10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE Money In The Bank
2. The Match Proved That A Broken Clock Is Right Two Times A Day
For much of WWE's post-Attitude Era history, Vince McMahon was considered washed: a tyrannical prehistoric idiot who no longer had any idea what his fanbase wanted. Viewership data bears this out, as does the entire lexicon that sprung up to describe how bad WWE got at its worst.
50/50 booking. Such good sh*t. CenaWinsLOL.
In fitful bursts, he was still capable of the old magic. Not enough is written about the sheer entertainment value that was the Kurt Angle Vs. Shawn Michaels programme even before its first, sensational in-ring encounter, particularly since, at that point, the door between Raw and SmackDown actually felt Forbidden. This gets forgotten about because, at the same time, he booked Muhammad Hassan's terrorist pals to garrote the Undertaker with piano wire.
Vince wasn't entirely useless; while Money In The Bank as a match concept was genuinely a collaboration between Chris Jericho and Brian Gewirtz, the briefcase was Vince's call. "Of course the dumb prop was Vince's idea," you might say, but it was a vivid visual signifier that the match was worth winning, and until WWE rather ruined the concept, functioned as the 21st-century equivalent of the halcyon-era Intercontinental title: whoever held it had a more than decent chance of breaking out.