Michael Jackson is Alive and Well

Michael Jackson as he is led away late Thursday from his Magic Tree

Breaking News
In what is being billed as the world's greatest showbiz comeback in HIStory it was verified by plastic surgery records that the man living in a tree on Michael Jackson's mother's compound for the past 20 months in the San Fernando Valley is indeed Michael Jackson.

It was originally believed that the King of Pop died on June 25, 2009 from a cardiac arrest. However, there have been rumors and wild speculation that the actual cause of death was brought on by an overdose of the drug Propofol by his doctor Dr. Conrad Murray. Dr. Murray is currently standing trial on manslaughter charges in Los Angeles for Michael's death. It turns out that it was not a drug over dose or cardiac arrest after all, because Michael was never dead. According to a spokesman who did not wish to be identified at Dr. Murray's attorney's office of Cheatem, Stealem and Lye,  said Conrad Murray is expected to be released and exonerated of all charges within the next 24-hours.

Billy Gene, A gardener who has worked for the Jackson family for more than 30 years notified Encino police that late Thursday night someone was up in a tree, in the back yard, and was screaming, "Who's bad?, Who's bad?" The man an eye witnessed described to be a 50-year old light-skinned african male was coaxed out of the tree by officers who promised him candy, toys and bubble gum if he climbed down.  According to officers the gardener Mr. Gene instantly recognized him as Michael, but Kathryn, Michael's mother was quoted as saying, "Billy Gene, the kid is not my son."

Police later learned that the June 25, 2009 staged death was just another in a long string of publicity stunts by the Gloved One to sell records. And it worked in a colossal way. In the first 12 months following his "alleged death" Michael Jackson sold a staggering 35 million albums worldwide. Additionally, on October 28, 2009, a documentary film about Michael Jackson in rehearsal for his London shows entitled Michael Jackson's This Is It was released. Even though it ran for a limited two-week engagement, it became the highest grossing documentary or concert movie of all time, with earnings of more than $260 million worldwide.

When Michael was asked by a reporter from the celebrity gossip site TMZ.com  as to why he decided to finally come down out of his magic tree and reveal himself to the public, a timid King of Pop declared, "Well to quote my dear, dear friend Rebecca Black, It's Friday, Friday Gotta get down on Friday. Yesterday was Thursday and tomorrow is Saturday, Saturday."

So It Looks Like I Have A New Professor...Named GENE YANG

So I don't know if our regular readers recall a few months back when I blogged about cartoonist and American Born Chinese creator Gene Yang coming to my graduate program at Hamline University and pretty much blowing everyone away with his presentation on comics and sequential narrative. It turns out the esteemed Mr. Yang impressed the Dean at school so much that she's turned right around and hired him on as a professor in my program – an MFA in Writing For Children.

This is kind of crazy to me. To be perfectly honest, one of the motivating factors for me getting into the Hamline program was to finally get something on my professional resume that DIDN'T involve comics. Still, I'm never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, particularly one that gives me the opportunity to study with a creator with chops like Gene's. This is a very small world sometimes.

In any event...welcome to Hamline, Gene! Prepare yourself for the blistering cold of the Twin Cities for ten days out of the year!

10 Signs That Spring Is Right Around The Corner

Forget the fact that we are hunkering down for yet another snowstorm tomorrow in New York, there are still many signs that old man winter is just about ready to start hibernating with the bears... or least we hope he is.

From the far deep crevasses of my Greek noggin here are the top-10 signs that spring is just around the corner:

1. Husbands are trying to figure out what shenanigans they can do to get that shiny new riding lawn mower at Home Depot without getting served divorce papers.
2. All winter long I thought my four doggies were holding it...but now with all the snow melted I can see just how wrong I was.
3. Major league baseball players are at spring training and placing their metabolic steroid orders with their favorite drug dealers.
4. Snooki is limiting her dinner to only two plates of pasta in anticipation of swimsuit season at the Jersey Shore.
5. Mr. Bricks will pack his beer bong and speedo and head to The Villages in Florida for Spring Break with the senior citizens. Muckery ensues.
6. I'm packing away my Uggs for storage and swapping them out with my sneakers. (This winter was so brutal I hope to never see those Uggs again)
7. The neighbors are finally starting to take down their Christmas lights.
8. Middle-aged white men who haven't picked up a basketball in 30 years but have spent the last two weeks watching March Madness on TV suddenly feel compelled to challenge their friends to a game of 3-0n-3, Yes, middle-aged white men can't jump.
9. NyQuil and other allergy medications becomes a staple on everyone's shopping list.
10. Wal-Mart has just put out the Christmas decorations on their store shelves.

