The X-Axis will be up… mmm, probably Monday night at this rate.  Best get this post done first, since there’s not much point previewing a show after it’s happened.

We do have a podcast up today, though, so check that out one post below.

Anyway.  Time again for one of the more important B-shows in the WWE pay-per-view calendar.  The winners of the Money in the Bank ladder matches win title shots – one for the WWE Title, one for the World Heavyweight Title – that they can cash in whenever they want.  That rule has been taken absolutely literally, so the winner basically gets to hang around for months on end waiting for an ambush attempt.  Once in a blue moon a well-meaning babyface actually plays fair and uses his title shot to headline a major show, but that’s not a very smart idea.

So in practice, the winners of these matches will go on, at some point in the next year, to be major players.  That’s why this show matters.  This is the point where they really win the title; the actual cashing-in is usually a bit of a formality.

Will I be watching this one?  Um, probably not, because I don’t have time.  Still, let’s see what’s on the card…

1.  WWE Title: John Cena (c) v Mark Henry.  Since the MITB matches are the real main attraction on this show, it can afford a slightly weaker challenger for the WWE Title.  Hence the hulking Mark Henry, who’s plainly more suited to this role than he would be to a fast-paced ladder match. The set-up for this match started with Henry suckering in John Cena with a feigned retirement speech, since when we’ve been in the usual title build-up.

Henry’s been around for years and the WWE Title is the only major title he hasn’t held, which gives some sort of storyline here.  But let’s be honest, Mark Henry isn’t winning this match.  He’s just someone for John Cena to beat while the real focus is elsewhere for a month.  It’ll probably be an okay match, as long as they keep it to a sensible length.

2.  World Heavyweight Title: Alberto Del Rio (c) v Dolph Ziggler.  The Smackdown title match is a bit more interesting.  Let’s recap the story.

Ziggler was last year’s Money in the Bank winner.  He cashed in his title shot on the day after Wrestlemania.  Naturally enough, Ziggler waited for Del Rio to suffer an injury and then moved in to attack.  At that stage he was notionally a heel (but the fans wanted to cheer him), and Del Rio was a babyface (but, thanks to a hopelessly botched turn, one with zero heat).  Consequently, the title change went down quite well with the fans.

But Ziggler then spent most of this title reign out of action with a (genuine) concussion.  When he finally returned to action and Del Rio got his rematch, Del Rio spent the entire match trying to take advantage of the head injury, the idea being that he was kind of doing the same thing Ziggler had done to him, but kind of crossing the line as well.  Del Rio won and regained his title.  The match was intended as a double turn, with Del Rio reverting to his natural heel alignment as a reaction to the fan disapproval, and Ziggler becoming a babyface.

Well, kind of.  More accurately, Ziggler’s currently a tweener; he’s a wronged heel, but he hasn’t severed ties with his heel hangers-on, AJ Lee and Big E Langston, nor has he really done anything particularly heroic so far.  But he’s clearly on the turn.

This match is Ziggler’s obligatory rematch.  I strongly suspect he’s winning it back – after all, Del Rio had to get it in order for the double turn to work, but it’s Ziggler who’s supposed to be on the rise here, and we’ve had Del Rio as heel champion before.  Ought to be a good match, too.

3.  WWE Title Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Daniel Bryan v Christian v Randy Orton v CM Punk v Sheamus v Rob Van Dam.  Six main event babyfaces.  Well, five plus Christian, I guess, but he’s on the cusp.  This must have seemed like a good idea in theory, but they’ve had some trouble with the build – it’s ended up as babyfaces feuding with one another for no particularly compelling reason, and crowds haven’t really known how to react.

Originally Kane was in this match as a seventh man, but he was beaten up by the Wyatt Family in their debut on Raw on Monday, so he’s out of circulation.  No replacement has been announced, and it’s not obvious who could be put in the slot that would fit the theme of the match.  Looks like they’re just going with these six.  It’s no great loss; a veteran big man, Kane’s fine in his role, but multi-man ladder matches are not his role.

Christian, Orton and Sheamus are basically here to make up the numbers with credible contestants, but it doesn’t feel like any of them should win.  It doesn’t seem like their storyline.

Daniel Bryan is probably the logical favourite here, even though he’s won it before, simply because he’s recently been split away from a tag team and he’s being pushed as a singles wrestler again.  You could plausibly do a story where he wins the contract and, in his endless quest to prove himself, makes a deliberate point of using it to headline a major show instead of just stealing the title.

CM Punk has won it before and he’s recently switched alignment (again) after splitting from his long-time manager Paul Heyman.  That means he’s going to be programmed against Heyman’s henchmen for the foreseeable future, which tends to point away from him winning – though I guess you could do something with Punk winning and Heyman’s other wrestlers either challenging him for the title shot, or interfering with Punk’s attempts to cash it in.

Then there’s Rob Van Dam, making his return to the company after many years absence.  He won the very first MITB match and he’s been gone for most of the time since.  They’ve been hyping his appearance here for several weeks, and wisely held off having him appear on camera. Since this show is in Philadelphia, where Van Dam made his name in the original ECW promotion, it’s likely a safe bet that he’ll be welcomed as a major star.  Where he goes from here is unclear – it’s certainly possible he could win.  Or, as someone with a previous association with Heyman, he could end up playing into Punk’s storyline.  Or both.

