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Originally Posted by SlickyTrickyDamon
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Well, let's go through:
* Edge I will give you. His "Ultimate Opportunist" moniker basically came from this. He was floundering as a mid-card heel act, essentially forced to turn when his face return wasn't working out. This got him from the mid-card into a position where he was clearly working towards the main event goal. We also didn't completely understand the rules of how a Money in the Bank cash-in could work. The post-Elimination Chamber title match was a nice surprise and made logical sense at the time (although it arguably should have been the only instance of this sort of cash-in for the sake of preserving a semblance of legitimate competition). 1-0.
* Rob Van Dam won and used it to capture the WWE Title. This was the pinnacle of his career and it all came crashing down after this. It was arguably a bit late for RVD. Still, given the emotion of the match where Van Dam won the belt and that plans were to build around him at some point, I'll put this one in the pro column for the gimmick. I want to be generous with this. 2-0.
* Mr. Kennedy won, but let's not pretend he went on to become a successful main event story. 2-1.
* CM Punk won next. He cashed in successfully, but after a fairly lackluster title run, they took the belt off Punk and gave it to Jericho who was outperforming him. 2-2.
* CM Punk won again. Although his cash-in was extremely successful creatively, CM Punk's World Heavyweight Title reigns were largely forgotten amidst his later runs with the WWE Title. They almost...didn't count. Since I am going for who really became a star with MITB directly, I want to actually mark this one down, just because after this Punk ended up forming the Straight-Edge Society and was used to put over Rey Mysterio and Big Show in a 3-on-1 Handicap Match where he had the edge at a SummerSlam. He wouldn't really become a true main eventer in the WWE until he cut that promo in 2011, almost two years after this. I thought he was successful, but the WWE obviously didn't. But you know what, I'll be generous again and call this a positive because Punk
eventually became a true main eventer after this. 3-2.
* Jack Swagger won the 10-man Ladder Match at WrestleMania XXVI. Yeah. 3-3.
* The Miz won the RAW Money in the Bank. Look, I know people love The Miz now, but it's taken a long time for him to get this comfortable. I personally enjoyed his title reign arguably more than I should have, but it bombed and there's a reason Miz never got the belt again. 3-4.
* Kane. He cashed in and got a more serious push as The Devil's Favorite Demon, and it was a nice "thank you" run for Kane, despite him still being around six fucking years later. Kane was the sort of talent you could have pushed towards the main event without this title however, and it didn't really launch him anywhere new. 3-5.
* Alberto Del Rio for RAW. This was damage control after giving him the Royal Rumble and not following through. His title reigns were underwhelming, to say the least. Del Rio may have some worth to Hispanic markets, but he got very flat very fast. I don't think you can really call him a WWE success story, given that he has now won four World Titles and is slumming it on the independent scene like he was Paul London. 3-6.
* Daniel Bryan. This is a case very similar to CM Punk's where Bryan's World Heavyweight Title reign (and actually some of his WWE Title reigns) basically got forgotten for his WWE World Heavyweight Title win at WrestleMania XXX. It was basically treated as a mid-card title win for Bryan. I could very easily make the case that this one shouldn't count as a "star-making" moment, given that Bryan only really got truly over once he dropped the belt in however many seconds to Sheamus at WrestleMania in the opening "match," but given that he went on to become a success story, of sorts, I'll be positive and give this a passing grade. 4-6.
* John Cena won it from RAW. You cannot possibly cite this as an event which made Cena. He was the guy by 2012. It becomes nothing but trivia and Cena didn't even cash-in successfully. This gets marked down. 4-7.
* I'm trying to remember who won it from SmackDown this year. I've usually got a pretty good memory, but this is making me stumble. That says something about the gimmick. Oh, it was Ziggler. I actually had to cheat, but I quite liked Ziggler with the briefcase. I thought he pulled it off well. It all went to shit when he lost the belt though. He's still featured in the WWE, but do we really consider him a main eventer? There are people still waiting for that push. I'm going to say "no," because he was already a World Heavyweight Champion by this point, this was to get him back there and he didn't stay. Great cash-in moment though. I'm eliminating this for the same reason as I eliminated Kane -- it is the highest point of this guy's modern career and you go down after MITB you are kind of proving my point. 4-8.
* Orton won, and for the same reason as Cena, you can't really count this. Didn't spike Orton to any new heights, merely a plot device. And by the time WrestleMania XXX rolled around, the MITB element to the story had been forgotten. Go back and watch the "Monster" video. Triple H Pedigreeing is emphasized, not Orton with the contract or Bryan even winning the belt in the first place. It's a retconned part of the story -- Triple H said Bryan would
never get to the top, but now he's
finally done it. 4-9.
* Damien Sandow. 4-10.
* Seth Rollins. You know what, I'll count this. I feel that Rollins is struggling, but I don't think he is at risk of being pushed down the card. He may not capture imaginations like a top star of old would, but the WWE seem high on him and he's going to be hovering around that belt for a long time to come, regardless of what happens to ratings, etc. Was better booked with the briefcase than with the belt though. 5-10.
* Sheamus. He had already won a belt three times before, was a former King of the Ring and a former Royal Rumble Winner. You can't count this as an ascension. And as a way to get Sheamus back into the main event picture, boy did this fucking bomb hard. I almost want to count it as two negatives, but we'll just go with the one. 5-11.
* Dean Ambrose. You know, probably still a bit early to tell. I'd say that he's a lot less interesting now than he was at the start of the year. His WWE Title run kind of sucked a lot of life out of him, and since losing the belt he has been even worse. That being said, I will count it as a positive in the same way that I gave Bryan and Rollins theirs, even though this might be seen as a flop later on. Right now, Ambrose is one of the featured talents of WWE. He's one of their "stars," even if most people wouldn't know who the fuck he was if he appeared on a talk show, and they might just label him "WWE Superstar" if he appeared on a red carpet or something. Like Seth, he will probably buzz around main event programs working with guys for a long time to come. They'll probably give him quite a few more runs with the belt, even if he ends up as cold with it as Sheamus or Alberto Del Rio. 6-11.
So there we are. Not only would I say that I think most MITB victories have been rather poor at launching stars, but I'd say there are almost twice as many failures as successes, and that's being generous.