Blessings,

Ava

xox

The Many Loves of The Human Torch

Two months removed from the death of The Human Torch and a month and a half after Valentine’s Day, I’m riding the zeitgeist as I always do and writing a post about Johnny Storm’s various girlfriends and shape shifting alien wives.

Many good super hero comics have a strong soap opera element. From the Superman-Lois Lane-Clark Kent triangle to the Melrose Place-like shenanigans of the early 90’s X-Men, love and lust between these attractive folks in spandex can be as crucial to keeping things fresh and building an acclaimed run as your central mystery or monthly action scene.

As with many things, 60’s Marvel pioneered a lot of the soapier elements in comics—or to be fair polished them up, since the aforementioned Superman stuff was going before and the Legion of Super-Heroes had to have been at least holding hands and trading flight rings—with Peter Parker’s pursuit of Betty Brant in Amazing Spider-Man, Bruce Banner’s Quasimodo-like yearning for Betty Ross in Incredible Hulk, the shy courtship between Cyclops and Marvel Girl and so on. But nowhere was the interpersonal as important as Fantastic Four.

The personal dynamic amongst the FF has always been at the forefront of their stories, just as much as their villains or the wild locations they visit. However, it’s not like any other super team because it’s not a group of peers hanging out and waiting to couple off, it’s a family; to go back to my favorite analogy-generator already used once in this very post, if the other teams are Melrose Place, Fantastic Four is The Waltons. Romance played a role, but paternal, fraternal, maternal and whatever means the sister version (saternal?) bonds came first.

Reed and Sue Richards are the longstanding royal couple of the Marvel Universe; they’re Billy and Alison if things had worked out (three Melrose Place references in five paragraphs—I’m rolling!). Theirs is a mature and sweet but ultimately kinda boring love. And The Thing is an awesome character, one of the best, but part of his whole deal is that no girl is ever going to get with him unless she’s blind and has a kink for clay already established.

Which leaves us—or left us—with The Torch.

For 50 years, Johnny Storm had to shoulder the burden of being the single guy bringing any and all romantic intrigue to Fantastic Four (because Sue was never really going to swim off with Namor). He played every role from love struck teenager to swarthy playboy to even over-his-head newlywed. Every time a new creative team came onboard or a direction shift was made, invariably, Johnny got a new girlfriend—and what a group.

Let’s talk about a few.

DORRIE EVANS
The Human Torch’s mostly anonymous teenage girlfriend who came more or less pre-packaged with the series and then stuck around predominantly off-camera for the first 50 issues or so. For real, the best ever appearance of Dorrie Evans is Amazing Spider-Man #21, in which she has more lines then every issue of FF she showed up in combined—and is named Doris for some reason—and spends the story trying to use bookish Peter Parker to make Johnny jealous but also kinda falls for him (as I recall). It’s the most personality Dorrie ever displayed, much of it the usual Silver Age girlfriend “make the hero jealous” routine, but she also came across as kind of sweet at time and perhaps would have been perfect for Peter. I also love that when Stan Lee had to name his young male lead’s love interest he went with “Dorrie”—was that name more common in the 60’s?