Should be a very good match.  My money’s on Bryan.

4.  World Heavyweight Title Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Wade Barrett v Cody Rhodes v Damien Sandow v Dean Ambrose v Fandango v Jack Swagger v Antonio Cesaro.  While Raw’s MITB match is full of established stars, the theme of Smackdown’s MITB match is up and coming stars.

Well, officially.  In fact, what we have here is a match with seven upper midcard heels.  Heel-heel matches are notoriously tough because crowds don’t know how to react.  But a match with seven of them?  This is going to be tough.

My guess would be that, for want of any actual babyfaces to cheer, the Philly crowd will back Dean Ambrose, since he’s the indiest of the bunch (Philly likes that), and he’s also in the Shield, the hottest act of the bunch.  Granted, he’s also the US Champion, but the idea of having him unify the two titles wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.  And there’s a potentially interesting dynamic with the Shield having the title shot.  They’re not going to wait for the champion to get hurt.  They’re going to hurry the process along.

Pretty much everyone else is in the “well, yeah, I guess they could win” category, not least because – let’s be blunt – it’s only the World Heavyweight Title, which is a very distant second to the WWE Title.  Swagger had his day in the sun around Wrestlemania time, and Fandango had a lot of momentum before his recent injury, but right now they’re all kind of just sitting around waiting for something to do.  Aside from Ambrose, though, everyone in this match is underused to some extent, so even given the limited prestige of the World Title, somebody’s going to come out of this with renewed impetus.  I’m going to hazard a guess that it’ll be Fandango, but that’s pretty much rolling the dice.

5.  WWE Intercontinental Title: Curtis Axel (c) v The Miz.  Curtis Axel is the recently-repackaged Michael McGillicutty, now an associated of Paul Heyman.  In theory his gimmick is that he’s the son of Curt Hennig, but in practice his gimmick is that he’s a recently-repackaged jobber.  The original idea was to give him a winning streak where he legitimately beat midcard guys and sort of scraped by the top wrestlers on technicalities.  That could have worked, but for whatever reason they’ve decided it’s time now to shift to parity booking, so he’s been losing on TV to Chris Jericho – who he’s not even feuding with.

Axel won the title in a three way with Miz and previous champion Wade Barrett, largely by stealing the win after Miz had done all the work.  Barrett already got his obligatory rematch on free TV, so now it’s Miz’s turn.  All logic says that Axel has to win here, because his position as an upper midcarder, let alone a main eventer, remains fragile.  It’ll probably be an okay match, pushed for time.

6.  WWE Divas Title: AJ Lee (c) v Kaitlyn.  Lee is one of Ziggler’s hangers-on, and she’s still firmly a heel.  The break-up there is obviously in the offing.  She won the title from Kaitlyn at last month’s show, and this is the obligatory rematch.  The build is largely depressing name-calling that I’d prefer not to pay any attention to – particularly since Kaitlyn can’t really get her revenge, as AJ plainly ought to be the champion, simply by virtue of being the woman on the roster with the highest profile right now, and a perfectly acceptable wrestler.  It’s going to be short, AJ will win.

7.  Chris Jericho v Ryback.  Two main eventers who win on TV but almost never on pay-per-view collide in what I guess you could call a lose-off.  Jericho, like it or not, is now in the “elder statesman” category where he works for about half the year and is used mainly to help elevate new talent.  That’s a perfectly sensible use of him but even he needs a few big wins to keep up the idea that he’s still in his prime, and that beating him is a big deal.  As for Ryback, I’ve written about his plight before – he had a good little winning streak going before being catapulted to the top of the card and put in a series of matches that, for various big-picture reasons, he couldn’t be allowed to win.  The result was to turn him from an indestructible monster into a guy who always loses when it matters – resulting in a heel turn, followed immediately by more losing.

Both guys could use a big win, but Ryback desperately needs one, and I’m assuming that’s Jericho’s role here. Ryback’s a bit limited, but Jericho should be able to get a decent short match out of him, which is all that’s called for on a card like this.

8.  WWE Tag Team Titles: The Shield (c) v The Usos.  This has been bumped to the free pre-show, which has raised a few eyebrows.  The Shield (Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, in this case) have generally been pushed as major stars, and relegating them to the free show seems a bit odd.  Then again, Sheamus worked the pre-show last month, and he’s clearly a major star, so it may simply be a question of timing.  Plus, nobody seriously believes that they’re going to lose the tag titles to Jey and Jimmy Uso, who’ve been floating around the lower end of the card for years without making much of an impact.  And I wouldn’t be surprised to see the champions return later in the night to help out stablemate Dean Ambrose in his ladder match.  In fact, I’d be surprised if they didn’t.

Worth getting?  I’d probably get it if I had the time to watch it, actually.  The MITB matches are usually good, Del Rio/Ziggler should be good, and there’s nothing here that looks actively bad.  Even AJ/Kaitlyn is likely to be okay.