Post-MITB Analysis: John Cena is the Champ…Now What?

Money in the Bank is over and, with the exception of the Usos retaining, there were no other surprises.

‘Cept, maybe, Fandango being the real “winner” no matter what.

The big story, of course, is that John Cena won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the big main event ladder match. And all he had to do was take a Finisher from every single one of the seven other guys plus some sick bumps.

Considering Cena’s split popularity with the fans, the win has obviously angered a lot of fans who see this as just another Cena push.

That really couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is two-fold.

First, the WWE’s roster of main event players took a hit with a major departure in CM Punk as well as Daniel Bryan’s neck injury — which, by the way, is probably going to keep him out for some time, even past SummerSlam…but more on that later. This is where we’re at with the WWE. It’s something that the fans need to come to terms with. This is especially so with CM Punk who, unless, WWE flew an Airbus full of cash and a contract with full Creative Control to his house yesterday, isn’t coming back at all.

Secondly, anyone who climbed up the ladder and pulled down the belts would, most likely, have an incredibly soft and short title reign. The same holds true for John Cena. The title is most likely going to change hands in a few months to set up for Wrestlemania next year. This pretty much eliminates any of the new guys such as Cesaro, Bray Wyatt, or Roman Reigns from being the champion. The three of them will have their time — just not right now.

And it wouldn’t make sense for Kane, Sheamus, Del Rio, or Orton to have it since three of those four have already been played out and Sheamus is already a United States Champion.

John Cena is the WWE World Heavyweight Champion and that’s that.

The question is where WWE goes from here.

Obviously, Cena’s not going to tango with The Authority because that’s Daniel Bryan’s bag. Rollins is most likely going to wait to strike with the contract in hand.

If the gossip holds true, we’re gonna end up seeing Cena face Brock Lesnar for the title at SummerSlam. My guess is that the match takes a toll on Cena, Rollins enters with the contract, beats Cena and we have Rollins take the title into the new year until Daniel Bryan (or somebody else) eventually picks it up again.

And there you go.

Besides that, here are my other observations on MITB:

• After the unceremonious firing of Josh Matthews, I was delighted to see Renee Young put into his spot. I hope this isn’t a one-time, different-host-each-time thing. Let’s make this permanent. WWE needs as many strong female characters on their programming.

• After all the build-up, Daniel Bryan’s in-ring appearance not only fell flat, it was depressing and probably made the audience tune out early as he not only declared himself unfit to wrestle, but also that he may need “another surgery on top of this one”. I’m hoping that was a work and not a shoot.

• Sending Bo Dallas out to shoo him out of the ring was incredibly classless.

• I laughed when WWE, with their obsession with fathering trends on Twitter, didn’t promote #BO-NER when Daniel Bryan called Bo Dallas out for his obnoxious behavior. 

• After three strong PPV performances, the WWE Network finally showed signs of strain, freezing up repeatedly during the broadcast. As I was blogging the thing, I didn’t have time to get a hold of WWE Tech Support. So, my girlfriend did the honors and was treated to 13 minutes of hold music made up of a Superstar Theme mix tape, singing along when she felt like it. She got nowhere and hung up which is about the same, I’ve heard, as actually speaking to somebody at that office. I’d like to think that the reason for the strain is because of an increase in subscribers, but that remains to be seen.

• The Usos retained their titles against The Wyatts with a much-needed win. I’m torn. On the one hand, I like The Usos. On the other, there was no reason the Wyatts couldn’t be the new tag champs.

• Also, what is with messing with the Wyatts music? I get the WWE trying to do A-music and B-music…but the first incarnation (which sounded like a car slowly backing over and organ grinder) was awful and the second one was terribly edited and generic. Just stick with Mark Crozer. It was right the first time. The object is to create an atmosphere. The last two themes just scream, “pretentious” and reduce the guys to being two big dudes who look funny.

• Paige winning and retaining was the right choice. However, they not only continue to book her wrong  (she gets beat up the whole match, hits one move and wins?) but they couldn’t kick other, weaker matches out and make this one longer?

• Such as Adam Rose and Damian Sandow! It wasn’t on the card, it COULD have been pre-show, and it killed a good ten minutes. What’s worse? Adam Rose getting booed out of the building after the win which makes me think that the fans chanting Adam Rose’s theme song is being piped in.

• Jon Stewart of The Daily Show was at the event, at ringside. It’ll be interesting to see if he makes reference to the PPV on his show in the future.

• I swear, Kane is kept in a cage that can only be opened with a “RELEASE KANE” switch, strictly controlled by Triple H and Stephanie because he just appears to arbitrarily wreak havoc and screw up Main Events.

• Or to just set up and hold ladders. Remind me to pay him to help me set up my Christmas lights this year.

• What’s worse than a new gimmick getting booed? A new gimmick on a veteran wrestler getting nothing at all. Such was the case during the Goldust/Stardust match. He gets in the ring…silence. Hits some moves…silence. They win, mild applause…then, silence. Also, it helps to have Axel destroy the guy after the match to further get it over.

• I liked the Rusev and Big E match. Not only does it begin to legitimize Rusev as a competitor and not a bulldozer with legs, it might finally get him an angle. The match was tough, brutal, and I liked the fact that Rusev and Lana may have seen somebody who can stand up to them.

• The segment with Brie and Nikki Bella with Steph was interesting. I’m wondering if Brie is returning in the near future.

• The Summer/Layla match was painful to watch. Not only was the entire angle pointless and forced, the whole thing was booked on a PPV. 

• My favorite thing about ladder matches? Insane spots like finishers off the top of the ladder or ladders being pushed over with the person still on them…classic.

• My least favorite thing about ladder matches? Pointless spots. Cesaro sees Sheamus going for the belts on top of the ladder and he rushes…to grab another ladder and construct a bridge from the turnbuckle to the ladder…and then takes the time to walk across it to get to Sheamus? He couldn’t just run into the ring and climb up to battle Sheamus?

• What I severely dislike about ladder matches? Head-scratching spots. Bray Wyatt sees Sheamus and Cesaro fighting to grab the belts and…decides to walk around like a spider…why? 

• The worst thing about ladder matches? Wrestlers vanishing into some sort of black hole and appearing every so often to hit their spots before vanishing into the abyss again. Such was the case with both Bray Wyatt and John Cena. The latter, getting hit with everything under the sun and still winning the match.

• And if you’re gonna have one of the most vilified guys in the WWE win the match, the LEAST that could have been done is to make it as dramatic as possible. Kane holding the ladder, Cena down and out, Orton climbing and about to win…and here comes Dean Ambrose to screw things up, just like he promised. But, no, Cena hits two AA’s and that’s that. 

• And are we to seriously believe that the Triple H and Stephanie who sat there and did nothing while Cena climbed up and pulled down the titles are the same ones who did everything in their power to interfere in Daniel Bryan’s match? 

• And did anyone else notice the lack of a post-MITB show?

Oh well…that’s what we’re here for…