CRYSTAL
I would hope at this point my loathing for Crystal is well-known or I’m really not doing my job here. She is in all likelihood my least favorite comic book character ever, with only Sardath giving her a run for her money—and that idiot got taken out again in the new issue of R.E.B.E.L.S.! But I digress. That aside, the Romeo & Juliet romance of The Torch and Crystal is one of the classics and even I kinda dig it. The funny thing is, finally having recently gotten around to reading the original stories in Masterworks form recently, the whole thing comes out of nowhere entirely; one issue Johnny is sort of pining after Crystal’s older sister Medusa (and maybe still dating Dorrie?), then the next he’s madly in love with Crystal—and likewise—and then the next they’ve got an unbreakable barrier between them and it’s heartbreaking. It’s one of those stories that are really great and emotional as long as you just look the other way on its origins and how quickly the dial got turned up to 11, but that’s the simultaneous beauty and absurdity of Silver Age comics. Of course Crystal broke Johnny’s heart because she’s an awful, awful shrew, but it was nice while it lasted.

FRANKIE RAYE
I’ve got a weird soft spot for Frankie Raye, despite the fact she co-opted the Nova codename for a couple decades. Her back story is nutty—she’s the stepdaughter of the guy who created the original Human Torch, got fire powers from a lab accident, and then was given amnesia, an invisible golden swimsuit that blocked her abilities and subtle pyrophobia by her stepdad via hypnosis—and she was actually a bit out of Johnny’s league and didn’t seem to realize it. More than that, though, I love the John Byrne story where she more or less became Galactus’ willing herald because it would save Earth but also because she just thought it would be fun to see outer space; she again broke Johnny’s heart, but doing so by getting cosmic powers from an immortal planet eating space god is a pretty clever and unique breakup strategy.

ALICIA MASTERS
Midway through his awesome FF run, with The Thing out of the picture, John Byrne decided to experiment with mixing things up a bit and not only moved She-Hulk in as a new member of the team, but also hooked up Johnny with Ben’s longtime love interest, Alicia Masters. I was initially intrigued by the pairing, but ultimately, like I believe most fans, didn’t think it worked. A lot of interesting but somewhat ham-fisted of Johnny noticing that Alicia is actually somewhat close to his age and stuff. After Byrne left, Roger Stern ended up marrying the couple, which really didn’t seem to work, as it altered the dynamic I talked about at the beginning of this post and took Johnny out of play as the FF’s single guy. Eventually the folks working on the book came to see it was an odd fit as well—though not for awhile—which brings us to…

LYJA
…it wasn’t Alicia after all, it was a Skrull! Lyja had a lot of potential as a character and as a love interest for Johnny, but I don’t think she or their relationship ever really got a fair shake since she was created as a solution for a situation rather than a new idea. Her alienation from her own race and the way she somewhat put her warrior nature in check because of how much she cared for Johnny and on the flipside his having to work through such ultimate betrayal as getting married under totally false circumstances but realizing he did love this woman is all good story fodder, but the whole thing came along at an unstable time for the book and the characters, so it never came to fruition as it may have during another period. I did like Lyja’s brief return during Secret Invasion, as she deserved to tell off Johnny for forgetting about her, but I also like that they still couldn’t quite resist one another.

NAMORITA
The Nova-Namorita fan in me of course despises this pairing, but aside from that, I kind of love it. It’s so perfect on so many gimmicky levels: the mini-Namor/Sue thing, the fire/water thing, that they’re both just outgoing party hard characters who know how attractive they are. This is another one that never got enough play and it’s too bad she’s gone (and presumably the Namorita who turned up during War of Kings was plucked from before her dating Johnny days); they’d be a fun occasional hookup.

ULTIMATE FIRESTAR
Even in the Ultimate Universe, Johnny is a mack daddy who can’t win. Crystal ditched him even harder over there, and just when he seemed to have a good thing going with Liz Allen, she burst into flames and went off to hang with the X-Men. I’d like to see this one revisited. Somebody get me Brian Bendis…

Better A Broken Promise Than None At All

Thanks for nothing Mr. Twain!

What was Mark Twain thinking when he made the quote, "Better A broken promise than none at all"? Did he know that the world is full of some people who have no problems not keeping their promises? I'm talking about situations where someone has specifically agreed to do something and then totally flakes out at the last-minute without any sort of excuse, explanation or note from their mother or doctor explaining their absence.  Some people seem to think that it is OK not to keep a promise and that not keeping a promise is "no biggie."  News flash - it is a "biggie." It's a huge deal to the other person or people who were counting on you, especially if that person was a child!

