World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) superstar Alberto Del Rio is featured on the poster for this year's Money in the Bank pay-per-view (PPV) event scheduled for July 15, 2012, at the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The InDemand description reads: "A guaranteed championship match hangs 20 feet above the ring in a steel briefcase. One man will scale the heights and seize his destiny. Don't miss John Cena, Randy Orton, The Miz, Alberto Del Rio, and all your favorite WWE Superstars at WWE Money in the Bank, Sunday, July 15, live on pay-per-view."
That advertisement reads as though only one Money in the Bank match will be taking place on the show as opposed to years past when there were two, one for each brand. But if the brand split is coming to a close as has been suggested, it would obviously make little sense to run two separate matches. Then again, as long as they keep two separate major titles, they're going to have to find interesting ways to get challengers for them. The roster is thin, though, so it could be hard to service two matches with credible contenders.
There was initial doubt as to whether or not this year's event would even take place as a stand alone PPV. WWE originally scrapped the event from its 2012 schedule and planned on running the match at WrestleMania 28. Then that changed again and it was thought it could be moved to December until it was ultimately decided to run it as normal in its normal month.
This year's show will have a hard time beating last years. Money in the Bank 2011 was the best non-WrestleMania PPV WWE has run in a long time. Both the Raw and Smackdown ladder matches delivered thrills while the CM Punk storyline reached its apex with his WWE championship victory over John Cena that was punctuated by his blowing Vince McMahon a kiss before immediately leaving the arena through the stands. It was the hottest storyline for the company in what felt like forever and the atmosphere in Chicago was electric.
It would be silly to hope they could recreate some semblance of that magic but it only took a few weeks to craft Punk's storyline that being with his infamous shoot promo on Raw. Maybe they'll find something just as good this year?