By Marv Hermanstyne

These are my confidence ratings of each competitor in the Raw 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.

I’m returning by popular demand with the critically acclaimed Money In The Bank Confidence Ratings. I’ve been working and devoting time to some upcoming personal projects since departing Dot Net. Unlike last year, The Raw version of the MITB match has become rather predictable. This particular match is like lopsided horse race...the majority of the public is pounding their bets on one guy: Alberto Del Rio. WWE can take the lazy route and let Del Rio win this match, but I smell a swerve that you will not expect.

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.

Jack Swagger (Marv’s confidence rating - 1): He won MITB at last year’s WrestleMania and out of all the MITB winners since 2005, he undoubtedly has been the weakest winner of them all. I’m not trying to bury Swagger because he is indeed a talented wrestler...eh, sports entertainer...but he has been poorly booked over the years. This was the same guy who went from becoming World Hvt. Champion to being Michael Cole’s sidekick at this year’s WrestleMania. As long as creative has nothing for Swagger to do, he has virtually no chance of winning this match on Sunday. He’s in mid-card hell and its nothing he can do about for a while. Its sad 2011 for the All-American American. At least he got rid of that stupid Eagle...

R-Truth (Marv’s confidence rating - 2): Call it a conspiracy that I have Truth at the bottom of the barrel. Besides being one of the most interesting heels on a heel heavy brand, give me a reason why he should win this match? If John Cena is still champion in 2011 or going into WM28, what’s the use of having Truth carry a briefcase when there is a 99 percent chance he will try to cash in on Cena and ultimately fail? Does anyone want to see Truth be the first person to cash in and fail? How about Truth failing and still blaming all the Little Jimmy’s for losing? To be honest, The Truth is will not be set free and he is basically filler in this match.

Rey Mysterio (Marv’s confidence rating- 3): So you’re probably wondering why I have a former World Champion at the bottom of this list? Rey Mysterio will have some highlights, but there is no way he will win this match. Even though he is the No. 2 babyface on the Raw brand, there is need for him to win this because he is basically treated like an upper mid-carder in the twilight of his career. Rey has been a weak champion in the past, so he makes no logical sense at the moment to win this match.

The Miz (Marv’s confidence rating- 4): The Miz was the hottest heel in the WWE to close out 2010 and began 2011 white hot as the WWE Champion. I even thought he would lose the WWE Championship to John Cena at WM27 because he booked as a weak champion for the first couple of months. There is a slight chance that he can repeat as the MITB winner but its highly unlikely. I don’t know if he is in the doghouse, but jobbing to Alex Riley on multiple occasions have essentially dropped his stock and buried him in utterly useless mid-card program.

Alex Riley (Marv’s confidence rating - 5): I’m not the biggest A-Ry fan, because WWE is wasting time pushing him on the flagship show. Riley reminds me of Drew McIntyre in that he was pushed earlier than he really should have been and its hard to endure on Monday nights. Even though he was supposed to go to Smackdown via the corrupt WWE Draft, he is getting better exposure on the flagship show. Riley went from being the Varsity Villain chump on NXT season 2 to Miz’s lackey to being an overpushed upper mid-carder on Raw. Riley will have his time to shine, but its not happening this year and not in my hometown. His entrance music is cool, though.

Evan Bourne ( Marv’s confidence rating - 6): Bourne has always been booked weak in WWE because of his height, but he can be a nice sleeper to win this match. With Mysterio being old and John Morrison being injured, if they want to give Bourne more of a push as a top babyface this can be possible. I may have him pretty overrated in this match, but his highlights will prove why I have him so high. WWE needs to desperately push fresh guys because fans need something else to look forward to besides John Cena and the cornball jokes. I may be getting my hopes up, but he’s a good longshot sleeper to bank on.

Alberto Del Rio (Marv’s confidence rating - 7): Like I mentioned earlier, the public is pounding on Del Rio to win this match but I’m going to throw a curve ball and say he will come short on winning this match. When Del Rio debuted on Smackdown last year, he was one of the hottest heels in the WWE. I was disappointed when he was moved to Raw because he could’ve been the top heel on Smackdown. In my opinion, his stock has fallen and has not proven to me that he can be the WWE champion right now. WWE can put the title on Del Rio but how long will he remain as champion?

SummerSlam is the next PPV and if you have Del Rio as the champion, give me a reason why he won’t do a job to Cena and put him in the back in the line to be a contender or have him feud for months just to see him job to Cena. Del Rio has enough charisma and quote on quote “Destiny” to be the WWE Champion, but I am very afraid that if he cashes in and win the title, he will be booked as a weak champion. There is no stopping Super Cena anytime soon and unless Del Rio wins and goes into Survivor Series (at the minimum as the champion, expect him to be a transitional champion. Del Rio will be the No. 1 choice to the majority of the wrestling universe, but I’m not buying this result.

Kofi Kingston (Marv’s confidence rating- 8): In the past, I will openly admit that I have buried Kofi Kingston because of the way he has been booked and the backstage politics that has been detrimental to his career. Kofi is over with the live crowds and its time for him to move on to bigger and better things. Its time to pull the trigger on pushing Kofi into the main event picture. Kofi is better than decent on the mic and in the ring, so give him a chance to make a difference instead of seeing John Cena plow through people every week. I love the WWE product but time to shake things up instead of providing fans with the same predictable bullshit. Del Rio has top heel status already, so he’ll be in the title picture no matter what...so why does he need to win? I expect a babyface to win this version of the match because I am picking a heel to win on the Smackdown side.

Overall, I think its time for Kingston to win this match because he has kicked a lot of ass when it comes to having key spots and having four star performances in his past MITB matches. Del Rio will be great, but I don’t want to see the predictable bullshit that we get week in and week out. Additionally if anyone wins, it needs to be a young guy because having one of the usual veterans winning shows the total laziness of the bookers. Plus, by having this show in my hometown, this will be my last chance to see some action before I’m ready for some football this coming season. Yes, I have faith in this NFL lockout ending....now the NBA, that’s another story.

The Smackdown version of the confidence rankings will be unveiled later today, so keep an eye out for it. Tweet me @InfamousMarv....I will be in Indianapolis for the weekend and will driving back for the show on Sunday night.

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