I don't want anyone to read into my ranting here. I had a great childhood and there is no person who is the specific target of my rant...this time! I am just an equal opportunity Greek ranter and today I chose to rant about people who make promises only to break them later.

We all know people who have had someone break a promise and not live up to what they said they would do. It sucks, doesn't it? You are blindsided when it happens. You think good of all mankind and do not foresee the broken promises coming. I know for me, since I'm Greek I like to talk and when a person breaks a big promise with me it leaves me speechless without anything to say. Me speechless? Well you then know it was a big deal to me.  I am sure a broken promise is a big deal to anyone who is the unfortunate recipient of it!

So what does a person have if they do not have the word or the honor of another person? I say they have nothing. No one will trust them, no one will respect them and most certainly no one will want to be associated with them. When I make a promise to someone -- it's as good as being written in stone!! I know I will try my darndest to live up to any promise I make. That's just the way I was raised.

Likewise, if you make a promise to me and then you find out you're not going to be able to live up to that promise - then come tell me. I'm a big girl, I've got my big Greek girl underpants on. I can handle it, really I can. In life stuff happens to everyone and I understand that. But don't try to pretend you never made a promise or worse yet, totally ignore me or the person you made a promise to. Human noggins are like an elephants noggin...only slightly larger and less wrinkly and they also never really forget. They might forgive, but some people never forget.

Just to break a promise for no good reason is uncalled for. Especially in situations where someone was really depending on others and now there is no other way for them to get something done. I guess some people do not have a conscience or a sense of responsibility anymore.

Here are a couple of good quotes on promises:

• Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once.  ~Norman Vincent Peale

• A promise made is a debt unpaid.  ~Robert Service

• We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.  ~Abraham Lincoln

• A promise is a comfort for a fool.  ~Proverb

• Promises may fit the friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.  ~Benjamin Franklin

I am not saying all people break promises. But for the ones who do, shame on you. You promise breakers sure let down the rest of humanity.

Blessings,

Ava

xox

OCD

I recently finished my second block of my medical school year 1 curriculum: Molecules, Cells, and Cancer. As per usual, solid pass... not as per usual, this pass was at the lower end of the spectrum.

My excuse?
Mild emotional trauma via an impromptu, and admittedly self-induced, social explosion that left me reeling for the first few weeks of the semester was not a good way to kick off the block. That on top of getting seriously sick for the first 3 weeks of school set a study pattern that was less than desirable aka near non-existent, at least by medical school standards.

So what did I do with my free time?
I went to the gym... a lot. 2-3 hours a day for the last 3 months. I hung out with my sister and some old friends, did a little shopping, and mostly kept to myself.

So what are my conclusions from this study and mild social hiatus?

1) endorphins make you happy.
*Some of this gym obsession was due in part to the urge to get ready for Cabo spring break in which I knew there would be rampant bikini photography occurring, but I admit there was also a component of gym therapy involved.*

2) Withdrawing socially has some pro's and con's.
*I got more in touch with myself and had time to reevaluate some recent bad decisions, but by the end of the block I was feeling a little lonely.*

3) Anything can lose the glamor if you over do it.
*As the end of the phase and my current state of affairs attest. Allow me to explain.*

I think I'm a little OCD.
Not in the literal, disordered sense, but I do obsess.

1) At the beginning of this year, I obsessed about studying and as a result studying lost its glamor. I became completely sick of it.

2) During MCC I became borderline obsessed with working out. Even my release became routine; the gym lost its glamor.

3) Boys. At last, I've noticed a pattern in my ridiculous affairs with the opposite sex... I obsess. Not in the stalker/Swim Fan sense, but what I mean is that I get a crush on someone and then I target him.

exhibit A:
My first boyfriend, who I crushed on for my first 7 months at a new school until we finally got together ignoring anybody else who asked me out and totally taking for granted the 'new girl' effect that was freely at my disposal to tap into.

exhibit B:
My MS1 crush. A guy I randomly made out with and spent the majority of the last 4 months crushing on. A guy that caused me to be completely oblivious to another guy who in retrospect I think I really had chemistry with, and a guy who it turns out after recently actually spending a night hanging out with him and getting to know him, I'm not sure I really jive with outside of friendship.
Yes, even boys lose their glamor.

