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MiTB Lightning Round

1) Best MITB Match

Dude, I barely even watched the product from 2005-2011, I can hardly even remember who WON most of the matches.  I recall the original with Benoit and Jericho being pretty awesome, so we’ll go with that one. 

2) Worst MITB Match

Again, I just don’t remember enough of them to distinguish them.  I wasn’t a big fan of the four-man one that Cena won, so we’ll go with that one. 

3) Best performance in an MITB match

Shelton Benjamin in his various attempts.


4) Best spot in an MITB Match

I recall some crazy spectacular ones at WM24.

5) MITB - better as a separate PPV or at WM

Wrestlemania.  Really justifies the bloated nature of the match and gives a bunch of guys a good payday and spotlight. 

6) Worst MITB winner

Damien Sandow by giant measures of length.  If you want to limit it to guys who were supposed to made into big stars off it, then Jack Swagger. 

7) Ideal # of competitors

7 seems like a fair number.

8) Best cash-in

Ziggler.  Right place, right time. 

9) Your prediction for Sunday's contract match

Ambrose carrying the case around like a crazy man and threatening to fuck up every World title match from now to Wrestlemania would be ingenious but I think Rollins is the most likely. 

Love your Sporting News articles!

Thanks!  Look for a MITB wrap-up article on Monday! 

Comments

  1. The one with the Jeff Hardy dive onto Edge outranks everything for me. While it was a cool spot to see, who in the hell thought that was a good idea? Like Scott, I don't remember much else.

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  2. I think 6 is the best number. Once you start getting above that it just gets cluttered, and you have to have long periods with up to 5 guys laying around selling, which is just silly

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  3. Matt Hardy. Matt Hardy thought it was a good idea.

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  4. I vote Edge cashing in for his first title as the best cash in. Set the standard.

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  5. That was great, but it also set the precedent that people have to cash in AFTER someone else's match, which worked fine for 2006 Edge, and maybe Punk in 2008 (2007?), but otherwise is just really annoying. If they put some thought into it, a briefcase winner cashing in could be presented as a compelling PPV main event.

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  6. Is this a joke I'm missing or did he actually talk them into it?

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  7. Exactly, this got cliché really fast.

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  8. One of my favorite moments ever. He should have held the title until at least WrestleMania after that.

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  9. The first Edge cash in was great. Shelton RUNNING UP THE LADDER was triple great.

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  10. The first two cash-ins were so vastly different and still worked so perfectly. Edge stealing the title after Cena survived an Elimination Chamber match and then RVD forcing Cena to defend the title during One Night Stand, just a bad year for Cena.


    I definitely don't remember a lot of the matches or the cash-ins, so I'd be in the same spot as Scott in picking favorite/least favorite matches or cash-ins. But I liked the specially-re-enforced ladder Big Show pulled out the year Kane won.


    On Sunday, I'm pulling for Wade Barrett.

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  11. I always thought a great gimmick for the briefcase holder would be to just hang onto it until the year almost ran out. The incredible mind games would cause the champion to lose focus knowing that there was only 2 months, 1 month, 2 weeks, etc left. Ambrose would be perfect for this role have him state any time any place. Backstage, on the road, at house shows. Put a clock on the screen with the countdown (people love countdowns). Have on screen talent make mention of it and say "we are now shooting every house show live until he cashes in". It might even drive some gates for people expecting they have a shot at seeing the cash in.

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  12. Didn't Barrett get removed b/c of injury?

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  13. I think the biggest waste of a briefcase was CM Punk winning it for a second time at WM25. It would have been a great moment to give it to Christian or MVP. I don't think Punk needed it.

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  14. Think about that last month for tv ratings and house show gates. As everyone would know the cash in was coming and wouldnt want to missit

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  15. He's still listed on the website. I'm basically pushing for him to be a part of the match now and that his shoulder injury wasn't that serious...

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  16. I always wanted to see somebody win the thing at WrestleMania, and then cash it in on the same night.

    Although they don't do it at WM any more, nobody has cashed it in at WM.

