7 Reasons Why WWE Money In The Bank 2011 Won't Be Topped

3. Daniel Bryan Ladder Match Win Was A Nice Surprise

This match opened the show and was the better of the two ladder matches. Here's a listing of the competitors in the match: Sin Cara, Wade Barrett, Sheamus, Justin Gabriel, Cody Rhodes, Heath Slater, Daniel Bryan & Kane. When looking at that lineup, you could quickly eliminate names like Sin Cara, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater as potential winners. Guys like Sheamus and Kane added credibility of former main event level players. The three young guys with chances to win out of that group were Barrett, Rhodes and Bryan. Going into it I really thought Wade Barrett was going to win it. He had spent the second half of 2010 at a main event level as he feuded with John Cena during the Nexus storyline and also had a rivalry with Randy Orton as well. It seemed like it would have made a lot of sense to have Barrett win, which would renew the rivalry with Orton since Randy was always around the World Title at that point. That's not what happened, but that's okay. At this point in his career Daniel Bryan was gaining a lot of steam as a babyface on the midcard, but we had no idea if he was ever going to get elevated. The fans online loved him of course because we knew about his history. On screen, the fans did rally behind him a lot. The thing is, there was no beard yet (at least a big one) and the "yes" chant would happen later on. He was just a general, average looking guy. The final two men fighting for the briefcase were Bryan and Barrett, but it was Bryan that won that battle with a series of elbows and then a kick to the head, which led to Bryan winning the briefcase. It was a fantastic match that went 24 minutes and is one of the best MITB ladder matches ever. Most MITB matches don't go that long, so it shows how well these men put it together. There was a huge spot as a ladder was bridged between the ring apron and announce table. Sheamus took advantage of the situation by giving Sin Cara a Powerbomb off the ring apron that sent him crashing through a table. It looked so painful, probably because it was. This match that began it all for Bryan. Without Money in the Bank, the rise of Daniel Bryan wouldn't have been the same.