The result?
On the upside, my hiatus from studying has made the task slightly less deplorable, my time at the gym has incurred some results i.e. better cardi0vascular health, abs, and a knowledge of recent world affairs (I was getting in about an hour of CNN/day while on the elliptical), and I'm finally over my crush if not slightly annoyed by my own behavior. The downside... this just leaves me with books, a fitter bod, and no man friend. (Not to mention frequent sitings of the boy who got away- who I'm still not sure if I do in fact have chemistry with, and who is looking obnoxiously cute as of late... alas).

But, the point of this post: I'm also more self-aware.
There is definite truth to a lifestyle that supports 'moderation in all things.' Studying, working out, and even boys can all be overdone. Luckily, with a long enough break, what was old can sometimes become new again. I might have been study avoidant, gym obsessed, and socially withdrawn during MCC, but I'm ready to get back on the horse.

Consider this my commitment to seek a more balanced (and less obsessed) addendum.

Daily Cheap Reads

If you own any kind of an eBook reading device, this is a site that you probably need to know about. Daily Cheap Reads has been running for a while in the US and has now opened a dedicated British outlet.

The point here is that there's nothing bargain-basement about the cheap reads. Bargains yes; bargain basement no.

I just took a look and Daily Cheap Reads is very impressive - classy design, professional-looking presentation, and a strong sense that you're getting a set of intelligent editorial picks and not just an open crap spigot of self-publication. They're not neglecting the indie market, but they are discriminating in their choices.

Recent listings include Kate Atkinson, Maeve Binchy, and Sebastian Faulks. They've found Ian Rankin at £1.49, Kazuo Ishiguro for £2.44... you could spend your days scouring the net for this stuff, but now you don't have to.

Munster Express, Waterford.

Thank you to the folks at Munster Express Newspaper ( in particular Ann Power!) for doing a wonderful fashion feature on Bonzie this week.

Mayor Mary Roche and Yvonne Crotty ( moi )

Mayor's Ball

Tower Hotel

Waterford City

The Magic of Three's

There is something magical about the number 3.

• There are 3 strikes in baseball and the number of outs per side each inning
• 3 Musketeers is Mr. Bricks' favorite candy bar
• When bowling 3 strikes in a row it is called a Turkey
• Several cities are known as Tripoli which is a Greek word which means "3 Cities"
• There were 3 Amigos
• 3 was the number Babe Ruth wore on his jersey
• Mr. Bricks also likes Babe Ruth Candy bars
• There are 3 main religions in the world - Christianity, Judaism and Islam
• There are Three Wise Men in the Bible
• A triathlon consists of three events: swimming, bicycling, and ends in running.
• There was a 70's rock band called Three Dog Night, not Four Dog Night (just sayin')
• My first iPhone was 3G
• There are three films or novels in a trilogy
• A Basketball shot made from behind the 3-point arc is worth 3 points. Duh, Winner
• I once was 3-years old
• Musically speaking, there are three notes in a triad, the basic form of any chord
• There were Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and Three Bears, and Three Blind Mice

When I started writing this blog I asked around for advice. I was told over and over again that I should always try to use three examples in each blog to make a point. I was told that it helps the reader see the picture I am trying to paint with my words.

I also remember once reading a book on marketing that said when there is the juxtaposition of a series of three events happening in a short period of time that it has a special magical effect on the intended target audience.

So I also try to use the concept of the magic of three's when it comes to pushing my own career. I have come to realize that in everything I do for my career things just seems to work better when I have three events happening in a very short period of time. It's like before the hype of the first event can die down then along comes the second event, which props up people's attention for the first one which might have started to wane. Then before the attention of either the first or second event can be totally forgotten from people's noggin, here comes the Greek girl once again popping up in the media for the third time in a short period of time. I guess you can run, but you can't hide from this blond girl.

