Sandow cashes in!

[George Steele's Barber]

I'm cool with Cena retaining as I could only see Sandow losing the title straight back to him if he'd won it.

Funnily, the only thing that annoyed me was, after the first break, the ref was making Sandow back off to give Cena time to recoup to start the match. I might've missed it before but I've never seen a MITB cash-in being made to wait so the champ can be ready for them, that's the whole point of the cash in.

Good point. Maybe this will lead to Sandow getting the case back on a technicality. Maybe last night was just a sign of things to come for Sandow. I think people should enjoy this and see how it plays out. The development was surprising (how dare Cena push first?), they put on a strong match, and at this point there is no telling how things are going to play out. Sandow (in all his wisdom) can point out that the contract stipualtes that the ref should have started the match immediately. No one checked on any other superstar champ before a cash in before.

 

[FarFromFine]

Add prestige to the WHC at the expense of Sandow or build Sandow and add prestige to the title by having Cena chase it? One is a win/lose the other is a win/win. They made the wrong decison.

And after so long of having Cena at the top and now, for the 14th time, being one of the 2 major champions I'm no longer tired of cheering John Cena, or booing John Cena... I'm just tired of John Cena. His segments have become the piss break of the show for me unless he's against someone I actually care about. I'd rather watch AJ vs any diva than Cena vs Del Rio or Big Show (or Sheamus or Christian or RVD or Mysterio or Miz or Rock or HHH or Ryback).

 

[hatehabsforever]

I don't understand the sentiment expressed by some guys on here that John Cena defeated Damian Sandow, and this somehow made Sandow look weak. As I see it, losing one match doesn't make an individual look weak necessarily. I enjoyed that match last night and I thought both combatants looked great. Even though he lost, I didn't think that Sandow looked weak in the slightest. Quite the contrary, I thought he looked great, taking one of the best of all time to the limit. Sure, Cena was injured but at the end of the day, he's still John Cena and he doesn't lose too often. There's no reason to think that Damian Sandow has suffered any damage whatsoever as a result of this loss.

Personally, I thought it was great that he lost, but I don't say that as any form of disrespect for Sandow. The return of Cena from a (supposed) serious triceps injury was a great moment and it would have been ruined by him dropping the strap 24 hours later. I'm sure the multitude of Cena critics would have been lamenting him winning a major title and losing it again right away, suggesting that he is simply padding his stats in terms of the assault on Flair's record number of world titles. I also hope that this is all related to elevating the significance of the World Heavyweight Championship. Cena can do this. Sandow, at this stage of his career, cannot.

And I think seeing Sandow lose his briefcase gives validity to the whole MITB concept. Sure, Kennedy lost his briefcase back in the day, rather that redeeming it and losing it. The only one to ever redeem it unsuccessfully was Cena, but that was a face losing the opportunity after giving his opponent advance notice, which is totally different than what normally happens. This is the first time that a heel challenger tried to use the briefcase to exploit a decimated opponent and was unsuccessful in doing so, and this brings credibility back to the concept. If every single heel who ever has the briefcase always wins, 100% of the time, what's the point? It would be just as well to bypass winning the MITB briefcase and just make them an automatic champion. At least now, on a go forward basis, one cannot assume that just because someone wins the briefcase, they are automatically guaranteed a successful cash in.