By Marv Hermanstyne

These are my confidence ratings of each competitor in the Smackdown version of the Money in the Bank ladder match that takes place on Sunday in my hometown, Chicago, Ill. The predictions are strictly my opinions and I have no inside information whatsoever.

The Smackdown MITB is a little more complicated to discuss because of the lack of star power in this ladder match. Besides the two former world champions, Kane and Sheamus - the rest of the field consist of a multi generation star (Rhodes), a luchador (Sin Cara) and four guys that were part of the Original Nexus (Barrett, Bryan, Gabriel and Slater).

This year, the order will be in reverse chronological order (the worst rating will be first and the winner will be last). The higher the confidence rating, the most likely they will win.

Heath Slater (Marv’s confidence rating - 1): Out of the eight competitors, Slater will have minimal impact in this match. To be perfectly honest...when he debuted in NXT season 1, I wondered how far he would go and so far he hasn’t amount to anything. If he does manage to stick around after WWE does their roster cuts (they have to be coming one of these days), he is no more than a WWE Superstars, mid-carder at best. The Corre is offically dead and his partner Justin Gabriel should be a singles wrestler.

Kane (Marv’s confidence rating - 2): You guys are probably wondering why I have last year’s MITB winner buried in my ratings. Last year, the Smackdown roster was so depleted (like it is this year), Kane basically became the prime choice to win the briefcase and he had a decent title reign. But after Kane lost the World Hvt. Championship, he became rather irrelevant again for the umpteenth time. Kane eventually teamed with Big Show and had another throwaway tag title reign. I just don’t have any reason on why Kane should be a world champion again unless WWE really has no faith with their young guys on the “B” brand.

Justin Gabriel (Marv’s confidence rating - 3): Gabriel is one of the most underrated young stars in the WWE. This ladder match will make or break him as a future singles star and he can show the world what he has to offer. Gabriel’s downfall is that he lacks in the personality department...if he had mic skills that correlated with his talent in the ring, he would already be on his way to being a star. At this point, he will only be relevant to this match because of high spots.

Sin Cara (Marv’s confidence rating- 4): I’m not high on him because he’s a walking botchfest in a mask and he’s getting pushed strictly for Latino demographic which WWE is focused on and backstage reasons. Sin Cara is basically another guy who will have some spots to have the crowd excited, but winning this match would make me groan. In other words, it would be ludicrous to put the World Hvt. Championship on him when he is blowing more spots than the Chicago Cubs blow games in the 9th inning.


Cody Rhodes (Marv’s confidence rating- 5): I’ve always buried him because this Phantom of the Opera dark ass character does nothing for me. Don’t get me started with the “Dashing” character that bored me to tears with the shitty commericials when I was doing live coverage of Smackdown. I personally don’t see any main event money in Rhodes because his character doesn’t click with me. Seeing him come out with a bunch of goons and paper bags every week is lame. I wouldn’t be shocked if they bamboozled us by having him win cashing in, unsuccessfully.

Sheamus (Marv’s confidence rating- 6): He’s popular favorite to the wrestling community to win but he will not win because he doesn’t need the win. Sheamus is already one of the top heels on Smackdown and he’s a former WWE Champion...so why would he need this opportunity when he is basically next in line? Even if he doesn’t win this match, he is mostly likely penciled in to be in the world title match at SummerSlam. Sheamus winning this match would be lazy booking but you know how much they love to disappoint us with the same shit.

Daniel Bryan (Marv’s confidence rating- 7) The Internet darling is my top darkhorse to win this matchup because he has the most talent out of everyone in this match. He is getting over slowly but surely with the crowd and if he can win, I can guarantee the IWC will blowup Twitter. All of the heels on Smackdown would give him a ton of matchups and if they book him right, he can have a lengthy title reign. I may be getting my hopes up for a long title reign, but me and the IWC can only dream.

Wade Barrett (Marv’s confidence rating- 8): This man won NXT Season 1, led one of the strongest heel factions last year and was a main event star in waiting. But of course, he was on the Raw brand and got fed to Super Cena every week which buried his career. Going to Smackdown was a change of direction, but Barrett had one of the most forgettable Intercontinental Championship runs in WWE history. I’m just worried that he’s been damaged so much because of these bullshit factions and Cena. Maybe a babyface run can help his cause because Smackdown has a ton of heels and the only legit babyface is Randy Orton (although, I think he’s a high-end tweener with more heel tendencies).

Overall, I expect this match to open the PPV because of the lack of star power and it should be strong enough to warmup the Chicago crowd. Sin Cara and Gabriel should be the spot happy guys, Kane and Sheamus brings the power, Byran brings the experience and everyone else is filler. Taking a look at this Smackdown roster, if I was WWE, next year I would have one match with both brands combined (ten guys) instead of two ladder matches (with eight guys a piece) because I cannot see this match being no better than above average.

What are your thoughts on my rankings for the MITB competitors? Tweet and follow me at @InfamousMarv. Also if you are on Google+, let me know and you can join my circle so you can stay up to date on my projects and my wrestling thoughts.

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