Now if I can just get my manager Mr. Bricks to get me these three things:

1. A record deal
2. TV series (comedy series of course)
3. A book deal

Blessings,

Ava

xox

Visual tribute to Omega in comics

How to Make a Dog "Gone" Music Video

The next couple of days my blog will be limited because I am in the middle of shooting my newest music video for my song "Gone."  Although, my new video has nothing to do with dogs, I am such a huge dog lover that I thought it would be fun to explain how to make a music video by using dog pictures.

There is a lot that goes into the making of a music video that most people don't think about.

The first decision that needs to be made is what type of video to make. Do you want to just stand on stage and film it? Or do you want to make a concept video that tells some sort of story?

A storyboard or treatment of the video is written.

Don't Laugh, It's hard to type with these big paws!

A production meeting is held with all of the important people.

If the weather is nice, why not have the production meeting outside?

After the production meeting it is time to start casting.

Don't worry, the casting couch is an old myth? Or is it?

Then it will be time for rehearsal. Practice, practice, practice.

Rehearsal sucks, but they always have a bunch of snacks! Yummo.

Ok, once everyone knows their parts it's time to start filming.

"And... Action!"

I hope you will be ready for your close up!

"Oh Mr. DeMille...."

When filming is done it will be time to edit.

Cutting out all the bad stuff in the editing room!

Finally, it will be time for the world premiere!

Oh, Pawparazzi - No Paw-ta-Graphs, please!

So that is how you make a music video!

Make sure you stay tuned  for the April 28,2011 world premiere of my new "Gone" music video

Blessings,

Ava

xox

Rasslin' Ramblings: More Money in the Bank

For a couple of weeks now on my Twitter account, I’ve been bemoaning the lack of the Money in the Bank Ladder match at this year’s WrestleMania. With the event a week away, let me provide a quick breakdown of why I think pulling this annual attraction from ‘Mania is a mistake and why it belongs as a fixture of the Showcase of the Immortals in general and this year’s edition in particular.

First and foremost, I think it’s just cool that WrestleMania had a signature match. One could argue that WrestleMania doesn’t need anything to stand out beyond being WrestleMania—and the celebrities, the Hall of Fame, etc.—and it’s hard to argue against it. Heck, maybe Money in the Bank is a better fit for SummerSlam, which more and more has become just another show with a bunch of regular matches as opposed to the second biggest pay-per-view of the year, but I still contend it belongs at ‘Mania.

Since its inception at WrestleMania 21 (they didn’t use Roman numerals that year), MitB could always be counted on to provide at least one if not several of those coveted “WrestleMania Moments” they love to make highlight reels for. Because it took place at the biggest show of the year, you knew guys would be stepping up their game and looking to stand out. As I just saw said a few times a few different ways on the True Story of WrestleMania documentary and then echoed by former WWE creative team member Dave Lagana, if you have a great match on TV or at another PPV people will talk for a bit, but if you have one at WrestleMania it gets immortalized; that same principle can be applied to MitB. The two matches at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view last summer—which I’ll talk more about later—weren’t bad and I would never accuse anybody in them of sandbagging it, but neither produced a Shelton Benjamin running up the ladder or Kofi Kingston using the “stilts” spot like what we see at ‘Mania.

In this era of a pay-per-view every month and every TV show having at least a couple marquee matches, even—perhaps especially—a show like WrestleMania needs everything it can to stand out and remind people that this one matters more than the rest. Money in the Bank could be counted on to add sizzle to the steak and provide spectacle that keeps the audience going through the dull stretches.

Second, but perhaps even more foremost than my first point, is that Money in the Bank is a great way to assure as many guys get on the WrestleMania card as can logically fit, and if there’s any show where the full roster—or close to it—should be on display, this is it. To WWE’s credit, even without MitB they’ve done a pretty solid job getting just about everybody outside of the Superstars regulars who will hopefully get a dark match battle royal payday involved in something, but there are still a few notable names without anything to do.