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  17. Give Ambrose the case and I can see something like this happen: After a grueling title defense, the champ is struggling to get up as Ambrose makes his way down to the ring. He NAILS the champ with the case, as everyone assumes that he's about to win the title. Then, Ambrose yells, "You're not ready yet!" and storms away.

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  18. A lot of guys on old shoots have said that Matt would talk Jeff into doing crazy shit and than soak up the glory as part of "Team Extreme."

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  19. It led to the cash-in on Hardy though...so I really can't hate on it too much.

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  20. Worst winner: Del Rio. He didn't really need it. No one wanted to see him cash-in against the hot punk. He should have won the title at wrestlemania or have him go against Orton on Smackdown after he's done with the Christian feud.

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  21. well Kane did that at the mitb ppv so close to your idea

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  22. I also prefer wrestlemania for the match. Last few years, they were desperately trying to find several wrestlers a WM match (battle royal for example) so putting 8 guys into the mitb match solves that problem.

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  23. The first is the best. All the others kinda blend into each other. Love the Ambrose idea. And MITB is always a great show, it has replaced Survivor Series in the Big 4.

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  24. Yeah, it gave him motivation to turn heel - he did the same thing a year ago and nobody had a problem with it, now suddenly he's a bad guy?

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  25. That's a good idea. It's always been about the guy with the briefcase but it would be interesting to do an angle where the champion is paranoid over the eventual cash-in to.

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  26. And then complain that people think that Team Extreme is all Jeff Hardy but Matt's actually the one who puts it all together.

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  27. I think just when Ambrose is about to grab the briefcase, dave dog-fuckin scherer comes out, sneaks up the ladder and grabs it instead.

    This place would explode!

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  28. Shelton doing that was the most iconic mitb stunt.

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  29. Best MITB - "WM24".
    Worst MITB - Cena/Kane/Show/Jericho/Miz at "MITB, 2012"
    Best Performance - Shelton at "WM21".
    Best Spot - Morrison moonsaulting with the ladder ("WM24")
    WM or PPV - Better as a PPV, though I think it should be one match (less filler)
    Worst Winner - Cena or Orton, as neither of them needed the win.
    Ideal Competitors - 6-8.
    Best Cash-In - Edge.
    Sunday's Contract - The "lesser" MITB match is usually a surprise. I'm going with Kofi.
    Sunday's Title - The "greater" MITB match is usually obvious. I'm going with Cena.

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  30. Agreed, but I don't think we need the actual "MITB" match at WM - just give some tag-teams and cruiserweights a bunch of ladder to play with. Take this year's WM pre-show match, for instance: Usos, Real Americans, Los Matadores, and Real Americans. Now give them twenty minutes and a bunch of ladders. MOTY contendor.


    I definitely think WM needs a big "car crash" match, but MITB is a big enough and prestigious enough gimmick to stand on its own; to me, putting MITB back on WM would be like demoting the "Royal Rumble" to WM.

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  31. I've said this before, and while I have absolutely no proof or "insider info" or anything, I will ALWAYS believe that WM25 was an audible - MVP just seemed absolutely primed to take it, but I think that that insane powerbomb to the outside made them change the finish on the fly.

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  32. They were heading that way with Kennedy, but then they knee-jerked that away.

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  33. That makes a lot of sense. You lose the guy you want to go with, you give it to the safer bet.

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  34. The best Cash is a 3 way tie between - RVD, Edge, and CM Punk the first time.

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  35. I didn't see it either, but it sounds like a lot of trouble to follow. I agree that 6 is best.

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  36. Punk at his best is the most logical character in wrestling.

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  37. I say the ideal number is 8.

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  38. Yeah, all 20 who would get the joke.

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  39. It also lead to the brilliant SES stuff.

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  40. It was ok, not the greatest match in the world but it did give us that cool moment of Kofi walking on a broken ladder like stilts.

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  41. Matt was egging him on in the match.

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  42. 6 is the ideal number to me. 8 is way too goddamned many.

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  43. I'm fine with the Andre battle royale being the annual 'get everyone on the card' match at Mania. It's a nice nod to Andre, battle royales are fun throwbacks to wrestling history and it can lead to a big push for the winner.

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