WWE Money In The Bank Preview: Will we see a major swerve in the Main Event?

Welcome to SiriusXM’s preview of WWE Money In The Bank 2016! We’ll get you ready for the pay-per-view that kicks off the WWE’s summer run by dissecting the top matches on the card, and we’ll also have some analysis and predictions from Dave LaGreca of Busted Open Radio.

Without further ado, “It’s Showtime, folks!”

THE CARD

WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Seth Rollins

Throughout the buildup to this match, the WWE is still booking Roman Reigns as the face and Seth Rollins as the heel despite fans’ love for the latter and complete vitriol for the former. Regardless, it will be Rollins’ first match since returning from a severe knee injury and we can’t wait to see the top performer in the company back in the ring. Reigns has had some awesome matches lately, so this should produce fireworks.

Dave LaGreca: Rollins is gonna get cheered when he comes out, Reigns is gonna get booed. Why are they forcing Reigns as a face when everybody wants to cheer Rollins? I don’t know what to say about this match, I really don’t. I can’t see Reigns losing because they’re really building momentum with him. At the same point, they can’t have Rollins lose; he just came back with this whole “rebuild” and everything else, how do they have him lose? It just doesn’t make sense. I can’t see a scenario where either of these guys loses, which means we’re gonna have shenanigans. I would not be surprised if whoever wins the Money In The Bank briefcase cashes in during that main event. Something screwy, some kind of swerve is gonna happen on Sunday, I really would be shocked if there’s a clear victor whether it’s Reigns or Rollins.

John Cena vs. AJ Styles

AJ Styles has been on fire since turning heel and he’s been one of the top workers in the WWE since debuting in January. This will be John Cena’s first match since returning from shoulder surgery, and his presence was definitely missed. The buildup of billing this as a dream match 10+ years in the making is perfect; Styles was the best wrestler outside of the WWE for a very long time while Cena was the face of the company.

DL: It’s funny how they took AJ Styles, who was one of the biggest faces on the roster, and turned him heel and I think it was a great decision because we’re seeing an AJ Styles that we haven’t seen in the previous 12 years of his career. We’re really seeing an evolution of Styles as a major superstar, and I really do think he needs to win this match. I don’t care if he has to cheat to win, he has gotta get the 1-2-3 over John Cena. He didn’t win the Royal Rumble, he lost to Chris Jericho at WrestleMania and he lost two major matches to Reigns, so if he loses to Cena we’re looking at AJ Styles as a mid-carder and not a main-eventer.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro vs. Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens vs. Alberto Del Rio

The pay-per-view’s titular match will see six superstars vie for the Money In The Bank briefcase, which guarantees a world title match anytime the winner chooses. The good thing about this edition is there are four legitimate options to win the briefcase in Zayn, Cesaro, Ambrose and Owens. They all represent the future of the company and any one of them would be great choices to win.

DL: It’s crazy but when we talk about the WWE, it’s always who should win versus who will win, that’s always the discussion. I could see the WWE pulling out something that would be completely out of the blue, because there have been Money In The Bank winners before that we weren’t thinking about. But it’s a very short list of guys that should win, and it’s probably down to Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose. I would love to see Kevin Owens win this briefcase, I would love to see Chris Jericho win this briefcase! But they set up a scenario now, especially after what we saw on Monday, that it’s gonna be hard for me to look at anybody outside of Dean Ambrose winning it.

Tag Team Championship: The New Day (c) vs. The Club vs. Enzo & Cass vs. The Vaudevillains, Fatal-4-Way Match

The New Day has held the tag titles for over 300 days now, so it might just be time for the fan-favorite stable to enter the title chase once again. With a Fatal-4-Way match, it seems more than likely that they’ll drop the belts. With a heel team like The Club (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) poised to be strong rival stable for The New Day, a title change might be imminent.

DL: The New Day is a team that doesn’t need the titles, they’re really over with the crowd as it is so there really is no reason to have the titles. I think Gallows and Anderson really need to have the titles; with The Club being feared, they gotta start winning some matches. The Vaudevillains, I was high on them when they were in NXT and I really thought they would have a good run on the main roster, but I think they’re becoming a gimmick and not really a threat. Enzo & Cass is a different story, they’re over with the crowd too right now, so I don’t think they need the titles. Out of those four teams, the only team I can really see coming out of Sunday with the titles is Gallows and Anderson.

United States Championship: Rusev (c) vs. Titus O’Neil

This match seems thrown together out of nowhere. Titus O’Neil is fresh off a suspension and hasn’t had time to build a real program with Rusev, so it’s hard to consider him a viable option to dethrone the Bulgarian Brute.

DL: It’s amazing Titus is getting this push, but he’s no threat. It would be crazy to take the U.S. title off Rusev right now. I just think that his momentum is really starting to build right now, and he’s one of the only real, true heels in the company right now so it would be a huge mistake to take that title off of him.