MITB matches are generally five wrestlers, so there could be a fifth guy in the mix at some point.

This is a very polarizing match. I like the idea of Cena in the Money in the Bank match. It is something different and unique, although the Punk vs. Cena SummerSlam match has been rumored for awhile so it isn’t a surprise. The drawback here is that these MITB matches have generally been used to elevate younger talent and give new guys a push. Nobody in this match fits the bill, thus the WWE is missing an opportunity here to elevate a young talent in favor of playing it safe with the veterans.

The same cannot be said about the SmackDown Money in the Bank match. I’ll give major props to the creative team for thinking out of the box on this one. Newcomer Damien Sandow will take on Tyson Kidd, Santino Marella, Christian, and Lord Tensai. That is certainly an odd mix isn’t it? I love the idea of shooting Sandow right into the spot as well as finally giving Kidd a platform to shine. I could certainly do without seeing Marella in here and as for Tensai, I think he actually has some potential to do some nice things here.

CM Punk will return to the WWE championship match for the second year in a row as he takes on Daniel Bryan in a match that will feature A.J. as the referee. How can you complain about seeing Bryan vs. Punk on a pay per view? I certainly can’t and won’t. Knowing that they will have two Money in the Bank matches on the show, I can see Bryan and Punk going all out to steal the show. I don’t think anyone believes that Bryan is going over in this one which takes some of the appeal out of the match. At the same time, the WWE love to throw curveballs in those kinds of situations so you can’t say never.

Finally while the SmackDown WWE world heavyweight title match hasn’t been announced yet, I think we can figure it out. My hunch is that since Alberto Del Rio is on the poster and he is not in any of the MITB matches that he will be in the championship match. I would also guess that since Dolph Ziggler isn’t in any of the MITB matches (although he could be that fifth guy in the RAW match), that he could wind up here as well in a Triple Threat Match. So I’ll go with Del Rio vs. Sheamus for sure, maybe with Ziggler.

All in all that is a pretty damned good card. The RAW MITB match is really watered down from past Money in the Bank matches but with all of the gimmicks involved they could surprise you on July 15.

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