Jack-Hammer
YOU WILL RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH!!!!
As we saw on SmackDown Live last night, the participants in the MITB ladder match this year are AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens. It was a nice little tease for a moment when we thought there were going to be 5 participants and Kevin Owens was #5 while Nakamura was nowhere in sight.
The MITB ladder matches almost always deliver and this one should be no different. As with most of them, there's a good mix of different styles represented in the match. I think the one who has the least chance of walking out with the briefcase is Dolph Ziggler, he seemed an odd choice at first but commentators did drive home, repeatedly, that Ziggler's been Mr. MITB in the past so having a guy with more "experience" in the match is logical.
The match itself feels pretty wide open as far as who wins it. I don't really expect Owens or Styles to win as being Mr. MITB may well overshadow the United States Championship in their feud; even though we didn't really find out last night if their program will go on, there's a general feeling that it will and I like that their next bout will be broken up by the MITB ladder match. Zayn is a possibility as he's gaining some momentum, though Corbin winning wouldn't be a surprise considering that WWE likes to use a formula in which someone who wins the briefcase has been losing a lot prior to the MITB match itself. Nakamura winning would put the minds of a lot of people at ease concerning how WWE is going to use him as winning this match would all but guarantee that Nakamura is the first Japanese wrestler, or Asian born wrestler for that matter, to become WWE Champion. And just in case someone brings it up, I know that Antonio Inoki did beat Bob Backlund in a title match way back in the day but it's not recognized as part of the title's continuity.
The MITB ladder matches almost always deliver and this one should be no different. As with most of them, there's a good mix of different styles represented in the match. I think the one who has the least chance of walking out with the briefcase is Dolph Ziggler, he seemed an odd choice at first but commentators did drive home, repeatedly, that Ziggler's been Mr. MITB in the past so having a guy with more "experience" in the match is logical.
The match itself feels pretty wide open as far as who wins it. I don't really expect Owens or Styles to win as being Mr. MITB may well overshadow the United States Championship in their feud; even though we didn't really find out last night if their program will go on, there's a general feeling that it will and I like that their next bout will be broken up by the MITB ladder match. Zayn is a possibility as he's gaining some momentum, though Corbin winning wouldn't be a surprise considering that WWE likes to use a formula in which someone who wins the briefcase has been losing a lot prior to the MITB match itself. Nakamura winning would put the minds of a lot of people at ease concerning how WWE is going to use him as winning this match would all but guarantee that Nakamura is the first Japanese wrestler, or Asian born wrestler for that matter, to become WWE Champion. And just in case someone brings it up, I know that Antonio Inoki did beat Bob Backlund in a title match way back in the day but it's not recognized as part of the title's continuity.