Drew McIntyre has improved by leaps and bounds since his initial push and has the look, mic skills and in-ring ability to be credible World title challenger sooner rather than later. Evan Bourne just came back from injury to some impressive pops and then was quickly left to wither in squashes by Sheamus--plus this match is built for guys like him. R-Truth has his flaws, but the guy is perennially over and should be a WrestleMania fixture. Ted DiBiase has sputtered quite a bit since splitting with Legacy, but always seems just one good match away from getting back in at least the U.S. title picture. Mark Henry fits the same niche as R-Truth and has proven to be a solid MitB performer who can be counted on to protect the high flyers. You’ve also got an array of standout young performers like Zack Ryder, Trent Barreta, Tyler Reks, Yoshi Tatsu and so on who could fill a wildcard spot out nicely. Heck, I’d love to see William Regal in there no matter how weird a fit it is.

I’m leaving out Kofi Kingston since the rumors have him getting involved in the Big Show/Kane vs Corre feud somehow, but certainly if anybody has proven to be perfect for MitB in the past it’s him, and after the harsh booking of his Intercontinental title reign—two televised singles wins in three months as champion—the chance to show off in this match would be just what he needs to get his credibility back. I’m also considering it somewhat a foregone conclusion Christian will be tied up with the Edge vs Alberto Del Rio World title match, hopefully as the third competitor, but at the very least in Edge’s corner to turn on him; if he weren’t, he’d be ideal for this match.

So going from what’s available, you could return to the six man roots of MitB with McIntyre, Kingston, Bourne, R-Truth, Henry and DiBiase. Toss in Ryder and Barreta if you want to expand to eight. Add Tatsu and Reks if you feel the need to bump it back to ten (I feel like that’s too many, but whatever). If Kingston is occupied, sub in Regal.

Are any of these guys the next Edge who can use Money in the Bank to cement themselves as fixtures in the main event scene? I’m not sure. I believe McIntyre or Kingston certainly could, while Bourne or one of the others could prove a pleasant surprise. You’ve got to take chances to make new stars, and even if it doesn’t always pay off, MitB is a good way to roll the dice. Sure, Jack Swagger didn’t exactly light the world on fire after he won, but C.M. Punk’s career certainly got a nice boost. Also, eventually one of the guys who win this match needs to not successfully cash in, and I’d argue that just getting a WWE or World title match that they earned and carrying around the briefcase a few months even if they don’t ultimately get the belt is going to help somebody like Ted DiBiase a great deal.

I’m sure the most common internal argument against MitB being a part of WrestleMania at least this year within WWE is that they now have their own Money in the Bank pay-per-view, which the signature match twice already. I certainly don’t have a problem with the Money in the Bank pay-per-view as WWE has gone all in on the gimmick PPV deal and there are far worse themes than MitB. As noted above, I don’t think the matches from last year’s edition quite had the WrestleMania feel—understandably—but they were still good.

That said, it shouldn’t preclude MitB at WrestleMania, and WWE has already written themselves an explanation as to why.

The matches at the Money in the Bank PPV are brand-exclusive, meaning one is all-Raw and the winner can only challenge for the WWE title, whereas the other is all-SmackDown and the winner can only challenge for the World title. I’m not the first guy on the Internet to suggest that you could still have this PPV and those two matches yet keep MitB at WrestleMania special by retaining the stipulation that the winner of that can challenge for either title, choosing to jump brands in the process if they so desire.

Does having a Money in the Bank match on a show that is not called Money in the Bank undermine that pay-per-view? I don’t think so. At the end of the day, wrestling fans are going to pay/tune in to see matches they like and get excited about regardless of how many times you put them on. From a creative standpoint there is certainly something to be said for limiting how many times you trot your signature matches out there regardless of this mentality—I’m sure folks would watch three Royal Rumble matches a year in significant numbers, but that doesn’t mean they should do it—but really Money in the Bank is just a multi-man Ladder match with a cool victory incentive; doing it every month would be overkill, but three a year is fine. It’s not like Breaking Point stopped WWE from using I Quit matches on TV for the rest of the year or like TLC has relegated Tables matches to one PPV, nor should they.

Summary: Money in the Bank adds something special to WrestleMania, it helps get guys who deserve to be on the card in there, it can make stars, and it’s a good enough concept to use more than once a year.

You’ve still got seven days, WWE—let’s see some qualifying matches.