Predicting the match order at Money in the Bank 2017

It's one thing to predict the winners and losers at Money in the Bank 2017, but how about taking a guess at the match order on that card?

WWE has announced 5 different matches for the main card of Money in the Bank 2017.

Here is my subjective view of how important each of these 5 segments rank on the Money in the Bank 2017 card, ordered from most important to least important.

1. Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
2. Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton
3. Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
4. The Usos vs. The New Day
5. Naomi vs. Lana

It is important to come up with a list like this to get an idea of which matches are going to be placed in the key spots on the card or take up the most time, and which matches might end up in the cool-down spots or be given the least amount of time.

I’m slotting the Usos ahead of Naomi because I think the quality of the women’s championship match could be awful and the match should be kept very short, whereas the tag team championship match doesn’t have that glaring problem.

Main event

The top 3 matches could all main event this pay-per-view (PPV).

Mahal versus Orton for the WWE Championship main evented the last SmackDown PPV, and the WWE Championship match in general is a good bet to main event most PPV cards.

The women’s ladder match is a history-making fight that could follow in the footsteps of Sasha and Charlotte wrestling in the main event of Hell in a Cell 2016.

The star power in the men’s ladder match beats out both of those matches largely thanks to the trio of Styles, Owens, and Nakamura.

I think the presence of Carmella and Tamina in the women’s match does present some concerns about the match quality, and this risk is not inherent in the men’s ladder match where almost every wrestler brings high work rate to the table. So I’m giving the men’s ladder match the edge for the main event slot over the women.

As for Mahal and Orton, it’s still very difficult for me to take Jinder Mahal seriously as a main event guy, and Randy Orton is such a bland character that I think the two of them together just don’t bring the excitement to the card that either ladder match does. WWE has main evented this PPV with the ladder match over the WWE Championship match in both 2012 and 2013, and I think the circumstances here are conducive to that happening again.

Therefore I’m picking the men’s ladder match as the main event. I think this match is the one that fans are looking forward to the most.

Opening match

The opening match of the night is usually one of the mid-level attractions with good work rate that doesn’t require a dedicated video package ahead of time to hype it up.

With the men’s ladder match off the board, that means the two best remaining choices for the opening match are the women’s ladder match or the tag team championship match. That’s because Lana’s match is probably going to be a mess, and the WWE Championship rarely ever opens a PPV.

I think WWE should put as much distance as possible between the two ladder matches on this card. So while the New Day and Usos are both pretty good choices for opening a PPV, in this case I think the women’s ladder match will be chosen for that spot. The match should be a lot of fun and succeed in getting the crowd amped up.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5: Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match

Everything else

WWE rarely ever runs consecutive all-female matches on PPV, so that rules out Naomi’s match for Segment 2. The WWE Championship match rarely ends up in an early segment, so the tag team championship match seems like a good bet to run in Segment 2.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Segment 2: The Usos vs. The New Day
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5: Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match

With two high work rate matches starting the card, I think it’s fine to get the disastrous women’s championship match out of the way in Segment 3. That leaves the WWE Championship match for Segment 4.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at Money in the Bank 2017, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times.

Segment 1: Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match (17 minutes)
Segment 2: The Usos vs. The New Day (13)
Segment 3: Naomi vs. Lana (5)
Segment 4: Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton (20)
Segment 5: Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match (26)

These times only add up to 81 minutes, which is too low for a 3-hour WWE PPV. So that means either my predictions above are too conservative, another match (or talking segment) is going to be added to the show, or the PPV is going to be more like 2.5 hours in length.

That's my prediction for the match order at Money in the Bank 2017. What's yours?