The Disturbing Truth Behind WWE Money In The Bank
Interest withdrawn.
At New Year’s Revolution 2006, a bloodied John Cena used the last trace of his spirit to roll up Carlito and retain his WWE Championship inside of the Elimination Chamber. The presentation, and Cena’s selling, was excellent. He didn’t fire up to strike Carlito with the FU. He had nothing left—what was once there was literally spilling out of his forehead—and when the referee attempted to raise his hand in victory, he didn’t register it, much less celebrate. His head smacked back against the canvas. He was done.
He wasn’t done. “Don’t go anywhere. Nobody goes anywhere,” said Vince McMahon, arriving on the scene and setting it on behalf of the inaugural Money In The Bank briefcase holder: Edge.
Edge was reprehensible in his strategy and assault, targeting Cena’s crimson mask with a barrage of fists. After a dramatic mini-match, in which Cena kicked out of a Spear, Edge did the inevitable—the inevitable, ironically, that you did not see coming.
This was pure, storytelling magic. WWE told us, all along, that the briefcase entitled its holder to cash in at any time, and in any place.
WWE, at New Year’s Revolution, created an overnight headliner. The problem is that WWE has in the years since imitated Edge’s flash opportunism and created an unremittingly abysmal storyline cycle.
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