World Championship match set for Money in the Bank

This past Monday night on RAW, WWE‘s guest General Manager for the week, Teddy Long, officially announced that Sheamus would defend his World Championship at Money in the Bank and his opponent will be “The Mexican Aristocrat” Alberto Del Rio.

This match should come as no surprise, as Del Rio and Sheamus have been feuding for several months now. However, this match is actually well overdue and should have happened twice now. Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio was scheduled for Over the Limit back in May, but for no other reason than because they weren’t scheduled on the card, Chris Jericho and Randy Orton were both added to the match, turning it into a fatal 4-way. Sheamus was successful in retaining the title there, pinning Chris Jericho following White Noise.

The second time, the match was supposed to happen last month at No Way Out, with the two set to square off in a cage match for the title. However, shortly before the pay-per-view, Alberto Del Rio suffered a concussion on an episode of Smackdown! when Sheamus slammed him head-first into the giant WWE logo that sits on the stage every week. Del Rio was pulled from the match, and Dolph Ziggler ended up becoming the new number-one contender. For some reason, though, the match was changed from a cage match to a standard one-on-one contest (the reason never being revealed why), with Sheamus once again successfully retaining the World title. At the time, people were suspicious that Del Rio’s concussion may have been faked, as not only were there rumored to be issues with him and WWE at the time, but also due to the fact that Del Rio wrestled the very next night on RAW after the pay-per-view, appearing fresh as a daisy. Later on, it was confirmed that the concussion was real, but not as severe as originally diagnosed, and WWE has a very strict policy regarding concussions in the wake of the Chris Benoit murder-suicide in 2007. No matter how minor the concussion, wrestlers who suffer one are immediately pulled from competition until they have been fully cleared to return to the ring.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this match that has been nearly three months in the making will indeed take place at Money in the Bank, and should prove to be a very competitive affair. It is expected that Sheamus will retain here and stay champion through at least Summerslam, likely facing either Del Rio in a rematch or possibly even The Big Show.